Jaksta Music Recorder for Windows for Windows Technical Support Forum

FLAC bit rate and depth

I have been using the AVS branded versions of you r products for many years, The most recent versions of their Replay Music defaults to 24 bit at avery high bit rate hen set to record FLAC, no matter what the rate and depth of the original. Hoping that your own version Would have selectable rates I downloaded the trial version and used it to record a standard CD quality 16/44.1 track from Tidal and it was the same. It gave a huge FLAC file at 24 bit and around 8000 bit rate. Is there anyway to get lower FLAC settings to match closer to source?

Thank you 




--- Import ---
Author: Alex McEwan
Created At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Updated At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Views: 27
Votes: 0
--- Import ---



From Support Migration @ 08 May 2023 02:05

Answers: 7, Votes: 0

Whilst the flac spec allows upto 32 bits,  the reference implementation only supports 24 (http://xiph.org/flac/format.html) so we default to that.  With a lossless format like FLAC, bitrate doesn't really mean anything quality wise as nothing is lost.  For lossy formats like MP3 it is.  Its really just a measure of the compression that was achieved I guess.

The way our application recording works is that we are hooking into the windows audio subsystem.  At that time we are working with 32b WAV format.  The output format you select is a transcoding to that format from WAV.  So nothing to do with the original format/codec played by the application.    




--- Import ---
Author: CRS
Created At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Updated At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Views: 27
Votes: 0
--- Import ---



From Support Migration @ 08 May 2023 02:05

Votes: 0

Thanks for the reply. I get the same result no matter what the source e.g. recording from a CD. It gives very big FLAC files. If I go back to earlier versions of the software it records at a much lower bit rate around 500-600 rather than the approx 8000 the current version uses. It just seems a waste of disk space to create such big files.




--- Import ---
Author: Alex McEwan
Created At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Updated At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Views: 27
Votes: 0
--- Import ---



From Support Migration @ 08 May 2023 02:05

Votes: 0

Yep flac files are alot bigger as it is a lossless format.   They are about 1/3 the size though of the corresponding wav format being recorded.  If you want compression use a lossy format, either as the output or convert after your recording using the built in converter.  You could also adjust the playback format of your default speaker/headphones via the Advanced tab on your sound control applet.  This will increase or decrease the quality of the WAV stream we are recording. Run mmsys.cpl from the windows run box.  




--- Import ---
Author: CRS
Created At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Updated At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Views: 27
Votes: 0
--- Import ---



Attachments

From Support Migration @ 08 May 2023 02:05

Votes: 0

Again thanks very much for taking the time to answer my question, As I am an Applian customer I should explain why I am asking you the question. It's down to this answer which you gave to another query in the forum.

We are the manufactures of most of Applians recording suite and have done so for many years now. Applian are a sales, marketing and support company.

Applian offer email support. We only offer forum based support. At the end of the day any 3rd level support comes back to us anyway.

We release Jaksta products first, Applian get theirs later. At the moment though all apps are at the same version.

So if email support is important to you then go with the Applian version. If having the latest and greatest asap then go with the Jaksta version. We will also convert an Applian license to a Jaksta on on proof of purchase if you choose to change later.

I was thinking I would convert my licence if your version of the product did what I am trying to achieve.

I appreciate and understand all that you have said, but it doesn't answer my basic question which is this. Why, on the same machine and settings, does Version 6 of the software output a 16 MB FLAC file from a 3 minute music track, but Version 8 give a 47 MB FLAC from the same track? (Were you not the developers of Replay Music V 6?)

The roughly 5 MB per minute which comes from Ver. 6 is in keeping with what I see from most standard i.e. non-Hi-Res FLAC files.

Thanks again.




--- Import ---
Author: Alex McEwan
Created At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Updated At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Views: 27
Votes: 0
--- Import ---



From Support Migration @ 08 May 2023 02:05

Votes: 0

Apology and correction. In my initial query I said AVS version of your products. Of course I meant Applian.




--- Import ---
Author: Alex McEwan
Created At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Updated At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Views: 27
Votes: 0
--- Import ---



From Support Migration @ 08 May 2023 02:05

Votes: 0

I pulled version 6 from 2016 out of version control and it only supported producing 16bit FLAC files.  

If the version of windows you are using is producing 32bit WAV in its audio subsystem (which all modern versions do),  then the FLAC file produced by the current version is 24bit.   Hense the size differences.

I guess what you are saying is that you would like to select 16bit or 24bit output in the settings.  I can expose that in the next version for you.  

If you are recording greater than CD quality streams, then you will still want 24bit for recording with no quality loss,  but if it is just CD quality then you could use 16 bit.  




--- Import ---
Author: CRS
Created At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Updated At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Views: 27
Votes: 0
--- Import ---



From Support Migration @ 08 May 2023 02:05

Votes: 0

Thanks very much. Yes I would appreciate selectable bit depth being an option in a new version, I do record CD quality as well as Hi-Res audio from TIDAL Qobuz etc. 

As well as bit depth the bit rate is so much higher in Ver.8, Almost three times that in Ver,6. I very much appreciate your help with this. I have been going back to Ver, 6 to record CD quality streams but it lacks other features f the newer versions which I use like direct from App recording,




--- Import ---
Author: Alex McEwan
Created At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Updated At: 2020-05-17T19:00:41+08:00
Views: 27
Votes: 0
--- Import ---



From Support Migration @ 08 May 2023 02:05

Votes: 0