FLAC apps with Mac/Toast 8, etc.

[Donnie L.]

Hi Mac Friends,

please forgive me as I'm a complete noob to Mac's. I am coming from PC to Mac. I'm a large collector of music especially live music. So, I've been using FLAC with Roxio on my PC and now I'd like the same but better performance with a Mac. I've got a new MacBook Pro and recently purchased a "out of date" version of Roxio Toast 8 (which maybe the problem).

I thought I could simply drag and drop a Flac source files or CD/DVD into the audio portion of Toast and burn a audio CDR of which I can do with my PC, but I keep getting coasters and mis burns sometimes locking up the computer.

Here's my post on Roxio's Toast 8 forum (which is a ghost town)
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Hey ,

I thought I would try one last effort before scrapping Toast 8 for this app. I'm trying to burn and convert from FLAC to audio CDR with T8. I upgraded the latest version and have a legit copy of Toast 8. I can play the audio from the FLAC source disc but with some drop outs occassionally, but I can't seem to simply burn a audio CDR from FLAC to play on a conventional CD player i.e. redbook standard.

I simply drag and drop the FLAC source disc into the audio "hopper" of the program, eject the source disc and insert a blank CDR to burn. However, when I do drag and drop the FLAC source files, I get a prompt stating the txt. ffp are "not supported". When I do start the burn I get:

disc failed prompt after a another prompt that says:

"Drive reported an error: Sense Key = Medium Error Sense Code = 0x02 No Seek Complete"

I thought Toast 8 would simply support FLAC ? I've been researching Apple's relationship with FLAC and it's all over the place with confusing info - so if anybody out there can help me that would be great

Sincerely,

Donnie L.

any replies and or feedback are appreciated: THANKS
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so, if anybody out there can point me to a good FLAC converter that would be cool and that program doesn't have to jive with iTunes - I just want to blow this stuff down to AUDIO CD so I can do what I want with it.

Many thanks in advance to any help or replies - Donnie L.

 

[ChrisA]

The best way to do this is to import all your files into iTunes. Use "XLD" to transcode them to Apple Loosless format. (And yes, lossless is lossless, period.) XLD will do batch mode bulk transcode and can use every CPU core.

Then from inside iTunes if make a play list iTunes can burn the list to a CDR
http://tmkk.hp.infoseek.co.jp/xld/index_e.html

I think this is a simpler method, XLD will automate the import to iTunes, just tell it in "preferences" to do that and then drag the entire FLAC collection into XLD and wait. Later you can delete all the FLAC files. If you ever need the FLAC file back XLD can create it for you.

And then why burn CDR? Maybe you have a car stereo that can't connect to an iPod? If it is to play thee music at home, just replace the CD player with a Apple airport express and play the music wireless from the hard disk, and yes, it's lossless. But if you do ned CDs iTunes can do that. You don't need Toast.

 

[Donnie L.]

is XLD dependen on iTunes, exclusively?

Hi Chris,

thanks so much for the info and reply! I did see XLD come up in my trouble shooting and it makes sense. Evidently, iTunes must have ways to combat the notion of compression since it uses MP4 primarily. I did see a forum that said the same thing that going through iTunes won't affect the "lossless" aspect. I'll take your word for it, and I probably can't hear the difference even if there is a compromise of the "lossless"

Q: Will the XLD program simply decode the FLAC to .wav and then I could burn it with another program like my Toast 8, and not depend on iTunes as the burner? Or is XLD dependent on iTunes?

As for having tons of audio CDR, it doesn't bother me as I like the old fashioned way of listening to music at home. In the car and mobile I will use an iPod on the iPhone. Heck, I still listen to LP's mostly with my all tube analog system.

Thanks so much for your reply and advice!!! - Donnie L.

 

[Donnie L.]

tried mac flac, XLD, and Toast - no avail

Hey Mac Friends,

Man, I've tried Mac Flac , it prompts that it needs to install binaries and can't find such directory? Tried using XLD, and it unzipped, but I can't bring up the program per se, is this "codec" issue? I tried Toast 8, but don't really want to try upgrading for money until I know that FLAC works with macs. Like I said, I'm new to mac's but I can't understand why none of these programs seem to do anything with FLAC. Toast was the closest, but these others I can't even get them to really load up.

Any ideas, what am I doing wrong? I just got my computer in early 2010, is apple writing something in the OS to prevent me from doing this app or something?

confused

Donnie L.

PS I'm getting ready to un install all of these progarms.

 

[Donnie L.]

Answer from Toast 8 forum via Roxio

Hey this is a reply from the Roxio Forums - I thought it would be good to repost it here since this worked for my issue

"It doesn't matter if Toast can play it. It matters if QuickTime Player can play it. I just did some checking and my G5 iMac running OS 10.5.x can't play FLAC audio files with QuickTime Player. Therefore, they must be converted to another format before Toast can make an audio CD from them. This is easy to do with Toast 8.

Add your FLAC tracks to the Audio window just as if you are going to create an audio CD. Next, click the Export button at the bottom of the Toast window. Click the Format button and choose either AIFF or Apple Lossless. Either one will result in a lossless audio file, although AIFF equates to the specs for an audio CD.

When that is done replace the FLAC tracks in the Audio window with the ones just created via the Export. You now can burn your audio CD.

These multiple steps are because Apple doesn't natively support FLAC as an audio format."

 

[ChrisA]

Q: Will the XLD program simply decode the FLAC to .wav and then I could burn it with another program like my Toast 8, and not depend on iTunes as the burner? Or is XLD dependent on iTunes?.

XLD's connection with iTunes is only that it can optionally place files into iTunes.

XLD can transcode to many different formats and place the result in any folder.

LD has no splash screen. Just run it and the controls are all on the menu bar. File-> open and so on

 

[MacUser2525]

LD has no splash screen. Just run it and the controls are all on the menu bar. File-> open and so on

Drag and drop works fine as well I keep it in my dock for when I need to do conversions oh and since the OP wants to burn audio CDs it converts to .wav too which can then just be burnt directly by most any program that does audio CD burning.