Alligning Sector boundries

[Von]

I have a show that I have transferred to WAV from analog cassette using the original machine the show was recorded with and the recorder in EAC. Following the criteria of the torrent regs I chose the option to allign sector boundries when converting to FLAC. When I did this Flac frontend noted that pieces of the preceding file was carried over to the next track and when completed had several spare samples that were then put in another track (at least that's what the program said) when I played back the FLAC files, the only noticeable difference between the flac and the original wav file is that the flac doesn't play back as hot as the source wav. To clarify my two questions:

1) when alligning sector boundries is it normal for bits to be carried over to the next track?

2) Should the flac file sound identical to the wav file or is the loss of power normal?

[AAR.oner]

i'm no expert re: sector boundary issues, but i don't think there shoulda been a change in volume...hopefully someone else can be of more help...

i prefer Trader's Little Helper for sector boundary fixes http://thor.prohosting.com/roh0205/

[Five]

FLAC frontend is fine for fixing SBEs. It always moves cues backward, which means that yes, it is normal for samples to be carried over to the following track. Most likely there are also a few samples added to the last track.

get TLH (linked above) and run a len check (under audio file details tab) to make sure that your set has no SBEs and is the correct bitdepth and sample rate.

the wav file should sound identical to the flac file. I'm not sure what you mean by "loss of power"... if your cpu is very weak perhaps you may need to decompress to wav before playing, this most certainly should be identical. I've never heard of anybody having trouble playing back with foobar2000/winamp.

[Von]

Thanx for the advice Five. What I meant by "loss of power" is with the recording itself. When I play the flac file next to the original wav it doesn't sound as "hot" (as in seems to have a lower recording level) compared to the wav. I will get TLH and run a check that way also. As a note, I'm running the flac codec through windows media player.

[Ted]

Are you using an EQ or any other plugin for WMP that might otherwise affect the sound?

[Five]

The volume should be equal

try foobar2000. get the special installer and choose full installation (link i my signature)

1. Did you apply replaygain to the FLAC files when you made them?

2. Are you listening to the wav files on the same software as the FLACs, i.e. are you sure the volume settings are the same?

[Von]

Five,
I just dl'd Foobar 2000 and checked both flac and wav back to back.
Same thing happened in Foobar2000. Wav plays slightly hotter than Flac. (the wav seems to have more punch with identical stettings, I can turn up the volume for the flac and they sound identical then.)

1. Is it possible to record directly to flac or does it have to start as a wav and then be compressed?

2. Is it possible that the slight volume drop is noticeable to me because I have worked with this recording since it was made Saturday and I'm actually making a big deal out of nothing?

Uhclem,

1 yes to replaygain

2 yes to same volume settings (hence original question)

I'm going to try to reconvert one track back to wav ane see if record level diminishes further or returns to the level of original wav.

Thanx for all the help so far folks It is greatly appreciated.

[Von]

I just reconverted one flac back to wav and the two wav files sound identical. i'm guessing it's just an effect of the compression and I'm really just making a big deal out of nothing. Any thoughts?

If you have applied replaygain to your FLAC files then the volume gets automatically normalized by foobar, i.e. it goes up or down as required. That's why you are hearing a difference. It has absolutely nothing to do with compression. It's nothing to worry about. Replaygain just consists of tags added to the FLAC metadata that tells foobar how much to adjust the volume. If you don't want replaygain, go into foobar and turn it off.

Here's some info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replaygain

[Five]

you could also reencode with replaygain disabled then the flac/wav will play at the same volume at all times regardless of whether replaygain is enabled.

You don't need to reencode just for that. You can easily delete the replaygain tags with foobar. Load the files into foobar, bold them, right click, select "Replaygain > Delete tags" and they will be gone. Personally, I like replaygain and I use it all the time.

[Von]

Okay.

Thanx uhclem and five for the advice I'm relieved to know that what I'm hearing isn't in my head so for me that means that short of adding a few pics from the show, I'm about ready to upload this. Thanx again.