Gidluck Mastering just released a new version of its Live2496 software that encodes to FLAC on the fly. This looks very promising for stealth recording at 24/96:
Live2496 with flac encoding is now available as a beta version.
http://www.gidluckmastering.com/live2496.html (click on the beta version link)
It works in both 16 and 24-bit recording modes.
Flac recordings have been verified as being bit accurate.
An new dialog has also been added for the 'options' menu item. Flac encoding is set using a checkbox in the new dialog.
Preliminary tests indicate that cpu loading is about the same with flac as with wav recording. There is 40% less data to write, but extra cpu power is required to encode to flac format. One surprise for me was that all samples had to be converted to 32-bit integers for encoding.
The only way I could get bit-perfect results on the H5555 at 24/96 was to SD memory and overclocking the system to 472mHz.
This means that expansion pack recording with the CF or pc card drives will not be able to do 24/96 as I was hoping.
Any testing I did at 24-bit 48kHz came out perfect on all systems.
So here are my current recommendations for FLAC recording at 24/96:
Dell X50v SD (tested)
Newer hp's. hx4705, 27xx, 24xx, 21xx (untested)
H5500, SD only, overclock to 472mHz (tested)
H2210/H2215, SD, overclock to 472mHz (untested)
I will post additional information about flac systems as the facts become clear.
Enjoy the new version!
Gordon