Is your FLAC really lossless?
A WAV, AIFF or FLAC made from an MP3 or Opus file keeps the marks of its encoder, whatever its label says. RefBooth reads them, one track or a set of 50, and flags clipping, cut-off endings and dead air too.
What it finds
- Lossy source suspected: a file made from an MP3 at any bit rate or from Opus. In our test every one was found, 15 of 15 of each kind, but a file made from a 320 kbps MP3 can come close to a real master’s, so one may slip through.
- Not caught: a file made from Apple’s AAC (iTunes and Apple Music, 256 kbps). Apple’s encoder leaves no mark we can read, and its highs reach as far as a real master’s.
- No false alarm in our test: none of 39 genuine lossless masters was called.
- A soft roll-off is not flagged: mastering often rolls the highs off gently, and that is not an MP3.
- The real bit depth, in the full report: a 24-bit file that only carries 16 bits of signal.
- The rest of the file: clipping, cut-off ending, and dead air over 2 seconds at either end.
Plan
- The file check is part of DJ, at €9 a month or €79 a year in the EU, and of Studio. Pricing has the price for your country.
- DJ starts with a 3-day trial. Cancel in those three days and nothing is charged.
Questions
Why does it matter on a club system?
A big system plays the top end a laptop hides. A file made from a low-rate MP3 sounds dull and smeared next to the real thing.
Can it prove a file is original?
No check can. It finds the mark a lossy encoder leaves; a file without that mark can still have been processed in other ways.
Is the check in the full report too?
Yes. Every report shows the file’s integrity in one line.
For MP3s: the fake 320 checker. A whole set: Set check for DJs.