Hope you can help, I'm quite new to this, so... I got a Squeezebox 3 and started ripping with Easy CD-DA Pro to FLAC, and set compression to 0 in the ignorant belief that compression might degrade the file. Now I've got over a Tb of files that I plan on migrating to larger drives. In the process, I'd like to apply an appropriate level of compression. Is there a tool and procedure I can use to accomplish this? I've seen various scripts, but haven't tackled script-running, so would really like to work with a GUI, even if I have to pay. Also wondering about how a system like SB works with the newer protocols of FLAC... Is it automatic or handled with their upgrades, or what? Thanks for your help with this, please be as detailed as possible... there's a lot I don't know! Karl
Hello Karl,
There is a good list of software on the following page:
http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html#software
I have run FLAC frontend on windows XP. There is a tool called MacFLAC on OSX.
Both of these are free.
One of those should get you going. If you want to experiment with the command
line program flac.exe it is pretty easy to figure out. Run it with flac.exe
--help or flac.exe --explain to explain the various program options.
To just convert a file to FLAC level 5 (the default) you just type...
flac.exe filename.wav
It's that simple.
If you want level 8...
flac.exe -8 filename.wav
You might experiment with encoding levels to see how much space you can save.
From my experience, the default level 5 provides reasonable compression. The
higher the level, the longer it takes to encode.
Gordon
----- Original Message ---------------
Subject: [Flac-dev] Compression of existing FLAC files
From: "Karl Bertelsen" <kbert@brainsfood.com>
Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 12:51:11 -0400
To: <flac-dev@xiph.org>
>Hope you can help,
>
>I'm quite new to this, so...
>
>I got a Squeezebox 3 and started ripping with Easy CD-DA Pro
>to FLAC, and set compression to 0 in the ignorant belief that
>compression might degrade the file. Now I've got over a Tb of
>files that I plan on migrating to larger drives.
>In the process, I'd like to apply an appropriate level of compression.
>
>Is there a tool and procedure I can use to accomplish this?
>I've seen various scripts, but haven't tackled script-running,
>so would really like to work with a GUI, even if I have to pay.
>
>Also wondering about how a system like SB works with the newer
>protocols of FLAC... Is it automatic or handled with their
>upgrades, or what?
>
>Thanks for your help with this, please be as detailed as possible...
>there's a lot I don't know!
>
>Karl
>
>_______________________________________________
>Flac-dev mailing list
>Flac-dev@xiph.org
>http://lists.xiph.org/mailman/listinfo/flac-dev
--- Karl Bertelsen <kbert@brainsfood.com> wrote:> Also wondering about how a system like SB works with the newer > protocols of FLAC... Is it automatic or handled with their > upgrades, or what?automatically handled; the codec is for the most part fixed and we work closely with manufacturers to make sure there are no compatibility problems. Josh __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
On Thu, May 17, 2007 at 09:02:52PM -0500, Gordon Gidluck wrote: >> You might experiment with encoding levels to see how much space you > can save. From my experience, the default level 5 provides reasonable > compression. The higher the level, the longer it takes to encode.I did some experimentation with this myself a while ago. I found that flac -l 12 -b 4608 -m -r 4 $wavfyle -o $tmpfyle provided useful additional compression with not too much additional CPU time vs. the default. I did not save my specific time and compression ratio data, alas. My notes from when i did the comparison say: this is like "flac -6" quality but -l bumped from 8 to 12. -7 and -8 use extremely CPU-expensive -e option that doesn't buy much, but the -l 12 from "-8" is cheap and helpful. I don't remember what -l and -e do :) this was on an old redhat 9 box, pentium 4 CPU. YMMV. danno -- dan pritts danno@umich.edu 734-929-9770