FLAC (lossless) to iTunes Apple Lossless?

Posted:
in Mac Software edited October 2014
Is there a Mac program that will take FLAC and APE files and convert them into Apple Lossless (m4a) for import into iTunes?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 38
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by KiNGME View Post


    Is there a Mac program that will take FLAC and APE files and convert them into Apple Lossless (m4a) for import into iTunes?



    I don't know honestly. Leopard's Quicktime will support FLAC however and that may make tools like this easier or obviate the need.
  • Reply 2 of 38
    pinkpink Posts: 6member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post


    I don't know honestly. Leopard's Quicktime will support FLAC however and that may make tools like this easier or obviate the need.



    Toast will do it
  • Reply 3 of 38
    SoundConverter also does this.



    Great little app. Got it just to do exactly what your asking for.



    http://www.dekorte.com/projects/shar...oundConverter/



    Very clean, simple and full of Cocoa goodness.
  • Reply 4 of 38
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Install the Xiph QuickTime component: http://www.xiph.org/quicktime/



    Then you should be able to open the FLAC files in iTunes, and to use iTunes's ALAC encoder.
  • Reply 5 of 38
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Chucker View Post


    Install the Xiph QuickTime component: http://www.xiph.org/quicktime/



    Then you should be able to open the FLAC files in iTunes, and to use iTunes's ALAC encoder.



    maybe I did something wrong, but I installed this and it hasn't worked at all, not on ogm files, or flac files either.
  • Reply 6 of 38
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    My mistake; the Xiph.org component currently doesn't fully work with FLAC. Seems to work fine with Ogg Vorbis, though.
  • Reply 7 of 38
    Actually, I forgot to mention that when I turned to SoundConverter (around 9 months ago now) I searched far and wide for a cheap/free/functional converter app.



    I can't recall why, but at the time SoundConverter definitely seemed to be my only option. Apps like these appeared to be thin on the ground for Mac.



    All the best.
  • Reply 8 of 38
    Ah, I found a REALLY good freeware tool. It preserves ID tags and even embedded album art from FLAC/APE to Apple Lossless and vice versa.



    http://tmkk.hp.infoseek.co.jp/xld/index_e.html
  • Reply 9 of 38
    Tried that free converter... can't get it to work. My console says: "permission denied"

    Anybody else have same or better?
  • Reply 10 of 38
    OK here's the skinny. I just did this last week, and there are two things to note from this great link that solved the whole problem perfectly:



    1. If you use the xACT converter, you'll lose all tags and have to retag everything you convert. Not good. Not to mention that you'll still have to convert from AIFF to Apple Lossless to get the files in any compressed lossless format.



    2. Xiph, used together with FLAC Importer allows you to play FLAC in the Quicktime player and other programs that support QT, but not in iTunes, unless you change the metadata of the file, which you can do with SetOggS.



    If you follow the instructions on the link you'll be able to play FLAC natively in iTunes, with all tags preserved. Or you can use iTunes to convert to Apple Lossless if you like, still with all tags preserved.
  • Reply 11 of 38
    Max!



    http://sbooth.org/Max/



    Quote:

    If you would like to convert your audio from one format to another, Max can read and write audio files in over 20 compressed and uncompressed formats at almost all sample rates and and in most sample sizes. For many popular formats the artist and album metadata is transferred seamlessly between the old and new files.



    Max leverages open source components and the resources of Mac OS X to provide extremely high-quality output. For example, MP3 encoding is accomplished with LAME, Ogg Vorbis encoding with aoTuV, FLAC encoding with libFLAC, and AAC and Apple Lossless encoding with Core Audio. Many PCM conversions are also possible using Core Audio and libsndfile.



  • Reply 12 of 38
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dizziness View Post


    Ah, I found a REALLY good freeware tool. It preserves ID tags and even embedded album art from FLAC/APE to Apple Lossless and vice versa.



    http://tmkk.hp.infoseek.co.jp/xld/index_e.html





    this works for me.



    i just drop the FLAC file on the application icon and it converts to ALAC. you can tell the application what kind of file you want to end up with by changing your preferences.
  • Reply 13 of 38
    mimacmimac Posts: 872member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by admiralcrunch View Post


    Max!



    http://sbooth.org/Max/



    Another vote for Max. Superb piece of software and its FREE
  • Reply 14 of 38
    saschkesaschke Posts: 67member
    Hey guys!



    I have a quick question: I'm converting FLAC and APE files with XLD to Apple Lossless - but all my tags are gone missing when adding the newly created files to iTunes. Can anyone help me? I understand that iTunes uses another tag format right now but I can't find a way to convert the tags or solve the problem in any other way...





    BTW: Max is not working on my system because I can't choose the formats under "settings"..
  • Reply 15 of 38
    saschkesaschke Posts: 67member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by saschke View Post


    Hey guys!



    I have a quick question: I'm converting FLAC and APE files with XLD to Apple Lossless - but all my tags are gone missing when adding the newly created files to iTunes. Can anyone help me? I understand that iTunes uses another tag format right now but I can't find a way to convert the tags or solve the problem in any other way...





    BTW: Max is not working on my system because I can't choose the formats under "settings"..



    Well never mind. Using XLD, converting to AIFF then to Apple Lossless directly in iTunes seems to have done the trick
  • Reply 16 of 38
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by saschke View Post


    Well never mind. Using XLD, converting to AIFF then to Apple Lossless directly in iTunes seems to have done the trick



    I Second XLD. XLD is the only Lossless decoder you will need. It's an awesome free utility.
  • Reply 17 of 38
    myapplelovemyapplelove Posts: 1,515member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by KiNGME View Post


    Is there a Mac program that will take FLAC and APE files and convert them into Apple Lossless (m4a) for import into iTunes?



    Sure, max and xld, IMHO xld is much better, and both convert directly to apple lossless. These are the only ones you ll need. Xld is absolutely fantastic and updated very very frequently.
  • Reply 18 of 38
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by myapplelove View Post


    Sure, max and xld, IMHO xld is much better, and both convert directly to apple lossless. These are the only ones you ll need. Xld is absolutely fantastic and updated very very frequently.





    I just tried them both and I have to agree that XLD is much better.
  • Reply 19 of 38
    s.metcalfs.metcalf Posts: 972member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by charlituna View Post


    I just tried them both and I have to agree that XLD is much better.



    Third XLD, one of the best free apps on the Mac! When ripping/converting it even sends conversions to separate cores so it blazes through conversion tasks on a multi-processor iMac or Mac Pro!
  • Reply 20 of 38
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by saschke View Post


    Hey guys!



    I have a quick question: I'm converting FLAC and APE files with XLD to Apple Lossless - but all my tags are gone missing when adding the newly created files to iTunes. Can anyone help me? I understand that iTunes uses another tag format right now but I can't find a way to convert the tags or solve the problem in any other way...





    BTW: Max is not working on my system because I can't choose the formats under "settings"..



    The "Stable" 2009 release of Max crashed when I went to select the Format so I downloaded the "Unstable" 2011 release and that worked perfectly. I'm on OSX 10.6.7
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