Free Lossless Audio Codec, is the name behind the acronym for FLAC audio format. This format compresses files to make them smaller in size without losing any quality.
Over time, this audio format has been spreading to gain a foothold in the market and there are more and more occasions in which we find various players that accept this type of format.
In today's post, we are going to let you know everything that revolves around this format, the first thing we have to know is what is the FLAC format, its characteristics and what differentiates it from the rest of existing audio formats on the market.
There are more and more players and files with FLAC extension that we find on different websites and even certain artists choose to work with this extension instead of the classics that everyone knows, so it is important to know what we are talking about.
What is the FLAC format?
Today, the MP3 format is not the only extension with which you can work and share music online. The FLAC extension is a format that compress files with audio content without losing quality.
Thanks to the compression that FLAC performs, it is possible reduce file size original audio up to 60% less.
To fully understand everything that surrounds this concept, we must first understand concepts like bitrate, that more than one will sound and compression with and without losses.
bitrate
For those who do not know, this concept is related to the number of bits that are processed in a unit of time. When we work with audio formats, we are working with Kilobits, Kbps.
The higher the number of bits per second, the more space we will need to store the file we are working with. The advantage of this is that the quality with which it is saved is higher and a result faithful to the original file will be achieved.
This concept that we are talking about, bitrate, is fundamental to the MP3 format. This happens because, the final quality of the file depends on it. One of the most negative aspects of the MP3 format is that when you proceed to compress files under this format, they lose quality, even if you use high bitrates.
Characteristics of the FLAC format
Once we have understood what this format is, what it consists of, we are going to talk about some of its main characteristics that we must take into account if we work with him.
The first one is that it is a support that can be added to the covers of music albums. In addition to you allows the ability to add commands, that is, name of the album, artist, genre, everything you need.
Another important characteristic is that we are talking about a format that we can play on the vast majority of operating systems, including media players, laptops, mobiles, etc.
For all this, he is considered a multiplatform format, with which you can work freely thanks to its free tools. They will allow us to carry out the conversion process of our audio files to FLAC and we can even convert FLAC format to MP3, among other formats.
As it happens with many of the formats that we all know, there are alternatives to working with FLAC with almost the same characteristics as WavPack, for example, but it is really the most used and widespread format that we are talking about in this publication.
Advantages and disadvantages of FLAC
We are going to explain what are the positive and negative points of this format. First, we are going to know what are the advantages of the codec that allows us to save without losing quality.
Advantages
In the first place, we are going to point out the advantage that we have been repeating since the beginning of this publication, FLAC allows us enjoy higher quality thanks to the use of a high bitrate, between 900 and 1100 kbps.
Another advantage of working with this extension is that of being able to listen to audio clips seamlessly between pints, the information is continuous which makes it a very important positive point.
On the other hand, the music or the audio that we are going to listen will not be altered and this is one of the fundamental reasons why working with FLAC is a very good decision.
Finally, we want to highlight the advantage that working with FLAC will give you the possibility of play unlimited sample rates, allows you up to 192000 Hz without any problem.
Drawbacks
As we know, all is not gold that glitters and there is always a bad side inside everything good. Also this wonderful format has some drawbacks, but nothing serious.
The first of them is that a file with this extension occupies considerably more space. That is, a FLAC file occupies more than half of the original. It is not uncommon for files to be 300MB or so in size.
Another negative point, it no longer has to do with the file but with the players, is that many of them do not support the extension. This is happening on fewer occasions, since they have been adapting to it in an accelerated manner. But there are still players that don't support FLAC and stick to the MP3 format.
Surely with the passage of time, from here to nothing, these disadvantages are solved and we can work with a format that takes up less space and is accepted by all players. We advise you that it is a format that is very easy to work with and that the results are of another level.
When to use FLAC or MP3?
FLAC, is a format whose purpose is focused on the conservation of music or audio clips, not portability. Use it if what you want is store and preserve your audios in a digital format.
On the other hand, the format MP3 works on a lower quality than the previous format, but that is enough to play audio files on different devices. It is a suitable format, if what you want is to have a folder of songs to carry on your mobile and listen to them in the gym.
Something to keep in mind if we work with MP3, it is every time we do a conversion the format suffers losses quality. On the contrary, if we use FLAC it will be like having a copy of the original file. Going from a FLAC file to MP3 allows you to maintain a high quality in the conversion process.
It should be noted that on many occasions the difference in quality between a FLAC file and a high-quality MP3 file is almost imperceptible, only professionals could grasp it.
Having all this clear, we can say that FLAC is the ideal format if what you want is to keep your audio as the original, thanks to the fact that it respects quality.