Can you convert from Lossless 8 FLAC to Lossless FLAC

[DTW]

I have all my music rip'd at lossless 8 FLAC currently.
Is it a simple matter of using the converter to convert to lossless FLAC and have the same quality as if I had done it in lossless FLAC in the first place or do I have to re rip all my Cd's?
Used V13 originally now using V14.2
I used the default naming string originally.
I also want to use replay gain this time as a DSP effect that I never used why I originally rip'd to lossless 8 FLAC if possible?
Thanks
Steve

[Porcus]

Re: Can you convert from Lossless 8 FLAC to Lossless FLAC

Not completely sure what you are asking about. Whether you compress with flac -0 or flac -5 or flac -8, the files contain precisely the same music, the only difference is that the higher number makes the encoder work harder to see if it can pack the signal to a smaller file.

(By the way, transcoding will never ever remove losses. If you e.g. convert FLAC --> mp3 --> FLAC, then you lose information in the first step, and of course FLAC does not know what was discarded.)

[DTW]

Re: Can you convert from Lossless 8 FLAC to Lossless FLAC

Thanks for the response.
Currently I have about 500GB of my CD's ripped using dbpoweramp.
When I ripped about 15 months ago them I used the setting withing FLAC of lossless 8. I think it was the best setting at the time.
I was thinking of using just the lossless setting for FLAC and converting the
files I had already done to FLAC Lossless using V14.2.
Not sure whether it would be better or not but given storage is cheap ..... or just stick with what I have?

[Porcus]

Re: Can you convert from Lossless 8 FLAC to Lossless FLAC

When I ripped about 15 months ago them I used the setting withing FLAC of lossless 8. I think it was the best setting at the time.

The 8 has always been the best setting in terms of compression (OK, there was one experimental setting which took forever and could squeeze just a tiny bit more out, if anything ... totally impractical). If your FLAC version of then was reasonably new (we are talking the 2007 versions), then you will not gain any improvements whatsoever from re-encoding. You will have to either

- use a different FLAC encoder. There is Flake, but it is not for novices; it lacks support for high resolution and multichannel, and all your tags will have to be transferred separately. There latter goes for http://www.cuetools.net/wiki/FLACCL too, and you need a CUDA graphics card.
- use a different format than FLAC. You could try TAK, which is on par with the best compression-wise and with FLAC speed-wise, but I do not know whether all tagging features will be transferred upon conversion.

or (my recommendation):

- stick to what you have and buy another hard drive

[DTW]

Re: Can you convert from Lossless 8 FLAC to Lossless FLAC

Thanks Porcus.
I was mainly interested in whether I would lose anything by converting.
The cost of storage is cheap and is not the main issue to me.
Getting the best rip of my CD's is what I am after.
I guess the question also could be is lossless FLAC the best option using secure settings etc or is there anything better if I go to the trouble to re rip my cd collection?
It looks like I may re do all the ripping again if there is uncertainty about what the result would be.
Thanks again.

[Porcus]

Re: Can you convert from Lossless 8 FLAC to Lossless FLAC

Thanks Porcus.
I was mainly interested in whether I would lose anything by converting.
The cost of storage is cheap and is not the main issue to me.
Getting the best rip of my CD's is what I am after.
I guess the question also could be is lossless FLAC the best option using secure settings etc or is there anything better if I go to the trouble to re rip my cd collection?
It looks like I may re do all the ripping again if there is uncertainty about what the result would be.
Thanks again.

You seem to be confusing two steps here:
- ripping
- storing

Ripping is about extracting the audio on the CD. The FLAC format will store whatever you get out, without any changes whatsoever.

If ripped correctly, then your FLACs are perfectly OK.
If ripped bad, there is no conversion FLAC to FLAC which can recover what had been on the CD.

That said, there is a database with some correction data, where minor errors in the rip can be checked and corrected: http://www.cuetools.net/wiki/CUETools_Database
This tool can also check your rips against AccurateRip, if you didn't use software which supported that when you ripped. (However, for both AccurateRip checking and CUEToolsDB checking/correction, it needs to be able to identify your CD, and that might be an issue.)


What did you use to rip? dBpoweramp? With AccurateRip?

[Teknojnky]

Re: Can you convert from Lossless 8 FLAC to Lossless FLAC

I think he is referring to how the flac encoder shows:

encoding: lossless level 8 (highest)

and

encoding: lossless uncompressed


converting from level 8 to uncompressed would get you exactly NO DIFFERENCES WHAT SO EVER in sound quality, and it would probably DOUBLE the amount of space used.


So, no you absolutely do not need to convert from flac -8 to flac 'lossless uncompressed'.

And if you did, you would simply waste time (converting them) and space (bigger files with zero quality change).

[DTW]

Re: Can you convert from Lossless 8 FLAC to Lossless FLAC

I used dbpoweramp with accurate rip and converted all my cd's to
FLAC , Apple Lossless and LAME (320kbps CBR).
Why 3 types...LAME for the IPOD but I mainly use FLAC (did Apple Lossless cause it was no real extra effort ) from a Laptop PC using Media Monkey via
USB -->Onkyo ND-S1---> DAC ---> Pre---> Power AMP--> Tannoy SRM1000
and I have lots of listening pleasure for an old guy.
Given that a lot of time is expended moving the cd's to HDD storage the main aim is to try and get it right the first time. Already done everything twice in the past...first time with EAC and LAME until I bought dbpoweramp.
I appreciate your responses and any tips around FLAC and settings would always be welcome.
Cheers
Steve

[Porcus]

Re: Can you convert from Lossless 8 FLAC to Lossless FLAC

In the following I will pretend that the mp3 files do not exist.

- The FLAC and Apple Lossless files: you only need one of them. They all contain the same audio, and it is as lossless as could possibly be. No need to re-rip.

- The ripping process: Files verified as Accurate are good. Files showing up as Secure are probably good. Files that reported errors are probably not, but it might not be possible to fix it in any case.

The only thing you can possibly improve by re-ripping, are the two «probably» issues for files which did not show up as Accurate. Most likely, the only thing you will gain from the files which showed up as Secure (but not 'Accurate') is that some of them will now be verified as Accurate, but they will probably still be precisely the same audio, the difference is only that you are more sure it is error-free. For the errors, you can tweak settings and use a different drive.

[DTW]

Re: Can you convert from Lossless 8 FLAC to Lossless FLAC

Thanks for the input and advice.
Much appreciated.