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Apple Lossless Audio Codec is now open source (Apache license)

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Re: Apple Lossless Audio Codec is now open source (Apache license)

#41

Post by AndyKelley »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #33
splicer wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only buy lossless music. I usually end up buying WAV/AIFF/FLAC direct from the artist, from their record label, or from Beatport. Once in a while, if I can't find something, I'll buy it on CD. Earlier today, I actually bought vinyl because I couldn't find a lossless digital version of this track anywhere: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwsUfEvmKwI Lossy formats are useless to me since I can't remix them without it…

Do you really think you could hear the difference between 256kbps AAC and Lossless? Even if your hearing is way above average, most audio players and earphones aren't that good. (Also, given the less-than-subtle music you linked to, I doubt that it really matters.)

I can... easily. And it matters to me. My hearing is average, and I have HD280Pro Seinheisers which are pretty standard headphones. Maybe it has something to do with the music genre that I like - techno, trance, dubstep, elecronic, etc. This stuff is delicately mastered in the studio and I can tell when the sound isn't reconstructed well upon playback.

I'd love to do a blind hearing test if you can set one up - but you have to do it with a song that I enjoy. I suppose I could even set one up myself as a study. It would be pretty interesting.

Re: Apple Lossless Audio Codec is now open source (Apache license)

#43

Post by Samuel_Michon »

lclarkmichalek wrote: post #30
splicer wrote: post #26

FINALLY!!! But what does this mean for the future of FLAC?

Nothing much? People with lossless collections in FLAC are likely to continue building them in FLAC. And if they switch over to AAC, then there is no loss. With free lossless audio codecs, everyone wins.

ALAC ≠ AAC

ALAC : AAC : : FLAC : MP3

Re: Apple Lossless Audio Codec is now open source (Apache license)

#44

Post by metajack »

psychotik wrote: post #21

I hope Google adds (hardware) support for this to Android - it would add another option for patent un-encumbered audio formats, outside of Vorbis.

FLAC has been around longer and is also part of the Xiph.org project along with Vorbis. If Google wanted to add a lossless codec, they certainly could have before now.

(Disclaimer: I am associated with Xiph.org.)

Re: Apple Lossless Audio Codec is now open source (Apache license)

#45

Post by metajack »

splicer wrote: post #26

FINALLY!!! But what does this mean for the future of FLAC?

The Xiph.org project has always maintained that if there are royalty free audio codecs available for everyone, then we've won. We never cared that they were ours, but no one else seemed to be building them.

It's a little silly that Apple rolled their own when a perfectly good option was available, but the world still wins.

I hope they try and get it standardized. That would make it even better.

Re: Apple Lossless Audio Codec is now open source (Apache license)

#47

Post by bonch »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #33
splicer wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only buy lossless music. I usually end up buying WAV/AIFF/FLAC direct from the artist, from their record label, or from Beatport. Once in a while, if I can't find something, I'll buy it on CD. Earlier today, I actually bought vinyl because I couldn't find a lossless digital version of this track anywhere: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwsUfEvmKwI Lossy formats are useless to me since I can't remix them without it…

Do you really think you could hear the difference between 256kbps AAC and Lossless? Even if your hearing is way above average, most audio players and earphones aren't that good. (Also, given the less-than-subtle music you linked to, I doubt that it really matters.)

I can hear the difference in most electronic music and some orchestral music, but no difference in rock.

Re: Apple Lossless Audio Codec is now open source (Apache license)

#48

Post by colanderman »

ethank wrote: post #9

This is fantastic. Apple uses AAC partly because of the patent royalty ( http://mp3licensing.com/ ) which they have to pay on every iPad/pod/etc sold, as well as because it is just a better format. MP3 is a total racket held by Thompson Technicolor, on top of being a pretty crap format. Hopefully this is a portends Apple offering lossless through ITMS on top of the 1080p rights they are hunting down right now.

This article is about ALAC (a lossless codec developed by Apple), not AAC (a lossy codec developed by the ISO and used by Apple).

Re: Apple Lossless Audio Codec is now open source (Apache license)

#49

Post by b3b0p »

What I don't get is why don't places like iTunes and Amazon offer Lossless options for downloading? I mean, here they are bragging about 720p, 1080p, high definition video which is gigantic in size, approaching or exceeding gigabytes for a typical 2 hour movie. Yet, we can't spare the extra space or bandwidth for a higher quality audio file which is still a fraction of the size? I don't get it.
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