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Poll

Which software you use for converting lossless files?

foobar2000
EZ CD Audio Converter
dBpoweramp
Fre:ac
Others (Please comment the name)
Topic: Which software you use for converting lossless files? (Read 16708 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #25 –
I use shell scripts of my own.

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #26 –
Python scripts of my own.
a fan of AutoEq + Meier Crossfeed

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #27 –
Quote from: kirk781 on
Quote from: Vicas on
foobar2000 of course, because it is my main player for music playback, library organization, tagging, so why not to do convert too. It is fast, simple to use and pretty reliable too.

I loved foobar2000 for it's modular interface on Windows. Sadly, the closest alternative to it I could find on Linux was a program called Deadbeef. One time, the latter literally played noise when playing an audio file [ that worked well with everything else ] and that was the straw for me. I had overlooked it's deficiencies over time but that was the time when I finally decided to remove it and be content with the fact that foorbar2000 doesn't really have a proper Linux counterpart.
I use Foobar2000 on a Windows VM under Linux when I need to do certain conversions, mostly because it handles the tags well but also for splitting on cuesheets, etc.

However, I have read that Foobar2000 works great on Wine too, which I haven't tried. I would prefer that because every time I fire up my Windows VM I'm afraid it's going to break and I use it for other more important things (like doing my taxes).

Can anyone confirm that Foobar2000 and Wine really play well together (at least for conversions...don't need a player)?

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #28 –
Quote from: bryant on
Quote from: kirk781 on
Quote from: Vicas on
foobar2000 of course, because it is my main player for music playback, library organization, tagging, so why not to do convert too. It is fast, simple to use and pretty reliable too.

I loved foobar2000 for it's modular interface on Windows. Sadly, the closest alternative to it I could find on Linux was a program called Deadbeef. One time, the latter literally played noise when playing an audio file [ that worked well with everything else ] and that was the straw for me. I had overlooked it's deficiencies over time but that was the time when I finally decided to remove it and be content with the fact that foorbar2000 doesn't really have a proper Linux counterpart.
I use Foobar2000 on a Windows VM under Linux when I need to do certain conversions, mostly because it handles the tags well but also for splitting on cuesheets, etc.

However, I have read that Foobar2000 works great on Wine too, which I haven't tried. I would prefer that because every time I fire up my Windows VM I'm afraid it's going to break and I use it for other more important things (like doing my taxes).

Can anyone confirm that Foobar2000 and Wine really play well together (at least for conversions...don't need a player)?

Can confirm, I use foobar2000 under wine all the time. It even registers the component handler, so when I download components I can just click them and they open up right in foobar2000 to install.

For 99% of conversions I just use ffmpeg on Linux. I bust out foobar2000 when I'm converting from chiptune formats and such, mostly.

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #29 –
Quote from: bryant on

Can anyone confirm that Foobar2000 and Wine really play well together (at least for conversions...don't need a player)?

I can also confirm. foobar2000 working on Wine without issues. (Fedora 39 and Mint 21.2)
I've tested it alot recently. Conversions, replay gain scanning and it is stable. ;)

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #30 –
Quote from: jprjr on
Can confirm, I use foobar2000 under wine all the time. It even registers the component handler, so when I download components I can just click them and they open up right in foobar2000 to install.
For 99% of conversions I just use ffmpeg on Linux. I bust out foobar2000 when I'm converting from chiptune formats and such, mostly.

Quote from: synclagz on
I can also confirm. foobar2000 working on Wine without issues. (Fedora 39 and Mint 21.2)
I've tested it alot recently. Conversions, replay gain scanning and it is stable. ;)
Thanks guys, that's good to know!

Another nice thing about switching to Wine is not having to move stuff in and out of shared folders for the VM. Definitely looking forward to this!

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #31 –
fre:ac (in the poll) is also available for Linux and now also supports .wv+.wvc .  Should add that I hardly use it - fb2k user and think I got my needs covered, so it never made its way into my workflow.
For splitting by cuesheet, refalac is reported to be able to do that under Wine too (with the WavPack/TAK .dll's) - but it doesn't transfer tags.

@jprjr : You probably know, but beware that ffmpeg doesn't default to lossless operation. ffmpeg -i infile outfile.wav will give you a 16-bit file no matter what the input was.

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #32 –
Depends on my mood and what seems to work.  Sometimes it's foobar2000, other times it's the actual encoder software itself if there's a front end to use.  Yet other times it's been FFMPEG with the FFE front end.

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #33 –
I voted for foobar, but i also use scripts. For example i have a script that uses Sox to make audio mono (takes the left channel of a wav) then converts to flac and adds a replagain tag.

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #34 –
Scripts, with whatever cli tool development is happening on. Looks like scripts should have been an option :P

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #35 –
Quote from: bryant on
Can anyone confirm that Foobar2000 and Wine really play well together (at least for conversions...don't need a player)?
The last time, during last year, I used it in WINE I noticed no issues with my workflow.

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #38 –
I use XLD

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #39 –
Hallo.
I use xRecode: it is necessary to buy it but it is absolutely the better: it can read the .iso files, can read and convert well the SACD disk with 6 or much channels.

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #40 –
I tried all the apps mentioned here and settled on Foobar2000.

It predictably transfers tags, merges and splits files, creates demos, and has a rich, extensible audio processor that enables you, among other things, to resample, dither, fade boundaries for gapless playback when it's not supported or unsatisfactory, and even to use VST plugins. I'm looking forward to @Peter polishing the latter to avoid extra samples being added. However, sometimes I fall back to the command-line shell when I need to make sure that the original file is not affected by anything other than the chosen encoder, because Foobar2000 sends for encoding not the original file, but the signal taken from it, effectively discarding some data.

There are little things that I'd like to set up more flexibly (like scanning RG as tracks rather than albums after encoding) or that I don't fully understand yet, but nothing that immediately puts me off. Plus, there is a place (Hydrogen, this very forum) where you can talk about your use case, find a workaround, or even negotiate a solution with the developer(s).
• Join our efforts to make Helix MP3 encoder great again
• Opus complexity & qAAC dependence on Apple is an aberration from Vorbis & Musepack breakthroughs
• Let's pray that D. Bryant improve WavPack hybrid, C. Helmrich update FSLAC, M. van Beurden teach FLAC to handle non-audio data

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #41 –
Quote from: Kraeved on
However, sometimes I fall back to the command-line shell when I need to make sure that the original file is not affected by anything other than the chosen encoder, because Foobar2000 sends for encoding not the original file, but the signal taken from it, effectively discarding some data.
Let me correct you here, the output from foobar2000 was 100% correct. The encoding you created on commandline included some nonsensical metadata encoded as audio that should not have been there.

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #42 –
Quote from: Archimede00 on
Hallo.
I use xRecode: it is necessary to buy it but it is absolutely the better: it can read the .iso files, can read and convert well the SACD disk with 6 or much channels.

Another vote for XRECODE (Specifically, XRECODE3).  This tool does everything and has replaced at least three other utilities I purchased licenses to use.  Namely -- DTS audio decoding, DVD Audio ripping, multi-channel audio conversion, and much more.

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #43 –
@Dryst
Hi
great software but it's not free

Hi
i use foobar but i don't know if I have to check on /off this options
for exaple to flac to aac or mp3, the only information is for deconding DTS ,HDCD ,etc
in short could I keep only On?
thanks

 

Re: Which software you use for converting lossless files?

Reply #44 –
Gstreamer pipelines for individual files and ffmpeg for whole albums.
No _handy_ gui tools anymore. Been there done that.
Just cli and loops now. No scripts, just everything from the shell history.
Except for mass exporting a huge m3u file to android, that is easier using a home grown script.
And except for tagging, that is better using a gui through kid3, and maybe checking the lossless files first with spek.
Replaygain afterwards using tne r128gain cli tool.