WavPack ~ Hybrid Lossless Audio Compression


WavPack is a completely open audio compression format providing lossless, high-quality lossy, and a unique hybrid compression mode. For version 5.0.0, several new file formats and lossless DSD audio compression were added, making WavPack a universal audio archiving solution.

In the default lossless mode WavPack acts just like a WinZip compressor for audio files. However, unlike MP3 or WMA encoding which can affect the sound quality, not a single bit of the original information is lost, so there’s no chance of degradation. This makes lossless mode ideal for archiving audio material or any other situation where quality is paramount. The compression ratio depends on the source material, but generally is between 30% and 70%.

The hybrid mode provides all the advantages of lossless compression with an additional bonus. Instead of creating a single file, this mode creates both a relatively small, high-quality lossy file that can be used all by itself, and a “correction” file that (when combined with the lossy file) provides full lossless restoration. For some users this means never having to choose between lossless and lossy compression!

WavPack employs only well known, public domain techniques (i.e., linear prediction with LMS adaptation, Elias and Golomb codes) in its implementation. Methods and algorithms that have ever been patented (e.g., arithmetic coding, LZW compression) are specifically avoided. This ensures that WavPack encoders and decoders will remain open and royalty-free.

www.wavpack.com
github.com/dbry/WavPack
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WavPack

ALAC ~ Apple Lossless Audio Codec


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 β€˜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


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


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


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