A multicore FLAC encoder Options

[GeorgeFP]

Hi!

Maybe you already know fpMP3Enc, my multicore MP3 encoder...

This time, I'd like to introduce my multicore FLAC encoder. You can download the binaries here.

The package contains Win32 binaries for XP, Vista and 7, and Win64 binaries for Vista and 7.

The FLAC encoder is part of my "fpStream" project. The command-line to convert a WAV file to FLAC is as follows:

CODE

FPSTREAM.EXE readfile in -f <wav-filename> + wavin wav -s in + fpflacenc enc -s wav [-<compression level>] + writefile out -s enc -f <flac-filename>

The benchmarks so far:
I used the same test suite as in fpMP3Enc (Intel Q9450, 61 WAV files, about 5 hours playing time). The compression level was 5. The files were encoded one after the other, not in parallel.

- flac 1.2.1: 3 min 26 secs
- fpFLAC x64: 1 min 13 secs

So, the speedup was 2.8x. This is quite good if you consider that this version does not contain any SSE optimizations.

What's missing:
- SSE optimizations
- Metadata support (tags, seek points etc.)
- free of bugs

And some limitations:
- Win32 version: The total WAV file size sum must not exceed 400MiB(? - not sure).
- Win64 version: The total WAV file size sum must not exceed 400GiB.
- Input: WAV 16-bit stereo, 44.1kHz

Comments and feedback are welcome!
George

[flacflac]

Hi GeorgeFP,

thank you for this exciting multicore implementation.

I have a couple of problems using it, perhaps you can help out a bit:

1) Using Win7 x64, most compression settings seem to crash the tool: only if I keep don't specify it or use -8 does it work, and there seems to be a difference in filesize between the two, so I am not sure what the default compression setting is - can you reproduce this problem? (it starts encoding but just doesn't finish)

2) The times I need to encode quickly are either during CD extraction using EAC or when I re-encode existing FLACs as I used lower compression setting before but would like to "upgrade". Can you please tell me whether you are planning to support TRANSCODING existing FLACs? Also, is the compression setting the only original FLAC argument the tool supports?

3) Is it possible to align commands with the original FLAC encoder to be able to simply substitute the current FLAC.exe with your development in EAC?

4) I add padding to my FLACs as I embed album art - unfortunately the padding command as specified in the FLAC documentation seems unsupported (http://flac.sourceforge.net/documentation_tools_flac.html) - implementation should not be a big problem, or am I mistaken?

5) Is tag support a possibility in the near future?

Again, thank you!
ff

[GeorgeFP]

Thanks for your feedback!

1) Using Win7 x64, most compression settings seem to crash the tool: only if I keep don't specify it or use -8 does it work, and there seems to be a difference in filesize between the two, so I am not sure what the default compression setting is - can you reproduce this problem? (it starts encoding but just doesn't finish)

I could reproduce the problem with "-1" and "-4". Both modes use loose mid-stereo which requires special handling. I thought, I made it right, but obviously not. It will be resolved in the next release.
BTW, the default is "-5".

2) The times I need to encode quickly are either during CD extraction using EAC or when I re-encode existing FLACs as I used lower compression setting before but would like to "upgrade". Can you please tell me whether you are planning to support TRANSCODING existing FLACs? Also, is the compression setting the only original FLAC argument the tool supports?

Transcoding is already possible:

CODE

FPSTREAM readfile in -f <old-flac-filename> + flacdec dec -s in + fpflacenc enc -s dec + writefile out -s enc -f <new-flac-filename>

Another option that my tool supports is "--lax" but I don't know what it does. It was easy to port it from the original FLAC code, so I did it.

3) Is it possible to align commands with the original FLAC encoder to be able to simply substitute the current FLAC.exe with your development in EAC?

Yes. I also plan to provide something like a "fpFLAC.exe" with the same command-line options as the original FLAC - for simple encodings.

4) I add padding to my FLACs as I embed album art - unfortunately the padding command as specified in the FLAC documentation seems unsupported (http://flac.sourceforge.net/documentation_tools_flac.html) - implementation should not be a big problem, or am I mistaken?

This is not a problem, the code is already written, only the cmd-line option is missing. Which tool are you using to embed the album art? I'll test it with that.

5) Is tag support a possibility in the near future?

Yes. In the next release you should be able to set title, artist, album, year, track and genre. Just tell me if you need more.

Thanks again for your feedback!

[Cokemonkey11]

Yes. In the next release you should be able to set title, artist, album, year, track and genre. Just tell me if you need more.

Is album art possible to be defined as a tag?