[WarriorAnt]

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Is there a reason why not? I mean, other than having it convert faster it doesn't effect the conversion process in any way.

I read from various sources that it can lead to errors during conversion if your processor is being tasked by other applications during conversion.
 

 

[ardgedee]

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I convert all my FLAC to ALAC using XLD.    I don't run any other programs while I 'm converting.
 

Unless your computer is old and slow, or you need to process a lot of files quickly, there's not a lot to be gained by that.
 
It doesn't affect audio quality or file integrity.

 

[WarriorAnt]

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Unless your computer is old and slow, or you need to process a lot of files quickly, there's not a lot to be gained by that.
 
It doesn't affect audio quality or file integrity.

iMac 
Intel Core 2 Duo,  Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz  
 
 I use it mostly for heavy DAW work while tracking video,  and then seprate heavy proccessing with photoshop and then Xfer of large completed audio/video files to an FTP server when I'm done.  
I wouldn't do any conversions during that load, but I'm sure internet browsing is OK though, which is wht most people really do with thier computer. 
 

 

 

[ardgedee]

In that case, yeah, I'd hold off running batches until I took a break from work to check email or eat lunch. It would have less to do with audio quality than with having the conversions slow down whatever you're working on in the foreground. (Edit:) In any event, there's no real point to quitting apps to run the converter. A well-behaved idle application doesn't consume significantly more in resources than no app at all.
 
For audio file transcoding, I use Max, which allows me to define how many files to encode in parallel. Dialing that down to one or two makes the app reasonably non-disruptive when I'm doing my own large-format image processing in Photoshop. If I'm not doing anything, I leave it at 4.
 
I'm not familiar with XLD. If it has similar settings, try experimenting with them.

 

[WarriorAnt]

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In that case, yeah, I'd hold off running batches until I took a break from work to check email or eat lunch. It would have less to do with audio quality than with having the conversions slow down whatever you're working on in the foreground. (Edit:) In any event, there's no real point to quitting apps to run the converter. A well-behaved idle application doesn't consume significantly more in resources than no app at all.
 
For audio file transcoding, I use Max, which allows me to define how many files to encode in parallel. Dialing that down to one or two makes the app reasonably non-disruptive when I'm doing my own large-format image processing in Photoshop. If I'm not doing anything, I leave it at 4.
 
I'm not familiar with XLD. If it has similar settings, try experimenting with them.

XLD does parallel encoding.  Mine is set to 2, I've never experimented with it but I should. I just assume 2 would be the limit because I have a dual core.
 

 

[ardgedee]

Probably not. It has more to do with the total resources necessary to xcode one file (processor usage, memory, drive access and I/O), times however many files you're trying to convert simultaneously. Converting a single file does not require an entire CPU core.
 
Xcoding one or two files at a time is unlikely to be taxing. Ideally, if you're dedicating your computer to crunching files, you want to find the sweet spot of maximal throughput without pointlessly burdening the computer. Designating an arbitrarily large number of files in parallel wouldn't hurt anything, but each file would be processed more slowly, which is why this isn't better than a hypothetical optimal rate.

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

Ideally, you want to set your encoder to however many threads you processor can handle simultaneously. For a Core 2 Duo and Core i3 that's two, for a Core i5 that's four and for a Core i7 that's eight.
 
However, running other processes does not effect conversion quality in any way, shape or form. All it does is make it take longer.

 

[WarriorAnt]

That's good to know because I'd like to crunch some conversion while I'm doing other things.

 

[olor1n]

I have all my flac backed up on a NAS. What about converting flac to alac (to be stored on internal drive) over a wireless network? Any chance of degrading the end result?

 

[ardgedee]

Nope. Bits is bits. It'll just go slower. The bottleneck will be the wi-fi connection.

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

In theory the bottleneck is the wifi but even at it's slowest wifi gives you 50 Mbps, far faster than any but the highest quality digital streams. You can (barely) play back 1080p video at that speed. Audio won't be an issue.

 

[Kristian Harley]

Just upgraded to 0.30 and now I'm completely unable to use upsampling anymore :/ The reason is the same as I mentioned earlier regarding my DAC not being able to handle the higher sample rates. My USB>Coax interface, the M2Tech HiFace, is capable of 192kHz and my DAC only 96kHz. Because BitPerfect only sees the HiFace the upsampling will automatically be set at 192kHz and at 176.4kHz if the 2x/4x upsampling option is enabled.
 
I would really wish for a manual option regarding upsampling. It would be nice to be able to determine the final samplerate - or at least an option where the 2x and 4x upsampling are separated.
 
Otherwise I still see great potential in this software. I'm looking forward to see how it evolves!

 

[agentsim]

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Just upgraded to 0.30 and now I'm completely unable to use upsampling anymore :/ The reason is the same as I mentioned earlier regarding my DAC not being able to handle the higher sample rates. My USB>Coax interface, the M2Tech HiFace, is capable of 192kHz and my DAC only 96kHz. Because BitPerfect only sees the HiFace the upsampling will automatically be set at 192kHz and at 176.4kHz if the 2x/4x upsampling option is enabled.
 
I would really wish for a manual option regarding upsampling. It would be nice to be able to determine the final samplerate - or at least an option where the 2x and 4x upsampling are separated.
 
Otherwise I still see great potential in this software. I'm looking forward to see how it evolves!

I'm working on it now! 0.31 will be out early next week, this fix will go in 0.32, which should be the week after. Once the feature is done I'll get in touch and send you a beta to test.

 

[iamoneagain]

Well I was definitely having more problems with 0.30.  Just browsing iTunes store was causing stutters. Also when selecting new song, it would occasionally start in the middle whenever another track is already playing.  Doesn't happen all the time, but never happened in previous version.
 
I couldn't figure out how to get back to 0.29 since I didn't save a copy but then remembered Time Machine.  Was able to restore that copy and still keep 0.30.  Just calls the other one original. So hopefully I'll still get App Store updates.  I like having a stable copy around so whenever bugs show up in new versions, I don't have to be stuck.  Even have an old BetterSound just for safe keeping.

 

[WarriorAnt]

I can't use .30 for very long before the skipping starts, and I only had .29 for one day.      Luckily for me I have 4 other players and BitPerfect only cost me five bucks.  It was fun while it lasted...