24 bit FLAC to 16 bit ALAC (Apple Lossless)

[mville]

Re: 24 bit FLAC to 16 bit ALAC (Apple Lossless)

Or you can use music converter in dbpoweramp to convert the files, which is what he was asking. I simply told him how to do that with the best possible audio results.

Agreed, but to imply/suggest that the OP will somehow get inaccurate audio files, by resampling to 44.1kHz and not at 48kHz, without knowledge of the dBpoweramp resample algorithms, is not helpful and might not be true.

Down-sampling, IMO is not ideal, but I doubt anyone is going to hear the difference between the resulting resampled files at 44.1kHz and 48kHz.

So, to my question, which was just a thought:
Can you not simply ask for the files to be made available at 16-bit, 44.1kHz?

If they are not available, the OP might want to consider the mp3 files, which are available. Depending on the quality/bitrates etc., the mp3 files may be more than adequate for use on an iPod with headphones/earphones/earbuds.

[Hotdog]

Re: 24 bit FLAC to 16 bit ALAC (Apple Lossless)

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I have previously burnt audio CDs of Apple Lossless files to CD-R for friends who have had no trouble playing them. I used iTunes to burn the discs.

If I convert these files to 48kHz, surely iTunes won't be able to burn them to CD-R?

The recordings are here: https://archive.org/search.php?query...georgeblood%22
Public Domain so I don't mind sharing the link. But if you look at one of the download pages, you'll see that the files are either available in 24-Bit FLAC or MP3. 24-Bit is not supported by my iPod and probably won't burn to CD-R either. I can see the merit in keeping those versions if I wanted to do restoration later. For everyday listening and compatibility with CD-R/iPod, 16-Bit ALAC is my preferred format; I avoid MP3 these days. The user on the Archive website has uploaded hundreds of audio transfers, so it seems a bit much to ask him to make them all available at 16-bit, although I think they should be, because 24-bit 78rpm rips are unwanted by anyone except sound restoration engineers.

Reading around online, I suspect that one would not hear the "rounding errors" involved when converting from 96 to 44.1kHz, rather than 48kHz. There are conflicting opinions as to whether this is "right" or "wrong". Also, Spoon seems to recommend Triangular (TPDF) dither when reducing to 16 bits. No-one in the thread linked to (started by "twochordcool") suggested that files at 96 need converting to 48, when the user suggested 44(.1).

[mville]

Re: 24 bit FLAC to 16 bit ALAC (Apple Lossless)

I'm not entirely sure why these old 78's have been recorded at 24-bit, 96kHz in the first place and having listened to 1 or 2 it seems a little absurd to me. Anyway, I guess that is a debate for another day.

I wouldn't get bogged down with this. If you must have the flacs, over the mp3's and are really not sure what to do, just download one flac file, convert it to 16-bit (with Triangular (TPDF) dither), at 48kHz and at 44.1kHz, then listen to both. Decide which sample rate you prefer, and convert at that rate. Done!

[Hotdog]

Re: 24 bit FLAC to 16 bit ALAC (Apple Lossless)

Presumably to offer them in case anyone fancies doing restoration, as I believe 24 bit is best for that.

I'll probably just do them at 44.1, I doubt there'll be a noticeable difference. I also want to share them with friends who use Apple software too.