Converting FLAC files to Apple Lossless (m4a) files

marty

Well-Known Member

Apr 20, 2010

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• May 13, 2010

• #1

I was recently given a nice 100G music library on a portable Passport drive by a friend. The music files are formatted in FLAC. I use iTunes on a Mac and the files will not open or play on my computer. I tried to investigate the possibility of converting the files to m4a (Apple Lossless) and found some programs that will apparently let me convert them 1 song at a time. Unfortunately I do not plan on living to 120, which is the time I estimate it would take if I did these one song at a time.

Does anyone know of an easy way to do batch file conversion from FLAC to Apple Lossless? I have no intention of using iTunes on a PC and wish to enter the songs into my Mac iTunes library.

Thanks in advance.

 

vinylphilemag

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Apr 30, 2010

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• May 14, 2010

• #2

Not exactly a helpful answer, I know, but this raises one of my beefs with Apple: Steve Jobs was recently writing (in his tirade against Adobe Flash) about how Apple supports open standards. If that's the case, why doesn't iTunes support FLAC and Ogg? They're both free, open standards, so Apple should put their money where Steve's mouth is an support them! Oh, and Java is an open standard too: where's Java for the iPhone?

Modulo a few usablility issues, I love my wife's MacBook Pro, but Apple's welded-shut proprietoryness gives me pause.

 

J

Jay_S

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Apr 20, 2010

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• May 14, 2010

• #3

For purposes of discussion I'll assume that this music library consists of recordings in the public domain.

If you have access to a Windows computer, look into dBpoweramp Music Converter: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm This program has a batch mode that allows converting between a number of formats, including FLAC and Apple Lossless. You may need to download one or more codecs but once set up, this program works extremely well.

 

J

Jay_S

WBF Founding Member

Apr 20, 2010

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San Francisco - East Bay

• May 14, 2010

• #4

An alternative is to use the VLC media player. See: http://www.videolan.org

This will play your FLAC files without the need for conversion. VLC can theoretically work with AirTunes but the setup is not easy.

 

Last edited: May 15, 2010

M

maluisik

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Jul 22, 2014

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• Jul 22, 2014

• #5

I use a software to convert FLAC to Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV, MP3, AAC on Mac.

In fact, it also has Windows version, really great app. the only limit is it is shareware need to pay money. Anyway, i think it is worth for that.

 

rbbert

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Dec 12, 2010

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• Oct 24, 2014

• #6

(free) XLD for Mac will convert all your files from almost any format to almost any other, and it will do it fairly quickly. Like all other Mac programs, tho, it won't "decode" HDCD.

For ripping CD's and pretty much every other audio file transcoding it is the obvious choice.

 

A

atseaconfused

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Jun 30, 2015

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• Jun 30, 2015

• #7

I prefer iDealshare VideoGo.
It supports directly drag and drop the FLAC folder and batch convert FLAC files to Apple Lossless ALAC M4A.

It also can convert FLAC to WAV, AIFF, AC3, AAC, WMA, etc audio format.

It even convert audio files to FLAC or convert video to FLAC.

 

A

adyc

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Jan 5, 2013

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• Jul 1, 2015

• #8

There is a Mac version of dbpoweramp. Very good for batch converting .

 

Chris F

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Oct 17, 2014

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Ottawa, ON, Canada

• Jul 2, 2015

• #9

+1 for OSX dBpoweramp. Indispensable piece of software.

The only thing I don't like about it is that it does not use the Apple encoder for AAC on OSX. There is probably a reason for that but it's a bit of a bummer since I feel Apple has had the best AAC encoder for some time now.

 

C

caesar

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May 30, 2010

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• Jul 2, 2015

• #10

Gentlemen,

In my experience, some dacs definitely sound better playing WAV files than FLAC files. Apparently this is due to the fact that it takes extra processing power to uncompress the FLAC file while playing music at the same time, which decreases sound quality.

Is converting the FLAC file to WAV using dbPoweramp the sound same thing as ripping the file to WAV in the first place? We all know the theoretical answer. Yet, has anyone tried this on a very resolving high end system?

 

rbbert

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Dec 12, 2010

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• Jul 2, 2015

• #11

If the WAV files are identical, and the playback pathway is the same, I would have to think any differences are in the imagination of the listener. More to the point, you can't rip hi-res PCM files that are sold only as downloads; you get them as FLACs regardless of what format you order and end up with on your computer.

 

C

caesar

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May 30, 2010

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• Jul 2, 2015

• #12

rbbert said:

If the WAV files are identical, and the playback pathway is the same, I would have to think any differences are in the imagination of the listener. More to the point, you can't rip hi-res PCM files that are sold only as downloads; you get them as FLACs regardless of what format you order and end up with on your computer.

Click to expand...

Thanks. However, I just went to hdtracks.com, and Stevie Ray Vaughan/ Albert King 192/24 files can be had in FLAC, WAV, and others. But on the Jerry Garcia site, they only come as FLAC.

 

rbbert

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Dec 12, 2010

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• Jul 2, 2015

• #13

caesar said:

Thanks. However, I just went to hdtracks.com, and Stevie Ray Vaughan/ Albert King 192/24 files can be had in FLAC, WAV, and others. But on the Jerry Garcia site, they only come as FLAC.

Click to expand...

PCM files you buy from Acoustic Sounds, HDTracks, ProStudioMasters, Pono, Hiresaudio and Qobuz are sent to you as FLAC and if necessary are converted in your computer (by the download manager) to the format you purchased.