CRATEZip, RAR, 7-Zip, or Crate?
General-purpose zippers were built for documents and code. They see your session as a wall of random bytes — so they barely shrink it. Crate was built for one job: moving audio sessions. It understands stems, and it proves every byte arrived perfectly.
Try it yourself: take a finished multitrack session, zip it, then pack it with Crate. The zip is usually within a few percent of the original size. Audio — especially 24-bit WAV stems — is already high-entropy to a byte-level compressor, so there's almost nothing for it to squeeze.
Crate doesn't compress bytes. It decodes the audio, re-encodes it losslessly (FLAC for integer, WavPack for float), deduplicates repeated takes and bounces across files, and rebuilds an exact twin on the other end — checked sample-for-sample with SHA-256.
Side by side
| Zip | RAR | 7-Zip | Crate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Understands audio | — | — | — | Yes |
| Typical size of a multitrack session | ~98% | ~90% | ~92% | ~15–30% |
| Proves the copy is bit-perfect | — | — | — | SHA-256 |
| Deduplicates takes across files | — | — | partial | Yes |
| Split into upload-sized volumes | — | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Recovery data for flaky transfers | — | Yes | — | Yes |
| Free for the recipient to open | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Files ever leave your machine | no | no | no | no |
Percentages are share of the original session size — lower is smaller. RAR/7-Zip figures are typical for 24-bit WAV multitrack sessions; your mileage varies with content.
The benchmark
We ran Crate against a corpus of real sessions — stems, full Pro Tools and Logic projects, and stereo masters — and compared every output to the same files zipped, bit-for-bit verified on restore.
Why the gap exists
A zipper looks for repeated byte patterns. A 24-bit WAV has almost none — the low bits are effectively noise to it. Crate instead does what an audio engineer would: it reads the actual waveform, stores it in a lossless audio codec, notices when two tracks are the same take (on by default) and — on the Smallest preset — when a bus is the sum of its stems, keeping only what's unique. Then it reassembles a byte-identical copy and proves it.
That's also why Crate can be honest about being lossless: “lossless” isn't a promise on the box, it's a SHA-256 check on every file, every time.
When a zipper is fine
If you're sending a couple of MP3s, a PDF, or a folder of code, reach for zip — it's everywhere and the savings wouldn't matter. Crate earns its place the moment you're moving a real session: many tracks, big WAVs, a slow or expensive connection, and a deadline that can't survive a corrupted upload.
Free to download and to receive. $25 once to pack — no account, ever.