Why not use MP3 instead of Flac ?

<font color ="orange">The Ogre wrote:

To take an mp3, then convert it to flac, and upload it for people to download as flac would be a crime in my opinion.
This is what some people obviously do.
Yes, mp3's have there place in the audio world, but to get the best possible sound it should be wav or flac and stay that way..

Yes, Ogre, you’re right. I didn’t say, that it’s better to use mp3 than FLAC. No way! We’re on the same boat on this. But it’s not necessary to be so upset with it (like Evan). It’s always better in such situations to clear things. The best thing to stop such threads is using some FAQ, as YourValentine started here:
http://www.queenzone.com/queenzone/faq_category_view.aspx?Q=1&CATEGORY_NAME=Bittorrent

After some amount of time this could be the best point where to start or where to link questions. It’d be better to help Barbara with this.

I'm a newbie and so understand me for my lack of knowledge.. I recently downloaded some Queen albums and they were in FLAC format. I had never seen the FLAC format before and so didn't konw what to do with them and ended up deleting them... can anyone tell me what a FLAC is and how i can play it? Thanks!

Welcome to the forum, T84K :)

Winamp will play flac files http://www.winamp.com and some CD burning programs such as Nero will burn them to regular CDs you can listen to.. or you can get this free program called Flac Frontend http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html which can convert them back to .wav files which you can burn or listen to. It also creates flac files, should you ever wish to get into doing that.

EVANGP wrote:

J0CK3 said it would be a good idea to convert mp3 to flac then trade as flac?

No, J0CK3 never lied. What he actually said was:
"Sharing MP3 and then convert it to flac by yourself would be a good idea."

It seems to me that he thinks people ought to trade mp3 for the size convenience, then convert to FLAC if they want. I think he just doesn't fully understand the differences between mp3 and FLAC. Calling him names accomplishes nothing.

If you concert a mp3 file to flac only change you made was that your file is bigger.It's still lossy file.But if you convert wav to flac you have a little smaller file but it's lossless.Someone there mentioned that 'the sound Quality is already crap' Okay I agree that.Some bootlegs sound bad.But when you convert it to mp3 it will sound even worse.So flac is way too keep the file original.

i defy anyone on here to put an mp3(@320) of oxford newtheatre 73 and a flac of the same gig - from the original sound source - and confirm that their ear can tell the difference...you can't
i can't believe this debate is going on....there are some queen tracks that have been circulated...like dog with a bone, and these sound poor in flac and mp3 - there is no difference...they are awful to the ear

<font color ="green">brenski wrote:

i defy anyone on here to put an mp3(@320) of oxford newtheatre 73 and a flac of the same gig - from the original sound source - and confirm that their ear can tell the difference...you can't
i can't believe this debate is going on....there are some queen tracks that have been circulated...like dog with a bone, and these sound poor in flac and mp3 - there is no difference...they are awful to the ear

Well, I beg to differ from you here. You could be true saying mp3(@320) comparing to poor quality bootleg FLAC (or WAV) is the same if you listen to both of them. Problem here can be, that people usually use bitrate 128 kb/s (or 160 kb/s) and here is sound degradation worse. And another thing must be said - everyone has different ears (younger people hear higher frequencies for example) and different CD players (amplifiers etc.). So, the fact, you don’t hear any difference, doesn’t mean that nobody wouldn’t hear it.

BTW, from your point of view, there wouldn’t be necessary to use original tapes in studio for making, say, remastered CD. Why do Brian with Roger try to find some lost original tapes then? There are definitely copies and most of people won’t find any differencies anyway. - I think it’s because they try to stay to original sound as close as possible. And we should try the same, even if original sound (of bootlegs) isn’t in perfect shape.

But I actually dont have any problem with FLAC and downloading them. I dont think the quality is that good and the file size is too big. I listen to all my bootlegs with my MP3 player and think it dont work with FLAC on a 128mb MP3 player.

I DONT FIND ANY PROBLEM IN DOWNLOADING FLAC. I just convert them to MP3 right away and delete the input file.

And EvanGP, if there is a way to block you at the Queen hub I would defintely do it.

What kind kind of equipment you use to listen these concert? From good stereo system you can hear huge difference between 320 mp3 and flac.If you just use your computer speakers you can't hear the difference.I can't hear difference between 320 mp3 and flac on my computer speakers.When I trie those to on my stereos I can hear huge difference.

i have an excellent sony 150w stereo
the cd of oxford new theatre 73
made in flac is no better than the cd i have made in mp3 @320
which was MY original point
poor source = poor encoding WHATEVER format you make
i haven't said anywhere that mp3 @320 is as good as flac - i wish some people would read what i typed!
and secondly i have NEVER mentioned 128bit or 160bit mp3 - you are just changing the argument for your purposes now
...and as for Brian and Roger using mp3 - well sorry to disappoint you but your argument disintergrates again there...YES they will use any original masters they can find - but often the masters need lots of filtering and cleaning up...no one on here cleans up old concert tapes (which are probably 4th generation anyhow) before encoding to flac....so in the case i referred to Oxford and all other poor OLD boots - the old maxim SISO applies shit in, shit out

Well, maybe I didn’t read you comment right. Nor did you mine.

So I’ll try another time: you said you didn’t hear any difference between mp3(@320) and FLAC. YOU can’t. There are people who could. That’s all.

To second part of I wrote. Where did I wrote Brian use or would use some mp3? I only wanted to say that even if you or I wouldn’t hear any differencies between original and copy studio tapes, they use original tapes anyway. Because it matters. And it matters to have original WAV or FLAC over mp3, even if you don’t hear any difference between them.

and you didn't read MY COMMENT correctly:
in EVERY post i've made on this thread (so one last time)- i have referred to there being no audible difference between mp3 (320) and flac for OLDER CONCERTS WHERE THE ORIGINAL SOURCE WAS POOR - ie oxford new theatre 73
please read my threads again...at NO POINT EVER have i sadi mp3 is the same as flac...i have mereltyunderlined that if you put shit sound in - you get shit sound out - surely to fuck you are not going to start debating the "quality" of the levels of tapes hiss and muffles on these "very basic" 1973 tapes?

LIBOR2 also added: To second part of I wrote. Where did I wrote Brian use or would use some mp3? I only wanted to say that even if you or I wouldn’t hear any differencies between original and copy studio tapes, they use original tapes anyway. Because it matters. And it matters to have original WAV or FLAC over mp3, even if you don’t hear any difference between them.

but i didn't say any such bollox - where the f*** did i say brian and roger would use mp3s? - please read my thread again....i said:
YES they will use any original masters they can find - but often the masters need lots of filtering and cleaning up...no one on here cleans up old concert tapes (which are probably 4th generation anyhow) before encoding to flac....so in the case i referred to Oxford and all other poor OLD boots - the old maxim SISO applies shit in, shit out

I thought we were sharing the music not sharing the bad language with each other...

For the people who want to get the mp3's go to the QueenHub you will find them a lot over there...

Whitemanadmin and Richard Orchard keep up the good work...

For the flac'ers keep on seeding!

All I wanted to say I did.