Frequently asked questions and general information, choose your topic
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Lossless audio
What is lossless material?
Lossless and Lossy are forms of compression. Lossless is a form of compression that allows the original file to be compressed and uncompressed whilst retaining all of the original data. No data is lost. In terms of music this means that the Lossless files that you download retain all of the quality of the original recording resulting in the best possible sound quality.
Lossy compression (mp3 files etc) is a form of compression that permanently compresses the original file resulting (dependent on bitrate) in considerable amounts of data being lost. This loss of data reduces the overall quality of the file but offers smaller file sizes in return. A standard Lossless recording averages at about 800MB but the same show in MP3 can be as little as 100MB.
Common Lossless file formats include FLAC, WAV and SHN.
Common Lossy file formats include, MP3, AAC, WMA etc.
I'm familiar with lossy (MP3's), how is lossless different?
Lossless is for people who want an exact replica of the original music material source. The penalty is that, all other things being equal, a lossless audio file is many times bigger (and thus longer to upload/download) than its MP3 equivalent (even at highest quality settings - 320KB, etc). But that is the price lossless fans are willing to pay for the sake of 100% integrity of the material.
People who want lossless often use it to burn CD's while MP3 users often just download files and store them on their hard drives, playing it from there.
How can I recognize lossless material?
You can easily see it at the end of a filename, while lossy material ends in .mp3 or .wma lossless material ends in .ape, .flac or .shn (the most used). Lossless material is also bigger in filesize, lossy material often is approximately 3~4 MB while lossless material can be ten times bigger.
There are however some exceptions, FLAC files are not always truly lossless. For example one can easily convert an MP3 to FLAC but still doesn't have a true lossless file but a file with lossy origin. A spectral/frequency analysis is a way to tell you if your file is truly lossless or not.
How can I play lossless material on my PC?
You can also use standalone applications like foobar2000 or VLC player to play your lossless material.
There is a comprehensive list of links to software what can play, uncompress, edit, burn and extract lossless material available here.
How can I burn lossless material to a CD?
You will need to convert the SHN and FLAC files to wav format before you can burn them to cd. The most commonly used programs are Trader's Little Helper, mkwACT (for shn), and Flac Frontend (for flac). A list of links to these programs can be found at the same address provided above for the players. You'll then need to burn the converted wav files to cd with a program like Nero or Roxio. For some versions of Nero there is a flac plugin which lets you directly burn your files to an Audio CD without converting it to wav.
There is a comprehensive list of links to software what can play, uncompress, edit, burn and extract lossless material available here.
I don't know what suits me better, lossy (MP3's) or lossless material?
It really depends on your storage space and how you listen to your music. If you do most of your listening through an MP3 player or some standard PC speakers you would probably benefit most from using Lossy files. MP3 is the most popular format and can be played back on virtually every media player that exists. Lossy files will also allow you to pack more songs on to your portable player.
If however you like to burn your files to CD to listen to on your HI-FI or maybe in your car you would most likely benefit from using Lossless files. You won't help but notice the drastic improvements in audio quality. Lossless might also be worthwhile if you are using decent speakers on your PC and if you have the hard-drive space.
In short, go lossless if you want the best sound quality or go Lossy if you don't have the space. The choice is yours.
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