How to convert WAV [PCM] to FLAC file?

[ConverterCrazy]

Hello,

I want to convert a WAV file to compressed lossless FLAC file. How do I select parameters like BR, volume, etc?

Thanks.

[davexnet]

Hello,

I want to convert a WAV file to compressed lossless FLAC file. How do I select parameters like BR, volume, etc?

Thanks.

Conversion from WAV to FLAC converts the WAV file as is.
If you want to change some of the files properties, modify the WAV file before converting it
(In Audacity for example)

[ConverterCrazy]

Hello,

I want to convert a WAV file to compressed lossless FLAC file. How do I select parameters like BR, volume, etc?

Thanks.

Conversion from WAV to FLAC converts the WAV file as is.
If you want to change some of the files properties, modify the WAV file before converting it
(In Audacity for example)

Ok.

So, in Audacity, I just have to Save As .FLAC and it is done.
I was misled by PotPlayer's Capture Audio which gives choice of different BR.

Thanks.

[abolibibelot]

You can select different levels of compression, but since it's lossless compression anyway it won't change the outcome that much, in my experience very little extra compression is obtained beyond level 5. Monkey's Audio (APE format) tends to yield a better compression ratio with the “normal” setting than even the highest FLAC settings, and tends to further compress significantly more with higher settings (I generally use “Extra high”). Another advantage of Monkey's Audio is that the compression / decompression is 100% computationally lossless, meaning, when you compress a WAV file to APE and then decompress the APE file back to WAV, the new WAV file is strictly identical to the original (same size, matching MD5 or other checksum) ; do the same with FLAC and the new WAV file will be different (identical audio data but different metadata, you can't re-create the original if needed). Plus it has the option of preserving timestamps. Of course it is nowhere near as common as FLAC and very few standalone devices can read it, but for archival purposes that's the best choice in my opinion.

[ConverterCrazy]

You can select different levels of compression, but since it's lossless compression anyway it won't change the outcome that much, in my experience very little extra compression is obtained beyond level 5. Monkey's Audio (APE format) tends to yield a better compression ratio with the “normal” setting than even the highest FLAC settings, and tends to further compress significantly more with higher settings (I generally use “Extra high”). Another advantage of Monkey's Audio is that the compression / decompression is 100% computationally lossless, meaning, when you compress a WAV file to APE and then decompress the APE file back to WAV, the new WAV file is strictly identical to the original (same size, matching MD5 or other checksum) ; do the same with FLAC and the new WAV file will be different (identical audio data but different metadata, you can't re-create the original if needed). Plus it has the option of preserving timestamps. Of course it is nowhere near as common as FLAC and very few standalone devices can read it, but for archival purposes that's the best choice in my opinion.

Very interesting.

I hope the experts who help people on this forum will take notice of your inputs.
I will experiment with your feedback on computer.

Thanks.

[hello_hello]

If you want to change the volume "on the fly", try foobar2000. You first have to run a ReplayGain scan on the file and save the data. It's quite fast and supports all the common formats, including wave files.

In the ReplayGain section of the converter configuration you can configure the volume. 89dB is the ReplayGain default target volume. It's a sound pressure level based on a SMPTE standard but it translates to -18dB on an output meter. The ReplayGain data saved to tags contains the peak level for each track and the volume of the track in relation to the target volume. So if the result of a track scan is -4dB, it means the volume is 4dB above the target volume.

In the converter setup, when you enable the ReplayGain volume adjustment, there's a slider for adjusting the volume above or below the default target volume, should you desire a different volume. If you want to use old-school normalising so the audio peaks are at maximum, select the "prevent clipping according to the peak" option and set the pre-amp volume to +20dB. Foobar2000 will adjust the volume to 20dB more than the default target volume, or until the peaks are at maximum, whichever comes first. Unless the volume is unusually low, it'll be the latter.


[Attachment 61726 - Click to enlarge]

When you use a lossless encoder you can select the output bitdepth. The default is "auto" which outputs a 16 bit file for lossy sources, and for lossless sources it's the same bitdepth. I always adjust the volume of audio tracks to the default ReplayGain volume. For movie/TV soundtracks the industry standard is 5dB lower, as they tend to be more dynamic.

It's an older version now, but I uploaded a foobar2000 configuration a while back. There's lots of conversion presets ready to go, and it's close to the GUI configuration I still use, so it's not fancy, but there's tabs for displaying the volume of files after they've been scanned. The default GUI configurations don't make it easy to get to that stuff. It's a portable version, so you can just unzip and run it.

Maybe I should find the motivation to replace it with a newer version sometime soon.

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/396860-foobar2000-portable-(for-audio-encoding)

[dellsam34]

I've been using dbpoweramp for years, great converter, It can convert multiple files by selecting them, it uses multi core for faster processing, WAV to FLAC is almost instant, It also has ID tag and cover art editor:
https://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

[pokoloko]

Over here I use flac encoder with:

--lax -8Vl32 --replay-gain 

It helps to compress a little bit more, the replay gain option set the volume/gain on the fly. I also like to use AIMP 5 Tag Editor, it offers different settings for replaygain (album or file independent) and it calculates the file BPM's.