Sound quality

[Melco Man]

(29-12-2016 11:17)Pepsican Wrote:  

(29-12-2016 11:06)Melco Man Wrote:  

(29-12-2016 01:48)DavidHB Wrote:  

(29-12-2016 00:00)Melco Man Wrote:  What do you mean by FLAC to WAV or WAV24 transcoding. The majority of my files are either AIFF, WAV or FLAC. How do I try out the transcoding? Sounds like a fun experiment...

Transcoding is the process of converting a file (in our case a music file) from one format to another on the fly as it is streamed from the server to the player/renderer. So a file that is stored as, say, FLAC, is sent to (and seen by) the player as a WAV file. The file is not permanently converted, just sent to the player in the different format.

Go to the MinimServer Home Page (link at the bottom of this page), then link to MinimStreamer and then its user guide. You will find instructions for installing and using the MinimStreamer plugin. In the User Guide, you will find a section on transcoding. To set it up, you use properties in the MinimWatch or MinimServer properties dialog box in the usual way. Details are in the Guide.

I suggest that you start with simple transcoding from FLAC to WAV (or preferably, if your player can handle it, WAV24). Most other conversions require the installation of another piece of software called FFMPEG on the device on which MinimServer is running. Again, this is explained in the documentation, but it is best to start simple.

I hope that this is enough to get you started.

David

Thanks David. I am now transcoding from flac:wav24 Pretty impressive. How does this work? If the file is stored as flac how can it be upgraded on the fly? Surely it can only be as good as the quality it has been stored at??

The file does not get upgraded, it merely gets converted. The idea behind this is that 24 bit offers more "space" to work in (kind of analoguous to 8-bit Jpeg pictures versus 16-bit DNG files used in Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop), so there is less change that anything is compressed or cut off. It also allows for extrapolation and upsampling.

But what you say does hold true in principle: the copy will only be as good as the original allows it to get.

Thanks. I kind of get it. Just not sure I totally understand about the 'space'. My files are stored as uncompressed FLAC and are now being transcoded to WAV 24. The 24 bit FLAC to WAV 24 must surely make no difference? The 16 bit FLAC to 24 bit WAV I can't get my head around as surely the 16 bit will remain as 16 bit???