From zero to several thousands
Of course this is real issue and a very vital to me. Let me bring this to few simple facts
A] MP3s can have ReplayGain attached to them- as a metadata. I can lower it by using MP3Gain
B] MP3s can have ReplayGain attached to them permanently. I can lower it by using MP3Gain [although the audio can be already damaged then]
C] FLACs can have ReplayGain attached to them- as a metadata only
D] I have no tool such as MP3Gain that would process FLACs in the same way
E] I edit audio in WAVe format
F] I have no knowledge if my audio converters take the ReplayGain metadata out of the picture before encoding FLAC to WAV, or o they retain it [and apply it to the outcome file]
G] It is very likely that I will have no knowledge if my future audio converters take the ReplayGain metadata out of the picture before encoding FLAC to WAV
H] If I could wipe out all tags from FLACs, I would gain access to purified audio; and have it in my WAVes
I] There is a war launched upon listeners: loudness war. And since around 2010 probably the last bastion of normally processed audio is starting to being massacred: score music
J] I do not know why, but every FLAC I process has most of it waveform presented in such a form that if it was an MP3 I would think of it: "aha, I forgot to lower ReplayGain and this right here was most likely pumped up by it"
K] Because of how FLACs look in audio editor and because of loudness war, I have no way of defending against possible clipping; other that applying a minus value to ReplayGain. Assuming of course that FLAC itself, or any other format including MP3, was not created from audio already damaged by way to much ReplayGain applied to it [or just somewhere along the recording / editing process], by some inexperienced or purposely wrongly operating person
L] Every time I hear few characteristic distortions in film music track I wonder, if it is the fault of bad file [and in particular ReplayGain attached to it] or is it just another salvo in the loudness war. The first one I can counter-battle, but I need proper simple tools
For comparison:
Since I started to use spectrograms for checking audio quality, I run every piece of audio through them
[It helps a lot. For example I managed to discover that for example a particular video from an official upload can have poor audio quality when downloaded even in HD mode from YouTube via site like http://www.clipconverter.cc, but has good quality when simply recorder via What U Hear method, and excellent when downloaded via clipconverter.cc but from Vimeo. And that's an info you don't get to now by reading Wikipedia sub-entry on YouTube's audio quality]
And so for almost 200 various albums and singles [containing a lesser number of tracks than albums], 2 of the albums happened to be fake FLACs. I could clearly see frequency cutoff lines, signs of [possible] compression and / or transcodes in those files: something I would probably not detect audibly [certainly not with my current stereo equipment] and something that none of other dowloaders seemed to notice
So if those two were done by somebody for purpose [or by lack of proper knowledge], how many FLAC files are there that are ReplayGained up beyond clipping point? Also 1%, resulting in a number not worth of an effort when taking into consideration amount of work I do in a 6 months time? Or maybe 10%, resulting in a number needed of extra attention even when considering my average monthly workload?
I hope this comes out as a coherently painted big picture and not ramblings of a mind driven by an audiophilia nervosa
