I have no DSPs installed except for the Attenuator. I am using Foobar2000 v.7RC2, WindowsXP SP1 with the following components: Album List and Replaygainer.

I noticed that decoding FLAC files takes a little bit of time compared to the FLAC official decoder. Even without any dither or noiseshaping or use of DSPs or Replaygain, the foobar2000 decoding time is much longer than the few seconds it takes for the FLAC decoder.

Is that normal behaviour? Sorry if this thread has been covered, but I couldn't see anything when searching under: "decode speed +flac".

The same case is with MPC, where a file is decoded in a second with mppdec and usually half a minute or so with foobar. Am I missing an option in the preferences or is there some audio processing going on with foobar's decoding.

Edit:
I just threw in the ICL Safe compiled components and it seems the files are decoding a little faster, but not as fast.

I don't know what kind of "comparison" you did / what kind of hardware you are running / what you had been smoking before you came to those conclusions, but on my machine (athlonxp2200+) foobar2000 decodes MPC files with about same speed as mppdec (13s vs 12s on a 5-minute file, output to 16bit wav). Please provide some numbers and exact descriptions of what you did, instead of putting useless claims (reminder, read forum rule #8).

Surely. I should have in the first place.

FLAC decoding from FLAC Frontend 1.7 (Speex)
Nirvana - Nirvana - 01 - You Know You're Right.flac
Timed looking at watch: ~4.5 seconds

Foobar2000 decoding 0.7RC2 Only Volume DSP installed but "Use DSP" is not checked, 16bit No Dither, Standard Components, No buffering
Nirvana - Nirvana - 01 - You Know You're Right.flac
Timed looking at watch: ~11.2 seconds

I should note that my CPU is Athlon TBird 1.4Ghz @ 1.0Ghz. I didn't include times at first because it's evident that the times are different. I would show video if I could. With MPC the times are unique as well. using Musedrop with mppdec, the decoding window pops up and disappears and the decoded file is done (within 1 second). With foobar2000, it takes 10-12 seconds.

I'm guessing one of the options I've selected is taking the extra time?

HDD: 2x Seagate 80Gb Raid 0
512 MB RAM

Edit:
On another note, if this is going to result in me getting warned or banned, then forget it. I'd rather just decode with 3rd party application than get banned for asking what option I've been missing. Sorry, and thanks

I am afraid that your "results" with MPC are uhm... hard to reproduce for other people. Still testing FLAC.

If I knew the decoding parameters that Musedrop used when selecting "Clipping Prevention" I would do it in the commandline and display results. For the following file:

Audioslave - Audioslave - 02 - Like a Stone.mpc

Musedrop takes no more than 1.5 seconds. It literally pops up and disappears. I don't have enough time to look at decoding speed and what not.

I wouldn't lie about something so easy to test.

I never said foobar2000 is at fault for taking a long time, I am 100% sure it's an option that I've ticked and can not find, somewhere in preferences, I was just hoping someone new offhand if they had a similar problem before.

Using mpc decoder 1.95e 3dnow/sse version or compile, whatever is on Case's site.

OK, seems like the differences aren't caused by decoding speed, but by speed of hdd writes operation, still researching it.