any program I can use to spot fake flac or lossless files?
a few people mentioned audio checker but i dont think its available on mac.
any program I can use to spot fake flac or lossless files?
a few people mentioned audio checker but i dont think its available on mac.
But on the other hand if your ears can't tell by just listening why would you care? I assume if you don't know the history of the file you got it as a free download, why complain about the quality of stolen music?
But on the other hand if your ears can't tell by just listening why would you care? I assume if you don't know the history of the file you got it as a free download, why complain about the quality of stolen music?
I don't understand the fake FLAC business. If you're ripping your own music, how the world would it be fake unless you used the wrong source.
If you're buying music online (like HDTracks), I've never had issues with their music.
You can run it through a spectrum analyzer. If it has a brickwall on the high frequencies, it's probably not true lossless. Lots of lossy compression codecs take out the high frequencies.
This is probably the best answer in this thread. FLAC can be re-encoded to any bitrate, so looking at that alone will leave you with more questions than anything. Running a spectrum analyser will give you a visual comparison of the data inside.
We all know that listening to the files (especially if one is in doubt) will not do the trick: ears are too easily fooled. Half a decibel louder and suddenly: it sounds better.
i would argue that if you're needing a program to tell you before you notice it probably doesn't matter.
it should stick out as sounding like an mp3, if it doesn't, or you're not hearing a difference without a program telling you it's an mp3 conversion then, why care?
I just want to know, you know?
I use my ears, good headphones and the correct equalizer settings.any program I can use to spot fake flac or lossless files?
Really?Some people download FLACs from "free" sources.
Unfortunately this isn't a fail safe. I did a few tests as I have a few ALACs that I did not rip myself (cough), and I wanted to verify their authenticity. I ran a few suspect and a few confirmed ALAC files through a spectrum analyzer, as well as a few MP3s. All of the MP3 files had the visual cut-off you are referring to. Some of the ALAC files did as well. Some visually did not. I thought, "Great the cut off files are fake!", until I took some CDs that I had and created ALAC files straight from them myself. Lo and behold, they had the same frequency cut-offs that the MP3 files did. Apparently whether or not the files have those frequencies can be caused just as much from the source as the encoding method.
Bummer. Too much compression in the CD mastering process maybe?
I guess the only way to really tell is to directly compare the source cd with the ripped file.
Caveat emptor: I am not an audio pro, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
I don't disagree with your point. Most MP3s do stand out. I've got a good enough setup that I can easily tell, especially when comparing side by side. Unfortunately I don't know if I can tell 100% of the time without a comparison. I just want to know, you know?
Again, it isn't so easy. It has not been proven one way or another that users CAN hear a difference unless the files are very very poorly recorded. New algorithms are good enough even at 128 that I doubt most 'golden ears' could tell a difference if the volumes of both songs were perfectly matched.
I meet 'golden ears' all the time. And they are often the easiest to fool as they want to believe anything.
any program I can use to spot fake flac or lossless files?
a few people mentioned audio checker but i dont think its available on mac.
No a spectrum analyser will not tell you what file is uncompressed and of higher intrinsic quality (without size compression or inflation) but will show how much dynamic range is lost due to dynamic compression to emphasise loudness.
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Again, it isn't so easy. It has not been proven one way or another that users CAN hear a difference unless the files are very very poorly recorded. New algorithms are good enough even at 128 that I doubt most 'golden ears' could tell a difference if the volumes of both songs were perfectly matched.
The ear is very very easily tricked.
And doing the test yourself, unless it is a blind ABX, is meaningless. Even then, there are too many questions raised. I'd say, if in a blind test with 100% matching volumes, you fail to suss which is which in more than 1/3 of the phases, it doesn't matter. Such tests require specific pieces of software, not a random play in iTunes and absolutely must be volume matched. I suggest having someone with you to keep you straight.
Often, 'good' systems are even more prone to lies. Why? Good, expensive systems introduce their own flavour - that is, unless you invest in a system that aims for bit accuracy. Those systems don't usually cost that much. Benchmark is much cheaper than Antelope and Antelope DACs are still cheap in the grand scheme of things.
Hell, an ODAC should do it and it is cheap. Feed it to a truthful system (Good monitoring headphones like Beyer DT770 may be better in this case, than speakers).
I meet 'golden ears' all the time. And they are often the easiest to fool as they want to believe anything. It's the normal folk who tend to spot truth faster as they are in essence, doubters.
Didn't realize FLAC had been taken over by pirates.....
I don't think that anyone here is claiming to have "golden ears", but I certainly do think that there is a marked difference between (some?) mp3s and lossless files. I still have songs from back when "torrenting" was simply browsing your college network for songs to play with winamp. When replacing these songs with lossless rips, there's an audible difference in the quality. I don't think any mp3 I had was over 192kbps; most under 160.
Of course I am probably comparing the worst-case scenario to the best-case, but never-the-less I stand by the idea that there's an audible difference to be heard.
I also buy direct from an artist when there's a high-quality (32bit wav!) download available. On top of buying direct, I know I'm getting the best possible quality in the off chance that sometime, maybe, I'll have the system and ear to reproduce the files. Plus, as these files will be backups, I'll have a perfect source to rip smaller versions from when needed.