I'm looking for a free windows program to compare WAV files. (Either GUI or command line)

Not just a simple binary comparasion, but can also deal with different amounts of silence at the begining & end.

And it'd be nice if it could detect short sections in the middle of a WAV that are different (incl different length) and then resync.

Kind of like the programmer's utility "diff" but for wav files.

I've got a number of "greatest hits" cd's that have the same songs as other cd's, and I'd like to actually see just how much alike they really are. They sound the same, but...

Use Exact Audio Copy. It is a ripper, but it has the best compare wav tool on the net. It does all you want : it detects offsets, resynchs not only after some differences, but also if some parts are missing !

EDIT : By the way, could you post your future results ? I did this once and found no difference between the UK and FR versions of the same CD, but maybe you will.

EAC does a simple compare between two wave files (which can be useful to find out your drive's offsets). or use a simple wave editor like audacity and compare.

edit: bah pio beat me to it

If I had written the "edit" sentence before posting, you'd been first

*coughs* This is getting a little repetitive now, but foobar2000 does that too. I'm not sure about the robustness of the compare, but I'd imagine it's okay, and you get a great player along with that. You'll need to download and install the "Special" installer on the downloads page, though. Then, load yer two files, select them, right click, and select "Bit-compare two tracks".

I didn't know EAC did stand alone compares!

I already have that installed on my home machine, so I guess I should check it later.

(Obviously I rarely use EAC. I generally use cdex. I've ripped all my cd's, so I don't pay much attention to new features etc.)

I use the compare tool in EAC because of it's ability to compensate for different offsets, so I found it is great for comparing rips between EAC and CDEx to see if they were both correct (perfect) or if there was a problem somewhere.

There is an extension to this that I vaguely remember the concept for but have heard nothing of since - despite it being something I for one had great interest in. An online database of 64 bit file hashes based on your wav data with offsets ignored, which you could then use to compare your EAC/CDex/whatever cd rips against as easily as getting track info's from freedb. It would be the ultimate in secure ripping in my opinion, and I would love to see it actualised for the very purpouse you first mentioned.

http://www.cyberdyne-software.com/crc32.html

OT posts moved to foobar2000 fanaticism: Thread split

It's the database that would go behind the CRC/MD5 checker that would prove useful, I have no idea if af30c4a6 is the correct CRC for the track I just ripped

Aren't you talking about Accuraterip ?