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Topic: Tool (linux?) to check for 16-bit FLACs zero-padded to 24-bit? (Read 2785 times) previous topic - next topic
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Tool (linux?) to check for 16-bit FLACs zero-padded to 24-bit?

I'm looking for a tool that can show some of the individual samples from a FLAC file. Mainly to check if a 24-bit FLAC is in fact a 16-bit source with zero-padding to 24-bit.

What's the best way to do this, if there was a Linux tool it would be ideal, but Windows fine also.

Something that can just show me the raw samples in hex would be great.

Re: Tool (linux?) to check for 16-bit FLACs zero-padded to 24-bit?

Reply #2 –
Pure zero bit padding can also be detected by using
Code: [Select]
flac -ac "file.flac" | less
and then looking at the 'wasted_bits'. In the case of 16-bit padded to 24-bit, there are 8 wasted bits. The tool linked in the previous post can detect various other kinds of paddings, but the simplest of them (pure zero bit padding) can be done with flac.
Music: sounds arranged such that they construct feelings.

Re: Tool (linux?) to check for 16-bit FLACs zero-padded to 24-bit?

Reply #3 –
Quote from: bennetng on
https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=97746.msg1004399#msg1004399


And from that thread, I quote one of the HA cats:

 
Quote
I hope the market does not attempt to sell consumers 24/96 downloads of "high quality" that were converted from CD sources. Yuck.

Written in 2012, the age of y'MQAin't seen noTIDAL yet  ...

Re: Tool (linux?) to check for 16-bit FLACs zero-padded to 24-bit?

Reply #4 –
SoX and its "stats" command. For zero-padded you'll get:
Code: [Select]
]$ sox input.flac -n stats
...
Bit-depth      16/16
...
and for "real" 24-bit:
Code: [Select]
]$ sox input.flac -n stats
...
Bit-depth      24/24
...
You are interested in that second number in Bit-depth line.

Re: Tool (linux?) to check for 16-bit FLACs zero-padded to 24-bit?

Reply #5 –
Same with ffmpeg astats audio filter.

Re: Tool (linux?) to check for 16-bit FLACs zero-padded to 24-bit?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Porcus on
Quote
I hope the market does not attempt to sell consumers 24/96 downloads of "high quality" that were converted from CD sources. Yuck.
Written in 2012, the age of y'MQAin't seen noTIDAL yet  ...
Consider the fact that even Realtek chips these days support 24/192, these formats themselves have zero meaning.

For newer (e.g. post y2k) productions, "authenticated" hi-rez is nothing more than adding a budget ADC to existing analog chain (mic, preamp, mixer etc). For older music (e.g. 80s and earlier) there is really nothing to improve except for "enhancement" made by modern plugins, AI and so on. These processes for sure will generate a lot of undetectable LSBs, even if they are not smart enough to fill the spectrogram in a visually pleasing way.

In the case of DSD to PCM, if people ignore ENOB, then "bit-depth" is just the data format of the decimation filter.

In fact, apart from detecting and converting some legacy Cool Edit file formats, the tools I made was also an attempt to explain why there is no reliable way to determine the "real" bit-depth and "dynamic range" of audio files.