To
@lvqcl and others who may want to chip in:
Discussions on quality apart, I, upon using the FB2K SoX Resampler plugin for downsampling 24/96 FLAC files to 16/44.1 WAV, was wondering whether I'm doing it the right way or not, as follows:
As I'm obviously not executing the resampler under the CLI, but on FB2K, I guess the only choice I have for reducing the bit depth from 24 to 16 bits, is by checking the "Output bit depth" on FB2K's converter's "Choose output file format dialogue box', right?
And...
At the same dialogue box, I should leave "Dither" unchecked for the sake of leaving up to Sox Resampler's discretion how to appropriately deal with it, correct?
Finally, those two questions are just that: question from someone whom is obviously doing that for the first time and wants to make sure they're doing the right thing - no implication whatsoever on whether dithering (which has been discussed
ad nauseam here and elsewhere) is a good thing or not.
Thank you.
This is what I learned to use. There may be someone else who knows better than me but this was advised here: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/downsample-convert-hi-res-24-bit-to-16-bit-with-audacity-or-foobar2000.403739/
As I'm obviously not executing the resampler under the CLI, but on FB2K, I guess the only choice I have for reducing the bit depth from 24 to 16 bits, is by checking the "Output bit depth" on FB2K's converter's "Choose output file format dialogue box', right?
Correct.
At the same dialogue box, I should leave "Dither" unchecked for the sake of leaving up to SoX resampler's discretion how to appropriately deal with it, correct?
Wrong. SoX resampler (as any other fb2k resampler: PPHS, dBPA/SSRC, SRC, ...) receives floating point samples and outputs floating point samples. It doesn't reduce bit depth.
If you want to use dither then you should check "Dither" checkbox or use any dithering DSP plugin ([1] (http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_dsp_dither), [2] (https://foobar.hyv.fi/?view=foo_dsp_mdadither)).
SoX resampler contains only resampling algorithm from SoX utility, and nothing else. It doesn't add dither and doesn't reduce bit depth.
I see. I was totally off about the bit depth reduction.
Thank you guys.
As I just started playing with the CLI version of SoX a couple of days ago, and as this thread has popped up, I thought I'd ask here. Hopefully includemeout won't mind.
This is the fb2k command line I'm using to resample audio to 16 bit, 44.1k with SoX CLI. The output extension is flac with -C 8 in the command line to set the compression level. Should I be doing anything differently? The encoder configuration is set to lossy so fb2k won't mess with the bitdepth.
--ignore-length -t wav - -b 16 -C 8 %d rate -h 44100 dither −s
And this is the fb2k command line I'm using to pipe to QAAC while applying a PAL to NTSC slowdown.
/d /c c:\progra~1\foobar2000\encoders\SoX\sox.exe --ignore-length -t wav - -t wav -e float -b 32 - speed 0.95904095904095904095904095904096 rate -v | c:\progra~1\foobar2000\encoders\QAAC\qaac.exe --ignorelength -s --no-optimize --no-delay -V 91 -o %d -
I'm new to the SoX CLI and it's a minefield of options for a new user. Suggestions welcome....
Cheers.