iPod How to convert FLAC to AAC...

There is a program called xACT which works really well I think. It also does MD5's if you have them to check the file validity. It may only convert FLAC to AIFF or WAV though but you can pop those into iTunes and convert to AAC.

Mac or PC?

Personally, I do this on my PC. FLAC -> WAV -> iTunes -> AAC manually, or using iTunesEncode.

B

I've used Max for this purpose in the past.

fistful said:

I've used Max for this purpose in the past.

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Agreed. Max is perfect for this task. It uses the same AAC encoder as iTunes for AAC (and a better one, Lame, for MP3) so no worries about quality.

Because Max supports multiple variants of AAC it can be a bit confusing at first. The flavour you want is the first 'MPEG4 Audio' you can select under 'Desired output formats', there you choose AAC. Do not use .mp4 or AAC ADTS.

Thanks for the Max suggestion

cant beat MAX!

mr.666 said:

cant beat MAX!

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Oh, yes you can.

Try XLD…

Morris said:

Because Max supports multiple variants of AAC it can be a bit confusing at first. The flavour you want is the first 'MPEG4 Audio' you can select under 'Desired output formats', there you choose AAC. Do not use .mp4 or AAC ADTS.

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I'm a bit confused.
I did as suggested, and the files comes out as .mp4
Converting a cd in iTunes as AAC comes out as .mp4a

Am I doing something wrong?

Several great suggestions linked above. Max, xACT, XLD are all good. I'd also like to point out AudialHub to easily convert and send to iTunes as Music, Audiobook, or Ringtone. It's one of my most-used programs.

isteen said:

I'm a bit confused.
I did as suggested, and the files comes out as .mp4
Converting a cd in iTunes as AAC comes out as .mp4a

Am I doing something wrong?

Click to expand...

The extensions do not matter that much. Try to add one to iTunes and see if it works and then try to add it to an iPod if you have one.

You can also use Max to convert FLAC to Apple Lossless so that you do not lose any quality, but it would take up more space than AAC.

Try a program called Switch... Works like a charm!

pbkiller said:

Try a program called Switch... Works like a charm!

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My bad - I got Max working.
I already have Switch installed - it good, but it can't concert to Flac or AAC

I'm very confused.
I have around 50 albums in itunes which were originally flac.
The albums were simply dragged and dropped into itunes which then converted them automatically into apple lossless. I never questioned itunes' ability to do this until recently it stopped after installing the latest version of itunes.
I've now read about these elaborate methods for converting music from flac to aac and I can't work out how itunes used to do this. Am I going mad????
Jim

wheeeezy said:

I'm very confused.
I have around 50 albums in itunes which were originally flac.
The albums were simply dragged and dropped into itunes which then converted them automatically into apple lossless. I never questioned itunes' ability to do this until recently it stopped after installing the latest version of itunes.

Click to expand...

You're saying iTunes automatically converted Flac files to Apple Lossless?

Wow!

As far as i know that has never been possible without using a QuickTime plug-in such as Xiph.

Perhaps you had that installed?

I'll give that a try but I certainly haven't had anything like this installed before.

XLD for sure. It is a bit more complicated than Max, but has a few extra options that I find necessary, especially for ripping.

Thanks for the advice guys. XLD won/t help as I'm using windows.
Anyway, can anyone explain why my itunes used to convert flac automatically when adding music? Has anyone else been able to do this?

I use both Max and XLD. I enjoy both for their different purposes...

I've also used Fluke and MacFlac...

Another paid option is Amadeus Pro which I got from a Macupdate bundle. There probably plenty others.

OK!!!! But can anyone explain why my itunes used to convert flac automatically when adding music? Has anyone else been able to do this? I didn't have any of these programs installed at the time.

macbook auto convert

I followed the thread above, installed Max, fumbled with it for a few minutes, then accidentally discovered if you highlight the flac files already in iTunes and right click you get an option to convert to apple lossless. Click that and it creates new files from the old; then just delete the old files (new files are above old files if you list tunes in music library by date). And these new files will copy to the iPod - the old flac files would play on the macbook but wouldn't copy to the iPod. That's using iTunes 8.1.1 (10).

Eazy Peazy Japaneze, as they used to say.

You guys are awesome. Just downloaded Max ftw!

One question guys. When converting from FLAC to AAC do you loose quality or not?

Edit: Oh one more. Which is best and why: FLAC or Apple Lossless?