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Topic: Fake 24-bit FLAC? (Read 3922 times) previous topic - next topic
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Fake 24-bit FLAC?

So I have a 16-bit FLAC audio file of a song and also a 24-bit version. However, I don't know whether the 24-bit FLAC is legit since when opening in Spek, the spectrogram is different. I know the 16-bit is a legitimate FLAC file but unsure about the 24-bit one. I also don't know much about audio I will admit and I'm sure I can't tell audio differences between the 2 but since I had access to 24-bit, was curious.

16-bit:
Size: 32.4 MB
Bit Rate: 921 kbps

24-bit:
Size: 54.8 MB
Bit Rate:  1601 kbps


16-bit SPEK:


24-bit SPEK:


Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #1 –
The 16 bit one clearly has noise shaped dithering filling out the high frequency range.

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #2 –
What's the source of the 24 bit song?

That looks like it's lossy mastered which is legit.

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Anakunda on
looks like it's lossy mastered

Does it? (Apart from the low-pass filter at 20.5, which of course is a "lossy" operation, but you know my drift.)

High Voltage socket-nose-avatar

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #5 –
MQA is known to use filtering and hi-frequency noise, so it only confirms my assumption that it's legit regarding to encoding used.

Btw. it's actually lossy.

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: brandonluciano824 on
* * * 16-bit is a legitimate FLAC file
* * * I also don't know much about audio
Yep... first of all: both flac files are legitimate. They are simple stupid containers and they have nothing to do with their content. It could be tough wav, it could be mp3... flac simple doesn't care.
You need to decode that files and then to do all your testing and show the meta data of source files. Flac is not music-file but archivator (as zip, 7z, rar etc...)

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #7 –
Quote from: dragut on
Yep... first of all: both flac files are legitimate. They are simple stupid containers and they have nothing to do with their content. It could be tough wav, it could be mp3... flac simple doesn't care.
You need to decode that files and then to do all your testing and show the meta data of source files. Flac is not music-file but archivator (as zip, 7z, rar etc...)

Erm. OK. FLAC is NOT a container format.

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #8 –
Quote from: probedb on
Erm. OK. FLAC is NOT a container format.
Sorry for off topic but i don't know much about defining formats and containers.
Can't FLAC serve as container when it is used to carry encrypted PCM (MQA-DRM) or DSD? I can imagine it isn't because the data in this case camouflages as PCM.
Any expert?
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #9 –
xiph calls the FLAC file format "a very minimalist container". The distinction between "file format" and "container" is quite blurry if one wants to nitpick, but I guess one would in everyday terms use "container format" for file formats that are designed to contain different kinds of streams. 
(... ffmpeg has put mp2 streams in mp3 files, does that make mp3 a container format?  I'd say "no, unless you want to nitpick - and maybe not even if you want to".)

Quote from: Wombat on
Can't FLAC serve as container when it is used to carry encrypted PCM (MQA-DRM) or DSD? I can imagine it isn't because the data in this case camouflages as PCM.
Any expert?
If you really want to use FLAC as a general purpose compressor, you can. Use the option --force-raw-format
Then it can contain already-compressed encrypted .7z if you like.
High Voltage socket-nose-avatar

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #10 –
Thanks for that. So i can call FLAC a container best suited for PCM audio ;)
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!
 

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #11 –
Quote from: Porcus on
xiph calls the FLAC file format "a very minimalist container".
It doesn't. It calls FLAC a codec in that question entry but correctly calls it a format elsewhere. They just mention that native FLAC in its native format is most lightweight way to carry the bits. Ogg container for example would increase the file size.

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #12 –
Quote from: Wombat on
Thanks for that. So i can call FLAC a container best suited for PCM audio ;)
Why do you want to give your own name to anything? Just learn to use their real names and description. Much easier for the future. Developers calls their Flac "codec" (as one guy here mentioned above) but, in computer terms, each lossless codec is also container (as it is MP4 or MKV for example). It will play anything what you put-in and will never take care about it's quality. Flac can decode PCM on the fly but loss in sound quality is enormous: nearly twice! Flac best attitude is lossless file compression so instead of 1,000 CD albums, you can keep 2,000 CD albums in the same space.

Idea is to stop understanding Flac as the guarantee for inside music quality. That's all. From that point of fiew, Flac is stupid. Its simple do not care what is inside it. Is it CD real or decoded to WAV from MP3 file, you can check out with some utilities as aucdtect or simple visually as here on the screen.

Imho, source for both screens is the same (some losy archive) only the first one is artifically "colorized" as kode54 mentioned. "Most lightweight way to carry the bits" is nicely said too.

All my music collection, if is not burned to CD or DVD. is in Flac.

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #13 –
Huh?
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #14 –
Flac is a format in a minimalist container.  Flac, the tool, is also a codec.  Will Monkey's Audio be able to decode the compressed audio data inside the flac file?  I didn't think so.

Yes, the compressed audio data inside could be sourced from anything.  It is obviously not a guarantee of losslessness.  Sampling an analog waveform into digitized data is also not lossless for that matter.  The stuff that's encoded with a program like flac or flake and placed in a flac (or ogg) container is the very same stuff when it is pulled out of the container and decoded.  This process is lossless and there is no loss in quality; not this, "enormous, nearly 2x loss in sound quality" nonsense.

I'm also reading elsewhere more bullshit like this:
Quote from: dragut on
And, WAV is container too. With lossless compress-algorithm.
What's the point in calling sandwiched data in a container, in its raw uncompressed form, compression?

Let's not bog topics like this down through trivial and incorrect nitpicking and defending it in a Dunning-Krueger fashion.

If you can't tell I'm a bit annoyed.
Is 24-bit/192kHz good enough for your lo-fi vinyl, or do you need 32/384?

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #16 –
Quote from: greynol on
* * * If you can't tell I'm a bit annoyed.
If you don't understand WAV as container, you are not just annoyed... all you wrote is bullshit.
Try sometimes to read "bullshit" written by qualified people... maybe you can learn something... but probably not...

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #17 –
Quote from: dragut on
If you don't understand WAV as container, you are not just annoyed... all you wrote is bullshit.
In contrast to your claim that WAV comes with a lossless compression algorithm?

And ...
Quote
Flac can decode PCM on the fly but loss in sound quality is enormous: nearly twice!
Suggestion: Bong today, Hydrogenaudio tomorrow. Not that much of both on the same night.
High Voltage socket-nose-avatar

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #18 –
Quote from: dragut on
Quote from: greynol on
* * * If you can't tell I'm a bit annoyed.
If you don't understand WAV as container, you are not just annoyed... all you wrote is bullshit.
Try sometimes to read "bullshit" written by qualified people... maybe you can learn something... but probably not...
One of us understands that wav is a container that doesn't employ a compression algorithm.

Like I said: Dunning-Kreuger
Is 24-bit/192kHz good enough for your lo-fi vinyl, or do you need 32/384?

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #19 –
Quote from: greynol on
Flac is a format in a minimalist container.  Flac, the tool, is also a codec.
Guess this is what i keep from this OT ramble, thanks.
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #20 –
Quote from: Wombat on

Guess this is what i keep from this OT ramble, thanks.

Indeed, the full quote was from a question about Ogg-FLAC:

Quote
What is the difference between (native) FLAC and Ogg FLAC?

You can think of an audio codec as having two layers. The inside layer is the raw compressed data, and the outside layer is the "container" or "transport layer" that splits and arranges the compressed data in pieces so it can be seeked through, edited, etc.

"Native" FLAC is the compressed FLAC data stored in a very minimalist container, designed to be very efficient at storing single audio streams.

Ogg FLAC is the compressed FLAC data stored in an Ogg container. Ogg is a much more powerful transport layer that enables mixing several kinds of different streams (audio, data, metadata, etc). The overhead is slightly higher than with native FLAC.

In either case, the compressed FLAC data is the same and one can be converted to the other without re-encoding.

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #21 –
Pretty basic stuff.  Why links have been taken out of context in an attempt to prove an incorrect point is anyone's guess (or not anyone's, IDK).
Is 24-bit/192kHz good enough for your lo-fi vinyl, or do you need 32/384?

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #22 –
greynol and dragut, you both have right ;-)

The most common WAV audio format is uncompressed audio in the linear pulse code modulation (LPCM) format. LPCM is also the standard audio coding format for audio CDs.

By the other hand, the WAV format supports compressed audio using, on Microsoft Windows, the Audio Compression Manager.

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #23 –
Regardless of whether it's PCM, ADPCM, etc. WAV is still just a container.  It is not a compression format (lossless or lossy), nor is it a codec.

I'm also reading elsewhere more bullshit like this:
Quote from: dragut on
And, WAV is container too. With lossless compress-algorithm.
Absolutely not!
Is 24-bit/192kHz good enough for your lo-fi vinyl, or do you need 32/384?

Re: Fake 24-bit FLAC?

Reply #24 –
Quote from: BrilliantBob on
greynol and dragut, you both have right ;-)

The most common WAV audio format is uncompressed audio in the linear pulse code modulation (LPCM) format. LPCM is also the standard audio coding format for audio CDs.

By the other hand, the WAV format supports compressed audio using, on Microsoft Windows, the Audio Compression Manager.
Thanks Bob. So many idiots here so your words gave some pleasure...
Does container compress it's content or not -- that's probably not the most important (WAV not of course so, when I wrote about WAV "lossless compression" -- I wasn;t precise to the 100%. Should wrote "packing without losses". The key idea is that WAV is not raw music file format (MSoft of course). If WAV is NOT that what many people think it is, how about FLAC then? :)) Some writing about FLAC as it is raw PCM format with guaranteed quality (means FLAC = Lossless --> so file there is perfect).
 
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