Re: Converting FLAC files to m4a: I understand that Apple's m4a files generally sound better than mp3s. First of all, is this true? And what is the best program to convert lossless FLAC files to m4a (AAC) files? Sound quality is the most important thing to me. (I'm sorry if I have repeated this question - I'm a newbie here.) Thanks.
iPod touch, Windows XP Pro
Scouring the interwebs, I found some methods of converting from FLAC to m4a if you don't mind using the command-line in Terminal. With both options make sure Homebrew is installed which is a package manager that will allow you to install the requisite tool.
Using ffmpeg
Make sure ffmpeg is installed (google Homebrew to install) and type:
ffmpeg -i [infile].flac -acodec alac [outfile].m4a
(There are a few shell script gists on Github named flac2alac which use ffmpeg and will preserve tags: https://gist.github.com/)
Using flac and afconvert
Make sure flac is installed (google Homebrew to install) and type:
flac -s -d --force-aiff-format -o [tempfile].aiff [infile].flac
afconvert -f m4af -d alac [tempfile].aiff [outfile].m4a
(This shell script gist was helpful: https://gist.github.com/mlen/4379799)
This will convert to a temporary loss-less aiff file, then using Apple's command-line utility afconvert, to loss-less m4a. You can then delete the temporary aiff file.
The limitation of this approach is that the temporary aiff file generated has a maximum capacity of 2GB, which one of my files would have exceeded. So I needed to use another approach for this file.
Using flac only
I was also able to convert directly from FLAC to m4a using flac only, but the resulting files were twice as large. It seems flac doesn't apply any compression, whereas afconvert and ffmpeg compress the resulting files.
Regards,
D.
If you want to play files in iTunes without using a plug in, you will need to convert to M4A. M4A will probably give you the best quality conversion as it is far less compressed than MP3, so yes to answer your question, it is better quality.
However you can play your FLAC files outside of iTunes via programs like PLAY http://sbooth.org/Play/ (its free) I would tend to say from a shear quality of playback, PLAY is probably better than iTunes. However there are a lot of missing features like album art and such, but it does work very well.
There are other programs such as Pure Music which use iTunes as a GUI and allow you to play FLAC through iTunes as well, but they are not free programs. http://www.channld.com/puremusic/ Pure Music is often noted as the best in that it allows you to use iTunes as your interface and will accept virtually all types of music file formats.
Hi - Thanks very much for the information that m4a audio files generally sound better than mp3 files.
Now, I wanted to ask you what the best program to convert my FLAC audio files (obtained from torrents) to m4a audio files ??? . . . The only way I've ever gotten the FLAC files to my iPod is by first converting them to mp3 using a program called "Switch" and then installing the newly created mp3s to my ITunes. . . . So, how do I best convert FLAC directly to m4a rather than to mp3 ??? (what program /procedures?)
Ideally, I would like to add m4a files to my ITunes instead of mp3s, best on the fact that the m4a files would sound "better?" I hope you know what i mean. 🙂
I use XLD for Mac - it is easy to use and best of all it is free.
How do you play your music back through your computer? Do you use a DAC?
As I mentioned PLAY http://sbooth.org/Play/ will work fine to play your FLAC files - it works well and it sounds great. But if you want to use iTunes - you will need to convert FLAC to Apple Lossless. XLD works good.
Why Convert FLAC to M4A?
FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an audio coding format for lossless compression of digital audio. Because of the nature of royalty-free and lossless high quality, FLAC is quite popular today. Unfortunately, the playback support of FLAC format is limited in portable audio devices, especially iTunes, iPhone, iPod and iPad.
Compared with FLAC, M4A file is a MPEG-4 Audio File with AAC or ALAC codec, and has a much better compatibility with Apple devices, since it is developed by Apple. What's more, the size of M4A file is smaller than FLAC. Better still, converting FLAC to M4A (with AAC codec) will not loss too much quality, or without any quality loss if you convert FLAC to M4A with ALAC codec. That's why more and more people choose to convert FLAC to M4A.
It seems that iTunes does not support Flac. I also try other tools but not helpful. iTunes does not have the ability to convert FLAC to AAC. You can use a 3rd party audio format converter such as Switch. After conversion, add the AACs to your iTunes library.
Can't seem to edit previous post. Anyway, also found an app:
Using Max
Download from https://sbooth.org/Max/ or source from GitHub.
Regards,
D.
Re: Converting FLAC to m4a
