Today Soy de Mac we are going to talk to you about a type of file that you may not know. In my case, it is the first time I see and use it.
It all starts when a friend "sybarite" of classical music who works at the Pérez Galdós Theater in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria asks me to fill out his iPod shuffle 1G, a relic that works perfectly today, with music by Mahler, a famous composer and conductor.
Thanks to Sebastián. Mahler on the right.
Another friend also a lover of this type of music helps me with this feat. He tells me that at his house he has several pieces by Mahler in . Flac. When I hear that extension I miss myself and after explaining myself, I see the need to share it with you.
As we all know, the MP3 format is a format that when compressing the music loses quality, that although in most cases a large part of the users do not notice this loss of quality, there are people who do notice it, either for their training, hearing and also because they reproduce on high-quality equipment. For cases where we want to maintain the quality of the original disc, we use the .flac files.
FLAC is the acronym in English for a lossless compression format whose initials correspond to "Free Lossless Audio Codec". The great advantage of this type of compression format with respect to MP3 or AAC and WMA, is that they manage to reduce the size of the file without losing absolutely nothing in quality, as if it were a ZIP or RAR specially designed for music. Of course, the main drawback of using FLAC lies in the space that a file occupies in this format. Despite the fact that its creators defend that in file compression and decompression it is the fastest in its category, since, according to its data, it achieves a reduction of around 50% of the space of the original song, the result “ weighs ”considerably more than MP3s. Thus, if a 3-minute song compressed in MP5 is taken as a reference, its size will vary between 4,6 Megabytes and 11,5 Megabytes, depending on the rate of kilobits per second (what is known as “bit rate ”) With which it is encoded (between 128 kilobits per second, the minimum to achieve a sound similar to CD, and 320 kbps, the maximum quality of this format). However, the same file compressed in FLAC exceeds 35 Megabytes.
To be able to reproduce this type of files in OSX, we must provide the system with special CODECS for the action (FLUKE 0.2.5), which we can find on the page we provide in “download” below.
In the event that what we need is to easily convert this type of file into a .mp3 the way to do it quickly is by opening the file with Audacity, which does support it, and exporting directly to .mp3
In short, each user must calibrate whether he is committed to the compression of MP3 and derivatives or to the quality of the FLAC. On the one hand, if MP3 is used, the user will be able to store a greater number of songs on his hard disk and at the same time guarantee portability, because most portable players allow the use of compressed music.
On the other hand, the FLAC format ensures an identical listening to the original disc, to the delight of the most demanding music lovers, and also a way to make a completely identical backup, useful if the disc is damaged.
However, all this in exchange for reducing the storage capacity of the hard disk and with a much less mobility of the files, because it is not yet a standard format for portable players.
PS It is taken for granted that an iPod Shuffle 1G is not going to enjoy a very good sound quality, but that is the situation that appears to me. I dedicate this post to my friend Sebastián García Hernández, because without his request I would not have known the FLAC today.
More information - Change the format of your multimedia files with Smart Converter
Download - FLUKE
Hello, with this type of files what I do is first convert them to wav and then to ALAC in iTunes, which is Apple's equivalent to flac or ape, so it does not lose quality and you can have them organized in iTunes as well as being able play them on iPhone or iPod / iPad. a greeting
To go from FLAC to MPR, AIFF or whatever you like I use "xACT", for OSX.
Lossless is a 50% compression format but it compresses, let it be clear to you. And how does it compress? By eliminating what he believes the human ear does not hear, we go like MP3 but more smoothly.
FLAC is the same as Apple Lossless Encode, only free, hence the F for Free.
The defenders of Linux put candles to the FLAC and those of Apple to the Apple Audio Codec. (AAC for friends). The AAC is compression and lossless, which is Lossless.
For more tracks, look at the compression format included in iTunes.
If you have an iPod, use AAC at 128, which is equivalent to MP3 at 160.
If you have a small capacity iPod, use AIFF, at least that way it won't lose audio quality and it will be playable and lossless.
Smile!
Hi: Thanks for this "class" on audio files, I like it and thanks again for the trouble of teaching the neophytes.
I read as far as you said that it was the first time you heard and knew about FLAC files. You don't need to read anything else.
Unpresentable.