Audacity Forum

Hello,

I ran a test on the same file where I saved the file using Export Multiple > FLAC 16bit Depth with the Level on 5 then the Level on 8. Although your help files say the file size will not be affected I noticed the file size was indeed different between the two types. Perhaps I do not understand the process? Which makes the "best file"?

Strangely to me anyway the The Level 8 file size was 34,520 KB while the Level 5 was larger at 34,740 KB.

I am ripping vinyl and would like the use the best settings I can.

Please advise,
R David Paine III / WeirDave

I found the following article which seemed to make sense:

http://superuser.com/questions/158402/h ... pped-music

WeirDave wrote: I ran a test on the same file where I saved the file using Export Multiple > FLAC 16bit Depth with the Level on 5 then the Level on 8. Although your help files say the file size will not be affected I noticed the file size was indeed different between the two types

Could you tell us where it says that so that we can correct it.

steve wrote:

WeirDave wrote: I ran a test on the same file where I saved the file using Export Multiple > FLAC 16bit Depth with the Level on 5 then the Level on 8. Although your help files say the file size will not be affected I noticed the file size was indeed different between the two types

Could you tell us where it says that so that we can correct it.

I want to say it was the wiki but if you say it wasn't then I may have misread the information. The manual that ships with the product is also vague:

"Level: The amount of compression used to create the FLAC file. The level settings range from 0 to 8, with 0 being fastest and 8 giving the most compression. The default level is 5. As all compression levels are lossless, the level chosen makes relatively little difference to the exported file size, but makes a considerable difference to the speed of encoding. Typically, encoding at compression level 8 is three to four times slower than level 0. "

Sorry for the trouble, just trying to help.

WeirDave

Thanks for the follow-up WeirDave.

My take on this:

WeirDave wrote:The Level 8 file size was 34,520 KB while the Level 5 was larger at 34,740 KB.

That works out as about 0.6% difference in size, which I would say is "relatively little difference". This is a big contrast to lossy formats such as Ogg or MP3 where high quality settings produce considerably bigger files than low quality settings.