[NTLUG:Discuss] Weird audio question

[Wayne Dahl]

Wayne Dahl wrote:
>> Hi all.
>>> OS - Kubuntu 8.04
>>> HP DV1906US laptop
>>> Amarok 1.4.9.1
>>> KDE 3.5.10
>>>
>>> I have a question about some rather weird behavior when playing some 
>>> .flac audio files.  I have 2 albums in .flac format that won't play 
>>> properly in Amarok or Noatun or mplayer...but play just fine, although 
>>> with lowered volume in VLC.  The songs seem to start ok in Amarok, but 
>>>     
>>>       
Ok, more info.  K3b has the FLAC decoder listed as one of the plugins 
and has no problem adding the Eagles files to an audio CD project.  So, 
what would be the difference?  It would seem there is some metadata 
issue between the different sets of files, but I'm at a loss as to what 
it would be.

This is rather strange.  Check the output below....

wayne at max:~/Music/MP3/Secular/Eagles/Eagles - Hotel California$ file 
"01-Hotel California-Eagles.flac"
01-Hotel California-Eagles.flac: Audio file with ID3 version 24.0 tag, 
MP3 encoding

This is one of the files that both plays fine in Amarok and K3b has no 
trouble with.  When I pull this file up in Kid3 (ID3 tag editor) 
however, it makes no reference to MP3.  It also says it's a .flac file.  
What in the world is going on here?

Here is the output from the converted .wav file, which also says nothing 
about being an mp3 or flac...

wayne at max:~/Music/Wav/Yes/Fragile$ file Roundabout.wav
Roundabout.wav: RIFF (little-endian) data, WAVE audio, Microsoft PCM, 24 
bit, stereo 44100 Hz

And here is the output of file from the flac file that won't play 
correctly...

wayne at max:~/Music/MP3/Secular/Yes/Fragile$ file Roundabout.flac
Roundabout.flac: FLAC audio bitstream data, 24 bit, stereo, 44.1 kHz, 
22476300 samples

And yet, K3b doesn't like either the .wav or the .flac of Roundabout, 
but it likes the Eagles files just fine.

Am I wrong here or doesn't that look like it should?  What am I missing?

Oh, btw, I can tell Amarok to play the .wav file and it will now...but 
it won't import it into the database and it tells me it can't change the 
tag for the file.  ?

-- 
Wayne Dahl
No electrons were abused in any way by any Microsoft product in the creation or sending of this email.
OS: Kubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron on an HP DV9620US laptop