Lossless downloads on Rhino.com!

AAAAH! AAAH! AAAH!

The DIGITAL 45 SERIES is available there in LOSSLESS! The Doors, everything!

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Edited by Brian W.

For the more tech-savvy, can someone explain to me which lossless format I should get:

WMA
FLAC
Apple lossless

if I want to transfer the files straight onto a CDR. (I don't have an ipod so I don't think I want Apple lossless). Are any of the above the same as buying a WAV? I believe my CD burner (and WaveLab software) will only allow me to transfer WAVs & IAFF formats in.

Technically speaking, a WAV is not the same as a compressed lossless file; however, the sound quality should be identical between the two.

The short answer to your question about which one you should get is: take your pick. If you are burning your CDs using something other than Windows Media Player or iTunes, you will most likely have to convert the files to WAV before burning. This is not a big deal, though, because there are tons of free converting programs you can download online.

Personally, I would probably go with FLAC, based on what I've read about the various lossless formats.

Someone once explained to me how file compression works in simple terms. Let me see if I can help shed some light...

As you may already know, all computer files are stored as 1's and 0's. Your computer reads the 1's and 0's and makes something meaningful out of them, such as a picture, text, video, or sound. File compression is a way to store those 1's and 0's in a smaller space.

An uncompressed format doesn't do anything with the 1's and 0's. It stores them exactly how the computer will read them. A compressed format says, "Hey, there's a bunch of times in this file that the same string of numbers repeats itself. Let's give that a 'code' that takes up less room." As an example, here's what that code might look like for a lossless but compressed file:

uncompressed data        lossless compressed data
0000000000000000 ......... A
0000000000000001 ......... B
1111111111111111 ......... C
1111111111111110 ......... D

By contrast, a lossy compression might do something like this:

uncompressed data        lossy compressed data
0000000000000000 ......... A
0000000000000001 ......... A
1111111111111111 ......... C
1111111111111110 ......... C

Basically, a lossy compression says "Oh, that's close enough," and assigns the same key to more than one string of numbers. This is how it's able to get file sizes much smaller.

Again, this is a very simplified explanation of how it all works. But the bottom line is that, as long as the lossless compression is doing its job correctly, there should be no quality difference between WAV and FLAC/WMA Lossless/Apple Lossless.

aaronk wrote: it's easy to convert to wav before burning.

Although, Gordon, if you just want to burn them as a regular CD-R, playable in any player, you don't need to convert it to anything first. Foobar will burn FLAC directly to CD format. Windows Media Player will burn the WMA files directly to CD. And iTunes will burn Apple Lossless to CD. They'll all convert to the proper CD format when you press "burn to CD."

The only reason I'm converting to WAVs is to open them in an audio editor.

That's good to know Foobar will burn FLAC directly to CD, Brian.

WonkaVision! Ha! That's funny.