Why do contracts mention AAC to FLAC masters at all?
Remote music and VO workflows email tiny AAC dailies while storage policies still demand FLAC extensions on LTO carts and object buckets. Searchers type aac dailies flac archive, rewrap lineage, collaborator only aac, hash manifest audio, and versioning freeze flac because disputes hinge on evidence, not suffix superstition. Sidecars should list decoder versions because future toolchain upgrades can subtly shift decoded PCM levels even when AAC bytes stay identical. Stem versus mix-bounce directories need different naming or mix engineers import the wrong generation at midnight. NDA-covered vocals stay controlled even when wrapped in FLAC—do not forward to unsigned mixers. Ai2Done keeps the master variant forensic: lock naming, pair AAC and FLAC hashes per version, ingest with permissions, write non-PCM-master disclaimers in email intros, and retain AAC until counsel acknowledges receipt.
How to archive AAC dailies as FLAC without pretending they are tape masters
- Open AAC to FLAC, pick the archival-master variant, insert contract language that FLAC containers may wrap AAC-decoded PCM without adding new bandwidth.
- Generate paired checksum manifests per batch, bake dates and version counters into filenames, and forbid overwrite uploads without ticket references.
- After DAM ingest, spot-check three REWRAP entries for watermarking and ACLs, set long-lived cold storage for AAC sources, and circulate changelogs for every half-second edit delta.