FLAC vs Apple Lossless file sizes

I know FLAC has settings. Don't know about ALE but frankly I have no room for lossless in my iTunes library so I just archive with FLAC.

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Lossless_comparison - ALE and FLAC are about the same %

Which settings are you using in Max? I have version 0.9.1 and don't see Apple Lossless. I see it in XLD.

Took a 207.2 MB AIFF file (classical music).

Converted using XLD.

FLAC 100.4 MB

ALAC 103.6 MB

Check your settings carefully. Is it possible you are sampling at a higher resolution (48k) than the original? What you are seeing is not consistent with other observed behaviors.

Check your files with:

Media Info - http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net - to get details of codecs used in multimedia

Have to make supper now, will write more later. Looks to me almsost as though your ALAC isn't compressed at all. Check a basic AIFF and bitrate isn't all that different from your ALAC. Maybe it isn't really compressing.

Were you using XLD? You said Max earlier.

Read

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=69879

This seems to be something to do with the technical details of 24bit sound and ALAC. I converted that 35MB Portico sound file to 86MB AIFF with XLD, then back to both FLAC and ALAC. FLAC went back to around 33MB whereas ALAC ended up being 59MB or what it was when converted firectly from FLAC to ALAC. Anyway, the above links has a bit of technobabble on what may be going on, but as one person said, Apple might get around to fixing it when they see a need for it. Right now they don't sell anything in lossless or 24 bit so they may not perceive a need to support those features.

Joe: I believe Songbird also supports FLAC playback.

I have an ipod, but i download all my music in flac format. I convert my tracks to .wav. Since iTunes lets you tag all file formats (within the apple ecosystem), this is very ideal. My average FLAC track is about 40 MB, and after conversion and tagging, it is about 43 MB, so there is minimal growth in file size, but tagging and lossless quality remain. I suggest trying this method.

tarfeef101 wrote:

I have an ipod, but i download all my music in flac format. I convert my tracks to .wav. Since iTunes lets you tag all file formats (within the apple ecosystem), this is very ideal

Not really. WAV do not have tags and if you move these outside of iTunes (or iDevice), the only info you get is the filename.

tarfeef101 wrote:

hello, I did say within the apple ecosystem,

You mean the iTunes/iDevice ecosystem.

Use them in other applications on a Mac (part of the "Apple ecosystem") and they still won't have tags.

If they are AIFF/Apple Losssless, you will not have a problem with the files later, if you move them outside the iTunes/iDevice ecosystem.

I convert my tracks to .wav

and you convert them to WAV (instead of AIFF/AppleLossless) because?

Just trying to point out possible issues which may occur.

What App are you using to play FLAC. I downloaded Portico and obviously won't open in iTunes.

Joe: Cog.

parish: Did you check Max vs XLD settings?