AAC, Apple lossless, Mp3,WAV

I used to use AAC now I use Mp3 at 320kbps. What is the best way to import for the best sound quality. I use Serrato Scratch so I usually have to convert some songs when their not in Mp3 format. If anyone has any insight I would greatly appreciate it

AAC and MP3 are comparable in terms of size and quality since AAC is basically the newer version of MP3. They are both lossy and compressed though AAC is a more efficient compression so you should get higher quality at the same bit rate/size when compared to MP3.
Apple Lossless is compressed but, as its name implies, it's lossless meaning it retains all the sound information, whereas AAC and MP3 discard data that is deemed unnecessary by the algorithm.
WAV is essentially a straight copy of the data from the CD.
If disk space is not a concern, Apple Lossless should be the best quality/MB.
If you are concerned about disk space-over absolute quality-go with either AAC or MP3. MP3 is older and more widespread, thus may offer better 3rd party compatibility. AAC, as stated above, is by the same MPE Group and is the new standard created to replace MP3.

Similar Messages

Itunes match replacing Apple Lossless Files with .AAC

I have coverted my entire music library to apple lossless.. it appears that iTunes Match over time downgrades my music files to 256kbp .AAC files.
Is anyone else seeing this? How can I get iTunes Match to STOP doing this?

Michael Allbritton wrote:
iTunes Match does not touch the files on your computer. These files will be "downgraded" only if you delete the original file and download the matched track. The service does not upload ALAC files to the cloud. It converts the ALAC to a temporary AAC file, which is uploaded to listen to on iOS devices. On your computer, the ALAC files stay ALAC.
Hmm, that's interesting because on Apple's iTunes Match page it says (my emphasis):
Which music formats can iTunes Match handle?
You can match or upload music formats that can be played with iTunes. That includes AAC, MP3, WAV, AIFF, Apple Lossless, and more.
which clearly suggets that it will upload ALAC to iCloud

How to convert WAV to Apple Lossless?

I just bought an Ipod and have all my music on my computer in WAV format. Could someone please describe how do I convert to Apple Lossless? It isn't descrtibed in the manual.
Gerry

Although the AAC format gives excellent audio reproduction with minimal compression a word of warning: if you have any other mp3 players (non ipod) it is unlikely that they will recognise and therefore be able to replay this fairly apple specific format. Further more if you wish to play these files on a pc which is not running itunes, it is likey that you will have to download an aac codec in order for them to be recognised. Although recognised as an "inferior" format mp3 (lame)is a much more portable compression and therefore will play on 99% of pc's/mac's/mp3 players. If you convert your wav files to a mp3 bit rate of >192kb/s I don't think you will notice a difference in audio quality. iTunes allows you to rip to an mp3 encode, just select it from the drop down list rather than the aac and select a bit rate of 192kb/s (or more) from the setting tab, the default is 128kb/s. Your mp3 encoded files will also take less space on your ipod.
Just thought you may like to know of further options...
MB67
Fujitsu Siemens Amilo 2.8GHz. 1GHz. RAM Windows XP 5G 60Gb
Fujitsu Siemens Amilo 2.8GHz. 1GHz. RAM Windows XP 5G 60Gb

FCPX + Lion + Cannot handle AAC or Apple Lossless audio in H.264! (Clicks and Pops)

This is a problem I've been having since I upgraded to Lion, and I've posted this response in other forums, but wanted to start a fresh one with a video I created of my findings. In a nutshell: FCPX in Lion cannot handle AAC audio in H.264 files since it will create audible clicks and pops when it subsequently renders the footage. This ***** because the iPhone 4 for example records as H.264 and AAC for the audio. Below are my findings:
So I think I figured it out! (I'm pretty sure FCPX + Lion has issues with compressed audio formats, ESPECIALLY AAC and Apple Lossless!) There's a video of my findings below:
1. I tried doing exactly the same thing I was trying to do on my machine on a co-worker's Snow Leopard MBP, and it worked out fine (it was just importing an iPhone 4 .mov and exporting it in FCPX). The output file was pretty much the same as what came in.
2. I found out that only movies from my iPhone 4 were coming out all crazy in the audio, yet my Canon T2i files were fine. Both are H.264, yet the Canon T2i records audio as Linear PCM, while the iPhone 4 records audio as AAC.
3. So I got an idea to use screen flow to record a youtube video and record the computer's audio. Then I decided to export with different formats, both as HD NTSC standards and as web standards with H.264.
4. I found out that both NTSC and H.264 standards were perfectly fine, SO LONG AS THE AUDIO WAS LINEAR PCM (or uncompressed!).
5. I then exported the same clip (both times as H.264) and ONLY changed how the audio was rendered (either Linear PCM/Uncompressed or AAC) and VOILA, I got click and pop artifacts ONLY in the AAC version. The ones that were output as uncompressed audio were totally fine!
CONCLUSION:
Final Cut Pro X on OS X Lion has issues with compressed audio, MAINLY AAC and Apple Lossless! Anything that is Linear PCM/Uncompressed should be fine! For example, MPEG 4 AAC Enhanced Low Delay at 320K came out 95% OK, one or two clicks.
So if any of us are working with material where the audio came to us already as AAC (like an iPhone 4), then we have to rip the audio out somehow first (like through VLC for example) and import it separately as an uncompressed file.
Here's a youtube video showing exactly what I'm talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDw4btShH0s
Anybody else have any thoughts on this before Apple comes out with a fix?

I was having the same problem and spent several hours on the phone with apple working with one of their 3rd level support guys. Their is deffinatley a issue with Lion and FCPX. I was told they would escalate to a FCPX engineer and they would get back to me in two days. In the mean time I went to my local apple store and was able to recreate the issue on every machine I tried. Apple did call back and confirm that there is an issue with the way FCPX and Lion handle the import and export of AAC files. They said there would hopefully be fixed in a future update.
The best work around I found is to take your AAC file and convert it to a WAV. I used compressor to do this and it seems to have solved the problem.

Mp3 to apple lossless conversion

is there any audio advantage converting mp3 to apple lossless in iTunes?
Ken

No. You will get a much higher file size, but no additional quality.
The advantage of Apple Lossless (and other lossless formats like FLAC) is that it allows you to convert high fidelity sources (like CDs) to smaller file sizes without any loss in quality. This allows you to be guaranteed of CD audio quality, and it also allows you store a long-term archive of lossless file and convert them to different lossy formats to suit different needs, without additional quality loss.
If your source is lossy, like an MP3 file, than any additional fidelity that was present in the original source has already been lost. Apple Lossless will provide a lossless conversion of that MP3 file (meaning you won't lose additional quality, like you would if you converted an MP3 to an AAC file), but it cannot restore the already-lost information.

Itunes with Apple Lossless and mp3

I have a Mac mini with iTunes.
How can I configure and the system such that:
- I want to play HD music in my living room so I will have Apple Lossless tracks for this purpose.
- I still want the same tracks in MP3 (because it takes much less space) and sync those on my iPhone.
Obviously I can have different playlists for the HD tracks and MP3 tracks.
Is there an application that can automatically discover newly imported HD tracks and convert them in MP3?
Is there a way to sync those MP3 (wired and wirelessly) to different iPhone/iPod without having them in iTunes?
Thanks in advance.
Paul

It doesn't do MP3, but iTunes has the abilty to automatically convert higher bit rate tracks, such as ALAC, to 128/192/256 AAC files on sync. There is no reason to keep multiple copies of the same track.
Just connect your iPhone and select it in iTunes. Click the Summary tab and select the option to "convert higher..." then select the bit rate you want.
Or, you can use one the new cloud syncing services such as iTunes Match, Google Music or Amazon Cloud Play. All these services will convert or "match" ALAC files to either 256 AAC/MP3.

Converting "Apple Lossless" back to "AAC" - More than 1 track at a time...

Hello,
Short version: I have hundreds of tracks that need to "Create AAC Version", and I can't right-click 8,536 songs in my library one at a time to find them all. Is there a method to sweep the entire library and convert all songs to this format if they are not already?
The problem with this is it still creates a duplicate of the song and the other original needs to be deleted.
Note - the file name changing (it appends a "1" on the M4A file), the "tag" displayed in iTunes retains the song name.
Thanks!,
Joseph
Long version: For the benefit of people facing the same problem and combing the forums for help, here's the rest of the story...
I'm not entirely sure when this changed (and I've reset my Import settings back to AAC 128-bit now), but I've managed to import a good number of CDs at this higher quality "Apple Lossless" format. Essentially, that's overkill - I listen to an iPod classic with headphones the majority of the time (98%) and I won't hear the difference.
CHECK: Edit | Preferences | "General" tab | "Import Settings" button
Essentially my hard-drive space has been disappearing at a rapid rate. I downloaded a tool (WinDarStat) and found my iTunes folder is 50% of my 200GB used. (Yes, I'm on an older laptop -- HD=220GB -- and am getting the 'out of space' warnings.) I found some folders for recent CDs were over 1GB alone and started digging.
I happend to have REM's studio "Man on the Moon" on here twice. The IN TIME version is AAC 128-bit and only 4.9MB in size, whereas the PART LIES version is Apple Lossless 1068-bit and 8x's larger at 39.9MB.
If you right-click a track, it provides option to "Create [other] version.", depending on going to/from ACC to Lossless or vice-versa.
Once I did this for "Man on the Moon", I got 75% of the song's space back ... from approximately 40MB to 11MB.
It does create a second copy of the song, so the original has to be deleted - be certain to "Move the song to the Recycle Bin" when warned.
A better option - all be it more time consuming - is to re-import the CDs.

For backup see this user tip.
The Create <Format> version tool uses whatever the current import settings are.
You can create a playlist of things that need converting as Ed says above.
To ease the conversion process, and keep your current ratings, playcounts, and playlist membership, plus recyle the old files automatically see my script ConvertFormat. Test on say a single album first to make sure it works as you expect/need.
tt2

I'm getting a 9041 error when trying to convert files to AAC -- any ideas on how to fix it? the files files in iTunes show up as Apple Lossless but i can't put them on my iPod

i'm getting a 9041 error when trying to convert files to AAC -- any ideas on how to fix it? the files files in iTunes show up as Apple Lossless but i can't put them on my iPod

"I have been able to convert to AAC by first converting to AIFF and then to AAC. This is a pan though."
this worked for me.
thanks.

Want to replace Wav Files with Apple Lossless in the same folder...Scripts?

Hello!
I have about 4,000 wav files (wow) that I digitized from Vinyl. I organize my media folder myself (I have the organize option unchecked in preferences) and most of the songs are not properly tagged. I would love to convert the wav files to apple lossless and have Itunes save the file in the same folder from where it originated. I havent found a way to do this yet. Its weird to me that I can select a song in a playlist and hit "Show in Finder" and it knows exactly where it is yet when I convert files to apple lossless they end up in the "unknown artist-unknown album" folder. Anyone have any ideas or is there any scripts that can do this for me ? thanks so much!!
I had found one script that deletes the original wav files but still the new apple lossless are still put in the unknown album folder.....
Zeke

When iTunes converts a file, it does not allow you to direct the location of the output file, but rather places it according to the Artist/Album tags, which in your case are unknown.
Almost every other conversion tool allows you to direct the location of the output. There are not a huge choice that run on the Mac and support Apple Lossless, but a good one is Max.

Head Spinning on Creating a Apple Lossless and AAC libraries

I am contemplating archiving all my CDs to an Applelossless library using iTunes. Before doing so, I have some questions. We are in a WIN XP environment.
1) How do I convert an Apple Lossless album to AAC format with all the album info in tack to a separate iTunes library?
2) How do I give multiple WIN XP users access to this single AAC library via iTunes to load their iPod or buy music for this single AAC library?
3) If I add CDs to the Apple Lossless library using iTunes, is there a way to keep the AAC library automatically in sync?
Is there a better approach I should consider?
Thanks for the help experts!

To set up another library in the same Windows user account hold down the shift key when starting iTunes. In one library have your lossless files. In the other library have the AAC files. In the second library import the lossless files with settings set to convert to AAC. To allow multiple users access to the same file store the library where they both have access. Each library is independent, changes in one are not made in the other automatically. You will have to add to one in lossless, go to other library then import the files there.
Better approach. Maybe. I think it is a waste of space to use Apple lossless. My hearing can't tell from AAC 192k from CD. So I just use AAC at 192k or 160k. Even lower for audiobooks.

How to Convert iTunes Songs (Apple lossless audio file) to a MP3 for E-mail

How to Convert iTunes Songs (Apple lossless audio file) to a MP3 for E-mail?
My computer is Windows 7 and my Itunes software version is 1.0.2
Many thanks in advance...

iTunes 1.0.2 is +at least+ eight years old.
The current version is 9.2, and it's free.
If that was a typo, and you're using something more current:
In the iTunes preferences, change the import settings to mp3.
Then select the songs you wish to convert.
From the "Advanced" menu, choose "Create mp3 version".
When done, change the import settings back to Apple Lossless.
That's it.
BTW, this is the Logic Pro forum, which has absolutely nothing to do with iTunes.

Apple Lossless vs. AAC 256k - and best way to change

I originally imported all my 1500 cds as Apple lossless files figuring that would give me the best audio quality for playing back through my AppleTV. But I have realized that sometimes my bandwidth is not enough (when other are downloading from their computers in the house) and the playback stutters. I also want to be able to fit more songs on my iphone.
So now I am thinking about re-encoding using AAC 256khz - I do not think I can really hear much difference.
Firstly what are your opinion on the relative quality of AAV vs. Apple Lossless files....
and secondly is it best to re-encode by ripping all my cds again (please say no) or can I just select all the lossless files in itunes and have it convert them all to AAC - and if that is the best way how do it do it....?
Many thanks for your help...

Well, I have the same question. So last night I compared the original CD vs. Apple Lossless vs. AAC 256kbit/s.
And to be honest: I cant really hear a difference between AL & AAC@256.
When I knew which version I was hearing I felt that AL is a bit more clear in the highrange. But when I closed my eyes and asked my girlfriend to randomly pic a quality, I only guessed right in 6 out of 10 trys. So I guess I cant tell the difference.
My heaphones are Audio Technica: http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/headphones/e69d047fa2f50ad9/index.html
The tested music was electronic/trance & pop/rock.
In case I later start hearing classic music or jazz, I might do this test again.
Kind regards,
Jan
Message was edited by: Jan Riggert

Converting from Apple Lossless to MP3: loss of quality?

Hi,
I have made the "mistake" of importing dozens and dozens of CD's using the Apple Lossless encoder. Nothing bad about the encoder, on the contrary. But my iPod is now full.
Is there a way I can convert all these tracks to MP3? Will there be a loss of quality from the re-conversion beside the one inherent to MP3? (since we are not starting from the original CD) And will I have to re-create my playlists?
Mmmhhh... doesn't sound too good, right?
Xavier.

Go to Preferences in iTunes. Then go to advanced and importing. In importing change the import using to MP3 encoder.
Quit out of this menu. On the top tool bar you have Advanced and under here you have convert option. If you select the songs that you want to convert and use this convert option they will go to MP3s

AAC vs. Apple Lossless, Library Setup

I'm just starting out with setting up my iTunes Library on a new hard drive (20GB), which I'm pretty much going to devote to music. Under the Preferences > Advanced Tab > Importing, we have the choice of encoding, and I'm not sure which would be better, AAC or Apple Lossless (?)
I'm planning to import around 400 CDs, and I've got another internal hard drive (120GB), to which I could go. This brings up, another question. When I set the place for my iTunes library, should I put in one spot, say on this newer, bigger hard drive, or could I split it across two different drives? If I wanted to move the library, after it's filled, how much of a problem is that?

M,
The AAC format uses about 1MB per minute of song (5MB for a 5 minute song), where the Apple Lossless Encoder requires about 5MB per minute of song (25MB for the same 5 minute song). The AAC format is quite sufficient for ipod and computer speaker use. You may want to consider the larger Apple Lossless or even AIFF for music intended for playback on elaborate home stereo and theater use, but the AIFF format is the largest (about 10MB per minute of song, or 50MB for a 5 minute song). Be aware that Apple Lossless encoded songs will only play on iTunes, quicktime apps and certain ipod models (not all). What that means is that if you burn a CD in Apple Lossless, it will not play on your home CD player. The only way to use Apple Lossless on your home CD player will be through an airport express.
I regret I do not know the answer to your second question regarding splitting a library over two hard drives.
Hope this helped.
Terry

Apple Lossless in iTunes to AAC on iPod

I burned my music collection to my hard drive using Apple Lossless encoding to keep the audio quality.
I just received an iPod and I would like to load my songs but I would prefer to us the AAC format so that I can conserve the space on the iPod.
Is there a way to keep the songs on my hard drive in the Lossless format while adding them to my iPod in the AAC format?

No.
Converting on the fly while adding to the iPod is possible on the iPod Shuffle only but not the others.

AAC, Apple lossless, Mp3,WAV

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