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jaws01

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 3, 2006
65
0
I have most of my music collection in MP3 format on a external hard drive, but I would like to import some of the MP3's that I listen to mainly to my macbook, but I want to be in ACC format as soon as I import it. Is this possible?
 
While it's possible to transcode from MP3 to AAC, you'll lose quality. It's better to re-rip from the CDs, or just keep them in MP3.

I think you'll need a third-party app if you want to "transcode on copy".
 
if you're using a mac, just hold down option (alt) and click on the "advanced" menue and select "Convert to AAC" this will bring up a dialog box that you can use to navagate to your mp3's select the main folder and iTunes will convert them to AAC for you and kiip all the info in the tags.

* note 1 * if you dont hold down alt you will see "convert selection to AAC" this option only works with songs already in your library.

* note 2 * Unless you have the MP3's encoded at a Higher bit rate (maybe 256kbps or higher) i wouldnt bother transcoding your music to AAC, its realy just a waste of time and you may loose quality. ALL iPods play MP3 aswell as AAC i think its only the Shuffles that cant ure the Lossless formats
 
if you're using a mac, just hold down option (alt) and click on the "advanced" menue and select "Convert to AAC" this will bring up a dialog box that you can use to navagate to your mp3's select the main folder and iTunes will convert them to AAC for you and kiip all the info in the tags.

That's handy :)
 
I have most of my music collection in MP3 format on a external hard drive, but I would like to import some of the MP3's that I listen to mainly to my macbook, but I want to be in ACC format as soon as I import it. Is this possible?

Yes, but DON'T DO IT.

Your MacBook will play music in MP3 format just fine. Your iPod will play music in MP3 format just fine. Any other MP3 player will play music in MP3 format just fine. By converting to AAC (and please note, it is AAC and not ACC. Being imprecise makes things harder for everyone) you achieve nothing but losing quality. Every conversion to a lossy format loses quality.

An analogue analogy: If you had a casette tape produced on a cheap tape recorder, and you make a copy of it on a very expensive tape recorder, the copy made on the expensive recorder will be lower quality than the tape produced on the cheap recorder. If you want better quality, you have to import the original CDs again into AAC format.
 
I definitely wouldn't convert these.

The only files I generally convert are things like books on tape where I want the tiniest file sizes and bookmarks, and quality isn't an issue.
 
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