Lossless Audio Validator

Purpose and scope: The Lossless Audio Validator verifies that a given lossless file adheres to standard specifications and preserves data fidelity. It supports WAV (RIFF), FLAC, and ALAC containers, and can be extended to other lossless formats via formal parser plugins. The tool computes and reports core quality metrics such as sample rate, bit depth, channel count, duration, and frame alignment, and it flags anomalies including header corruption, truncated frames, and CRC mismatches. Example: validating a 44.1 kHz, 16-bit stereo FLAC file should report 44.1 kHz, 16-bit, 2 channels, and a non-lossy, bit-perfect stream.

Conceptual workflow: The tool parses file headers, checks container structure, and extracts coder metadata. It decodes a representative set of frames to ensure bit-perfect reproduction by cross-checking decoded samples against an independent reference, without requiring full transcoding. It generates a structured report with per-file results, detected drift, and any metadata inconsistencies. This is valuable for music catalogs, archives, streaming services, and CI pipelines where reproducibility matters.

Unique value and core features: 1) strict validation rules for major lossless formats; 2) per-frame consistency checks; 3) cross-format compatibility checks; 4) exportable JSON and human-readable reports; 5) CI-ready integration hooks; 6) deterministic results given identical inputs; 7) scalable to large libraries.

Use cases: pre-release QA, archive migration, quality assurance in streaming supply chain, and format conversion auditing.