24-bit/88.2 kHz FLAC won't play in Foobar (possible Cubase problem)

[infinitesymphony]

I used Cubase to record a few files at 24-bit/88.2 kHz and then bounced them down to a stereo WAV. This WAV file won't play in Windows Media Player but will play in Foobar. However, when I convert it to FLAC, it won't play in anything.

When I encode the file with flac.exe, it gives the warning, "WARNING: legacy WAVE file has type 1 but bits-per-sample=24," but it finishes and verifies. Foobar won't play the FLAC at all.

Here's the strange thing... Both WAV and FLAC work if I downmix the file to 16-bit/44.1 kHz (but FLAC still gives the same warning), and WAV works at 32-bit/88.2 kHz. I don't understand why 24-bit/88.2 kHz is such a problem.

Other people have encoded at that rate without issue, so I'm not sure... I've also tried the --lax command-line option without success.

 

[slwiser]

Go check out JRiverMedia version 12, today it became free for music.

Here: INTERACT FORUM - Index

I play hi-rez when I want it using this.

 

[infinitesymphony]

I've uploaded the file in question. It contains the first two tracks I've ever recorded on my home rig; they were a little exercise to see if I could play along with myself without latency or monitoring issues. So don't judge my playing by this one sample.

It's a little variation on the main riff from the Radiohead song "Bulletproof."

***

@slwiser: Thanks for the recommendation, but that doesn't solve my problem with Foobar or WMP. I can't afford to have all of my mixes unplayable by anyone but me.

I'm assuming it's some kind of problem with the way that Cubase SX3 writes WAVE files, but I'm not sure how I could fix it. I've tried resaving with Audacity, but that had no effect.

 

[sejarzo]

At least the .wav sounds incredibly good considering you used a secondhand $20 mic, IMHO.

And I opened the original .wav in WaveLabLite, then resaved it, and got the same errors as you reported when attempting to "FLAC it"......something goofy done by Cubase can't be undone, eh?

 

[sejarzo]

Check it out again.......the FLAC files generated on my system (both times, on the orginal .wav and the one resaved via WaveLab by dragging the .wav's into the window in "FLAC Frontend") showed up where they should have, but with zero byte size, so no compressed audio data was actually produced.

 

[infinitesymphony]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sejarzo /img/forum/go_quote.gif And I opened the original .wav in WaveLabLite, then resaved it, and got the same errors as you reported when attempting to "FLAC it"......something goofy done by Cubase can't be undone, eh?

I hope it can be... And yeah, the sound quality certainly is not an issue.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sejarzo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Check it out again.......the FLAC files generated on my system (both times, on the orginal .wav and the one resaved via WaveLab by dragging the .wav's into the window in "FLAC Frontend") showed up where they should have, but with zero byte size, so no compressed audio data was actually produced.

I've heard of that... I think I read that it had something to do with inappropriate header or tag information. Basically, it misrepresents the length of the file.

I've tried down/upmixing to 16/44.1, 24/44.1, 24/96, and 32/88.2. The only WAV files that played back in WMP were 16/44.1 and 32/88.2.

 

[holland]

It encodes to flac and plays fine for me. I'm using flac 1.2.1 and foobar 0.9.5

Code:

[left]Duration : 0:35.500 (3131100 samples) Sample Rate : 88200 Hz Channels : 2 Bits Per Sample : 24 Bitrate : 2378 kbps Codec : FLAC Encoding : lossless Tool : reference libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917 Embedded Cuesheet : no[/left]

 

[infinitesymphony]

Quote:

Originally Posted by holland /img/forum/go_quote.gif It encodes to flac and plays fine for me. I'm using flac 1.2.1 and foobar 0.9.5

Does the WAV play in WMP for you? Maybe the newer version of Foobar fixes the issue... I'm using Foobar v0.9.4.5. If so, that's still a problem, since not everyone has upgraded to the most recent version.

When I try to play back the FLAC, my version of Foobar gives the error, "Decoding failure at 0:00.000 (Unsupported format or corrupted file)."

It doesn't seem like it would be a FLAC problem, since Linn Records has been distributing 24-bit/88.2 kHz FLAC content without any major problems...

Quote:

Originally Posted by sejarzo Check it out again.......the FLAC files generated on my system (both times, on the orginal .wav and the one resaved via WaveLab by dragging the .wav's into the window in "FLAC Frontend") showed up where they should have, but with zero byte size, so no compressed audio data was actually produced.

Which version of flac.exe did you use? On my system, FLAC 1.2.1 seems to encode the file and it ends up at roughly ~10 MB.

***

Here are the files again to make sure I'm not doing something silly:

Original WAVE file, bulletproof.wav.

Encoded FLAC file, bulletproof.flac. (My server didn't like the .flac extension so I had to zip it.)

 

[infinitesymphony]

Could anyone else check those files in either WMP or Foobar (or any other audio program) and tell me the results of playback?

 

[slwiser]

I opened both in my JRiverMedia Player and to me they sound the same and both played completely without issues. My Lavry was locked into 88.2 for both.

 

[///Parsimony\\\]

I use foobar 0.9.4.3 running on Windows Vista Home Premium with some low-profile C-Media 108 USB chipset as the external soundcard.

Your WAV plays fine, however opening the FLAC file produces 'Decoding failure at 0:00.000 (Unsupported format or corrupted file).'

But once I created another FLAC (compressed the original wav with libFLAC 1.2.0 20070715), the resulting snippet (24 bits, 2442 kbps, 88200 Hz) is OK for both Windows Media Player and foobar - so I simply suggest reencoding (maybe using a different computer?)

.

 

[infinitesymphony]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ///Parsimony\\\ /img/forum/go_quote.gif But once I created another FLAC (compressed the original wav with libFLAC 1.2.0 20070715), the resulting snippet (24 bits, 2442 kbps, 88200 Hz) is OK for both Windows Media Player and foobar - so I simply suggest reencoding (maybe using a different computer?) .

Very interesting... So you're using flac.exe 1.2.0 instead of 1.2.1. I'll download the older version and see what happens.

Thank you for the feedback.

 

[infinitesymphony]

Whaddya know... FLAC 1.2.1 was the problem.

I reverted to 1.2.0 and the FLAC file works perfectly. This may be a complicated issue involving handling of headers and metadata, both by FLAC and foobar2000, but at least I have a working fix for now.

 

[shabta]

I am running the latest version of foobar and wasapi. I am trying to play a 24/88.2 flac file, from Linn and I get the following error: Unrecoverable playback error: Unsupported stream format: 88200 Hz / 24-bit / 2 channels

I tried converting to wave and I get the same error. Anyone know what's up?

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shabta /img/forum/go_quote.gif I am running the latest version of foobar and wasapi. I am trying to play a 24/88.2 flac file, from Linn and I get the following error: Unrecoverable playback error: Unsupported stream format: 88200 Hz / 24-bit / 2 channels I tried converting to wave and I get the same error. Anyone know what's up?

Odd thread to put this in, BUT...

It sounds like the sound card / DAC you're using doesn't support 24/88.2.