I used xdl, converted from ALAC -- > wav --> ALAC --> wav

 

The two wav files are in two different directories.

 

 

 

zsh-% md5sum *.wav

e9b48a469feff84092293186eff04e6c 04. Flume.wav

zsh-% md5sum ../*.wav

e9b48a469feff84092293186eff04e6c ../04. Flume.wav

zsh-%

 

 

The corresponding alac files differ, presumably because of the tags:

 

 

zsh-% md5sum *.m4a

43ee81e94b567157cdd4d9cbfd6d9082 04. Flume.m4a

zsh-% md5sum ../*.m4a

aa7d7481ea5582ebda3f027b9eb9c3b8 ../04. Flume.m4a

 

 

In xld the flac conversion has a variable compression rate, and I need to read the instructions after I am awake. Edit: Ok, I did it and it worked. It adds padding by default, and I unchecked that box, and generated a flac file from the wav, and then went back to the wav and get the same checksum:

 

 

zsh-% md5sum *.wav

e9b48a469feff84092293186eff04e6c 04. Flume.wav

 

 

In summary, I did this:

 

alac --> wav --> alac --> wav --> flac --> wav

 

All of the wav files are identical:

 

 

zsh-% md5sum **/*.wav

e9b48a469feff84092293186eff04e6c 04. Flume.wav

e9b48a469feff84092293186eff04e6c temp/04. Flume.wav

e9b48a469feff84092293186eff04e6c temp2/04. Flume.wav

 

 

Also, using the flac utility (installed via fink on os x), I get the same, using the same procedure as miska:

 

 

zsh-% md5sum *.wav

e9b48a469feff84092293186eff04e6c 04. Flume.wav

e9b48a469feff84092293186eff04e6c 04. Flume_orig.wav