Changing song formats to put it on Itunes?

[-Josh-]

I have a crap load of songs that can only play with a FLAC player, and they won't go into Itunes. I want them on my iPod, help?

Thanks,

Josh

[fistful]

You can use Max (http://www.sbooth.org/Max/) to encode FLAC into any format you would like. If you want to keep it lossless you can encode it to Apple Lossless and it'll play in iTunes or your iPod.

[nirvana06]

You can use Max (http://www.sbooth.org/Max/) to encode FLAC into any format you would like. If you want to keep it lossless you can encode it to Apple Lossless and it'll play in iTunes or your iPod.



is there something similar for PC?

[-Josh-]

You can use Max (http://www.sbooth.org/Max/) to encode FLAC into any format you would like. If you want to keep it lossless you can encode it to Apple Lossless and it'll play in iTunes or your iPod.

Where can I find Apple Lossless

[fistful]

is there something similar for PC?

Without a doubt, unfortunately I'm not familiar with any software on the PC that does this.

Where can I find Apple Lossless

I do not currently have Max installed but the apple lossless preset is accessed within the AAC setting I believe.

[balamw]

is there something similar for PC?

foobar2000?

Anyhow, I have my entire CD collection in FLAC. What I do on Windows is use FLAC -> WAV and use iTunesEncode to have iTunes encode it.

B

[-Josh-]

foobar2000?

Anyhow, I have my entire CD collection in FLAC. What I do on Windows is use FLAC -> WAV and use iTunesEncode to have iTunes encode it.

B

How can I use Itunes encode?

[balamw]

How can I use Itunes encode?

Readme is in the zip file. http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=35242

Essentially from the command line you can unpack FLAC to WAV and use iTunesEncode to convert and tag it appropriately. I can post a brief tutorial later if need be.

B

[nirvana06]

Readme is in the zip file. http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=35242

Essentially from the command line you can unpack FLAC to WAV and use iTunesEncode to convert and tag it appropriately. I can post a brief tutorial later if need be.

B

Can you please?

Is there going to be any quality loss when doing this process? I'm assuming a bit but still should sound better than your regular mp3 file?

that program is kind of old...got to be an easier way. Got to do more research.

Found a software that can convert but the difference is pretty big compared to the original FLAC file....

[balamw]

Is there going to be any quality loss when doing this process? I'm assuming a bit but still should sound better than your regular mp3 file?
None at all if you stick with Apple Lossless as the encoder. It's not quite as efficient as FLAC, but is just as lossless.

Sure iTunesEncode is old, but all it does is uses the exposed COM+ interface for iTunes, so it'll essentially be as new as your iTunes is. All it's doing is asking iTunes nicely to take an input WAV file and send it to the default encoder. Then it tags the file as you request.

I'm on the iMac now so I can't do a good tutorial until I'm on the Dell...

EDIT:

Here are the basics.

You can use the command line FLAC to decode a FLAC to WAV with the following command:

flac -d filename.flac

You can then add the file to iTunes in Apple Lossless using itunesencode using the following command

iTunesEncode.exe -e "Lossless Encoder" -t "Song Title" -a "Artist" -l "Album Title" -i filename.wav

So what I will generally do is have the series of FLAC files in a folder and automate the process for a given album

for %f in (*.flac) do (flac -d "%f" & iTunesEncode.exe -e "Lossless Encoder" -t "%~nf" -a "Artist" -l "Album Title" -i "%~nf.wav" & del "%nf.wav")

This will find all the flac files in the folder, encode and add them to the iTunes library and then add the tags. The Artist and Title are set manually, while the track name comes straight from the original filename. It then removes the intermediate WAV file.

I then use Tag & Rename to clean up the tags using freedb or Amazon lookups.

You could get fancier using tag.exe to pull tags from the flac file, but I found T&R to be faster. This was great when I was ripping my hundreds of CDs, nowadays I don't bother with this though. I rip each new CD twice. Once with EAC for archival and once with iTunes straight into the library. The only real advantage of ripping directly in iTunes is that you get the cddb tags which allow you to get any changes in the tags from gracenote without re-ripping.

B

[nirvana06]

one more question before i begin the process....

the highest possible bit rate for MP3 is 320...and there software programs that convert FLAC to 320 MP3 files. If you say there is no loss of quality then using method you describe is bit rate going going to be higher?

[balamw]

one more question before i begin the process....

the highest possible bit rate for MP3 is 320...and there software programs that convert FLAC to 320 MP3 files. If you say there is no loss of quality then using method you describe is bit rate going going to be higher?

Yes, the files will be just a bit bigger than typical FLAC files, but will have no loss in quality over FLAC or WAV. Apple Lossless is just Apple's take on FLAC, most likely to circumvent the no-DRM limitations of the FLAC license.

B

[nirvana06]

Yes, the files will be just a bit bigger than typical FLAC files, but will have no loss in quality over FLAC or WAV. Apple Lossless is just Apple's take on FLAC, most likely to circumvent the no-DRM limitations of the FLAC license.

B

okay , thanks a lot.

[-Josh-]

Alright guys - I'm confused.
I can't figure out what to use, I just would like my flac files to play in my itunes. I'm on a Mac, what should I use, how do I use it, and where can I find it?

May sound like a lot, thank you so much.


Josh

[balamw]

I'm on a Mac, what should I use, how do I use it, and where can I find it?
Max, as linked to earlier in the thread is a good choice on the Mac. Use it to convert from FLAC to Apple Lossless and add to your iTunes library.

There have been a few attempts at Quicktime plugins for FLAC, but none have really worked well and would not extend to your iPod.

B

[Nermal]

You know, after 9 days it would've been faster to re-rip from the CDs :)

I believe Toast can read FLAC too. I don't have it installed at the moment, but I'm pretty sure I've done FLAC to AAC with it.