Format conversion failures

[Corteq]

I am having problems converting some high-res audio music to lossy for portable use (iPhone and USB). I recall reading an old post on the Music Converter forum that this was to be expected with dbPoweramp products, but I just wanted to confirm that I've got this right. I can convert these files with Foobar and there is no problem, but I can't use TuneFusion to convert them, it results in white noise only so I am limited to selecting CD rip flacs from my library and manually transferring Foobar converted files for the rest (5.1 flacs, wav, dts, dsf or any 24bit tracks). If this is the case then TuneFusion will not provide the one stop solution I was looking for in managing audio from my master lossless high quality library down to portable devices.

I doubt that I am the only one facing this issue and wondered if I am missing something. I would appreciate your comments.

[garym]

Re: Format conversion failures

I have only tried to convert 24/48 flac files to mp3. This worked fine.

[Spoon]

Re: Format conversion failures

What are your source files? what are you converting to?

It is likely your device is not compatible with multi channel.

[Corteq]

Re: Format conversion failures

OK I'll give you an example:
Album: Best Audiophile Voices Vol 1.
Format: FLAC
Sample Rate: 44.1KHz
Sample Size: 16bit
Bit Rate: 1,411kbps
Channels: 2

If I convert this to m4a through Foobar using fdkacc.exe and no other processing it works fine. If I use TuneFusion it fails (noise). It doesn't matter what setting I use but my preference is VBR level 5. I get the same result if I convert to mp3, again perfect from Foobar with any level, fail with TuneFusion with any level.

[Spoon]

Re: Format conversion failures

Which DSP settings are you using?

If you play the created m4a file in foobar, it is noise also?

[Corteq]

Re: Format conversion failures

1. No DSP settings. I tried using resample as an experiment and that did not help.
2. After converting to m4a using Foobar playback in Foobar or any other device is fine, no noise, perfect. Only when I use TuneFusion to do the converting do I get noise, including when I play the result in Foobar (or any other device).

I have also ensured both Foobar and TuneFusion were using the same version of fdkacc.exe.

[Spoon]

Re: Format conversion failures

Try setting the encoder as 'Apple Lossless' let the conversion take place and see if the apple lossless file has noise?

I am thinking it is not the encoding, rather the decoding of the flac files.

[Corteq]

Re: Format conversion failures

Try setting the encoder as 'Apple Lossless' let the conversion take place and see if the apple lossless file has noise?

I am thinking it is not the encoding, rather the decoding of the flac files.

Thanks for the suggestion. I gave that a go, but still noise. I tried converting a sample FLAC track to WAV in Foobar and running that through TuneFusion and that was successful. So... TuneFusion struggles with some FLAC files, but why would that be?

A workaround to my problem is to convert all source Albums that TuneFusion cant deal with to WAV. I'm not opposed to using WAV in my primary library, but it just doesn't seem like the right answer (apart from the fact I probably have a few hundred albums to deal with). Also, tagging is better with flacs so wav's introduce a different problem for me.

I should add this is not a new issue. For years I have been using dbpoweramp with batch conversion and have often had failures. I would then use Foobar and the job was done. This has been fine for processing 1 or 2 albums and not really mattered, but doing what we are trying here is another matter. Synchronising a library to different devices means TuneFusion HAS to manage the lot, so I need to find the best solution.

I have appreciated your suggestions and hope I am not being a bore, but can you think of anything else that may cause this inability to convert?

[Spoon]

Re: Format conversion failures

dBpoweramp uses the offical flac decoder, if dBpoweramp cannot decode the flac file, then flac its self cannot.

Foobar uses ffmpeg which is a 3rd party implementation of flac encoding and decoding. If could be your flac files are not to the specification.

[Corteq]

Re: Format conversion failures

Foobar uses ffmpeg which is a 3rd party implementation of flac encoding and decoding. If could be your flac files are not to the specification.

Ok that's something I didn't know. I have tried converting these flac's to wav with Foobar, then using dbpoweramp to convert them back to flac and THEN TuneFusion works. I guess I've got some work to do. Thank you for your suggestions and comments, they have been helpful.

[Spoon]

Re: Format conversion failures

You should be able to convert FLAC to FLAC in foobar, overwrite the original.