I think I know the answer to this question but I wanted to check with the experts to see if there were any good answers. Guess I'm not very bright when it comes to distributing large files across the internet. ZIP doesn't seem to really compress the size of a WAV file at all. I think I knew this from a long time ago. But I thought I'd try again and sure enough - it didn't seem to do much of anything. But I'm using the stock ZIP routine in Windoze XP so maybe there is a better version of it out there? RAR? Or what is another alternative that doesn't require a degree in brain surgery and is easy for noobs to understand? thanks!

You might try FLAC.

You'll need to establish a workflow, you can find lots of info here:

http://flac.sourceforge.net/

thx Mike - is FLAC a compression solution for file size/transmission or something similar to MP3? I'm a little confused about what FLAC is. If I encode with FLAC can I convert the file back to WAV with no loss?

Yes, FLAC is lossless. It's designed specifically for audio, so it can actually get a better compression ratio than Zip/Rar (which do best with repeating patterns; audio only repeats data during silence). But FLAC will still only get you about a 50% reduction. It's built in to SONAR, so there's the convenience factor.

EDIT:

I just did a comparison...

Original wave (32-bit 44.1KHz): 78.7MB
Zipped: 72.8MB
As 24-bit wave: 59MB
Zipped 24-bit wave: 56.2MB 
FLAC: 54.5MB
320kb/s MP3: 8.9MB


In this test, at least, FLAC didn't get anywhere near 50% reduction.

Hi Kriz,

Good to see you.

Bitflipper pretty much said it all.

+1

:-)

best regards,
mike

krizrox


I think I know the answer to this question but I wanted to check with the experts to see if there were any good answers. Guess I'm not very bright when it comes to distributing large files across the internet. ZIP doesn't seem to really compress the size of a WAV file at all. I think I knew this from a long time ago. But I thought I'd try again and sure enough - it didn't seem to do much of anything. But I'm using the stock ZIP routine in Windoze XP so maybe there is a better version of it out there? RAR? Or what is another alternative that doesn't require a degree in brain surgery and is easy for noobs to understand? thanks!

No lossless compression algorithm is going to do much to compress music data ... it's just too non-repeating.  Compression like zip relies on repeated patterns in the data.  When it finds them, it substitutes an "abbreviation".  The more data and the more there are repeating patterns, the more you can squeeze the size down.  Large text data files can often be compressed to 15% or their original size.  But sample data like that in a wav file is just too random, so the repeating patterns (except for maybe long periods of silence) are encountered much more infrequently ... thus only slight file size reduction results.

krizrox


I think I know the answer to this question but I wanted to check with the experts to see if there were any good answers. Guess I'm not very bright when it comes to distributing large files across the internet. ZIP doesn't seem to really compress the size of a WAV file at all. I think I knew this from a long time ago. But I thought I'd try again and sure enough - it didn't seem to do much of anything. But I'm using the stock ZIP routine in Windoze XP so maybe there is a better version of it out there? RAR? Or what is another alternative that doesn't require a degree in brain surgery and is easy for noobs to understand? thanks!

Actually Larry, WinZip IS the correct answer believe it or not. The problem is, the version you may be running. Thanks to Bapu, when I joined the Coffee House Band, it was mandatory that I had at least Winzip 14 at the time. The reason being, it supports zipx compression which is truly off the hook for wave files. It doesn't hold any of the blank space in a wave as counting for the actual size. It just compresses the audio part and man let me tell you, it's absolute insanity as to how it does it.
 
I can turn a 54mb wave into a 27mb wave. The bigger the file, the more it makes a difference.
 
The next solution you may want to consider, is exporting your wave data out as a broadcast wave and then zipping it up using Winzip zipx. The broadcast wave will get rid of any dead space in the beginning of the file and will just import it straight into your client other party's DAW at the exact time it's supposed to be. The only issue you may have is if this is pro tools. My pro tools system totally jacks up broadcast waves. When I create one and then bring it into Sonar, it's usually oh....an hour off. Literally! It will place the wave file an hour away in the time marker in the song. It happens everytime.
 
But when I export a BW from Sonar, it has lined itself up perfectly in other people's versions of Sonar, Adobe Audition 2 and 3, Cubase, Nuendo, Reaper and Audacity. So it's worth a try as it will just give them the wave in the right spot minus the extra space in the wave file.
 
But seriously, try the newest version of WinZip that supports zipx...it's amazing for everything, especially wave files and audio of any kind. Best of luck.
 
-Danny

P.S. if you DO get the newer WinZip and use zipx, you must make sure the other party you're sending to is also using it or they will not be able to unzip the file. So make sure you clear the runway with the other party first before compressing with zipx format. You do have the legacy option available, but that's the one you're using now...and as you can see, it doesn't really make much difference at all. You're lucky if regular .zip compression saves you 5-10mb. This other thing will definitely make a huge difference in everything. I promise you. :)

-Danny

krizrox

ZIP doesn't seem to really compress the size of a WAV file at all...what is another alternative...

APE format is very efficient for storing 24-bit audio.  Unfortunately most audio software does not include APE as an option for importing or exporting, so you need a separate converter.  I use EaseAudio for converting between WAV and APE.

for most collabs... I send MP3's until we get it right and are happy, then I simply load the full wave to a free server site. To me, it's not a big deal since I don't do that very often.

If I was running a studio and dealing with clients, I would probably use a zipper.  

I have Camzip and it does a good job but I've never zipped or unzipped waves with it.