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[Von]

How can I download and install additional encoders for MC on my Mac? I miss MPC and Ogg Vorbis...

[Von]

Bump...

Does anybody know? I can play these file types, but I would also like to be able to encode.

[JimH]

MC should be able to use any "external" encoder you can find.

[Von]

Thanks, but in the Windows version these are installed automatically. I'm not sure where to find the encoders or how to install them.

[blgentry]

I wonder what your motivation is here.  Disk space is very inexpensive now, so lossless files are a very reasonable way to store audio.  FLAC is a really good lossless format that's natively supported by a variety of players including MC.

If you need to save space for portable devices or something like that, nothing is more compatible than MP3.  I expect any player available today to play MP3.

So why chose this unusual uncommon lossy format?  It doesn't seem to make sense in today's world.  Even if the sound quality is higher than the equivalent sized MP3, what would you play it on?  If the answer is "your Mac", then why not use lossless for maximum sound quality?

I did a tiny bit of investigation and found that there is a *decoder* for musepack for Mac, but not an encoder.  This was from the official site.  Maybe there's something unofficial available; I did not investigate further.

Brian.

[Von]

Hi Brian,

FLAC is indeed my main format, and I use it at home and when it's practical. I use different formats for different purposes, partly because I find it interesting to "play" with my music collection, but also because they can have advantages over other formats. In this case, I wish to convert FLAC files to MPC for use on my MacBook. Hard drive space is limited, and I prefer not to have to carry an external drive around.

I have always been impressed with how fast the MPC encoder is. It is much faster than the LAME MP3 encoder. I believe MPC is also more power efficient, which is good when using a laptop on battery power.

Can I live without these formats? Sure, if I have to. I can also do my conversion on a Windows computer. But I was curious as to why they are automatically installed when using the Windows version of MC, while they can't be installed just as easily with MC for Mac.

What would also be nice for MC for Mac would be integrated M4A/AAC encoding, but this is perhaps difficult because of licensing?

[blgentry]

Ok, I see where you are coming from.  If I knew how to configure an MPC encoder, I'd definitely tell you how.

I have installed an AAC (Apple lossy format) encoder in the past and gotten MC to use it.  But it's been several years... I can't remember details other than:  I downloaded a command line encoder, then set up parameters for that command line utility in MC's conversion dialog.  It took me several tries to get it right.

As to why they are on Windows, but not Mac:  There are several things like this where on Windows "it just works" and on Mac it's not there at all, or requires some effort.  DVD support is a good example.  Windows has some kind of DVD support built in to the OS that MC is able to make use of.  The equivalent on Mac does not exist, so MC for Mac doesn't support DVDs in any way.

I suspect there's something similar going on with the encoders.  There's probably an MPC publicly available encoding library available for windows.  As I indicated, the official MPC website does not have an encoder for Mac at all.  So that probably explains why it's not part of MC.

You might find some other conversion utility for Mac that supports more formats.  I remember an older one called "switch" that a lot of people liked.  But I have no idea if it's supported any more or if it supports MPC.

Good luck.

Brian.

[Von]

Thanks. Like I said, it's not a very big deal.

If someone from JRiver would like to comment on why different encoders are included, or at least automatically installed when needed, with the Windows and Mac versions of MC, it would be interesting to hear.

[glynor]

I don't know if ffmpeg can do MPC, but it can do all sorts of formats.

brew install ffmpeg

[Library Eye]

Core Audio is definitely built into a Mac, and I was just the other day wishing JRiver could encode AAC like XLD and a number of other programs can, for use in my attempts to get a handheld to sync on a Mac. I would be happy with Ogg, but I didn't expect that. I expected AAC would be available, and was surprised it wasn't. I settled on MP3, since it's just for portable use.

If you just want to encode on a Mac, you're better off using XLD and keeping JRiver for music management and playback. XLD can rip using the AccurateRIP database, can convert to ogg and a wide number of other formats (though not Musepack) and unlike JRiver, XLD adheres to traditional Mac design / interface norms. It's the easiest CD ripper / audio converter I've ever used in Mac, Windows, or Linux, and truly "it just works" like Apple's slogan used to say.

(I don't know of any Mac program that converted to MPC.)

Fre:ac is also fairly easy to use, and powerful and versatile, and updates its ogg encoder still which I don't think XLD has done in a long while, but is not Mac-like. It is my go-to on Linux, and it's great, and also like XLD it is free to use.

There is no application of any sort that I actually recommend as unreservedly as XLD. For what it does, it's overall better than anything else when all factors are considered (versatility, speed, ease of use, reliability, UI).