need help with audacity/flac/dropbox

[dean_martin]

I have some music files recorded using audacity. I've had no problems saving them as wav files for listening and burning to cd, but the files do not play well in dropbox. (The wav files are huge.) I've exported them from audacity in flac too, then created a zip file for uploading to dropbox. Is there a better way for sharing using dropbox?

Also, what do you guys use to play or convert flac files?

[noddin0ff]

If your sticking to lossless, then flac seems to be the universal standard. Zipping a flac file doesn't really make much of a size difference so you could just skip it. However, I'll zip a folder of flacs together just so they can be grabbed as one file.

If you want to use dropbox to stream a file, then you'll want it in something like .mp3 -- If you web browse to a link to a .mp3 in a dropbox account it will show up as a little miniplayer in the browser. Does for me, anyway.

[dean_martin]

If your sticking to lossless, then flac seems to be the universal standard. Zipping a flac file doesn't really make much of a size difference so you could just skip it. However, I'll zip a folder of flacs together just so they can be grabbed as one file.

Do you zip flac files together and upload to dropbox? Can they be "grabbed" that way rather than streamed? I just downloaded audacity to convert analog recordings. I opened a dropbox account to share an EP that I recorded with audacity. I tried to play the files at the dropbox website and they kept breaking up. I guess they were streaming. I want to share a dropbox link so the files can be downloaded but I don't want to burden anybody with a huge file. Anyhow, I downloaded winamp for playing flac files. It was that or Foobar. Winamp plays'em so I'm happy.

I feel like a caveman. I have flac files from a few members here and have finally learned how to play them.

[noddin0ff]

Do you zip flac files together and upload to dropbox? Can they be "grabbed" that way rather than streamed? I just downloaded audacity to convert analog recordings. I opened a dropbox account to share an EP that I recorded with audacity. I tried to play the files at the dropbox website and they kept breaking up. I guess they were streaming. I want to share a dropbox link so the files can be downloaded but I don't want to burden anybody with a huge file. Anyhow, I downloaded winamp for playing flac files. It was that or Foobar. Winamp plays'em so I'm happy.

I feel like a caveman. I have flac files from a few members here and have finally learned how to play them.


Welcome out of the stone age. :-)

I don't know if flac will stream. Never tried it. If a downloader doesn't want to stream they can always right-click on the link (control-click on a Mac) and 'save link as'.

I zip them to make it easier to download as one file rather than having to go and download each song separately. It's only convenience though.

Streaming is a matter of internet speed (and buffering). To play in real time, an uncompressed 2- channel WAV or AIFF file needs to transfer at 1411 kbps (kilobits per second) (44.1kHz x 16bit x 2channels). Lossless compressed files (flac, Apple Lossless) generally need to transfer at around 850kbps. With mp3 you toss out information so you need to transfer less, the more you toss out the less fidelity in the file but the easier it is to transfer. mp3 encoded at common rates 128, 192, 256kbps need to transfer at those rates. So...wav files are more likely to stall or drop out in streaming than 192kbps mp3...

For reasons I don't understand, downloading a file would be faster than streaming a file. Presumably because downloading can happen in efficient, fast bursts of data, where as streaming is more picky about having a consistent rate of data.

[poppachubby]

Do you zip flac files together and upload to dropbox? Can they be "grabbed" that way rather than streamed? I just downloaded audacity to convert analog recordings. I opened a dropbox account to share an EP that I recorded with audacity. I tried to play the files at the dropbox website and they kept breaking up. I guess they were streaming. I want to share a dropbox link so the files can be downloaded but I don't want to burden anybody with a huge file. Anyhow, I downloaded winamp for playing flac files. It was that or Foobar. Winamp plays'em so I'm happy.

I feel like a caveman. I have flac files from a few members here and have finally learned how to play them.

No offense Dean, but yes you kind of are a caveman. But we can shave you down and cosmetically reduce that oversized brow of yours.

I am with noddin. I generally zip an album as an entire folder using WINRAR, and then upload to a server. I've never used Dropbox to listen to anything and frankly, wouldn't want to.

I would suggest you download a small program called Trader's Little Helper. It has a really great conversion tool, and a few other things which concern someone ripping LPs to digital. Trader's Little Helper (http://tlh.easytree.org/)

For example, are you aware of SBE's? Get TLH...

[dean_martin]

Thanks, poppa. I learned just enough to finish my little project. Ignorance is bliss, but I will take that shave. The brow serves as a sun visor and keeps rain out of my eyes. I think I'll keep it.