I would like to convert some of my audio files, which are 32-bit WAV to FLAC or a similar lossless codec. Is this possible or does the source wave necessarily have to be 16-bit?
Also, some are 48, 64 or even 88,2 kHz. I would also like to preserve that, if it is possible.

If it is possible by any means, how to do it?
If it isn't, why?

Thanks.

good question, I converted yesterday a 24 Bit wav without a problem to MP3 lame, but I would be also interested, whether 24Bit or 32Bit are converted with truncation to lossless, or is it better to dither before ? may be somebody could comment also for compressed formats ?

So, you haven't read the Ultimate Lossless Audio Codec Overview here at Hydrogenaudio, yet?

(short answer: yes, there are several codecs that can do what you need. look for "high resolution" support in the comparison table)

Smack, nice one...guess that I have a little to be read now

and here is the answer for FLAC:

What kind of audio samples does FLAC support?

FLAC supports linear PCM samples with a resolution between 4 and 32 bits per sample. FLAC does not support floating point samples. In some cases it is possible to losslessly transform samples from an incompatible range to a FLAC-compatible range before encoding.

FLAC supports linear sample rates from 1Hz - 655350Hz in 1Hz increments.

Wavpack also fulfils your requirements and is worth to consider. Floating point samples are also supported.

Hmm. What is a "linear PCM"? I have recorded some audio in Audition, it wasn't "4 byte IEEE float", but a "4-Byte PCM". FLAC still won't encode these.

Ideas?

edit: typos

The FLAC format has support for 32bit samples, but the libflac library and the flac binary program don't support it yet; I think they only support 16bit and 24bit at the moment. I'm not sure about 24bit.

edit: 16bit/24bit integer, to be precise.

http://flac.sourceforge.net/format.html#me...lock_streaminfo
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=23499

A few posts up someone said flac does not support float formats. I've tested Wavpack with 24/96 6 channel audio and it works fine. Also tested it with 32-bit float wav files and it also works fine. When it comes to input support I think wavpack probably is the best way to go. Can have nice tags, supports every reasonable wav format & compresses fast and really well.

Tried Wavpack. I like what I see (or should I say "hear"?) for now. I think I'll stick to it as long as Monkeys' Audio or some other codec with higher compression doesn't improve compatibility with "high resolution" audio.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

Cheers.

You can achieve reasonable compression ratio with wavpack also with highest settings. Still the Decoding speed and error tolerans stays good.