In any finder window use the Command key and the up-arrow key to move up a level in a directory hierarchy.
I didn't know you could do this - thanks for the tip! Alternatively, if your hand is on the mouse, command-click (or right-click) on the icon on the title bar at the top of the finder window, and the path will drop down. Both bases covered!
There are quite a few FLAC players and converters for the Mac. Just use one.
Flac is OpenSource.
It is something like the stanard for lossless. If you find a device with lossless support outside the apple-world, it is normally flac.
So everyone is able to use flac. ALAC is proprietary.
Quote:
Then I suggest you use .AIFF in Itunes which is Lossless. Or If you must hinder yourself to windows, use .WAV. Select this in iTunes as the import option and import it from the CD. Either one is Completely lossless. iTunes, Amazon, All the commercial companies sell downloadable music in a compressed format.
AIFF ≈ Wav + Tags
ALAC (Apple lossless) = lossless, like Flac but proprietary.
Quote:
iTunes, Amazon, All the commercial companies sell downloadable music in a compressed format.
If you take high bitrates like 256 kbit/s and lame (encoder) not really.
But yes, aac is better.
Quote:
You can download a plug-in to play and import all your flak songs in iTunes.
This is just a trick and not the same like real flac support
Quote:
Flac is not lossless and coming from a Classically trained musician, I prefer .aac. If you want Lossless then don't waste your time with flac. Go Aiff, or Wav. Do you even know what you're talking about?
Do you know what you are talking about.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hydrogenaudio
Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) is a codec for lossless audiocompression. Grossly oversimplified, FLAC is similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC without any loss in quality. This is similar to how Zip works, except with FLAC you will get much better compression because it is designed specifically for audio, and you can play back compressed FLAC files in your favorite player (or your car or home stereo, if supported) just like you would an MP3 file.
It is something like the stanard for lossless. If you find a device with lossless support outside the apple-world, it is normally flac.
So everyone is able to use flac. ALAC is proprietary.
It would be nice to offer other codecs. Even if Apple didn't include them by default but still allowed for iTunes to accept them when Perian was installed, for instance, it would be nice for organization. Same goes for videos, too.
Part of the issue is obviously competition, which sucks, but another issue is the potential for patent claims to crop up. This is a potential issue with Ogg if it ever becomes widely adopted by deep pockets.
ALAC has been reversed engineered so other devices being able to use that codec is possible, but the flip side is Apple challenging the validity of the reverse engineering.
I am starting to think Apple is becoming stretched with the Mac, iPods, iPhone & now iPad. So 10.6.x updates have gone to the back burner. Before all of you think I am crazy just remember the 3GS with MobileMe release and the bumbling step of MobileMe during that launch. It seems the programmers at Apple are stretched to the limit and OS x is suffering. Hence the slow updates in this round of OS X updates.
Plus since Mac Book Pro updates have been pushed back to yearly updates I am really wondering what this means for Mac using universe.
I am starting to think Apple is becoming stretched with the Mac, iPods, iPhone & now iPad. So 10.6.x updates have gone to the back burner. Before all of you think I am crazy just remember the 3GS with MobileMe release and the bumbling step of MobileMe during that launch. It seems the programmers at Apple are stretched to the limit and OS x is suffering. Hence the slow updates in this round of OS X updates.
Plus since Mac Book Pro updates have been pushed back to yearly updates I am really wondering what this means for Mac using universe.
1) The problem with MM was too many users at once because they launched with the new iPhone and OS and didn't step the usage, not because of poor coding.
2) The iPhone OS, Mac OS and AppleTV OS are all based on OS X. In fact the original name for iPhone OS was OS X iPhone.
3) This "stretched to the limit" concept always intrigues me. Apple is constantly posting new job openings and growing the company yet you make it sound like the same programming team from a decade ago is having to daisy wheel their efforrs during a workday between all these different areas of Apple's business, when in fact there are different departments working on different projects. The only different is that Apple does well to keep everything well organized so that compatibility issues, like we see with MS' products and services, don't occur very often.
4) Apple has been doubling their Mac usage every 2.5 to 3 years, or there about, so the idea that they don't care about their Mac business because the iPhone makes more money is ludicrous. They released SL in less than 2 years since the Leopard update, yet Leopard and Tiger took more than 2 years so if anything they've increased their Mac OS update cycle.
5) Do you have issue with 10.6.2 that is making you jones for an x.x.# update before it's ready to go live? As Macs get more popular the likelihood of quirky issues popping up will increase, even if their percentage of affected Macs drops considerably. This is diseconomy of scale. It really can't be helped, except for doing a better job testing your updates before you release it.
6) It hasn't been a year since the last MBP update.
I am starting to think Apple is becoming stretched with the Mac, iPods, iPhone & now iPad. So 10.6.x updates have gone to the back burner. Before all of you think I am crazy just remember the 3GS with MobileMe release and the bumbling step of MobileMe during that launch. It seems the programmers at Apple are stretched to the limit and OS x is suffering. Hence the slow updates in this round of OS X updates.
Plus since Mac Book Pro updates have been pushed back to yearly updates I am really wondering what this means for Mac using universe.
I agree with you. I've been using Macs since the first one, and since the dawn of iPhone, I've felt there is less focus on Mac OS X and computer hardware from Apple. And that stands to reason. But I don't like it.
They haven't updated the Mac Book Pros since June 2009. So 3 months until it will be a year.
To let people know I am Mac user since most of were in diapers. I am just worried (as an AAPL stock holder) that Apple is slipping on their update process.
They haven't updated the Mac Book Pros since June 2009. So 3 months until it will be a year.
To let people know I am Mac user since most of were in diapers. I am just worried (as an AAPL stock holder) that Apple is slipping on their update process.
According to MacRumors' Buyer's Guide it's been 273 days and the average refresh rate is 200 days. With the two previous refreshes being 8 months apart. It's longer than usual, but not year a year. The Mac Pro is now past a year with the average being 236 days.
I am using a mac since years. But till today I am still using my pc for ripping, encoding, tagging.
The software is better. If you know programs like EAC, dbpowermap, Foobar 2000, mp3tag, mediamonkey, ...
Ok, in the last month there was a progress. We have now XLD, Rip (from sbooth) and some other tools.
Okay.. Actually I do know what I'm talking about. All audio compressions have a loss of audio. Some handle it better than others. For the .aac format iTunes shines. LAME encoding used to be the preferred method for .mp3 which iTunes didn't do but there was a lot of their party LAME encoders available and LAME encoded MP3's play fine in iTunes. But if we are talking about Audio quality then my point is why encode? Just import it in iTunes as an .AIFF file and call it a day. There is no compression at full size. With any compression there is loss of quality. If you want to draw a line where the quality is that's up to you. But this is subjective to say the least.
I Am familiar with the programs that you are talking about and I have done side by side comparisons with studio monitors and Headphones with different bit rates and files sizes. The Audio Quality varies from different files types but at the end of the day.. It's negligible. If I played songs for you encoded by different programs without you knowing, your chances of getting it right all the time or slim. You stand a much better chance of hearing the differences in Bit rates than you do file types.
Also, you posted links for downloading FLAC files but these are from specific Artists. I didn't say you couldn't get FLAC files but what I said was commercial sites as in the ones that sell music in general don't have them. You usually have to get them from individual artist pages. However you can also purchase them in the mp3 format or aac.
Hi. I thought I would try to be a little more helpful than just suggesting you move back to Windows. I have addressed some of your issues below. I have no expertise in audio files so someone else will have to help you on that subject. This is probably not the forum for that so a Google search might help.
.
Very constructive Grouty. I, too, am a recent 'convert'. For years I thought the world would be a better place if there were no Apples, but then along came the iPhone and I thought "If this is typical of Apple's product thinking then I need to take a closer look at the rest." Next to catch my eye was the solid aluminium PowerBook, so I devised a need and bought one. Loved it and was using it extensively alongside (and in preference to) my aging XP desktop.
So I took the plunge and bought a new 27" iMac and am working through the process of transitioning away from Windows.
I'm still running my old box via an RDC Connection on the iMac, and have Fusion 3 with XP to run the Windows Apps that have no Mac equivalent. I'm looking forward to the day I can turn off the old XP box forever.
So far the experience has been very positive. But there are some cracks appearing (the Finder -10810 issue is a particular concern) and Entourage ... well I won't stray too far off topic but just wanted to say to prospective converts that you can expect some switching pains - lots of things ARE different - but if you have an open mind, spend the time researching the equivalents and view it as you would an adventure into a new country with a new culture - you should enjoy the journey.
And to those who feel that a switch to Mac must be accompanied by a switching off of objectivity: Sorry, Macs aren't perfect either. Yet.
I switched to Mac after purchasing my gateway drug, the original iPhone. Same reasons as you did. I liked the product so much, I gave it a shot. Couldn't have been happier with that choice.
I am kind of surprised that the 10.6.3 news seems to have dried up, although I understand that the 'must have' bug fixes for 10.6 are done, so now they simply have more time to get things right. In particular, I'm waiting on a fix for USB audio in Virtual Machines.
I am kind of surprised that the 10.6.3 news seems to have dried up, although I understand that the 'must have' bug fixes for 10.6 are done, so now they simply have more time to get things right. In particular, I'm waiting on a fix for USB audio in Virtual Machines.
Is there any recent news?
1) With Apple there is always a case to be made that a new product pulls resources from another team, which slows down these updates. While possible ? I figure they do it for it the super secret inner circle ? I think it's improbable for the team(s) working to fix bugs in SL.
2) I have to wonder if 10.6.3 will be released this week, but that is just a guess based on the previous 10.6.3 Beta releases. I see nary a comment about future Macs in the 10.6.3 code so I assume we're not waiting for them before it's released.
3) Isn't an audio issue in your VM an issue with your Parallels, VM Ware or VirtualBox, or has Apple done something wonky with their USB (which wouldn't be unprecedented)? Have you looked for others with the same issue and possible resolutions; I ask because my Fusion running Win7 is fine.
Comments
In any finder window use the Command key and the up-arrow key to move up a level in a directory hierarchy.
I didn't know you could do this - thanks for the tip! Alternatively, if your hand is on the mouse, command-click (or right-click) on the icon on the title bar at the top of the finder window, and the path will drop down. Both bases covered!
There are quite a few FLAC players and converters for the Mac. Just use one.
Flac is OpenSource.
It is something like the stanard for lossless. If you find a device with lossless support outside the apple-world, it is normally flac.
So everyone is able to use flac. ALAC is proprietary.
Then I suggest you use .AIFF in Itunes which is Lossless. Or If you must hinder yourself to windows, use .WAV. Select this in iTunes as the import option and import it from the CD. Either one is Completely lossless. iTunes, Amazon, All the commercial companies sell downloadable music in a compressed format.
AIFF ≈ Wav + Tags
ALAC (Apple lossless) = lossless, like Flac but proprietary.
iTunes, Amazon, All the commercial companies sell downloadable music in a compressed format.
Flac
www.linnrecords.com/linn-downloads-what.aspx
www.livemetallica.com
http://citizencope.com/topspin/topspin2.htm
http://funkiporcini.bandcamp.com/
http://davematthewsband.shop.musicto...75_8858&page=0
http://www.livephish.com/live-music/...uffalo-NY.html
http://www.thebeatlesonline.co.uk//p...y2rgEyqN3IEb-1 (The Beatles
At least .aac is better than .mp3.
If you take high bitrates like 256 kbit/s and lame (encoder) not really.
But yes, aac is better.
You can download a plug-in to play and import all your flak songs in iTunes.
This is just a trick and not the same like real flac support
Flac is not lossless and coming from a Classically trained musician, I prefer .aac. If you want Lossless then don't waste your time with flac. Go Aiff, or Wav. Do you even know what you're talking about?
Do you know what you are talking about.
Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) is a codec for lossless audiocompression. Grossly oversimplified, FLAC is similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC without any loss in quality. This is similar to how Zip works, except with FLAC you will get much better compression because it is designed specifically for audio, and you can play back compressed FLAC files in your favorite player (or your car or home stereo, if supported) just like you would an MP3 file.
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=FLAC
Again.. You have no idea what you are talking about.
Again. You don't know what you are talking about.
I am using a mac since years. But till today I am still using my pc for ripping, encoding, tagging.
The software is better. If you know programs like EAC, dbpowermap, Foobar 2000, mp3tag, mediamonkey, ...
Ok, in the last month there was a progress. We have now XLD, Rip (from sbooth) and some other tools.
Flac is OpenSource.
It is something like the stanard for lossless. If you find a device with lossless support outside the apple-world, it is normally flac.
So everyone is able to use flac. ALAC is proprietary.
It would be nice to offer other codecs. Even if Apple didn't include them by default but still allowed for iTunes to accept them when Perian was installed, for instance, it would be nice for organization. Same goes for videos, too.
Part of the issue is obviously competition, which sucks, but another issue is the potential for patent claims to crop up. This is a potential issue with Ogg if it ever becomes widely adopted by deep pockets.
ALAC has been reversed engineered so other devices being able to use that codec is possible, but the flip side is Apple challenging the validity of the reverse engineering.
But my hair stood on end when I was reading the post of webraider.
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
Plus since Mac Book Pro updates have been pushed back to yearly updates I am really wondering what this means for Mac using universe.
I am starting to think Apple is becoming stretched with the Mac, iPods, iPhone & now iPad. So 10.6.x updates have gone to the back burner. Before all of you think I am crazy just remember the 3GS with MobileMe release and the bumbling step of MobileMe during that launch. It seems the programmers at Apple are stretched to the limit and OS x is suffering. Hence the slow updates in this round of OS X updates.
Plus since Mac Book Pro updates have been pushed back to yearly updates I am really wondering what this means for Mac using universe.
1) The problem with MM was too many users at once because they launched with the new iPhone and OS and didn't step the usage, not because of poor coding.
2) The iPhone OS, Mac OS and AppleTV OS are all based on OS X. In fact the original name for iPhone OS was OS X iPhone.
3) This "stretched to the limit" concept always intrigues me. Apple is constantly posting new job openings and growing the company yet you make it sound like the same programming team from a decade ago is having to daisy wheel their efforrs during a workday between all these different areas of Apple's business, when in fact there are different departments working on different projects. The only different is that Apple does well to keep everything well organized so that compatibility issues, like we see with MS' products and services, don't occur very often.
4) Apple has been doubling their Mac usage every 2.5 to 3 years, or there about, so the idea that they don't care about their Mac business because the iPhone makes more money is ludicrous. They released SL in less than 2 years since the Leopard update, yet Leopard and Tiger took more than 2 years so if anything they've increased their Mac OS update cycle.
5) Do you have issue with 10.6.2 that is making you jones for an x.x.# update before it's ready to go live? As Macs get more popular the likelihood of quirky issues popping up will increase, even if their percentage of affected Macs drops considerably. This is diseconomy of scale. It really can't be helped, except for doing a better job testing your updates before you release it.
6) It hasn't been a year since the last MBP update.
Again. You don't know what you are talking about.
I am using a mac since years. But till today I am still using my pc for ripping, encoding, tagging.
The software is better. If you know programs like EAC, dbpowermap, Foobar 2000, mp3tag, mediamonkey, ...
Ok, in the last month there was a progress. We have now XLD, Rip (from sbooth) and some other tools.
I guess you know about Max? http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19873/max
I am starting to think Apple is becoming stretched with the Mac, iPods, iPhone & now iPad. So 10.6.x updates have gone to the back burner. Before all of you think I am crazy just remember the 3GS with MobileMe release and the bumbling step of MobileMe during that launch. It seems the programmers at Apple are stretched to the limit and OS x is suffering. Hence the slow updates in this round of OS X updates.
Plus since Mac Book Pro updates have been pushed back to yearly updates I am really wondering what this means for Mac using universe.
I agree with you. I've been using Macs since the first one, and since the dawn of iPhone, I've felt there is less focus on Mac OS X and computer hardware from Apple. And that stands to reason. But I don't like it.
It hasn't been a year since the last MBP update.
They haven't updated the Mac Book Pros since June 2009. So 3 months until it will be a year.
To let people know I am Mac user since most of were in diapers. I am just worried (as an AAPL stock holder) that Apple is slipping on their update process.
They haven't updated the Mac Book Pros since June 2009. So 3 months until it will be a year.
To let people know I am Mac user since most of were in diapers. I am just worried (as an AAPL stock holder) that Apple is slipping on their update process.
According to MacRumors' Buyer's Guide it's been 273 days and the average refresh rate is 200 days. With the two previous refreshes being 8 months apart. It's longer than usual, but not year a year. The Mac Pro is now past a year with the average being 236 days.
Again. You don't know what you are talking about.
I am using a mac since years. But till today I am still using my pc for ripping, encoding, tagging.
The software is better. If you know programs like EAC, dbpowermap, Foobar 2000, mp3tag, mediamonkey, ...
Ok, in the last month there was a progress. We have now XLD, Rip (from sbooth) and some other tools.
Okay.. Actually I do know what I'm talking about. All audio compressions have a loss of audio. Some handle it better than others. For the .aac format iTunes shines. LAME encoding used to be the preferred method for .mp3 which iTunes didn't do but there was a lot of their party LAME encoders available and LAME encoded MP3's play fine in iTunes. But if we are talking about Audio quality then my point is why encode? Just import it in iTunes as an .AIFF file and call it a day. There is no compression at full size. With any compression there is loss of quality. If you want to draw a line where the quality is that's up to you. But this is subjective to say the least.
I Am familiar with the programs that you are talking about and I have done side by side comparisons with studio monitors and Headphones with different bit rates and files sizes. The Audio Quality varies from different files types but at the end of the day.. It's negligible. If I played songs for you encoded by different programs without you knowing, your chances of getting it right all the time or slim. You stand a much better chance of hearing the differences in Bit rates than you do file types.
Also, you posted links for downloading FLAC files but these are from specific Artists. I didn't say you couldn't get FLAC files but what I said was commercial sites as in the ones that sell music in general don't have them. You usually have to get them from individual artist pages. However you can also purchase them in the mp3 format or aac.
yeah, i may be going out on a limb here, but i'm guessing windoze has always been beta.
Windoze has always been in alpha!
Hi. I thought I would try to be a little more helpful than just suggesting you move back to Windows.
.
Very constructive Grouty. I, too, am a recent 'convert'. For years I thought the world would be a better place if there were no Apples, but then along came the iPhone and I thought "If this is typical of Apple's product thinking then I need to take a closer look at the rest." Next to catch my eye was the solid aluminium PowerBook, so I devised a need and bought one. Loved it and was using it extensively alongside (and in preference to) my aging XP desktop.
So I took the plunge and bought a new 27" iMac and am working through the process of transitioning away from Windows.
I'm still running my old box via an RDC Connection on the iMac, and have Fusion 3 with XP to run the Windows Apps that have no Mac equivalent. I'm looking forward to the day I can turn off the old XP box forever.
So far the experience has been very positive. But there are some cracks appearing (the Finder -10810 issue is a particular concern) and Entourage ... well I won't stray too far off topic but just wanted to say to prospective converts that you can expect some switching pains - lots of things ARE different - but if you have an open mind, spend the time researching the equivalents and view it as you would an adventure into a new country with a new culture - you should enjoy the journey.
And to those who feel that a switch to Mac must be accompanied by a switching off of objectivity: Sorry, Macs aren't perfect either. Yet.
I am kind of surprised that the 10.6.3 news seems to have dried up, although I understand that the 'must have' bug fixes for 10.6 are done, so now they simply have more time to get things right. In particular, I'm waiting on a fix for USB audio in Virtual Machines.
Is there any recent news?
I am kind of surprised that the 10.6.3 news seems to have dried up, although I understand that the 'must have' bug fixes for 10.6 are done, so now they simply have more time to get things right. In particular, I'm waiting on a fix for USB audio in Virtual Machines.
Is there any recent news?
1) With Apple there is always a case to be made that a new product pulls resources from another team, which slows down these updates. While possible ? I figure they do it for it the super secret inner circle ? I think it's improbable for the team(s) working to fix bugs in SL.
2) I have to wonder if 10.6.3 will be released this week, but that is just a guess based on the previous 10.6.3 Beta releases. I see nary a comment about future Macs in the 10.6.3 code so I assume we're not waiting for them before it's released.
3) Isn't an audio issue in your VM an issue with your Parallels, VM Ware or VirtualBox, or has Apple done something wonky with their USB (which wouldn't be unprecedented)? Have you looked for others with the same issue and possible resolutions; I ask because my Fusion running Win7 is fine.