Using Spek to see if an audio file is really lossless after doing noise reduction.


I digitized several vinyl LP’s and couldn’t figure out why some FLAC files do not pass the Spek test for lossless. Then I saw that if I do noise reduction based on the vinyl noise between tracks, the Khz of the whole file drops and it looks like it’s not lossless anymore. Do I have to stop getting rid of vinyl noise to have a lossless file? The file sounds cleaner with the noise out but then it looks like an MP3 on Spek!

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To answer my own question, I now see that Goldwave noise reduction has many parameters that I don’t completely understand. Each one ends up influencing the results on Spek, so I’ll have to try different settings of Scale, Overlap, FFT size, etc., to make things work.

That doesn't surprise me. I use an older version of Adobe Audition for LP transfers and other audio editing work (though I don't do much these days) and the level of complexity and number of settings in these programs can be staggering.