Record M4P to MP3

[VacTacks11]

On the Windows side I'm able to record DRM-protected .WMA's into MP3. There are a ton of programs that can do this, but the one I use records through a digital soundcard, so there's no digital>analog>digital fidelity loss like with programs that record through the soundcard.

I would love to do the same with Apple Music M4P files. Do you know of a program that can do for M4P what I can do for WMA?

I'm not interested in stripping DRM. That's not my end goal here.

Thank you

 

[Julien]

On the Windows side I'm able to record DRM-protected .WMA's into MP3. There are a ton of programs that can do this, but the one I use records through a digital soundcard, so there's no digital>analog>digital fidelity loss like with programs that record through the soundcard.

I would love to do the same with Apple Music M4P files. Do you know of a program that can do for M4P what I can do for WMA?

I'm not interested in stripping DRM. That's not my end goal here.

Thank you

So you want to convert an Apple Music track to MP3 while maintaining the DMR so it will not play on any device? What would be the purpose of this?

 

[Rigby]

I'm not interested in stripping DRM. That's not my end goal here.

Perhaps you could explain what your goal is? If you want to convert DRM-free AAC to MP3, there are many programs that can do it directly (e.g. Foobar2K). No need to "record". Just be aware that there is always a quality loss (tandem loss) if you convert from a lossy encoding to another lossy encoding. If you want to strip DRM of music you own, you can do it without quality losses by signing up for iTunes Match.

 

[manu chao]

On the Windows side I'm able to record DRM-protected .WMA's into MP3. There are a ton of programs that can do this, but the one I use records through a digital soundcard, so there's no digital>analog>digital fidelity loss like with programs that record through the soundcard.

I would love to do the same with Apple Music M4P files. Do you know of a program that can do for M4P what I can do for WMA?

Audio Hijack Pro, anything that can be played on your Mac can be 'hijacked' (recorded) by it.

 

[manu chao]

If you want to convert DRM-free AAC to MP3, there are many programs that can do it directly (e.g. Foobar2K). No need to "record". Just be aware that there is always a quality loss (tandem loss) if you convert from a lossy encoding to another lossy encoding.

Normally any conversion from one format to another involves decoding the original file (aka playing it) and then saving the audio using the other encoding (aka recording it).

 

[Rigby]

Normally any conversion from one format to another involves decoding the original file (aka playing it) and then saving the audio using the other encoding (aka recording it).

Well, the difference is that a direct conversion does not require playing the audio through the OS's audio pipeline which is what many of the "DRM removal" tools do. So it involves neither playback nor recording.

 

[manu chao]

Well, the difference is that a direct conversion does not require playing the audio through the OS's audio pipeline which is what many of the "DRM removal" tools do. So it involves neither playback nor recording.

But it is the same digital data, just taken after it passed through another pair of hands.

 

[Tech198]

I don't thinks that's possible. DRM makes more sense on more "limited' like scope of formats.

 

[yg17]

On the Windows side I'm able to record DRM-protected .WMA's into MP3. There are a ton of programs that can do this, but the one I use records through a digital soundcard, so there's no digital>analog>digital fidelity loss like with programs that record through the soundcard.

I would love to do the same with Apple Music M4P files. Do you know of a program that can do for M4P what I can do for WMA?

I'm not interested in stripping DRM. That's not my end goal here.

Thank you

Yes there is. You're re-compressing an already compressed audio file so sound quality is lost.

 

[Rigby]

But it is the same digital data, just taken after it passed through another pair of hands.

I wouldn't bet on it. Both the playback app and the audio mixer may add sound effects and/or re-sample the audio. Playback/recording is also a lot slower than simple direct conversion. But I guess DRM-free conversion is not what the OP was asking for anyway ...

 

[manu chao]

I wouldn't bet on it. Both the playback app and the audio mixer may add sound effects and/or re-sample the audio.

Sure, there is the 'Equalizer' as well as the 'Sound Enhancer' in iTunes which one would need to disable.