Trader's Little Helper

[roann]

Originally Posted by bbernardini

1. I'm using the latest version. However, I had the same problem with 2.2.1.
2. As far as I know, I didn't replace it (not intentionally, anyway). How can I check to make sure I've got the right one?
3. No errors.
4. The WAV files encode to FLAC with no problems. It has happened with several different WAV sources (some self-made audience recordings, some DVD rips, etc.). I can't find a common factor that could lead to this problem.

Thanks for your help!

... weird ...

It would really help if I could run some tests on my side. Can you send me one the wav files (zipped or rared) via email (see About dialog of TLH), or can you upload a file to one of the filesharers around (Rapidshare, for example)?

Robert

[roann]

Originally Posted by bbernardini

Anybody had trouble converting WAV to VBR mp3 with TLH? (I know, I know...NOT for here, or any other lossless torrent site...for my own personal use.) With a few different recordings, all I get is static on every mp3. Thoughts?

After a lot of tests it turned out to be lame.exe v3.97 and not TLH causing the mp3 encoding problems. If the header of a wav file is not canonical (afaik WaveLab and Audacity may generate such a header when saving a wav file, but there may be others) encoding to mp3 format may either cause Trader's Little Helper to hang or result in a mp3 file containing white noise.

So I heavily tested the new lame release (v3.98, July 2008). No problems at all :-). The new lame can be easily added to your TLH installation:

1) Download the lame release using the link http://tlh.easytree.org/files/lame.exe.
2) Save it to the subdirectory CmdlineApps of the TLH installation folder (usually C:\Program files\Trader's Little Helper) and confirm to overwrite the old lame.exe.

That's all. Note that TLH's About dialog will still say v3.97 for lame.exe.

Robert

[GRC]

TLH asks for a 'level' when encoding WAV to FLAC, from level 0 worst to level 8 best.

Does this mean levels 0 thru 7 are lossy, and only level 8 is lossless?

[ColinM]

Originally Posted by GRC

TLH asks for a 'level' when encoding WAV to FLAC, from level 0 worst to level 8 best.

Does this mean levels 0 thru 7 are lossy, and only level 8 is lossless?

.flac is always lossless, except when your source .wav files were sourced from lossy. This usually happens in bad trades, without lineage, although lineage is no guarantee of a lossy free history. Somebody may have traded a set of .flac files that had been ripped from a cd that had been burnt from a set of mp3 files.

Choosing a level in the range from 0 to 8 only implies less or more compression. A smaller file is the outcome. But still lossless.

.flac > cd audio > .wav > .flac

will look pretty close to the same as

.flac > cd audio > .mp3 > .wav > .flac

File size anyway. A spectral analysis will show loss of frequency response above 15khz.

My rules for bootz:

Don't alter the original files.
Archive and trade from those only.
Make a copy to fuck with how you please and label them as fucked with.
Turn up the volume.

[roann]

Originally Posted by GRC

TLH asks for a 'level' when encoding WAV to FLAC, from level 0 worst to level 8 best.

Does this mean levels 0 thru 7 are lossy, and only level 8 is lossless?

FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, meaning that when using FLAC the audio data will always be compressed without any loss in quality. So after a wav>flac>wav conversion the decoded audio is bit-for-bit identical to what went into the flac encoder.

The compression level merely specifies how much compression will be applied: level 0 means lowest compression (and as such lowest encoding time), level 8 means highest compression (and as such highest encoding time). In other words: The higher the level the smaller the encoded file. But as said above: the result is always a lossless compression.

The default level TLH uses is 6, because imo that's the best compromise between encoding time and compressed file size.

[jamroom]

I always use 8, as I'm not bothered about the few extra minutes / seconds it takes to compress further.

[mike1061]

Originally Posted by ColinM

.flac > cd audio > .wav > .flac

will look pretty close to the same as

.flac > cd audio > .mp3 > .wav > .flac

I don't think that's true. A true lossless flac file> CD audio> Wav> Flac, will produce flies that are exactly the same. If all encoding, ripping, and decoding are done with no errors.
Thanks Mike

[mooncusser]

not necessarily. variations could still occur in going to CD audio and back, and would result in differences between the old and new flac files.

TTD doesn't allow seed of a CDR burned from a silver CD for similar reasons.
see #5:
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/...item#faq_rules

[mike1061]

I do realize that it is more likely to produce errors, and I did mention that. If you create check sums, check and see if they match with the before and after. Then you know you are doing everything right.

I still don't see why the statement said the results would be similer to one with MP3 in the lineage.
Thanks Mike

[mooncusser]

that statement is equally spurious - even if both conversions were done on the exact same PC

[mike1061]

Originally Posted by mooncusser

spurious

What does that mean?
Thanks Mike

[mooncusser]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/spurious

[ColinM]

Originally Posted by mike1061

I don't think that's true. A true lossless flac file> CD audio> Wav> Flac, will produce flies that are exactly the same. If all encoding, ripping, and decoding are done with no errors.
Thanks Mike

You edited out the important words; "file size anyway".

The resulting files if ripped from a cd audio disc that was burnt from mp3 files, then compressed to flac will be about the same size in mb as the original flacs. That's why it is so easy to get bad files out in the wild. That and people insist on not making backups of the original files.

[mike1061]

I see, sorry about that. I think it was the double spacing thing that confused me.
Thanks Mike

Originally Posted by ColinM

You edited out the important words; "file size anyway".

The resulting files if ripped from a cd audio disc that was burnt from mp3 files, then compressed to flac will be about the same size in mb as the original flacs. That's why it is so easy to get bad files out in the wild. That and people insist on not making backups of the original files.

[Audioarchivist]

I had to update my TLH today. I guess I was using an old build (never had any problems before) and got my first error message on it today. I was trying to encode a wav file to level 8, and - aw shit I forget exactly what it said - but it stopped with an error message. I'm on an XP machine, btw.
Newer build is different layout, and a couple things have changed, I see. Hey at least it worked! I guess I would recommend that people check for any upgrades to TLH once in a while. I didn't think about it until it stopped dead.
I wonder why the problem today, and never before? Oh well...