[Feilong4]

I tried clipping out this 4 minute silence transition into a "live-studio session" recording (which I hate; no idea why the artist did this).
 
And when I did so on Audacity I can hear an audible difference even when exporting as a FLAC from a FLAC.
 
There was less treble shimmer, and less of the clash and bang from drum hits.
 
By the way, the song's "Nobody's Home" by One Ok Rock.
 
So I was wondering if there's a way to edit in any program that part out and export it with inaudible differences. 
 
I have foobar, if there's a way to do that there.

 

[kupuna]

Try Goldwave. It's a great editing software.

 

[tomb]

You should probably convert the FLAC file to WAV, first.  Edit with Audacity and export back to WAV.  Then use Foobar or similar to convert back to FLAC.  FLAC is lossless, for sure, but it may not stand up to double or triple conversions.

 

[RRod]

FLAC is perfectly fine with umpteen compressions/recompressions. There's no reason Audacity shouldn't be able to do the job, but OP make sure that you don't have any weird settings set that are either resampling or quantizing the exported file.
 
If you're not command-line allergic, you can try SoX using either the trim or silence effects.

 

[cel4145]

FLAC is perfectly fine with umpteen compressions/recompressions. There's no reason Audacity shouldn't be able to do the job, but OP make sure that you don't have any weird settings set that are either resampling or quantizing the exported file.

Exactly.

Audacity doesn't edit the FLAC file directly anyway. It has to uncompress it first. There should be no difference.

Something is probably wrong in how Feilong4 has Audacity configured during the process. Otherwise, it could always be a perception bias when no difference exists.

 

[RRod]

Otherwise, it could always be a perception bias when no difference exists.

 
I try not to mention such things when I'm out of my cage

 

[cel4145]

I try not to mention such things when I'm out of my cage

I just suggest. I don't insist

 

[Feilong4]

Hmm, it is one of those things where the more I listen, the more I'm not hearing a difference and thinking I'm crazy.
 
Though I just did a quick ABX testing via foobar and here's what I got:
 

 
Don't know if I'm just lucky, as I'm unsure every time I click next trial.
 
Might try to go up until 30 trials.
 
EDIT: I am listening through my SR225e and Andes E07K with no treble or bass adjustments.

 

[RRod]

You should be able to put both tracks into Audacity and align them perfectly once you've accounted for the cut.

 

[Feilong4]

Exactly.

Audacity doesn't edit the FLAC file directly anyway. It has to uncompress it first. There should be no difference.

Something is probably wrong in how Feilong4 has Audacity configured during the process. Otherwise, it could always be a perception bias when no difference exists.

Here's how I did it. Exported @ level 5, 16 bit.
 

 
 

  You should be able to put both tracks into Audacity and align them perfectly once you've accounted for the cut.

Yup, seems to be aligned.
 

 

[RRod]

  Here's how I did it. Exported @ level 5, 16 bit.
 
 
Yup, seems to be aligned.
 

 
So once you have them aligned (zoom in and really get an obvious peak aligned perfectly), invert one of the tracks then play the whole thing. You will hear the difference between the files. If it's silent, then there is no difference. You can also mix-down the tracks into one stereo track, which will let you see as well as hear the difference.

 

[Feilong4]

   
So once you have them aligned (zoom in and really get an obvious peak aligned perfectly), invert one of the tracks then play the whole thing. You will hear the difference between the files. If it's silent, then there is no difference. You can also mix-down the tracks into one stereo track, which will let you see as well as hear the difference.

Huh. It's silent alright. I exported it as a single track and it sounds like a huge mush. No idea if that's what you mean by hear the difference.

 

[RRod]

  Huh. It's silent alright. I exported it as a single track and it sounds like a huge mush. No idea if that's what you mean by hear the difference.

 
I'd have to see what you're doing at this point. When you play the whole thing it mixes the tracks together into a single stereo signal (it has to play on your headphones after all), and if one of the tracks is inverted then you hear Track1 - Track2, the difference. You should be able to export that difference as well, but I'm not in front of Audacity at the moment. That you got something garbled when you exported is another indication that something might be amiss with your Audacity exporting. But if you heard silence when you played the difference within Audacity, then the difference wasn't anything audible.