Why should i Flac?

[spcyrfc]

all of my recordings are in .wav format.  is this bad (why)?  should i convert them all to flac - pros/cons?

thanks

[Craig T]

tags, file size

if you use a HDD based music system, the tags are priceless for organizing everything.

[Scooter]

If you don't do file trading, and you don't care about file sizes when you backup your recordings, there's no reason to do Flac in my mind.  I've been told it's easier to reconstruct a .wav file if it's damaged than it is to reconstruct a Flac file.  So apparently it is safer to archive/backup using .wav format.

[rastasean]

What about AIFF? 

[darby]

What about AIFF? 

AIFF is only readable on a Mac
Mac can also read WAV
so you really don't need to use AIFF
except to burn Audio CDs in Toast
but Toast can also handle FLAC

[scb]

windows apps can read aiff, it's just not as common

[H₂O]

FLAC has a built in mechanism for checksuming through the FLAC fingerprint based on md5 (I believe)

This means that it is easier to tell if a FLAC file is corrupted vs a WAV file. 

Wav files rely on the underlying filesystem for checksuming.

[Jammin72]

You can always flac0 if you're worried about added corruption due to compression.  I love love love the flacs for tagging and playback via the PC system, it makes the collection so much more available and fun.

I've been keeping the wavs and flacs on a single DVD for archiving and making a DVD-Audio disc for playback of the 24bit wav files recently. 

I also put an mp3v0 folder in there for iPod/Car playback.

Now I don't tape as much these days as some folks so I have the time after the show...

We'll see if I stay as robust when the DAT transfer project starts.

[jacobmyers]

windows apps can read aiff, it's just not as common

I'll second that. But I'm thinking that the last time I saw an AIFF "in the wild" was about a decade ago. And WinAmp (equipped with the proper codecs) would play pretty much anything you threw at it, even then. Anyway...

Craig T and Scooter have the right idea. If you're not worried about tagging the files, shuffling them around the Intarwebz, or taking up inordinate amounts of storage space, there's no reason to bother with FLAC. With hard drive prices coming down, storage really isn't even a big issue. Still; I just bought a 750GB SATA drive for $130 but I'm still going to FLAC my newer recordings for the reasons mentioned in the posts above (tagging and fingerprinting). It does make cataloguing (and checking) the files pretty easy.