Tag Archives: decoder

ALAC ~ Apple Lossless Audio Codec

Posted by tom2tec on

The Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) is an audio codec developed by Apple and supported on iPhone, iPad, most iPods, Mac and iTunes. ALAC is a data compression method which reduces the size of audio files with no loss of information. A decoded ALAC stream is bit-for-bit identical to the original uncompressed audio file.

The Apple Lossless Audio Codec project contains the sources for the ALAC encoder and decoder. Also included is an example command line utility, called alacconvert, to read and write audio data to/from Core Audio Format (CAF) and WAVE files. A description of a ‘magic cookie’ for use with files based on the ISO base media file format (e.g. MP4 and M4A) is included as well.

macosforge.github.io/alac
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lossless

This package contains ALAC code used in foobar2000 / foobar2000 Mobile; derived from Apple’s public ALAC code release.

perkele.cc/software/ALAC

FLAC ~ Free Lossless Audio CODEC

Posted by tom2tec on

FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, an audio format similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC without any loss in quality. This is similar to how Zip works, except with FLAC you will get much better compression because it is designed specifically for audio, and you can play back compressed FLAC files in your favorite player (or your car or home stereo) just like you would a MP3 file.

FLAC stands out as the fastest and most widely supported lossless audio codec, and the only one that at once is non-proprietary, is unencumbered by patents, has an open-source reference implementation, has a well documented format and API and has several other independent implementations.

xiph.org/flac
xiph.org/flac/comparison
xiph.org/flac/documentation
xiph.org/flac/download
xiph.org/flac/faq
sourceforge.net/projects/flac
github.com/xiph/flac
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLAC

Additional resources:

sourceforge.net/projects/flacfrontend
FLAC Development Forum @ Hydrogen Audio

FLAC Test Bench:

wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=FLAC_decoder_testbench

Encoders:

FLACCL ~ cue.tools/wiki/FLACCL

XLD ~ Mac CD Player / Ripper

Posted by tom2tec on

X Lossless Decoder (XLD) is a tool for Mac OS X that is able to decode / convert / play various ‘lossless’ audio files. The supported audio files can be split into some tracks with cue sheet when decoding. It works on Mac OS X 10.4 and later. XLD is Universal Binary, so it runs natively on both Intel Macs and PPC Macs.

tmkk.undo.jp/xld
sourceforge.net/projects/xld
wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=XLD

WMP Tag Plus ~ Extends WMP File Formats

Posted by tom2tec on

WMP Tag Plus is a plug-in that integrates seamlessly into Windows Media Player to provide library and tagging support for additional music formats. These formats include FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, WavPack, Monkey’s Audio (.ape), Musepack and MPEG-4. Windows Media Player 11 or higher.

bmproductions.fixnum.org
hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=80263.0