Skip to main content

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: flac files sound distorted when burned (Read 10756 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

flac files sound distorted when burned

Hi,

I'm new here.
I have sought for some time now and I can't seem to find an answer to my question. I'm sorry if I have overlooked something.

I have traded some flac files with a friend of mine. I've burned different files (using nero with the flac plugin) but I keep getting the same problem: in some parts there is quite some distortion sounding like static. I haven't altered any gain or volume settings and I can't figure out what is causing this. 

Does anybody know what could be the problem?

Thank you in advance!

Andries van der Leij

flac files sound distorted when burned

Reply #1
Quote
Hi,

I'm new here.
I have sought for some time now and I can't seem to find an answer to my question. I'm sorry if I have overlooked something.

I have traded some flac files with a friend of mine. I've burned different files (using nero with the flac plugin) but I keep getting the same problem: in some parts there is quite some distortion sounding like static. I haven't altered any gain or volume settings and I can't figure out what is causing this.  

Does anybody know what could be the problem?

Thank you in advance!

Andries van der Leij
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=373070"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


They sound good to you when you play them on your PC with a good set of cans? I think it's most likely that the source was bad, or that the encode was bad.

flac files sound distorted when burned

Reply #2
Quote
They sound good to you when you play them on your PC with a good set of cans? I think it's most likely that the source was bad, or that the encode was bad.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=373072"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Yeah exactly. Before burning they sound great, but when i burn them and play them on my (overall very good) stereo, it's crap. I described it as static but it's more like distortion (like a tape recorded too loud).

You think it's the encoding? I must say that I experience the problem with a lot of files. Moreover, they are not all encoded by my friend but by friends of his also. So, is this definately no decoding/burning-related problem?

Thanks,

Andries

flac files sound distorted when burned

Reply #3
Quote
Quote
They sound good to you when you play them on your PC with a good set of cans? I think it's most likely that the source was bad, or that the encode was bad.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=373072"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Yeah exactly. Before burning they sound great, but when i burn them and play them on my (overall very good) stereo, it's crap. I described it as static but it's more like distortion (like a tape recorded too loud).

You think it's the encoding? I must say that I experience the problem with a lot of files. Moreover, they are not all encoded by my friend but by friends of his also. So, is this definately no decoding/burning-related problem?

Thanks,

Andries
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=373101"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Try to copy them back from the CDs you burned and compare them to the flacs. This would be a good starting point. Maybe your CD Player doesn´t like your burned CDs. I had this with a cheap compact system.
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

flac files sound distorted when burned

Reply #4
It could be a problem with your burn, try lowering the burn speed.  I have friends who get the same problem when they burn at the max speed.  But, it probabl won't be neccessary to go down to 1x, a midrange speed would be good.
Is over the of = % over 100

flac files sound distorted when burned

Reply #5
Are you playing back the flacs using replaygain?  If so, the burned files could be clipping
"You can fight without ever winning, but never win without a fight."  Neil Peart  'Resist'

flac files sound distorted when burned

Reply #6
Thank you all for your responses!

Quote
Try to copy them back from the CDs you burned and compare them to the flacs. This would be a good starting point. Maybe your CD Player doesn´t like your burned CDs. I had this with a cheap compact system.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=373130"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Well, I don't have a true high end player, but a Marantz CD4000 player, which is not a bad player at all. But perhaps he doesn't swallow these particular CD's. This 'reverse engineering' would indeed be a good idea.


Quote
It could be a problem with your burn, try lowering the burn speed.  I have friends who get the same problem when they burn at the max speed.  But, it probabl won't be neccessary to go down to 1x, a midrange speed would be good.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=373136"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


I thought of this. I burned at 20 and 16 speed instead of 52, without a difference. But maybe it's a general problem of my burner (a cheap Samsung model). However, direct-copied CD's are perfect, so this could only indicate some specific FLAC-Samsung problem. Hmm unlikely I think, but I can check this by burning with my DVD burner instead.


Quote
Are you playing back the flacs using replaygain?  If so, the burned files could be clipping
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=373141"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


No I don't use a gain correction on my PC. They just sound OK.

I think I have too many degrees of freedom here. I think I'll start off with a the  reverse thingie. I will also encode some things myself to FLAC and burn them the same way. Maybe I can figure out whether I'm doing something wrong or if indeed a lot of FLACS are corrupt due to bad source quality. Now that I think of it, I also have the EAC logs which do not mention any errors. Since FLAC is lossless, this would mean that the original CD's would have to have the same problem, right?


Thank you very much and I'll keep you posted

flac files sound distorted when burned

Reply #7
Quote
Thank you all for your responses!

Quote
Try to copy them back from the CDs you burned and compare them to the flacs. This would be a good starting point. Maybe your CD Player doesn´t like your burned CDs. I had this with a cheap compact system.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=373130"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Well, I don't have a true high end player, but a Marantz CD4000 player, which is not a bad player at all. But perhaps he doesn't swallow these particular CD's. This 'reverse engineering' would indeed be a good idea.


Marantz? Well my CD6000OSE didn´t play CDRs at all before the tech support changed the circuit board of the transport.
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

flac files sound distorted when burned

Reply #8
Quote
Marantz? Well my CD6000OSE didn´t play CDRs at all before the tech support changed the circuit board of the transport.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Yeah, I heard some stories like this before. [a href="http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=5358]http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=5358[/url]


It appears that there were some problems with the 4000 to 6000 line. I don't have any problems though, except for the FLAC thing.

flac files sound distorted when burned

Reply #9
Are you listening to your computer through the same hi-fi setup as the CD? Just wondering if it's just the fact it's not noticable on your computer setup?

As others have said, if you re-rip from the CD and compare you should find out whether the burn was ok or not.

flac files sound distorted when burned

Reply #10
Quote
...so this could only indicate some specific FLAC-Samsung problem...

I doubt it, because if you're making a true Audio CD (vs. a data cd), Nero is not burning FLAC encoded audio files to the CD-R. Its converting them first to PCM, per Red Book CDDA specifications.

Quote
I don't have any problems though, except for the FLAC thing.

Maybe Nero's FLAC plugin is borking the audio. Try decoding the files to WAV before burning. (listen to the WAVs first) If the WAVs are 16 bit, 44,100 Hz, 2 channel Stereo, 1411.2 kbps files, then in theory your player shouldn't have trouble playing them.

flac files sound distorted when burned

Reply #11
Quote
Quote
...so this could only indicate some specific FLAC-Samsung problem...

I doubt it, because if you're making a true Audio CD (vs. a data cd), Nero is not burning FLAC encoded audio files to the CD-R. Its converting them first to PCM, per Red Book CDDA specifications.


Off course... This can't be the case. If there is a problem it can't be flac/samsung

Quote
Quote
I don't have any problems though, except for the FLAC thing.

Maybe Nero's FLAC plugin is borking the audio. Try decoding the files to WAV before burning. (listen to the WAVs first) If the WAVs are 16 bit, 44,100 Hz, 2 channel Stereo, 1411.2 kbps files, then in theory your player shouldn't have trouble playing them.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]



Quote
Yeah, I heard some stories like this before.
[a href="http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=5358]http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=5358[/url]


It appears that there were some problems with the 4000 to 6000 line. I don't have any problems though, except for the FLAC thing.


I'm quoting myself being too optimistic here. I haven't tried out the reripping yet, but yesterday night I critically compared various CD's that show these effects. These are all CD's burned from flac, while my direct copies are OK in my marantz CD4000 player. last week I did an experiment burning some chamber music from flac to CD. because I wanted to have maximum comparability I did the following:

Flac 2 Audio CD image in Nero > image burned at 20*
Flac 2 Wav in Flac frontend > Wav 2 Audio CD image in Nero > image burned at 20*

I listened to the files first throuh my computer (no equaliser, Good Sony MDR-EX71SL earbuds). I detected no difference. Even the breathing of the musicians sounded exactly the same. I will hook my computer up with my stereo to test this under the same conditions.

Next I compared the burned CD's in my Marantz. Some tracts were fine, but both had the rithmical static sound I had experienced earlier. The wav CD was worse!

I inserted the same CD's in my ancient chinese-brand mp3 discman I bought in 99, which I hooked up with my amplifier. The overall quality was much worse, but neither of the CDs showed the effect.

I'll do some additional testing including the reripping, but it indeed seems to be my CD player, like Wombat experienced. And I was so happy with it... 

The issue why these effects only show when I burn flac CD's remain. My guess would be that I systematically burn different when I burn Flac. I should check this (I really don't know). I tend to relie on default settings. Maybe it's burning speeds, finalization....

I'll still do some testing and post my results. If it's indeed a personal configuration issue, I've complained too much about this beautiful lossless codec!

Thank you all!

Spectacle