Recording live streams

[hackneyvi]

I would recommend saving to FLAC. It uses fewer data than WAV while not dumping any used to represent the audio.

I am considering buying the digital download of a jazz album. It is offered for $7.99 as MP3 and $8.99 as FLAC.

I am sorry to be so slow but is this no different to recording streaming and therefore the FLAC comes as less data but the same quality?

However, when I look at how I might play th FLAC, the FAQs advise me that Microsoft have "not made it easy" but I might try a "Direct filter".

I don't really want to get dragged through alot of technocrap and am inclined to simplyload the MP3. Is it worth persevering and loading up (purchasing?) yet more programmes to play the FLAC files?

[Don Petter]

The difference is that while both MP3 and FLAC are compressed formats, the latter can be converted back to the original WAV file without any data (or musical) loss.
The MP3 can be 'decompressed' to WAV, but it will have lost some of the information. So the quality is not the same.

The practical point is that the MP3 file will be directly playable, but you will probably have to decompress the FLAC to a WAV before you can play it. (Easy enough, by drag and drop using FLAC Front End, or similar.)

You need to weigh up whether for you it's worth the extra cost and small extra step to get a better quality end result.

[johnb]

I am considering buying the digital download of a jazz album. It is offered for $7.99 as MP3 and $8.99 as FLAC.

I am sorry to be so slow but is this no different to recording streaming and therefore the FLAC comes as less data but the same quality?

However, when I look at how I might play th FLAC, the FAQs advise me that Microsoft have "not made it easy" but I might try a "Direct filter".

I don't really want to get dragged through alot of technocrap and am inclined to simplyload the MP3. Is it worth persevering and loading up (purchasing?) yet more programmes to play the FLAC files?

hackneyvi,

With FLAC you are getting exactly the same audio quality as you would have with the original CD. Yes FLAC is compressed but in a way that all the information is retained - it's like a Winzip for music files.

There are quite a number programmes that play FLAC files (and most other formats as well). A very well regarded free music player is "Foobar" which can be downloaded from: http://www.foobar2000.org/download.

You can also very easily decode the FLAC files and burn them to a CD-R to play on your CD player. "FLAC Frontend" is a very easy way of encoding or decoding FLAC file and is part of the standard FLAC package: select 'FLAC for Windows with installer' here - http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html

However, whether you decide to download mp3 or FLAC very much depends on how you are going to listen to the music. If you are intending to use a portable music player then mp3 is the logical choice. If you are going to play the music by linking your PC to your audio system or burn it to a CD-R then you might choose FLAC, though even then some people are very content with the quality of mp3 files especially when the bitrate is, say, 256 or more.

If you felt so inclined you could always do a little test of your own by ripping a CD to your computer hard drive as uncompressed wave files, then encoding them as mp3 at various bitrates and then compare the mp3 files to the ripped CD.

As for me - I would go for the FLAC, but then I store all my music on my computer and play it through my audio system via Squeezebox.

(Apologies for the 'technocrap'.)

[hackneyvi]

Dear John, that's really clear and helpful. Thank you.

I'll go for the FLAC because I don't listen to music on the hoof; disc or PC only for now. Again thanks.

[johnb]

I'm glad it helped!

By the way, if you do ever use "FLAC Frontend" make sure that the "Replaygain" box is unticked. (I have the feeling that it is initially ticked by default.)

[Don Petter]

I'm glad it helped!

By the way, if you do ever use "FLAC Frontend" make sure that the "Replaygain" box is unticked. (I have the feeling that it is initially ticked by default.)

john,

The default is indeed 'ticked'. I've always left everything like that with no apparent ill effect - Can you explain what it does and why it is better to switch it off?

Thanks.

[johnb]

Don,

Apologies - as far as I know 'replaygain' only has any effect when encoding a wave file to FLAC. Even then it doesn't affect the actual levels in the FLAC file but writes a tag to the file that music players can then use to, say, normalise the levels. (Something that might be useful in pop music but which is definitely a very BAD thing with classical music.)

I tend to switch off anything additional to what I actually want to do but you're right, it shouldn't have any effect on decoding FLAC files.

(

[Don Petter]

john,

Thanks for that. Always happy to receive advice from more experienced users - especially when, as in this case, it is 'do nothing'!

Cheers!

[Flosshilde]

If anyone is looking for a free option, Freecorder has always worked well for me

Be warned - I downloaded it & it replaced my default homepage (Google) with its own

[ostuni]

Well, I downloaded it a few days ago, and I thought I remembered the installation asking me if it wanted to do this (homepage replacement, that is). Needless to say, the default setting was yes - and, equally needless, I declined its kind offer... But it did a good job of sticking the Paris Rheingold and Walküre (Acts 1&3 only ) onto my hard disc, and I had an enjoyable afternoon listening to the former, so I'm prepared to forgive its presumption.

[Flosshilde]

Just tried recording Act 2 of Die Walkure using Freecorder - twice - & both times the recording split into two parts, at about the same point. Has anybody else tried recording it, or anything else, & had the same problem? The total size of both files is about 140,000KB - perhaps it was larger than Freecorder can handle in one go? I've looked at the settings, & you can increase temporary storage capacity for video, but not for audio.

[Bryn]

The following, from the Freecorder help pages, may possibly have some relevance:

"Temporary Storage Size: This allows you to set a limit on how much disk space you want for saving streaming video or audio files. In many cases, a separate (temporary) copy of the streaming media file needs to be saved to your PC. If this size limit is exceeded, older files are automatically deleted."

[hackneyvi]

Can anyone tell me how to edit using Total Recorder? It would be good to switch it on to record and then leave it to record; then simply edit out the piece of the recording that I want. Better still maybe would be to set a time limit for the recorder to switch off. Any suggestions?

It looks like recordings can be edited but I can't figure out how.

Thanks

[Dave2002]

Depends how you record them. You can do a bit of trimming with TR I think, but tools like audacity are better. I used to record to MP3 and I found a really neat tool which will edit MP3s directly, without needing to convert to and from other formats. I'll have to check my computer for details if you're interested. You can of course record using TR then edit with tools like audacity, but it'll be a lot slower and require loads more disc space. For recording from most compressed audio streams, saving in MP3 format usually works OK, but it you want the ultimate in quality you won't do that.

[Bryn]

"It looks like recordings can be edited but I can't figure out how."

Nor me. If it's WAV files you want to edit, Audacity is free and will do the job. If it's mp3s, try mp3DirectCut (also free, and very useful).