[IDK]

since two yrs have passed, alot have changed, can itunes now convert flac to alac or to at least 320k mp3?

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IDK /img/forum/go_quote.gif since two yrs have passed, alot have changed, can itunes now convert flac to alac or to at least 320k mp3?

Not out-of-the-box.
But after installing Fluke iTunes will play back FLAC files, and even allow you to transcode them to ALAC, AAC or MP3. Just verified.

 

[Skylab]

Wow, that is something I need to try. Thanks KR.

 

[wavoman]

FYI, we've got a thread on this going:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/be...verter-483055/

A poster there suggested Easy CD-DA Extractor.

Last time I did FLAC --> ALAC in FB2K the embedded album art was lost. All other tags survived, but if you like to embed art you're screwed. (I know there are lots of reasons not to embed art, the folder approach is surely better, but I do it anyway and depend on it.)

I will try the very latest FB2K and report back.

I currently use XRECODE II and it works flawlessly -- from FLACs it makes ALACs with embedded art that play (and show the art) on every iPod I have tested (lots). I use FB2K with the SOX plug-in first to make 24/48 FLACs from my 24/96 reference tracks. iPods play 24/48 ALACs fine.

We listened to some of these (on a RWA Vinnie iMod with an ALO LOD, and a Mini^3 made by Ying at YBM) using Grado HF-2's and beyer 770/250s at a planned-at-the-last-minute micro meet Saturday night in Philly (at the 30th St. Station Food Court), just three of us, but we all agreed the SQ was mind-blowing.

 

[Jonasklam]

I wouldn't recommend the Fluke way, i never really worked for me and caused quite a lot of trouble. I don't like messing with iTunes and force it to do things it isn't designed for.

Anyway, i found a program called XLD. This is really flawless! It works perfectly. Try it out at X Lossless Decoder: Lossless audio decoder for Mac OS X

Don't be afraid of the website, i know it looks a little "not safe". Just scroll down to downloads and DL the GUI version. It's a fantastic converter.

 

[blubliss]

x2 for XLD, just converted all my .flac to .aiff pretty easily. It does seem to crash if you try to do too much at once.

 

[Gags72]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krmathis /img/forum/go_quote.gif Max is just great for this task. Open source (free) and feature rich.

I converted 200 gig of FLAC files to AIFF and it works like a dream.

Took me 5 hours but great nonetheless.

Try it

 

[foureight84]

you can also use ffmpeg to convert flac to alac.

you can find ffmpeg here: Automated FFmpeg Windows Builds

the commandline is:
Code:

[left]ffmpeg -i "input.flac" -acodec alac "output.m4a" -map_meta_data input.flac:output.m4a[/left]

it's tedious to do this one by one. i wrote a powershell script to handle mass conversion. let me know if you guys want it and i'll upload to mediafire.

 

[Chez]

I use Media Monkey to convert FLAC -> WMA Lossless and then import that into iTunes, for conversion to ALAC or AAC.

This keeps all the tags except for 'Album Artist', which is easily replaced in iTunes once the conversion is done.

I find this easiest, as i use Media Monkey to do all my tagging already.

 

[chinesekiwi]

Who don't people just use the iPod manager plugin for Foobar2000 and convert it to ~192kbps AAC for their iPod?

I convert all my newer stuff to ~192kbps True VBR AAC (only achieved via using the Quicktime implementation of AAC)
~192 kbps AAC is better than VBR -V0 / 320kbps CBR mp3 scientifically.

 

[nsx_23]

Does Fluke let you add FLAC files to the library, then just transcode them to m4a directly onto the iPod itself?

I really want to move to a 160GB Classic since I'm running out of space on my 80GB 5th gen, but heaps of my music is already in flac.

 

[Chez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chinesekiwi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Who don't people just use the iPod manager plugin for Foobar2000 and convert it to ~192kbps AAC for their iPod? I convert all my newer stuff to ~192kbps True VBR AAC (only achieved via using the Quicktime implementation of AAC) ~192 kbps AAC is better than VBR -V0 / 320kbps CBR mp3 scientifically.

I convert all of mine to 320kbps VBR AAC, as i can't afford the space required for lossless and I can't tell any difference between this and lossless, through either my home or portable setups.

 

[wavoman]

I'm sticking with lossless! OK I'm sure you're right and that I can't hear the difference. But I'm too old to change. So it's FLAC in the non-Apple world and ALAC for the iPod/iTunes world. You need tagging and compression --that's that.

Which brings us back to the OP's question.

I have now tested everything, and the winner is XRECODE II.

It converts in batch, quickly and flawlessly, FLAC 96 with embedded art to ALAC 48 with embedded art. It will apply embedded ReplayGain values from the FLACs and alter the ALACs on the way out if your want to level that way (I don't -- I am going to use iVolume once everything is in iTunes, which will create Sound Check values using the ReplayGain algorithm and store them in the iTunes database, and then iTunes moves them over to the iPod so that Sound Check on the iPod will work well).

I cannot say enough good things about XRECODE II. The developer responded instantly to all my questions via email, and gave me a lot of tips. He even investigated my idea of storing the RG values in a iTunNORM tag in the ALAC ... and he would have added it to the program! ... but alas ALAC does not support this (Apple says this on their site, but you never know, since Sound Check does work with ALAC ... clearly the values are in the iTunes DB, not embedded, just like the way iTunes does a lot of things ... hence the need for iVolume as the last step).

I am totally happy, as I can continue to use FB2K for everything, not covert to dbPoweramp or Media Monkey. Of course I agree -- let FB2K manage the iPod for you with the plug-in if you decide AAC is the way to go. But I kinda like iTunes (I always have XPLAY 3 ready to fix things) on the PC just as a manager for all the family iPods, and with disk so cheap keeping the ALAC 48 copies for iTunes is no big deal.

I am so heavily invested in FLAC 96 -- XRECODE II is a life saver. US$19 is all. I am going to buy two copies to reward the developer (put one on the laptop just for grins).

 

[Dublo7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chinesekiwi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Who don't people just use the iPod manager plugin for Foobar2000 and convert it to ~192kbps AAC for their iPod? I convert all my newer stuff to ~192kbps True VBR AAC (only achieved via using the Quicktime implementation of AAC) ~192 kbps AAC is better than VBR -V0 / 320kbps CBR mp3 scientifically.

Source?

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nsx_23 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Does Fluke let you add FLAC files to the library, then just transcode them to m4a directly onto the iPod itself?

Yes and No.
1) Allow you to add FLAC files to the library -> Yes.
2) Trancode them to m4a (AAC or ALAC) directly onto the iPod itself -> Yes/No. If the setting is ticked in preferences it will transcode to 128kbps AAC directly onto the iPod. But for ALAC and different bitrate AAC you first will need to transcode locally on the computer, then manually transfer these files to the iPod.