How to convert FLAC to AAC...

[gusious]

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?

[sbking]

AAC, like mp3 is lossy, so you will always lose quality if you encode something to AAC.

As for the FLAC vs Apple Lossless, FLAC is better for general use (it compresses better), but if you use iTunes than Apple Lossless is the best option.

[gusious]

Thanks for replying sbking. One more question though. Guys here say that the best app for converting Flac to mp3s or aac files is Max(among the others). But what app should i use for ripping my cds into Flac? Is Max app able to do that?

[gusious]

Anyone you guys?

[Trainwreck707]

Originally Posted by gusious

Anyone you guys?

Max is able to rip to FLAC. I started with Max but am now exclusively using XLD. I feel more comfortable with my rips when using some of the advanced features you get with XLD—especially the ability to save a log of each rip. If you prefer Max over XLD, you might want to check out Rip. It is still a beta, but looks promising.

[iKitz]

Thanks

[dopipod]

Originally Posted by wheeeezy

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.

I have also had limited success with converting flac files directly in iTunes in the past.
I cannot, however, offer an explanation as to how iTunes managed this, or confirm whether you may, or may not, be going mad

[milbournosphere]

Originally Posted by fistful

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

+1. Max is an excellent program. Completely free (beer AND speech) as well. It supports multiple threads, which makes mass conversions much faster.

[miknos]

Tried XLD and it works awesomely great.

And it is updated often.

[stewart93]

in the past I converted my music collection from Flac to AAC so it'd play on my first iPod. It was a while ago but I remember it being a very good application. you may download it for a try

[macmadness86]

You could get this newer free media player called Clementine, which is written in python, if I am not mistaken. Its very quick and converts stuff nicely. Great companion to iTunes if you just want something that starts fast to listen to music in a folder without adding it to your main library.

Get it here

best wishes
--macmadness86

[emaja]

Originally Posted by gusious

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?

Use XLD to convert FLAC to ALAC that way you lose no quality.

lossless = lossless

You can listen through your stereo losslessly and enjoy pure bliss and then sync to your iPod while downconverting to save space.

[ppc_michael]

If you're comfortable with the command line, you can use the official FLAC tool to decode to WAV or AIFF, then use something like neroaacenc to encode it to AAC. You can make that in to one command by telling flac to output to stdout, and telling neroaacenc to read in from stdout, and piping the two together.

[keybaby]

Does any one know Max works with Mountain Lion? I searched "convert FLAC to Apple Lossless mountain lion" and found this FLAC Converter can convert FLAC to Apple Lossless directly. It also can work to convert FLAC to MP3, AAC, WAV, even 24bit WAV.

[wilsonlaidlaw]

I have been using XLD ever since iTunes stopped reading FLAC files a few years ago. I convert to ALAC. My only beef is that it would be nice to have a drop file dialog box open when you first open the app. It is all still quite menu driven.