Mono FLAC possible?

[MusicTrax]

A friend of mine recently sent me some FLAC files, and they appear to be mono songs, encoded in one channel.

Is there an advantage to ripping CDs of mono songs to FLAC in mono mode? Will this save half the file space of a comparable stereo file (of the same mono song)? And will the file play back through both speakers using standard FLAC players?

Assuming that the answers to the above are all "yes," how can I set dBpowerAMP to convert mono files to mono FLAC?

--MusicTrax

[Spoon]

Re: Mono FLAC possible?

Many audio tracks make use of stereo as part of the audio effect, you are only getting half with mono.

[MusicTrax]

Re: Mono FLAC possible?

Many audio tracks make use of stereo as part of the audio effect, you are only getting half with mono.

I think we have a language problem here.

I'm talking about a MONOPHONIC song, recorded with just one channel. Many thousands of songs (more like millions) were recorded only in mono, from Edison cylinders at the turn of the century, all the way to the late 1960s and beyond. One channel. No stereo information whatsoever.

I ask again: is it possible to force dBpowerAMP to convert a 2-channel WAV file (which has identical information in the left and right channels) to a mono FLAC file?

I have another program that will take 2-channel WAV files and essentially chop them in half to just a 1-channel WAV file. And I'm confident that if I converted all my 2-channel WAV files to 1 channel, dBpowerAMP could then make mono FLACs from those mono WAV files.

But again: can I force dBpowerAMP to create a mono FLAC file from a 2-channel WAV file? I'm guessing the answer is no, that you didn't make this an option. I can do it the hard way, manually, but I just wanted to ask before having to batch-process several thousand files with other programs.

[LtData]

Re: Mono FLAC possible?

I'm pretty sure you can do this, yes. While I don't see a direct "mono" option, there is a "Channel Count" DSP effect you can use to set the channels to 1. I cannot say whether this will work, as I have never personally done this.

[Spoon]

Re: Mono FLAC possible?

Yes it will (change the audio data with a DSP before it gets into flac).

[MusicTrax]

Re: Mono FLAC possible?

Yes it will (change the audio data with a DSP before it gets into flac).

Perfect! That's just the answer I was looking for. Thanks very much!

[MusicTrax]

Re: Mono FLAC possible?

While I don't see a direct "mono" option, there is a "Channel Count" DSP effect you can use to set the channels to 1...

A follow-up. I did check the 22 DSP effects provided with the Power Pack, but there are none called "Channel Count." Only one has the word "Channel" in it, and that's "Channel Swap," which is not what I want.

Can you tell me where to find this DSP effect?

[Spoon]

Re: Mono FLAC possible?

They are for Release 12 of Music Converter:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dbpoweramp-dsp.htm