Ripping CDs via Apple Lossless

Apple Lossless has nothing to do with iTunes Match. iTunes Match attempts to match your files with its current store copies (which are AAC/256) so that it can use its own copies instead of uploading yours to the cloud.

As you noticed, the iTunes conversion process (as with all conversion programs that I have ever used) creates a new copy and leaves the original in place, so that you end up with two copies. If you don't need both, delete the one you don't want.

Thyname, If you do the conversion with iTunes, the newly created file gets automatically added to your iTunes library, with no option to do differently.

The solution is to use a 3rd party conversion program. I use Switch. Like most conversion programs other than iTunes, it brings up a dialog that asks what folder you would like the new files placed in.

Thyname, Good. Switch often comes in handy. If I remember correctly, it was free to trial, and then cost around US $30 to keep.

To your question: My library is almost all either MP3 or AAC. If I get something iTunes can't play, such as FLAC, I typically use Switch to make a version in MP3/256 with Constant Bit Rate. If you have MP3s from that other source, you might as well keep them as they are; MP3 will work with all the situations you named.

It is perfectly possible to get WMP 12 in WIndows 7 to accept Apple Lossless files, to play them, and even to read the embedded metadata including the embedded album artwork. I cannot comment about Amazon's cloud, however even Apple's own iCloud only supports AAC format in that via iTunes Match (when turned on by Apple) it will provide only 256kbit AAC even if your own iTunes copy is in something else like Apple lossless.

To get WMP 12 and Windows 7 to accept Apple Lossless you need to do the following

1. Install a directshow filter so WMP can play Apple lossless, there is only one such directshow filter available, it was written by Milenko Mitrovic and is based on a solution devised by myself. 🙂 The easiest way to install this is as part of a codec pack for Windows 7, as this pack will also do the hard work of disabling the built-in AAC codec which otherwise would interfere, the directshow filter can play both AAC and Apple Lossless. This pack can be downloaded from here http://shark007.net/win7codecs.html
2. You now also need to install a plugin for WMP 12. While Apple Lossless uses exactly the same file extension, exactly the same file format, exactly the same metadata format as AAC which WMP 12 already understands, Microsoft deliberately chose to make life difficult and put Apple Lossless files in the other section instead of the music section. This plugin written by Tim De Baets tricks WMP 12 in to handling Apple Lossless just like AAC and therefore put them in the music section, see http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=75123&view=findpost&p=76 7947

I have my entire iTunes library in Apple Lossless and shared with WMP. Via WMP it even works in Microsoft Media Center.

If your syncing your iTunes library to an iPod, iPhone, or iPad, you can set iTunes to automatically convert to AAC format when copying to your iPod (or similar) device. Your iTunes library will be unaffected and just keep a single Apple Lossless version.

If you do want to have both AAC and Apple Lossless versions but not have both listed, you can create a second separate iTunes library by holding down the Shift key when you launch iTunes.

Thyname wrote:

Thanks John for your well-informed posts. I installed both plugins, but would need to test whether WMP plays Apple Lossless when I get back home and rip a CD. I have created 2nd versions of the two ripped CDs as mp3 via Switch that Ed recommended above already.

How does creating a new itunes library work? How would I choose which Library to sync with my iphone/ipad?

Thanks again!

Only one library is active at a time, the one that is being viewed when you are in iTunes. (You can switch between them again by holding down the Shift key when launching iTunes.) It is the currently active iTunes library that will be the one that you would sync to, iTunes will probably warn you if you have switched libraries and forgotten which you are in as it will say that your iPod is currently linked to a different library. You would want to stick to using the same one for syncing.

Thyname wrote:

Thanks again John. Very interesting to know that I can have multiple iTunes libraries. I did not know this even after using itunes for several years.

You say:

"If your syncing your iTunes library to an iPod, iPhone, or iPad, you can set iTunes to automatically convert to AAC format when copying to your iPod (or similar) device. Your iTunes library will be unaffected and just keep a single Apple Lossless version."

How would you do that? I thought that ipod/iphone cannot hold apple lossless anyway, and some type of conversion was involved during sync.

All iOS devices support Apple Lossless, all iPods except the iPod Shuffle also support Apple Lossless. Apple do not support Apple Lossless on the iPod shuffle alone because of the very limited storage capacity of the iPod Shuffle, instead for that model alone originally, Apple provided an automatic conversion to AAC facility. Originally with slower computers, Apple did not allow this on other bigger iPod models.

A while ago I pointed out to Apple (although I am sure I must not have been alone) that with the subsequent introduction of other flash memory based iPods and the Touch and iPhone all having less space than the iPod Classic, and with computers having got much faster, then making this autoconversion feature available to other models was a needed and useful feature. Apple did subsequently make it possible for this autoconversion on all models.

Before this feature was added I had a subset of my library (via playlists) on my iPhone in Apple Lossless, now I can have my entire library autoconverted to AAC and synced to my iPhone. Only new additions to be synchronised need converting, tracks already synced remain unchanged so for most people only a few tracks at a time need converting during the sync process.

Thyname wrote:

Thanks John. A lot of stuff I did not know.

How do you set your itunes/ipod to autoconvert to AAC during sync process?

You need to connect the iPod to your computer, select it in iTunes, and on the first (summary) tab if you scroll down you should see a tick box to enable this auto conversion during sync.