Zipping wav files causes loss in quality?

Keregioz

Keregioz

Kimon Zeliotis
Aug 31, 2001
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Athens, Greece
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Ok, this is a potentially stupid question but I have to ask because I will have to upload stems on a server for mastering, and compressing them with winrar will make it way faster.
Wav files losing quality when zipped doesn't make much sense to me but I've heard it way too many times to ignore it and it's not like I'm an expert on the issue.
So, if anyone can shed some light it would be appreciated.
 
I'd really like some clarification on this too, not for any practical reason but more because it was my understanding as an IT professional/enthusiast that archive formats such as zip and rar only used compression methods that allowed the files within them to be extracted and "rebuilt" to be bit-for-bit identical to the originals
 
Just use 7-zip to archive the files - in file manager just highlight the files you want archived, right click to get to the 7-zip context menu and choose Add to Archive - this will open a window where you can select the details of the file and switch Archive Type to Zip and Compression Level to Store - this will zip all the files up with absolutely zero compression.

However all that said it's my understanding that ZIP archives do not damage files in any way - I suspect that the algorithm for ZIP would approach WAV files as simply archive material without compression as it inspects the file to see if compression is applicable. Many file types get compressed more while others none at all or very little depending upon content.
 
Yes, winrar has the "store" option too but it doesn't help in this particular situation. It would only be useful if it reduced the file size, otherwise I might as well send the wav files individually.
 
Zip wont damage files. It just wont compress as well on certain types of data; with WAV files that have a high noise floor, it's basically pointless zipping them.
 
Bullshit.

Source: I'm a programmer and I implemented archiving files to zip in a piece of software.

But zip doesn't take a advantage of the fact that the zipped content is audio, so FLAC would probably compress a bit better.
 
Don't listen to them, zip or 7z cuts a lot of 100 khz info. Use rar for a more vintage, saturated sound.
 
It seems the kind of talk that some audiophile with a TRS cable that cost at least 5k would have. "Cause 5k cables have that pure sound man, I can hear it above 20khz"
 
I have a rabbit that I've been meaning to bring in on a session and have him make sure everything from 20khz - 50khz is in check.

On that note, I did a bit of research. Seems I really need to get a Beluga Whale or one of these guys:

porpoise 75-150,000 hz

0.o
 
As I said in my post just use the store option in 7-zip and it will just group together all the files into an uncompressed archive - it really is that simple if your concerned about compression but still would like to collect all the files into one file to send to someone else.
 
Digital silence takes up 0 space when compressed, that's why. If you have a 45mb track that only has two vocal lines on it, it'll get compressed to like 2mb. This is half the reason why I strip tom bleed as I edit drums; it cuts the upload size down by a solid 100-200mb.
 
Zip is not good for wav compressing but it is lossless. Use FLAC. Reaper can record straight to FLAC and if you don't use Reaper as a DAW you can use its batch file converter to compress wav and other audio formats to FLAC.
 
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