# What the FLAC?



## MythosDreamLab (Nov 28, 2020)

I'm thinking of buying some Music of of Bandcamp, they say it is available in "mp3, FLAC or and more".

I have several question that people here may be able to help with:

1) Have you purchased music from bandcamp before, if so, do you have to pick one format or can you download multiple formats?

2) What is their best (highest resolution) format?

3) Since I use iTunes on a iMac, can FLAC be converted to WAV files?

I can convert WAV files to Mp3, but since I can burn WAV files on CD and have a CD player in my car, that is my ideal choice..

Thanks


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## haakono (Apr 5, 2009)

I have not used this service myself, but from looking around for a bit now there looks to be certain albums in 24bit/96khz FLAC at least. 






Hi Res Music & Artists | Bandcamp


See all artists, albums, and tracks tagged with "hi res" on Bandcamp.




bandcamp.com





And that it's up to the artist/uploader to choose what quality they wish to upload at, but no less than uncompressed CD quality WAV.


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## slowride (Jan 26, 2009)

i have purchased plenty of music from bandcamp over the years. i believe they ask the artists to submit wav files. after purchasing you can choose between formats to download and the website will remember your decision. i believe they offer wav, flac, aiff, alac. your profile page will keep tabs of your purchases also in case you need to re-download. as for the resolution offered that would be dependent on the artists.


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## ckirocz28 (Nov 29, 2017)

MythosDreamLab said:


> I'm thinking of buying some Music of of Bandcamp, they say it is available in "mp3, FLAC or and more".
> 
> I have several question that people here may be able to help with:
> 
> ...


1) I can't speak about Bandcamp specifically, but usually if you choose to purchase a lossless format you may also have the option to download an mp3 of the same song for free, but if you purchase the mp3 version you will NOT get the option to download a lossless version for free.
2) Flac would likely be the highest resolution option, it is lossless.
3) I can't tell you how to do it on a Mac, but flac files can be converted to anything you want with the right program, maybe Audacity.
iTunes may be able to convert them.


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## slowride (Jan 26, 2009)

On another note and not to hijack your thread but I’ve been purchasing hi res flac from qobuz. They have a separate download store in addition to their streaming service. A lot of great stuff there. I also switched from iTunes exclusively to plex and Plexamp. You can use a pc, Mac or in my case I built an unraid server to host my collection. It’s my personal streaming service and Plexamp offers CarPlay and android auto. Check it out if you’re into that kind of stuff


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## nadams5755 (Jun 8, 2012)

itunes wants aac, including alac (apple lossless). i use xact ( http://xact.scottcbrown.org ) to transcode from lossless flac to lossless aac (alac).

pretty straight forward. choose the encode tab, drag your flacs in, choose apple lossless.


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## doeboy (May 2, 2012)

One thing to verify is that it isn't just 'up-sampled' cd quality music.


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## Catalyx (Oct 13, 2011)

Bandcamp offers downloads in the ALAC format which iTunes can play without conversion.


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## Adurm (Jan 6, 2019)

To echo the previous posts, you can choose the format. You don't know the depth and rate of the wav until you download the compressed file. I level them and convert them with audacity to flac. Itunes of course doesn't support flac but i don't listen to music on the pc. Some artists do a pay what you want which may cost you your email address but the track doesn't show in your download library. If your bored, search for user quadphase. It's mostly electro with a few synthwave (guilty pleasure nostalgia).


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## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

I convert flac to alac 👍🏼


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## Bodido (Mar 1, 2020)

Have purchased lots on Bandcamp, great source for Buckethead in particular.  

You can download in any and all formats available once you've purchased. Mp3, Flac, Wav, AAC, ALAC, Aiff, and Ogg Vorbis. 

No regrets with Bandcamp purchases for me.


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## bbfoto (Aug 28, 2005)

Bodido said:


> Have purchased lots on Bandcamp, great source for Buckethead in particular.
> 
> You can download in any and all formats available once you've purchased. Mp3, Flac, Wav, AAC, ALAC, Aiff, and Ogg Vorbis.
> 
> No regrets with Bandcamp purchases for me.


Same for me.


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## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

ckirocz28 said:


> 1) I can't speak about Bandcamp specifically, but usually if you choose to purchase a lossless format you may also have the option to download an mp3 of the same song for free, but if you purchase the mp3 version you will NOT get the option to download a lossless version for free.
> 2) Flac would likely be the highest resolution option, it is lossless.
> 3) I can't tell you how to do it on a Mac, but flac files can be converted to anything you want with the right program, maybe Audacity.
> iTunes may be able to convert them.


I use freac on my pc to convert from wav or flac to alac, works very well and is simple to use 👍🏼


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## jtrosky (Jul 19, 2019)

I tend to use flac if/when available. To me, it's the best option - highest possible sound quality and probably the most widely compatible uncompressed format. I see no reason to spend time converting it to any other format. 

File size is not really a factor anymore as storage is so cheap.

In my opinion, of course.

I used to prefer .mp3 since they were so much smaller in size, but like I said, storage is so cheap now, it just makes sense to keep the lossless format for highest quality (even though .flac vs 320k .mp3 sound the same to me in a car environment).

Sent from my motorola one 5G ace using Tapatalk


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