Help Making FLAC Play On iTunes

[NorCal]

I have a ton of music saved as Apple Lossless, about 250 gigs. I also am acquiring a lot of FLAC files. In a perfect world I would use the same program to play both as well as my video files. I have been ******* around with Boxee, XVID, and Miro and like some things about them but not their library management.

For now I would like to use iTunes to play everything audio including FLACs. Any suggestions for converting FLACs to a lossless codex iTunes will recognize or expanding the codexs itunes recognizes?

Also, should I switch to using AIFF or WAV when I rip CDs in the future?

 

[Rambo]

I don't think there is a native way to do it. Two options are use a program to convert them to Apple Lossless or ditch iTunes and use Songbird, which supports FLAC natively, instead.

 

[NorCal]

Originally Posted by Rambo

I don't think there is a native way to do it. Two options are use a program to convert them to Apple Lossless or ditch iTunes and use Songbird, which supports FLAC natively, instead.

Um yeah, that's what I'm asking. Got any recs for a good program? Also, does Songbird support Apple Lossless? i've read about Songbird but have only heard bad things, that it's glitchy ect.

 

[A Y]

I've used two programs: Max and Fluke. Max is kind of the standard recommendation, but it didn't work for me. It converted from FLAC fine, and appeared to preserve all the metadata (track titles, artwork, etc.), but iTunes could never import that information in so I had to reenter that all by hand.

Fluke is an Applescript program that you run on your FLAC files, and it automagically puts them in iTunes, and lets iTunes play them. Once in there, you can convert to whatever format iTunes can natively use by the usual methods (ie. right-click on the track, and select "Create Apple Lossless version"). This method works for me, and preserves the metadata.

Max
Fluke

--Andre

 

[NorCal]

Thanks, I tried Fluke and it was being a pain **********. Perhaps I'll revisit.

 

[Rambo]

Originally Posted by NorCal

Um yeah, that's what I'm asking. Got any recs for a good program? Also, does Songbird support Apple Lossless? i've read about Songbird but have only heard bad things, that it's glitchy ect.
Songbird is getting better. Here is the audio support: Audio formats: Supports MP3, AAC, OGG, FLAC, WMA, WAV formats. As for an encoder/decoder I recommend XLD. Its fast, simple, and does excellent work. As you said, Fluke blows.

 

[NorCal]

Thanks Rambo XLD seems to be doing the trick.

 

[Rambo]

Originally Posted by NorCal

Thanks Rambo XLD seems to be doing the trick.
You're welcome. Make sure to check for updates. They seem to release one every month or so.

 

[deadly7]

I use Winamp. Natively supports every music file I've encountered. It also can manage iPods, as can a host of standalone software that doesn't suck like iTunes does.

 

[rahimlee54]

There is a program called DbPower amp. It will convert from FLAC to anything including apple lossless. It has a batch converter and I recently converted 200 gb from FLAC to lossless in a couple of hours. Worked great, the program does cost but it is an awesome program.

 

[scnupe7]

I just used Fluke and it was pretty easy. Just select one of more .flac files. Right click. Select open with Fluke and the tracks were converted and imported into iTunes.

 

[Bartolo]

Originally Posted by A Y

I've used two programs: Max and Fluke. Max is kind of the standard recommendation, but it didn't work for me. It converted from FLAC fine, and appeared to preserve all the metadata (track titles, artwork, etc.), but iTunes could never import that information in so I had to reenter that all by hand.

Fluke is an Applescript program that you run on your FLAC files, and it automagically puts them in iTunes, and lets iTunes play them. Once in there, you can convert to whatever format iTunes can natively use by the usual methods (ie. right-click on the track, and select "Create Apple Lossless version"). This method works for me, and preserves the metadata.

Max
Fluke

--Andre

I routinely use Max to convert flac to mp3. Most of the time, the metadata goes into iTunes fine, but some of the time it doesn't. I always figured it was some setting that the person used who originally ripped the cd to flac, but I can't be certain.

Andre do you use the 'stock' lame built into Max? I've never figured out if there are better converters for the Mac 'out there.'

Also, Max does have a feature that'll pull down metadata; I've not tried that, but it might solve the problem you mentioned or at least let you add the metadata back to the files before importing them into iTunes.

 

[A Y]

Originally Posted by Bartolo

I routinely use Max to convert flac to mp3. Most of the time, the metadata goes into iTunes fine, but some of the time it doesn't. I always figured it was some setting that the person used who originally ripped the cd to flac, but I can't be certain.

Andre do you use the 'stock' lame built into Max? I've never figured out if there are better converters for the Mac 'out there.'

Also, Max does have a feature that'll pull down metadata; I've not tried that, but it might solve the problem you mentioned or at least let you add the metadata back to the files before importing them into iTunes.

I only looked at Mac FLAC converters because I bought some music online that came in FLAC format, and needed to get those into my iTunes library with their metadata intact.

For normal ripping duties, I use dbpoweramp on a Windows Home Server with the special CD ROM drive they sell that's supposed to be super reliable. I drop in a CD, and it automatically makes an Apple Lossless version and a 320 kB/sec MP3 deposited into the appropriate places for iTunes, and gets the track title and artwork from the Internet. I forget which MP3 encoder they're using, but it's probably LAME.

If you're ripping with iTunes, use AAC. It's better than MP3 at the same bit rates.

--Andre

 

[Sherman90]

Download XLD. All you need.

 

[Mark0512]

Thanks, I tried Fluke and it was being a pain **********.