Can you take the .flac: An introduction to Frakture’s trial run in using downloading technologies and the .flac format for transferring audio files.
The Aim :
To enable individuals/musicians who have an interest in Frakture recordings to obtain them via the web. Thus avoiding the need for Frakture to produce of CDr versions of the recordings, the work involved in snail mail distribution. Plus this system maximises the number of people who can access the material: e.g. the Frakture Big band with fifteen members! as volunteers it is un-realistic to expect Frakture to distribute the material to 15 people: Individuals who are techno-challenged: get in touch. All session files are distributed to participants only: the public do not have direct access.
When appropriate we may use the mp3 file format instead of .flac
There is a small test clip below: read the instructions first.
many thanks to Harry Gallimore of the Warrington Improvisers Collective who educated Frakture on this format and process!
The Reasons
Given the limited time & resources available to Frakture.org and its voluntary staff this trial is being run as the most cost effective procedure for distributing audio material to the relevant musicians.
The Process
Frakture.org recordings are transferred from a digital recorder to a PC producing a .wav file. The .wav file format currently produces a file size too large to be transferred via the web: if we are being realistic. For this trial Frakture.org uses the .flac file format which you download and then convert back to .wav using free software. The .flac audio format similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that the audio is compressed in the FLAC format without any loss in quality.
The Steps
- You will be given a web location from which to download a .flac file
- Download the file to your PC
- Decode or convert the .flac file back to a .wav file. Using FLAC. Front end. and follow the instructions. [flac front end details are below]
- Note: when using the decoder the converted files are saved at the same location as the source file.
- Listen to the .wav file or transfer to a CDr or medium of your choice.
What do you need
- Access to a PC with broadband connection
- Basic knowledge of how to use the above.
- Software to decode the .flac file
- FLAC Front end from source forge net (free)
- Or audio software with a plug-in that does the same job.
- Web location for FLAC frontend software is
http://flac.sourceforge.net/
Support:
Terms and references
WAV (or WAVE), short for Waveform audio format, is a Microsoft and IBMaudio file format standard for storing audio on PCs.It is the main format used on Windows systems for raw audio. Wikipedia-link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV
FLAC: http://flac.sourceforge.net/
- 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, see supported devices) just like you would an MP3 file.
This file is a test clip,
- a smaller file of 1 minute of audio: this is a quick download to see if the theory works, or whether it works for you on your machine: if it does, let me know (LMK) . Best of Luck , phil morton
- http://www.frakture.org/audio/pal_clip01_test.flac : use right mouse: save target as
Remember this file is in the.flac format you have to convert it / decode the .flac file with Flac frontend program. This process converts it back to the standard PC .wav format which all computer audio programs play: