A Modest Construct

Posts tagged `FLAC`

¶ FLAC compile benchmarks

FLAC is a cross-platform codec, but when it comes to Windows, one has a pretty wide range of compiles. Some are more optimized than others.

I first got the idea for this benchmark when I stumbled upon a native 64-bit FLAC executable for Windows. Curious, I did a quick and dirty test against the canonical build for Windows and found that while encoding times were similar, decoding times were considerably faster.

To figure out why this is so (the 64-bitness or something else), I quickly pulled some some additional compiles and benchmarked them against a few different samples.

¶ GNOME Audio Player Shootout Revisited

GNOME logo

It’s been close to two years since I wrote GNOME Audio Player Shootout, a visual and textual comparison of some the best available audio players for the GNOME desktop.

As is usually the case in the world of free software, a lot has happened since then (and yet, in a strange way, things have stayed exactly the same). I decided to revisit some of those players and see how they’ve progressed. Some of them listed last time haven’t seen any appreciable development, and have been left off.

I realize that I am totally ignoring the daemon-based players (read: Music Player Daemon, XMMS2); this is by design, since those players open up a whole new can of worms. Suffice it to say that if you’ve decided on and XMMS2 or MPD-based player and successfully configured it, you probably don’t need any advice on choosing software.

The following programs will be covered in this review (development versions):

BMPx (0.40.14)
Rhythmbox (0.11.6)
Exaile (2.99.1-svn)
Banshee (1.4.1)
Quod Libet (2.0)
Decibel (1.00)
Songbird (1.0)
Listen (0.6~svn1044)

All of the testing was done on a fresh install (and update) of Ubuntu 8.10 in VirtualBox, using a small representative sample of my music collection (some modern, some classical, in Vorbis, MP3, and FLAC).

§2709 · December 19, 2008 · 4 comments · Tags: audio, codecs, Firefox, FLAC, GNOME, Linux, open source, software

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¶ cdrtfe: a powerful cdrtools frontend

Previously, I reviewed InfraRecorder, a relatively young project that seeks to add a bit of spit and polish to the venerable cdrtools command line programs. At the time, noted that while the interface was lovely, there were a few flaws, notably the hassle of add-on mp3 support, the lack of FLAC support, and limited flexibility.

Another frontend, cdrtfe (cdrtools frontend), was a freeware project that fairly recently opened its source, and I’ve been using it ever since. It hasn’t got the best interface in the world, but it’s one of the most powerful little programs I’ve seen in a long time.

Please note that the version of cdrtfe that I use is 1.3pre1 which is not the stable 1.2x series. Any bugs which I describe should not be ascribed to the stable series, but considered bugs in development until proved otherwise.

¶ Infra Recorder: the best Windows cdrtools frontend

Infra Recorder

The state of Win32 burning programs

The proprietary choices for optical disc burning on Windows are pretty obvious: at the fore, there’s Roxio’s offering, EZ Media Creator, and Nero’s offering, Nero Burning Rom. Having used Roxio’s v5 program long, long ago with my Hewlett-Packard 4x external CDRW drive, and having used Nero’s Burning Rom during the entirety of its v6 lifecycle (when it was one of the best offerings on the market), I’ve been disappointed to see most of these offerings turn into bloated creatures, invasive and slow.

Perhaps you want built-in picture managers, movie players, reencoders, editors, and every bang and whistle you can think of. If that’s your bag, baby, you’re more than welcome to shell out $80+ for a copy

My time on Linux, however, has engendered me to the rock-solid (if historically murky in license) cdrtools, especially since the wonderful k3b is essentially a cdrtools frontend.

Historically, frontends for Windows have been touch & go. Burnatonce, a freeware closed-source frontend, which two years ago was a great little minimalist project, has stagnated, as the developer has no clear roadmap for development or time to create one.

The functional but less-glamorous cdrtfe is another good solution, although my experiences with it have been limited.

¶ Friday Random Ten CIV

The “Upgraded to FLAC 1.1.4″ edition

Friday Random Ten

Sondre Lerche • Things You Call Fate
Six Organs of Admittance • This Hand
Tristania • Lethean River
Sparta • Without a Word
Do Make Say Think • Le’espalace
Stars of the Lid • Dopamine Clouds Over Craven Cottage
Änglagård • Ifran Klarhet Till Klarhet
Leaves • Should Have Seen it All
Don Caballero • Palm Trees in the Fecking Bahamas
Katatonia • Journey Through Pressure

Funny semi-related story: My junior year of high school, I played “Lethean River” for my cringing English class (which was nothing compared to playing Opeth’s “April Ethereal” for my sophomore English class). Mark, if you happen to be reading this: I believe you tried at the time to convince me that Eddie Vedder also growled, and I am still miffed that we never continued that debate the following Monday.

Streams of argentine across eyelids are drawn:

The Smedley Log (“Back 2 Good” is a really great song, perhaps my favorite from the album, but it always makes me kind of sad for some reason)
Winter Spring Summer (Equally baffled by some of the entries on this list)
Freakapotimus (Remember with a mix of fondness and horror the days when I listened to Korn)
Faux Real, Tho (Seeing “Did I Step On Your Trumpet” performed live was interesting, to say the least)
The Sam and Beckyboo Show (Reminds me of Bleu’s “Searching for the Satellites”)

§1735 · February 16, 2007 · 4 comments · Tags: FLAC, Friday Random Ten, memes, music