I’ve done a short test to look at how much saving lossless digital sound formats can provide considering the 20 or so gigabytes of data I generate a month. I did some tests rendering a WAV file from Reaper.
I used a single 16 bit WAV file of a P-51 Mustang downgraded from the original 24bit original arranged on a single track in Reaper then used the standard render option in the application to generate each file. The file sizes are taken from the windows command prompt as the standard explorer window tends to display “size on disk” which is not necessarily the file size – don’t know what additional things are allocated.
These are the results. As part of the test I’ve also included OGG Vorbis – I think that most people can imagine the savings if going to MP3. I’ve included the reference file at the top of the table and added in the resulting file size, how much space this would save and how big this is compared to the original. I’ve not played the files so I have no idea whether the renders were successful or not but I must assume they are.
| File Name | Encoding | File Size (bytes) | % saving | % of original |
| render_tests_mustang.wav | WAV 16 bit | 3,528,654 | ||
| render_tests_mustang.aif | AIF | 3,528,054 | 0% | 100% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_0.ogg | OGG Vorbis Quality 0 | 147,604 | 96% | 4% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_1.ogg | OGG Vorbis Quality 0.1 | 182,530 | 95% | 5% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_2.ogg | OGG Vorbis Quality 0.2 | 215,947 | 94% | 6% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_3.ogg | OGG Vorbis Quality 0.3 | 244,887 | 93% | 7% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_4.ogg | OGG Vorbis Quality 0.4 | 259,348 | 93% | 7% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_5.ogg | OGG Vorbis Quality 0.5 | 329,504 | 91% | 9% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_6.ogg | OGG Vorbis Quality 0.6 | 396,084 | 89% | 11% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_7.ogg | OGG Vorbis Quality 0.7 | 440,737 | 88% | 12% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_8.ogg | OGG Vorbis Quality 0.8 | 529,460 | 85% | 15% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_9.ogg | OGG Vorbis Quality 0.9 | 718,815 | 80% | 20% |
| render_tests_mustang_1_.ogg | OGG Vorbis Quality 1.0 | 1,065,815 | 70% | 30% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_16.flac | FLAC 16 bit Quality 0 | 1,536,320 | 56% | 44% |
| render_tests_mustang_1_16.flac | FLAC 16 bit Quality 1 | 1,532,669 | 57% | 43% |
| render_tests_mustang_2_16.flac | FLAC 16 bit Quality 2 | 1,529,202 | 57% | 43% |
| render_tests_mustang_3_16.flac | FLAC 16 bit Quality 3 | 1,428,272 | 60% | 40% |
| render_tests_mustang_4_16.flac | FLAC 16 bit Quality 4 | 1,428,331 | 60% | 40% |
| render_tests_mustang_5_16.flac | FLAC 16 bit Quality 5 | 1,419,175 | 60% | 40% |
| render_tests_mustang_6_16.flac | FLAC 16 bit Quality 6 | 1,418,948 | 60% | 40% |
| render_tests_mustang_7_16.flac | FLAC 16 bit Quality 7 | 1,406,657 | 60% | 40% |
| render_tests_mustang_8_16.flac | FLAC 16 bit Quality 8 | 1,405,965 | 60% | 40% |
| render_tests_mustang_fast_16.ape | APE 16 bit Fast | 1,378,608 | 61% | 39% |
| render_tests_mustang_normal_16.ape | APE 16 bit Normal | 1,358,408 | 62% | 38% |
| render_tests_mustang_high_16.ape | APE 16 bit High | 1,357,000 | 62% | 38% |
| render_tests_mustang_extrahigh_16.ape | APE 16 bit Extra High | 1,336,964 | 62% | 38% |
| render_tests_mustang_insane_16.ape | APE 16 bit Insane | 1,331,224 | 62% | 38% |
| render_tests_mustang_fast_24.ape | APE 24 bit Fast | 3,120,876 | 12% | 88% |
| render_tests_mustang_normal_24.ape | APE 24 bit Normal | 3,096,668 | 12% | 88% |
| render_tests_mustang_high_24.ape | APE 24 bit High | 3,094,732 | 12% | 88% |
| render_tests_mustang_extrahigh_24.ape | APE 24 bit Extra High | 3,081,804 | 13% | 87% |
| render_tests_mustang_insane_24.ape | APE 24 bit Insane | 3,077,728 | 13% | 87% |
A conclusion from these tests is that APE produces smaller file sizes that FLAC so if space is your major concern this is the format to go for, however it could be said that support for the FLAC format for playback is more widespread and has been included in some of the newer MP3 players released recently (the iRiver range has direct support for in some newer model and support via RockBox firmware upgrades).
Does this start to adress some of the issues, around storage, not just space issues, but archival format and archive media, archive risk etc?
For me, the archival format will be the original file on harddisk with a back up on DVD. My day to day review format will probably remain as VBR Mp3 but I may start looking at FLAC for distribution of sound.
See also “48Kbps AAC+ and 160Kbps OGG Vorbis Testing“