Re: i think you're missing the point of the question
Originally posted by Mudbug
I too have a few burners NOT SUPPORTED by itunes, so the "burn" option in the top right corner really has no meaning on a few of my macs.
so back to the question - can you burn AAC files thru Toast - I dunno yet. I'll get back to you when I do find out.
Yes you can (from a technical standpoint) burn a DRM AAC file to a standard audio CD (CD-R or CD-RW) using either iTunes or Toast.
You can then rip it back to you computer as a Wav, AIFF, AAC or MP3.
Will you hear a difference when comparing it to the original DRM AAC?
Probably not, assuming you rip as a high quality file.
You should not be able to hear a diference between a 44.1KHz 16-bit WAV or AIFF and the original DRM AAC. If you rip to AAC or MP3, the difference will only be what is inherent in the compression to begin with.
Let's say you have an MP3 only player and want to convert your purchased downloads to the player. Burn your song to a CD-RW (just keep using one for this task) or CD-R. Make sure you're burning it as an Audio CD in Toast or iTunes. If you play this CD, it should sound exactly like the original DRM AAC.
Now rip the song from the CD to disk using a high quality MP3 setting (or AAC if that's what you want).
What's the quality of this new MP3 or AAC?
Well, lets talk in terms of comparison to original as opposed to yumminess. By this I mean doing an A/B test as opposed to just listening to the file and saying it sounds good (yummy).
Lets say you take the original store purchased CD and compared the song to one purchased through iTunes. Can you hear a difference? If not, stop right there, the answer is that the DRM stripped files won't sound any different either.
Listen closely for the differences. Identify the differences...not just the tin sound but all the subtle differences...like tasting a wine. You'll hear some differences you might actually like (yummy) because the audio is more compressed (in the analog sense).
Now the difference between the store purchased CD and the iTunes purchased song should be more significant than the iTunes purchased song and a high quality encoding in MP3 or AAC. The reasons:
1) During the original encoding for iTunes, the audio is compressed...as in made less complex. Analog compression was a big thing in the '70s, and today compressing the audio makes it easier to encode and tends to add a quality that most feel is yummy, but it does change the audio from the original source. During the process of stripping DRM the compression is neither undone or redone...the sine wave has already been compressed within the threshold of the encoding algorithm. Though it should be noted that it is different between AAC and MP3 as well as with different bit rates so there will still be a difference between the original DRM AAC and the stripped version, but much less than the store purchased CD and the iTunes purchased song.
2) You can encode the new file at a higher bitrate. You aren't limited to a 128K AAC. This with a higher bitrate there will be a lower difference from what is now the source and the copy.
Bottom line: It's really easy to strip DRM and still have good results whether it's MP3 or AAC. If there is a concern about audio quality its more of an issue of the original source file and its 128K AAC encoding.
From a legal standpoint you can't do any of this. It's illegal to disable or remove digital copy protection - period.
My argument (though I'll be the first to admit it won't fly) is that DRM AAC is not copy protected. It's more of a copy annoyance, and a minor one at that.
[edited to include moral standpoint]
I wanted to add that given the price of the music that Apple is offering...especially for entire albums, the ease of downloading and finding music, makes it compelling for me to purchase my music this way, and unlikely that I'll download files from sharing services, unless they aren't available through iTunes.
Stripping DRM is something that I feel is morally justified for personal use...such as transferring to my MP3 only player.
Your moral mileage may vary.
) crop up in the audio. Artifacts tend to self-reinforce, such that every generation has more noticable artifacts than the last, until all you have is one big artifact mess.
