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FLAC Bitrate, Resolution - Quick way to check?

Wes

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I'm looking for a quick way to check out some FLAC files to see if they are high res, Redbook level, or lower.

Is there any free software that can quickly check this on MacOS?

Thx.
 
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Wes

Wes

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Thx!
 

mononoaware

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If you are interested in going one further.

I use SPEK - Spectrum Analyzer to check all files as they are archived.
(If you need to bulk check, 1 song per album will do)

Found a link to it awhile ago on a German website.
It is a free software and is very simple you just drag your file onto the program window that opens, and you can just keep dragging more files onto it one by one and quickly inspect files, you can change the scale/size of the graph by adjusting the size of the window (you will eventually learn what to look for and keep it small).
Works with any file I have thrown at it (FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, WAV, MP3, MP4 etc)

- one thing to note: Redbook FLAC files load almost instantly - but it seems the speed at which it processes is fixed so for bigger files (Hi-Res etc) it takes slightly longer to load.

You will find that some High-Res/DSD files are simply Redbook resampled.
And you can occasionally come across CD's which are sub-par copies (awhile ago Amazon had an issue with "fake" horribly compressed quality physical CD's at good prices which seems to have been resolved).
So far I have 1 genuine CD purchased direct from the artist which was compressed in mastering.
You can also double check the quality of your digital downloads.
(Most of this I assume “Mediainfo” will not reveal)

You can also double check and compare file conversions went as you expected which is also what I use it for (e.g. converting FLAC to ALAC or resampling files etc).
Occasionally you will come across a file with a constant visible line around 16khz-18khz which might worry you but in my experience it is inaudible noise.
Also I have experienced recordings with noise/artefacts which I could not spot in the spectrogram, so its not really a "pristine" recording quality checker.

Just search "spek" in google it should be the top result.
I am not a Mac user but it says: available for Unix, Windows and Mac OS X. (does the X matter?)
As always please use your Security software to scan the download before installing.

Edit: Also particularly “simple” classical music such as solo guitar/solo piano etc will show up as missing a lot of high frequency information.
This is normal frequency range of those instruments.
 
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oozlum

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In a nutshell ‘Mediainfo’ can be used to look into quality characteristics for not only audio and Spek is great for further visual (spectrum) analysis with basic quality characteristics. Using both and ‘saved’ a lot already!
 

Katji

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If you are interested in going one further.

I use SPEK - Spectrum Analyzer to check all files as they are archived.
But all that, from Spek?
+1 though, I use it several times a week. Mostly MP3 though. ...Mostly to check whether 320 Kbps mp3 is really 320, not transcoded. /"converted."

And mostly mixes, almost all, 1 hour and more, so I know about the window size. ...I have to increase the height, though, at least,so it shows the 16 kHz point.
I don't know about understanding the low bass frequencies. ...MP3 always has some line at 16 kHz. When it is a distinct "shelf", and what is above it is mostly inaudible stuff, it's a "fake 320". Some are weird, though, I can't figure out whether transcoded like that or it's just the music. (99% electronic music.)

If you want to go further, get Similarity. To check for clipping, mainly. [I'll post a pic, I have some in the Music folder, and I attached one here recently.]

[edit:] https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/clipping.23147/post-771952
 
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Ramon Cota

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Is there a way to recognize if a redbook flac was upsampled from 320 kbps mp3 other than look if there is a hard limit at 20 khz instead of 22 khz ? Sometimes it's really hard to spot a difference this way.
 

Ramon Cota

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cool program , but if i apply a low pass filter 48db / 12 khz to an actual wav music file it says its mp3 with 92 % confidency :) other than that it seems to work fine.
 
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Wes

Wes

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install what?

he said

Command line:

file <file name>
 

JustAnandaDourEyedDude

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-bash: cddownloadsfile: command not found
that is a little odd. i have been a novice unix/linux user for a long time, and i cannot recall a time when the "file" command was not installed in any unix/Linux type OS as a basic shell command, as a part of bash or any other modern shell. i would guess it should already be installed in your Linux OS, though perhaps i am mistaken on this. i use the command from time to time to double-check that i am not about to attempt to edit a binary file by mistake.

for example, on a current linux system, i can type:
which file
and the answer comes back as /usr/bin/file, meaning that the "file" command executable file is installed in /usr/bin, and of course /usr/bin is in my path environment variable. i can check the latter by typing:
echo $PATH
which shows me all the directories listed in my bash environment variable PATH, including /usr/bin. Perhaps your PATH variable does not include the relevant absolute path to the folder in which the file "file" exists?

i can type:
file /usr/bin/file
and the file command returns a description saying that the file "/usr/bin/file" is an ELF 64-bit executable file etc.

i can type:
file someprog.f
and the answer from the file command says that someprog.f is a fortran ASCII text file.

which variant of Linux are you using, and does your $PATH variable include all of the usual /bin, /usr/bin etc.? if $PATH does not, then you would have to find where the "file" command executable is installed on your Linux variant, and either add that location to your $PATH by modifying your .bashrc file in your home directory, or else type /usr/bin/file somemusic.flac or /usr/bin/file someothermusic.mp3 each time you wanted to use it (assuming "file" is located in /usr/bin in this example).

If for example, the "file" command file is located in /usr/bin, and /usr/bin is not yet in your PATH variable, then use a text editor like vi to add the following line (without extra blank spaces) to your ".bashrc" file in your home directory:
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin
 
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mononoaware

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...MP3 always has some line at 16 kHz.

In my experience (with MP3) I had plenty which have no "line".
I find this "line" to be in a few lossless though, it is below audible threshold but shows up in quite a number of famous recordings.
(I think "noise" from equipment/power used during recording etc which mixing/mastering could not completely eliminate)

(99% electronic music.)

Sorry I listen zero electronic music. . .
Probably the closest I have (and is unusual in archive) is Walton - Black Lotus.

If you want to go further, get Similarity. To check for clipping, mainly.

Thanks for sharing.
I can tell this with the waveform while playing in foobar, it shows brick-walling and clipping quite reliably.
 

mononoaware

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16kHz (actually 15.625kHz or 15.734kHz) line is from CRT monitors and it's present in many many recordings of the past.

Solved.

Those darn CRT monitors. Always in battle with audio (unshielded speaker's affected the CRT image as well).
 

voodooless

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Then install it (though it should be installed by default almost everywhere). Personally, I use ffprobe for that purpose.

File indeed works just fine:

file 440.flac 440.flac: FLAC audio bitstream data, 24 bit, mono, 44.1 kHz, 1323000 samples

I don't think I ever installed this separately. It also resides in /usr/bin/, which is a good indication that it's standard, but no guarantee. Another indication is the fact that it's a universal binary (even with arm64 support). It would not be if it would be installed via something like brew:

file /usr/bin/file /usr/bin/file: Mach-O universal binary with 3 architectures: [x86_64:Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64] [arm64:Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64] [arm64e:Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64e] /usr/bin/file (for architecture x86_64): Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64 /usr/bin/file (for architecture arm64): Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64 /usr/bin/file (for architecture arm64e): Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64e
 
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