Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[clpetersen]

Hello - did a search, but did not find a relevant answer or my search terms were incorrect.

Have a large-ish library, ripped and  managed by JRiver (now running MC21 for Mac). About 250 albums are still in FLAC (switched to ALAC when it became open-source, to provide compatibility with iOS devices).  Would like to convert these remaining folders from FLAC to ALAC while preserving metadata, artwork etc.
Prefer to a batch conversion, save the results in a new folder to ensure all was successful, then merge the folders later.

Tips, warnings?  any pre-written command lines??

Thx!

[Arindelle]

The conversion is easy enough, no "generational" loss, so your music will be intact and still lossless.

The only thing I noticed , was that there were some fields that were not written to the container, mostly custom fields. I'd convert to a new location a small number of cds 50 to a hundred or so and check. (note: before ALAC became open-source, haven't used ALAC since)Other than ipod "classics", not sure what the reason would be to convert them frankly, unless you still have to use itunes for playback, but thats your choice.

Recently, there was a post about not being to be able to write case changes (eg. all caps to title case) to ALAC files. This might not be important.

ALAC is not quite as good for handling metadata as FLAC is, but its still pretty good. Otherwise I can't think of any real problems.

anybody else?

[blgentry]

I would certainly think about whether you need to do this or not.  Would high bitrate AAC or MP3 files provide you "good enough" sound quality on your iOS devices?  Do you have enough space on your iOS devices to hold as many ALAC files as your library contains?  Or at least to hold the albums that you like the most?

It might be smartest to convert to MP3 or AAC and sync those lossy copies to your iOS device(s).  It's just an option.

If you're going to actually convert from FLAC to ALAC, Ariendelle brings up some good points about tags.  You would definitely want to do some testing first.  Maybe make a copy of your FLACs before you convert them.  To another directory that MC does not monitor.  Then convert to ALAC "in place" with MC and do some testing to make sure all of the tags are correct, that the files play on your devices *and* MC, etc.  If that all goes ok with your testing, convert the rest and test again.

It seems like too much effort to me, just for portable devices.  I consider MC to be the master archive repository for my digital Music and Video collection.  Any special needs that other programs or devices have are handled as special cases.  I don't alter my main repository just to suit external needs.  That's just the way I look at it.  Your opinion may be different than mine.

Good luck.

Brian.

[clpetersen]

Good points Arindelle, Bigenty.

So far, I have not had any tagging issues with ALAC and yes, I rely on MC to manage the master archive. Yes, I intend to put these converted file into a separate folder to see how this works out.

Re: portable devices, memory is so cheap almost don't need lossy files any more. Would only load part of the master archive in any event.

But, question remains, how to set this up in MC21?
Would like to point to a group of files, convert them, store the result in a different folder.

many thanks.

[Arindelle]

But, question remains, how to set this up in MC21?
Would like to point to a group of files, convert them, store the result in a different folder.

select files then go Tools=>Advanced=>Convert Format and as in the screenshot, mess around with the options you want.



PS- if you are talking about memory being cheap, are they really IOS devices?? I'd like to know what they are .. one of the weaknesses of apple products I thought. Especially discontinuing the 160gb classic ... still pretty small for lossless.  Don't see why you would want to convert to ALAC as there are plenty of flac capable player apps around, regardless. But hey you can do what you want easy enough

[clpetersen]

Many thanks!
Yes, iOS devices, and yes their memory pricing is exorbitant.

We just have a lot of OSX/iOS handcuffs around (like Apple TVs as input devices).

However, I have not used iTunes in years (for lots of good reasons).  I suspect iTunes will still want to take over the music archive and completely replicate it, as opposed to say Sonos, Bluesound, JRiver which (correctly) provide efficient indices into it.

So, a small experiment right now.  Will post any results.

[Arindelle]

sure thanks for the feedback!

[robertus3]

Hi, perhaps I can give you an additional suggestion.

On ipads and iphones you can use Kaisertone to play hires music formatted as flac, etc. I used to use itunes for those ios devices, but now I can transfer flac files to my iphone and play them in hires quality.

I also have two ipods, and these are the problem devices. Am still using a seperate itunes library. But I update only once a month.

[imeric]

I did the exact same thing about 8-9 years ago where I converted all my FLAC to ALAC for compatibility with IOS.  I totally agree with the other posts here if you don't need to use iTunes I wouldn't do it...(I used dBpoweramp at the time but I do this conversion all the time with MC21 for single albums and it works like a charm...)  And I don't really see the point of having lossless files on my Ipod or Iphone...Unless connected to an external DAC but I totally understand why others may want it...

And one other thing to keep in mind, ALAC files are usually 10-15% larger than FLAC so will take up more space.

Aside from this, I don't have any other issues with ALAC files vs FLAC in JRiver (except that minor issue I reported about changing capitalization.) and my tags are complete and well organised.

One thing I still do outside of JRiver is to tag itunnorm with either dBpoweramp or MP3 tag (That is optional and can be done by iTunes and JRiver will do it anyway when you sync your IOS device)  I would like that feature in JRiver  

AND I use MC21 to sync my Ipod Classic 5th Gen it works like a charm using MP3 extreme...

So If I had to do this allover again here is how I would do it today:

1. Make a mirror backup of all my FLAC files on a separate hard drive out of the monitored folder by MC. (Assuming they are all in the same folder that's how I have them...)
2. Backup my MC library and save it on that same hard drive. (Using File -> Library -> Backup Library...)
3. Configure the conversion as per snapshot attached.
4. Try it first on a few albums and see how it goes
5. Then cross my fingers and run the whole folder!!
6. Check for any duplicate files or flac remnants either with MC or windows explorer. (In the past doing this would sometimes leave the FLAC original file but the ALAC was created just fine without errors)

If this fails you can just delete the new folder, bring back your backup folder and restore the previous library...

Good Luck AND please do this at your own risk I obviously haven't tested this and I'm not planning to!!!