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Author Topic: WAV vs APE  (Read 6492 times)

4BYE

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WAV vs APE
« on: January 31, 2006, 03:10:18 am »

Hello,

I want to know a few things regarding my working method. As far as today I always converted my CD's to .ape files to save space. With Media Jukebox 8 it's played OK. But with HD getting bigger and bigger the tought occured to have the normal .wav instead of .ape files.

However is it right that .wav files don't contain the track info. (artist/title/genre/composer etc.)
And if so where is it stored? (What file should I backup to avoid a lot of trouble) I now have everything saved on other discs because of all the work I've had. And the info is inside the .ape files.

Also Media Jukebox 8 doesn't play the .ape files made with the latest Monkey Audio codec that's why I think about plain .wav.

Third I read something about .ape is only lossless in the highest setting. I thought that it has only to do with the file size. I now use the High Compression setting.

Last (for now) what .wav quality should I pick. 44 or 48. I mean what is the original quality?


Can somebody help me out with this.

PS I use the ALBUM VIEW plugin to show all my artwork.
 
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GHammer

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Re: WAV vs APE
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2006, 05:53:25 am »

Actually, I take the opposite view.
With CPUs getting faster and cheaper, I see no need to use WAV format. It doesn't load my system to decode a lossless file.

With a lossless file, you get the benefits of tagging. Also some type of error detection if not correction.

With WAV, no, there are no tags written to the files. You can use naming to have basic info but that's it. In MC, the library would keep any tagging for WAV files.

With APE, there is no reason to use anything except Normal compression. All levels are lossless, the only difference is in the final file size. Theer is not enough difference to make it worthwhile to use any setting than Normal.

I have no idea why MJ8 will not play APE 3.99 files, but later versions of MC use the latest APE releases. You could ask here or at the Monkey's Audio site about MJ8 and APE.

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Alex B

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Re: WAV vs APE
« Reply #2 on: January 31, 2006, 07:02:43 am »

MJ8 has Monkey's Audio 3.97. It cannot play 3.99 files. MC can play all versions.
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4BYE

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Re: WAV vs APE
« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2006, 03:05:49 pm »

Hello,

Thanks for the input. I really apreciate this. I had some thoughts later on when posting this issue. And indeed the thing that made me decide is the tag question. In .wav there is none so that made it obvious to use .ape. (like I did with more then 2000 CD's') I'm glad to hear that a levels are lossless so no problem there and I will start using normal compression.

Thanks again,

Best regards,


Theo
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CadErik

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Re: WAV vs APE
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2006, 11:17:44 am »

Thanks for the input. I really apreciate this. I had some thoughts later on when posting this issue. And indeed the thing that made me decide is the tag question.

Sound Forge enables to put tags into WAV files... I don't know how that works but it is possible.

Erik.
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Myron

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Re: WAV vs APE
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2006, 01:03:05 pm »

Sound Forge enables to put tags into WAV files... I don't know how that works but it is possible.

Erik.

So does MusicMatch Jukebox.  MMJB appends the data at the end of the WAV file.  The WAV format does allow for this, but AFAIK there's no standard.

The problem I ran into with MMJB is that my Philips Streamium did not recognize the appended data as non-musical information and played it.  This caused a burst of noise at the end of each song.  Some players know how to handle the situation properly, others don't.  I dropped MMJB and moved over to MC.  Ended up being a good move for obvios reasons.
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