Provided by: flac_1.4.3+ds-2.1ubuntu2_amd64 
NAME
flac - Free Lossless Audio Codec
SYNOPSIS
flac [ OPTIONS ] [ infile.wav | infile.rf64 | infile.aiff | infile.raw | infile.flac | infile.oga | in‐
file.ogg | - ... ]
flac [ -d | --decode | -t | --test | -a | --analyze ] [ OPTIONS ] [ infile.flac | infile.oga | infile.ogg
| - ... ]
DESCRIPTION
flac is a command-line tool for encoding, decoding, testing and analyzing FLAC streams.
GENERAL USAGE
flac supports as input RIFF WAVE, Wave64, RF64, AIFF, FLAC or Ogg FLAC format, or raw interleaved sam‐
ples. The decoder currently can output to RIFF WAVE, Wave64, RF64, or AIFF format, or raw interleaved
samples. flac only supports linear PCM samples (in other words, no A-LAW, uLAW, etc.), and the input
must be between 4 and 32 bits per sample.
flac assumes that files ending in “.wav” or that have the RIFF WAVE header present are WAVE files, files
ending in “.w64” or have the Wave64 header present are Wave64 files, files ending in “.rf64” or have the
RF64 header present are RF64 files, files ending in “.aif” or “.aiff” or have the AIFF header present are
AIFF files, files ending in “.flac” or have the FLAC header present are FLAC files and files ending in
“.oga” or “.ogg” or have the Ogg FLAC header present are Ogg FLAC files.
Other than this, flac makes no assumptions about file extensions, though the convention is that FLAC
files have the extension “.flac” (or “.fla” on ancient “8.3” file systems like FAT-16).
Before going into the full command-line description, a few other things help to sort it out: 1. flac en‐
codes by default, so you must use -d to decode 2. the options -0 .. -8 (or –fast and –best) that con‐
trol the compression level actually are just synonyms for different groups of specific encoding options
(described later) and you can get the same effect by using the same options. When specific options are
specified they take priority over the compression level no matter the order 3. flac behaves similarly to
gzip in the way it handles input and output files 4. the order in which options are specified is gener‐
ally not important
Skip to the examples below for examples of some common tasks.
flac will be invoked one of four ways, depending on whether you are encoding, decoding, testing, or ana‐
lyzing. Encoding is the default invocation, but can be switch to decoding with -d, analysis with -a or
testing with -t. Depending on which way is chosen, encoding, decoding, analysis or testing options can
be used, see section OPTIONS for details. General options can be used for all.
If only one inputfile is specified, it may be “-” for stdin. When stdin is used as input, flac will
write to stdout. Otherwise flac will perform the desired operation on each input file to similarly named
output files (meaning for encoding, the extension will be replaced with “.flac”, or appended with “.flac”
if the input file has no extension, and for decoding, the extension will be “.wav” for WAVE output and
“.raw” for raw output). The original file is not deleted unless –delete-input-file is specified.
If you are encoding/decoding from stdin to a file, you should use the -o option like so:
flac [options] -o outputfile
flac -d [options] -o outputfile
which are better than:
flac [options] > outputfile
flac -d [options] > outputfile
since the former allows flac to seek backwards to write the STREAMINFO or RIFF WAVE header contents when
necessary.
Also, you can force output data to go to stdout using -c.
To encode or decode files that start with a dash, use – to signal the end of options, to keep the file‐
names themselves from being treated as options:
flac -V -- -01-filename.wav
The encoding options affect the compression ratio and encoding speed. The format options are used to
tell flac the arrangement of samples if the input file (or output file when decoding) is a raw file. If
it is a RIFF WAVE, Wave64, RF64, or AIFF file the format options are not needed since they are read from
the file’s header.
In test mode, flac acts just like in decode mode, except no output file is written. Both decode and test
modes detect errors in the stream, but they also detect when the MD5 signature of the decoded audio does
not match the stored MD5 signature, even when the bitstream is valid.
flac can also re-encode FLAC files. In other words, you can specify a FLAC or Ogg FLAC file as an input
to the encoder and it will decoder it and re-encode it according to the options you specify. It will al‐
so preserve all the metadata unless you override it with other options (e.g. specifying new tags, seek‐
points, cuesheet, padding, etc.).
flac has been tuned so that the default settings yield a good speed vs. compression tradeoff for many
kinds of input. However, if you are looking to maximize the compression rate or speed, or want to use
the full power of FLAC’s metadata system, see the page titled `About the FLAC Format' on the FLAC web‐
site.
EXAMPLES
Some common encoding tasks using flac:
flac abc.wav
Encode abc.wav to abc.flac using the default compression setting. abc.wav is not deleted.
flac --delete-input-file abc.wav
Like above, except abc.wav is deleted if there were no errors.
flac --delete-input-file -w abc.wav
Like above, except abc.wav is deleted if there were no errors or warnings.
flac --best abc.wav
Encode abc.wav to abc.flac using the highest compression setting.
flac --verify abc.wav
Encode abc.wav to abc.flac and internally decode abc.flac to make sure it matches abc.wav.
flac -o my.flac abc.wav
Encode abc.wav to my.flac.
flac -T "TITLE=Bohemian Rhapsody" -T "ARTIST=Queen" abc.wav
Encode abc.wav and add some tags at the same time to abc.flac.
flac *.wav
Encode all .wav files in the current directory.
flac abc.aiff
Encode abc.aiff to abc.flac.
flac abc.rf64
Encode abc.rf64 to abc.flac.
flac abc.w64
Encode abc.w64 to abc.flac.
flac abc.flac --force
This one’s a little tricky: notice that flac is in encode mode by default (you have to specify -d
to decode) so this command actually recompresses abc.flac back to abc.flac. –force is needed to
make sure you really want to overwrite abc.flac with a new version. Why would you want to do
this? It allows you to recompress an existing FLAC file with (usually) higher compression options
or a newer version of FLAC and preserve all the metadata like tags too.
Some common decoding tasks using flac:
flac -d abc.flac
Decode abc.flac to abc.wav. abc.flac is not deleted. NOTE: Without -d it means re-encode
abc.flac to abc.flac (see above).
flac -d --force-aiff-format abc.flac
flac -d -o abc.aiff abc.flac : Two different ways of decoding abc.flac to abc.aiff (AIFF format).
abc.flac is not deleted.
flac -d --force-rf64-format abc.flac
flac -d -o abc.rf64 abc.flac : Two different ways of decoding abc.flac to abc.rf64 (RF64 format).
abc.flac is not deleted.
flac -d --force-wave64-format abc.flac
flac -d -o abc.w64 abc.flac : Two different ways of decoding abc.flac to abc.w64 (Wave64 format).
abc.flac is not deleted.
flac -d -F abc.flac
Decode abc.flac to abc.wav and don’t abort if errors are found (useful for recovering as much as
possible from corrupted files).
OPTIONS
A summary of options is included below. For a complete description, see the HTML documentation.
GENERAL OPTIONS
-v, --version
Show the flac version number
-h, --help
Show basic usage and a list of all options
-H, --explain
Show detailed explanation of usage and all options
-d, --decode
Decode (the default behavior is to encode)
-t, --test
Test a flac encoded file (same as -d except no decoded file is written)
-a, --analyze
Analyze a FLAC encoded file (same as -d except an analysis file is written)
-c, --stdout
Write output to stdout
-s, --silent
Silent mode (do not write runtime encode/decode statistics to stderr)
--totally-silent
Do not print anything of any kind, including warnings or errors. The exit code will be the only
way to determine successful completion.
--no-utf8-convert
Do not convert tags from local charset to UTF-8. This is useful for scripts, and setting tags in
situations where the locale is wrong. This option must appear before any tag options!
-w, --warnings-as-errors
Treat all warnings as errors (which cause flac to terminate with a non-zero exit code).
-f, --force
Force overwriting of output files. By default, flac warns that the output file already exists and
continues to the next file.
-o filename, --output-name=filename
Force the output file name (usually flac just changes the extension). May only be used when en‐
coding a single file. May not be used in conjunction with --output-prefix.
--output-prefix=string
Prefix each output file name with the given string. This can be useful for encoding or decoding
files to a different directory. Make sure if your string is a path name that it ends with a
trailing `/’ (slash).
--delete-input-file
Automatically delete the input file after a successful encode or decode. If there was an error
(including a verify error) the input file is left intact.
--preserve-modtime
Output files have their timestamps/permissions set to match those of their inputs (this is de‐
fault). Use --no-preserve-modtime to make output files have the current time and default permis‐
sions.
--keep-foreign-metadata
If encoding, save WAVE, RF64, or AIFF non-audio chunks in FLAC metadata. If decoding, restore any
saved non-audio chunks from FLAC metadata when writing the decoded file. Foreign metadata cannot
be transcoded, e.g. WAVE chunks saved in a FLAC file cannot be restored when decoding to AIFF.
Input and output must be regular files (not stdin or stdout). With this option, FLAC will pick
the right output format on decoding.
--keep-foreign-metadata-if-present
Like --keep-foreign-metadata, but without throwing an error if foreign metadata cannot be found or
restored, instead printing a warning.
--skip={#|mm:ss.ss}
Skip over the first number of samples of the input. This works for both encoding and decoding,
but not testing. The alternative form mm:ss.ss can be used to specify minutes, seconds, and frac‐
tions of a second.
--until={#|[+|-]mm:ss.ss}
Stop at the given sample number for each input file. This works for both encoding and decoding,
but not testing. The given sample number is not included in the decoded output. The alternative
form mm:ss.ss can be used to specify minutes, seconds, and fractions of a second. If a `+’ (plus)
sign is at the beginning, the --until point is relative to the --skip point. If a `-’ (minus)
sign is at the beginning, the --until point is relative to end of the audio.
--ogg When encoding, generate Ogg FLAC output instead of native FLAC. Ogg FLAC streams are FLAC streams
wrapped in an Ogg transport layer. The resulting file should have an `.oga' extension and will
still be decodable by flac. When decoding, force the input to be treated as Ogg FLAC. This is
useful when piping input from stdin or when the filename does not end in `.oga' or `.ogg'.
--serial-number=#
When used with --ogg, specifies the serial number to use for the first Ogg FLAC stream, which is
then incremented for each additional stream. When encoding and no serial number is given, flac
uses a random number for the first stream, then increments it for each additional stream. When
decoding and no number is given, flac uses the serial number of the first page.
ANALYSIS OPTIONS
--residual-text
Includes the residual signal in the analysis file. This will make the file very big, much larger
than even the decoded file.
--residual-gnuplot
Generates a gnuplot file for every subframe; each file will contain the residual distribution of
the subframe. This will create a lot of files.
DECODING OPTIONS
--cue=[#.#][-[#.#]]
Set the beginning and ending cuepoints to decode. The optional first #.# is the track and index
point at which decoding will start; the default is the beginning of the stream. The optional sec‐
ond #.# is the track and index point at which decoding will end; the default is the end of the
stream. If the cuepoint does not exist, the closest one before it (for the start point) or after
it (for the end point) will be used. If those don’t exist, the start of the stream (for the start
point) or end of the stream (for the end point) will be used. The cuepoints are merely translated
into sample numbers then used as --skip and --until. A CD track can always be cued by, for exam‐
ple, --cue=9.1-10.1 for track 9, even if the CD has no 10th track.
-F, --decode-through-errors
By default flac stops decoding with an error and removes the partially decoded file if it encoun‐
ters a bitstream error. With -F, errors are still printed but flac will continue decoding to com‐
pletion. Note that errors may cause the decoded audio to be missing some samples or have silent
sections.
--apply-replaygain-which-is-not-lossless[=<specification>]
Applies ReplayGain values while decoding. WARNING: THIS IS NOT LOSSLESS. DECODED AUDIO WILL NOT
BE IDENTICAL TO THE ORIGINAL WITH THIS OPTION. This option is useful for example in transcoding
media servers, where the client does not support ReplayGain. For details on the use of this op‐
tion, see the section ReplayGain application specification.
ENCODING OPTIONS
-V, --verify
Verify a correct encoding by decoding the output in parallel and comparing to the original
--lax Allow encoder to generate non-Subset files. The resulting FLAC file may not be streamable or
might have trouble being played in all players (especially hardware devices), so you should only
use this option in combination with custom encoding options meant for archival.
--replay-gain
Calculate ReplayGain values and store them as FLAC tags, similar to vorbisgain. Title gains/peaks
will be computed for each input file, and an album gain/peak will be computed for all files. All
input files must have the same resolution, sample rate, and number of channels. Only mono and
stereo files are allowed, and the sample rate must be 8, 11.025, 12, 16, 18.9, 22.05, 24, 28, 32,
36, 37.8, 44.1, 48, 56, 64, 72, 75.6, 88.2, 96, 112, 128, 144, 151.2, 176.4, 192, 224, 256, 288,
302.4, 352.8, 384, 448, 512, 576, or 604.8 kHz. Also note that this option may leave a few extra
bytes in a PADDING block as the exact size of the tags is not known until all files are processed.
Note that this option cannot be used when encoding to standard output (stdout).
--cuesheet=filename
Import the given cuesheet file and store it in a CUESHEET metadata block. This option may only be
used when encoding a single file. A seekpoint will be added for each index point in the cuesheet
to the SEEKTABLE unless --no-cued-seekpoints is specified.
--picture={FILENAME|SPECIFICATION}
Import a picture and store it in a PICTURE metadata block. More than one --picture option can be
specified. Either a filename for the picture file or a more complete specification form can be
used. The SPECIFICATION is a string whose parts are separated by | (pipe) characters. Some parts
may be left empty to invoke default values. FILENAME is just shorthand for “||||FILENAME”. For
the format of SPECIFICATION, see the section picture specification.
--ignore-chunk-sizes
When encoding to flac, ignore the file size headers in WAV and AIFF files to attempt to work
around problems with over-sized or malformed files. WAV and AIFF files both have an unsigned 32
bit numbers in the file header which specifes the length of audio data. Since this number is un‐
signed 32 bits, that limits the size of a valid file to being just over 4 Gigabytes. Files larger
than this are mal-formed, but should be read correctly using this option.
-S {#|X|#x|#s}, --seekpoint={#|X|#x|#s}
Include a point or points in a SEEKTABLE. Using #, a seek point at that sample number is added.
Using X, a placeholder point is added at the end of a the table. Using #x, # evenly spaced seek
points will be added, the first being at sample 0. Using #s, a seekpoint will be added every #
seconds (# does not have to be a whole number; it can be, for example, 9.5, meaning a seekpoint
every 9.5 seconds). You may use many -S options; the resulting SEEKTABLE will be the unique-ified
union of all such values. With no -S options, flac defaults to `-S 10s'. Use --no-seektable for
no SEEKTABLE. Note: `-S #x' and `-S #s' will not work if the encoder can’t determine the input
size before starting. Note: if you use `-S #' and # is >= samples in the input, there will be ei‐
ther no seek point entered (if the input size is determinable before encoding starts) or a place‐
holder point (if input size is not determinable).
-P #, --padding=#
Tell the encoder to write a PADDING metadata block of the given length (in bytes) after the
STREAMINFO block. This is useful if you plan to tag the file later with an APPLICATION block; in‐
stead of having to rewrite the entire file later just to insert your block, you can write directly
over the PADDING block. Note that the total length of the PADDING block will be 4 bytes longer
than the length given because of the 4 metadata block header bytes. You can force no PADDING
block at all to be written with --no-padding. The encoder writes a PADDING block of 8192 bytes by
default (or 65536 bytes if the input audio stream is more that 20 minutes long).
-T FIELD=VALUE, --tag=FIELD=VALUE
Add a FLAC tag. The comment must adhere to the Vorbis comment spec; i.e. the FIELD must contain
only legal characters, terminated by an `equals' sign. Make sure to quote the comment if neces‐
sary. This option may appear more than once to add several comments. NOTE: all tags will be
added to all encoded files.
--tag-from-file=FIELD=FILENAME
Like --tag, except FILENAME is a file whose contents will be read verbatim to set the tag value.
The contents will be converted to UTF-8 from the local charset. This can be used to store a
cuesheet in a tag (e.g. --tag-from-file=“CUESHEET=image.cue”). Do not try to store binary data in
tag fields! Use APPLICATION blocks for that.
-b #, --blocksize=#
Specify the blocksize in samples. The default is 1152 for -l 0, else 4096. For subset streams
this must be <= 4608 if the samplerate <= 48kHz, for subset streams with higher samplerates it
must be <= 16384.
-m, --mid-side
Try mid-side coding for each frame (stereo input only)
-M, --adaptive-mid-side
Adaptive mid-side coding for all frames (stereo input only)
-0..-8, --compression-level-0..--compression-level-8
Fastest compression..highest compression (default is -5). These are synonyms for other options:
-0, --compression-level-0
Synonymous with -l 0 -b 1152 -r 3 --no-mid-side
-1, --compression-level-1
Synonymous with -l 0 -b 1152 -M -r 3
-2, --compression-level-2
Synonymous with -l 0 -b 1152 -m -r 3
-3, --compression-level-3
Synonymous with -l 6 -b 4096 -r 4 --no-mid-side
-4, --compression-level-4
Synonymous with -l 8 -b 4096 -M -r 4
-5, --compression-level-5
Synonymous with -l 8 -b 4096 -m -r 5
-6, --compression-level-6
Synonymous with -l 8 -b 4096 -m -r 6 -A subdivide_tukey(2)
-7, --compression-level-7
Synonymous with -l 12 -b 4096 -m -r 6 -A subdivide_tukey(2)
-8, --compression-level-8
Synonymous with -l 12 -b 4096 -m -r 6 -A subdivide_tukey(3)
--fast Fastest compression. Currently synonymous with -0.
--best Highest compression. Currently synonymous with -8.
-e, --exhaustive-model-search
Do exhaustive model search (expensive!)
-A function, --apodization=function
Window audio data with given the apodization function. See section Apodization functions for de‐
tails.
-l #, --max-lpc-order=#
Specifies the maximum LPC order. This number must be <= 32. For subset streams, it must be <=12
if the sample rate is <=48kHz. If 0, the encoder will not attempt generic linear prediction, and
use only fixed predictors. Using fixed predictors is faster but usually results in files being
5-10% larger.
-p, --qlp-coeff-precision-search
Do exhaustive search of LP coefficient quantization (expensive!). Overrides -q; does nothing if
using -l 0
-q #, --qlp-coeff-precision=#
Precision of the quantized linear-predictor coefficients, 0 => let encoder decide (min is 5, de‐
fault is 0)
-r [#,]#, --rice-partition-order=[#,]#
Set the [min,]max residual partition order (0..15). min defaults to 0 if unspecified. Default is
-r 5.
FORMAT OPTIONS
--endian={big|little}
Set the byte order for samples
--channels=#
Set number of channels.
--bps=#
Set bits per sample.
--sample-rate=#
Set sample rate (in Hz).
--sign={signed|unsigned}
Set the sign of samples.
--input-size=#
Specify the size of the raw input in bytes. If you are encoding raw samples from stdin, you must
set this option in order to be able to use --skip, --until, --cuesheet, or other options that need
to know the size of the input beforehand. If the size given is greater than what is found in the
input stream, the encoder will complain about an unexpected end-of-file. If the size given is
less, samples will be truncated.
--force-raw-format
Force input (when encoding) or output (when decoding) to be treated as raw samples (even if file‐
name ends in .wav).
--force-aiff-format
--force-rf64-format
--force-wave64-format : Force the decoder to output AIFF/RF64/WAVE64 format respectively. This option is
not needed if the output filename (as set by -o) ends with .aif or .aiff, .rf64 and .w64 respectively.
Also, this option has no effect when encoding since input is auto-detected. When none of these options
nor –keep-foreign-metadata are given and no output filename is set, the output format is WAV by default.
--force-legacy-wave-format
--force-extensible-wave-format : Instruct the decoder to output a WAVE file with WAVE_FORMAT_PCM and
WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE respectively. If none of these options nor –keep-foreign-metadata are given, FLAC
outputs WAVE_FORMAT_PCM for mono or stereo with a bit depth of 8 or 16 bits, and WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE
for all other audio formats.
--force-aiff-c-none-format
--force-aiff-c-sowt-format : Instruct the decoder to output an AIFF-C file with format NONE and sowt re‐
spectively.
NEGATIVE OPTIONS
--no-adaptive-mid-side
--no-cued-seekpoints
--no-decode-through-errors
--no-delete-input-file
--no-preserve-modtime
--no-keep-foreign-metadata
--no-exhaustive-model-search
--no-force
--no-lax
--no-mid-side
--no-ogg
--no-padding
--no-qlp-coeff-prec-search
--no-replay-gain
--no-residual-gnuplot
--no-residual-text
--no-seektable
--no-silent
--no-verify
--no-warnings-as-errors
These flags can be used to invert the sense of the corresponding normal option.
ReplayGain application specification
The option --apply-replaygain-which-is-not-lossless[=<specification>] applies ReplayGain values while de‐
coding. WARNING: THIS IS NOT LOSSLESS. DECODED AUDIO WILL NOT BE IDENTICAL TO THE ORIGINAL WITH THIS
OPTION.** This option is useful for example in transcoding media servers, where the client does not sup‐
port ReplayGain.
The equals sign and <specification> is optional. If omitted, the default specification is 0aLn1.
The <specification> is a shorthand notation for describing how to apply ReplayGain. All components are
optional but order is important. `[]' means `optional'. `|' means `or'. `{}' means required. The for‐
mat is:
[<preamp>][a|t][l|L][n{0|1|2|3}]
In which the following parameters are used:
• preamp: A floating point number in dB. This is added to the existing gain value.
• a|t: Specify `a' to use the album gain, or `t' to use the track gain. If tags for the preferred kind
(album/track) do not exist but tags for the other (track/album) do, those will be used instead.
• l|L: Specify `l' to peak-limit the output, so that the ReplayGain peak value is full-scale. Specify
`L' to use a 6dB hard limiter that kicks in when the signal approaches full-scale.
• n{0|1|2|3}: Specify the amount of noise shaping. ReplayGain synthesis happens in floating point; the
result is dithered before converting back to integer. This quantization adds noise. Noise shaping
tries to move the noise where you won’t hear it as much. 0 means no noise shaping, 1 means `low', 2
means `medium', 3 means `high'.
For example, the default of 0aLn1 means 0dB preamp, use album gain, 6dB hard limit, low noise shaping.
--apply-replaygain-which-is-not-lossless=3 means 3dB preamp, use album gain, no limiting, no noise shap‐
ing.
flac uses the ReplayGain tags for the calculation. If a stream does not have the required tags or they
can’t be parsed, decoding will continue with a warning, and no ReplayGain is applied to that stream.
Picture specification
This described the specification used for the --picture option. [TYPE]|[MIME-TYPE]|[DESCRIP‐
TION]|[WIDTHxHEIGHTxDEPTH[/COLORS]]|FILE
TYPE is optional; it is a number from one of:
0. Other
1. 32x32 pixels `file icon' (PNG only)
2. Other file icon
3. Cover (front)
4. Cover (back)
5. Leaflet page
6. Media (e.g. label side of CD)
7. Lead artist/lead performer/soloist
8. Artist/performer
9. Conductor
10. Band/Orchestra
11. Composer
12. Lyricist/text writer
13. Recording Location
14. During recording
15. During performance
16. Movie/video screen capture
17. A bright coloured fish
18. Illustration
19. Band/artist logotype
20. Publisher/Studio logotype
The default is 3 (front cover). There may only be one picture each of type 1 and 2 in a file.
MIME-TYPE is optional; if left blank, it will be detected from the file. For best compatibility with
players, use pictures with MIME type image/jpeg or image/png. The MIME type can also be --> to mean that
FILE is actually a URL to an image, though this use is discouraged.
DESCRIPTION is optional; the default is an empty string.
The next part specifies the resolution and color information. If the MIME-TYPE is image/jpeg, image/png,
or image/gif, you can usually leave this empty and they can be detected from the file. Otherwise, you
must specify the width in pixels, height in pixels, and color depth in bits-per-pixel. If the image has
indexed colors you should also specify the number of colors used. When manually specified, it is not
checked against the file for accuracy.
FILE is the path to the picture file to be imported, or the URL if MIME type is -->
For example, “|image/jpeg|||../cover.jpg” will embed the JPEG file at ../cover.jpg, defaulting to type 3
(front cover) and an empty description. The resolution and color info will be retrieved from the file
itself.
The specification “4|-->|CD|320x300x24/173|http://blah.blah/backcover.tiff” will embed the given URL,
with type 4 (back cover), description “CD”, and a manually specified resolution of 320x300, 24 bits-per-
pixel, and 173 colors. The file at the URL will not be fetched; the URL itself is stored in the PICTURE
metadata block.
Apodization functions
To improve LPC analysis, audio data is windowed . The window can be selected with one or more -A op‐
tions. Possible functions are: bartlett, bartlett_hann, blackman, blackman_harris_4term_92db, connes,
flattop, gauss(STDDEV), hamming, hann, kaiser_bessel, nuttall, rectangle, triangle, tukey(P), par‐
tial_tukey(n[/ov[/P]]), punchout_tukey(n[/ov[/P]]), subdivide_tukey(n[/P]) welch.
• For gauss(STDDEV), STDDEV is the standard deviation (0<STDDEV<=0.5).
• For tukey(P), P specifies the fraction of the window that is tapered (0<=P<=1; P=0 corresponds to “rec‐
tangle” and P=1 corresponds to “hann”).
• For partial_tukey(n) and punchout_tukey(n), n apodization functions are added that span different parts
of each block. Values of 2 to 6 seem to yield sane results. If necessary, an overlap can be speci‐
fied, as can be the taper parameter, for example partial_tukey(2/0.2) or partial_tukey(2/0.2/0.5). ov
should be smaller than 1 and can be negative. The use of this is that different parts of a block are
ignored as the might contain transients which are hard to predict anyway. The encoder will try each
different added apodization (each covering a different part of the block) to see which resulting pre‐
dictor results in the smallest representation.
• subdivide_tukey(n) is a more efficient reimplementation of partial_tukey and punchout_tukey taken to‐
gether, recycling as much data as possible. It combines all possible non-redundant partial_tukey(n)
and punchout_tukey(n) up to the n specified. Specifying subdivide_tukey(3) is equivalent to specifying
tukey, partial_tukey(2), partial_tukey(3) and punchout_tukey(3), specifying subdivide_tukey(5) equiva‐
lently adds partial_tukey(4), punchout_tukey(4), partial_tukey(5) and punchout_tukey(5). To be able to
reuse data as much as possible, the tukey taper is taken equal for all windows, and the P specified is
applied for the smallest used window. In other words, subdivide_tukey(2/0.5) results in a taper equal
to that of tukey(0.25) and subdivide_tukey(5) in a taper equal to that of tukey(0.1). The default P
for subdivide_tukey when none is specified is 0.5.
Note that P, STDDEV and ov are locale specific, so a comma as decimal separator might be required instead
of a dot. Use scientific notation for a locale-independent specification, for example tukey(5e-1) in‐
stead of tukey(0.5) or tukey(0,5).
More than one -A option (up to 32) may be used. Any function that is specified erroneously is silently
dropped. The encoder chooses suitable defaults in the absence of any -A options; any -A option specified
replaces the default(s).
When more than one function is specified, then for every subframe the encoder will try each of them sepa‐
rately and choose the window that results in the smallest compressed subframe. Multiple functions can
greatly increase the encoding time.
SEE ALSO
metaflac(1)
AUTHOR
This manual page was initially written by Matt Zimmerman <mdz@debian.org> for the Debian GNU/Linux system
(but may be used by others). It has been kept up-to-date by the Xiph.org Foundation.
Version 1.4.3 flac(1)