Lossless v. AAC

What is the difference in sound quality and amount of space needed by using Apple Lossless Encoder as opose to AAC Encoder when downloding music from Itunes. I am trying to get the best possible quality of music.
Elio
PC

Is there a way to buy music from I tunes at a higher rate than 128 bit?
Sorry, but no. You have no choice in bit rate; 128 kbps is the only rate option. There have been reports of a few tracks provided by the record labels at a slightly higher rate, but that's been up to the labels and not an end-purchaser choice.
Thus far no legal download store with major label content has been allowed to offer significantly higher bit rates with the privileges (particularly burning to CDs) that the iTunes Music Store offers. Probably the record companies are fearful of losing CD sales, since for many albums, all most of us buy is just a couple of tracks.

Similar Messages

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.

Copying/converting apple lossless to aac in a different location?

I have ripped about 1000 cd's or so in apple lossless format to run on a sonos player.
I want to convert those tracks to aac so i can run on an ipod. but i do not want to store them in the same location on NAS.
any suggestions how to do this?
thanks.
textunes
Windows XP Pro

You can create a new library.
1. Hold shift when starting iTunes. Choose Create Library and select the location for the new library.
2. You'll start off with a blank library. Open iTunes Preferences and turn off the option (on the Advanced tab) to copy files to your iTunes library when adding files.
3. Change the location of your library (also on the Advanced tab) to the place you want to save AAC files.
4. Set the import prefs.
5. Add the lossless tracks to the library. (These will remain in their current location)
6. Convert tracks to aac. These will be in the new library location.
Hope that helps

ITunes conversion of Apple Lossless to AAC not working

Hello:
I have all my CD's ripped to Apple Lossless. I then use iTunes to convert to 192 kbs AAC for use on my iPod. When I do this, though, the size is barely changed. Instead of taking a 23 MB lossless file down to 1 MB, it rips to about 20 MB. Has anyone else seen this? Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks.
pmb

pbombach wrote:
Hello:
Instead of taking a 23 MB lossless file down to 1 MB, it rips to about 20 MB. Has anyone else seen this? Am I doing something wrong?
Even if it is working correctly, it does not shrink it by that much. AAC at 192 with constant bit rate uses about 1.5 MB per minute of music, or 6 MB for a 4 minute song. If you use VBR, it will be higher.
As Kay suggests, make sure that your import settings are correct. Also, note that conversion creates a new file and leaves the original in place, so make sure you are looking at the new file. Its Date Added will be the date of conversion, and its "Kind" will be AAC.

Managing both Lossless and AAC music folders

Hello, I am trying to have two music folders with identical songs from my imported CDs, but with different encoding formats. I would like to have one folder with Apple Lossless encoding, so I can stream high-quality music to my home stereo. I would then like to have another folder of the same music, but converted to AAC compression so I can load that music onto my iPod.
Does anyone have suggestions as to how I can do this? I know I need to import the music from the CD first with Lossless encoding; and I've done this. I now need to find a way to convert all these files (as a copy) to AAC in a different folder/playlist so they can fit in my iPod's limited storage space.
Thanks for any help you can provide!
Tyler Stableford

Managing two folders the way you want to do it, is not possible in iTunes itself.
There are 3rd party scripts and applications that might do it, for example iTunes Library Manager.
If you like to have both formats available at the same time, you could do next:
Import all CDs in Apple Losless.
Take care that all info is the way you like; if you convert them, you have to correct wrong info twice.
Convert all lossless tracks to AAC.
Make two Smart Playlists (e.g. iPod music and Home music)
Include a rule in the iPod playlist not to contain 'Apple Lossless audio file'
To give an example:
I don't care about what's all in the library; it's the main container for my multimedia.
So I've set some rules for my 'Music Library', a Smart Playlist.
I've set it to:
Match all of the following rules:
Podcast is false
Kind is not mpeg audio stream
Genre does not contain audiobook
etc.
You could make two almost identical playlists.
'Home Music' containing the rule: Kind is not Apple lossles....
'iPod Music' containing the rule: Kind is Apple Lossless...
You can make other Smart playlists which depend on the contents of these two 'music libraries'.
Hope this helps.
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

Bug with items stored both as AAC and lossless in same library

I have an itunes library of 16000 tracks spread across 2 x 250 GB drives encoded as apple lossless.
I have also converted all the tracks to AAC, for ipod and airtunes use, and these tracks live on a 3rd drive
I therefore have 16000 tracks in Apple lossless and 16000 identical titles in AAC in the same iTuneslibrary.
Sometimes when clicking on an AAC title it instantly changes its kind to apple lossless and links to the apple lossless version of the file. When the library updates I often have thousands of AAC tracks changing to the apple lossless references.
I can fix this by emptying the entire library and reimporting all the tracks using add to library. I just did this and again had 16000 of each file type.
I then upgraded iTunes to 7.02 and upon lainch iTunes went into an automatic updating library routine.
After it had finished I had 22000 Apple lossless tracks (i.e 8000 were new duplicate entries) and 8000 AAC tracks
I had previoualy backed up the library after addinf all the files to an empty library so Ieplaced the library and.xml files and reopened itunes.
Itunes openend with the correct number of files, but then immediately went into its updating library routine and again lost track of what should have been an AAC file and what should have been apple lossless
The only thing I can think of is that the database is getting confused because the file extension for apple lossless and AAC is .m4a
I have tried to replicate the problem using a small library on another computer, but can only conclude that the bug only affects large libraries, or libraries spread across multiple disks.
Any help gratefully recieved as having spent 6 months ripping my CD library this problem is driving me mad.
Best Regards
Mic

When you say they change to lossless, does iTunes
simply think they are lossless or does it actually
convert them to lossless (which would take a minute
or so for each song)?
No the AAC entries change to kind=lossless and they then reference the lossless version of the file. The files themselves remain unchanged, deleting the entire library and then adding the folders to the library restores the original setup
A variation on this behaviour is that merely clicking on an AAC file will immediately change the kind of that file to lossless and the library entry will point to the lossless file. I can't reliably replicate this one, it just happens from time to time.

Lossless on computer, AAC on iPod

How do I store my music in Lossless format in iTunes, but in AAC format on my 60G iPod? Is there a way to have music sync from Lossless on the computer to AAC on the iPod?

you dont. your iPod syncs to what you have in iTunes,
if you have lossless in iTunes, so will your iPod, if
you have AAC in your iTunes, so will your iPod. Now,
a solution, make doubles of everything in your
iTunes, and have one be lossless, and one be AAC.
Then make a smart playlist that contains all the AAC
and set your iPod to sync with that playlist. This is
a solution that may require lots of hard drive space
on your computer, but will accomplish the desired
effect. I think you should just put the files into
Apple Lossless, it's not that big, and unless u have
more then 60GB of music, you should be fine.
Thanks, very helpful. I do have everything in Lossless now, but I got through less than half my collection when I hit the 60G limit. Someone I work with suggested adding an external hard-drive on my computer to handle music only. This would handle your idea of dual libraries: Lossless and AAC, and the whole library would easily fit on the iPod in AAC format.

Overwrite entire AAC 320kps collection with lossless or start from scratch?

Hi.
I have about 35gig of tunes ripped in AAC 320kps within iTunes. Now I want to re-rip my CD collection in the Apple Lossless format.
Now what is the best way to do this?
I'm wondering should I deleted and uninstall iTunes and start again from scratch with a fresh install or should I just get iTunes to replace the AAC with Lossless? I'm worried that if I replace all my tunes that way with out a fresh install iTunes might get a problem down the line with a corrupt database or run really slow and get bogged down?
What would be the best way?
Thanks.

Little_Mozart wrote:
Hi John thanks for your reply.
I think I'm going to do as you suggested and make two separate libraries. One AAC and one Lossless. That way If I damage or lose my iPod I will still have all the AAC versions available. It should save me having to convert loads of lossless files to AAC.
Also, I will be using my Ipad and the remote app to stream my PC based iTunes library to my hifi downstairs via a Airport Express. If I've got two databases I take it you can only use one at a time? So if I open the lossless database in iTunes the ipad will only see the lossless one and not the AAC one as well?
iTunes can automatically convert Apple Lossless to AAC when syncing to an iPod so you could have just a library in Apple Lossless and not need to worry about the size overflowing your iPod. It only needs to do the conversion for new tracks being added to the iPod so once you have done the first sync subsequent ones do not take very long at all.
With the AirPort Express it only streams what is playing in iTunes. If however you have an AppleTV version 2 or iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4, or iPad running iOS 4.3 (out March 11th) then you can use HomeShare and AirPlay to stream any track between all these devices including your Mac or PC running iTunes. This would only be for the iTunes Library open in iTunes so yes you can only use one library at a time.

Want to remove Lossless files from dual-format library, keep elsewhere

My iTunes library consists entirely of music ripped from audio CDs. Each CD was ripped twice, once in Apple Lossless format, once in AAC format.
For several reasons (chief among them the desire to free up a lot of disk space on my iMac), I want to remove the Lossless files from my iTunes library. But I want to keep all of the AAC files there as they are, along with my playlists (all based on the AAC files only).
However, for a measure of future-proofing, I still want to keep the Lossless files. And whenever I buy a CD, I want to still import it as both Lossless and AAC, keeping the Lossless files handy while adding the AAC files to the iTunes library.
I must obviously begin with an external Firewire drive big enough for my Lossless content. How do I proceeed from there?

I would take this approach, but others might have better suggestions.
First, when you get your external drive, copy the entire iTunes folder to the external drive which will copy everything (media files, database files, artwork, etc.).
Assuming you use the iTunes default settings where iTunes copied added items to your iTunes folder and organizes your library (meaning - everything is all self contained in the iTunes folder), then all you have to do is drag & drop your iTunes folder (not just the iTunes Music folder you find inside the iTunes folder) to the external drive and copy the entire thing.
If you want to test that it worked or would like to actually start using it from that location instead, use these instructions when you start iTunes to point it to the new location...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
If you are just testing, then close iTunes after you verify it works, and restart iTunes again with the same instructions and point it back to your internal drive (original) location. Now you can sort your library by "Kind" which is the format it is encoded as and all the Apple Lossless files will be grouped together. Select the first one, scroll down to the last one, Shift-Select the last one which will select all the ones in between and hit delete! Now your internal drive library is everything except Apple Lossless.
If you wish, you can switch back to the external drive library and do the same for the AAC files.
Now when ever you add a new CD you can do it a couple ways. But probably the most straight forward is to simply put in the CD, open the internal library, import as AAC files. Switch to the external library and import again as lossless.
Patrick

Which encoder should I use, AIFF or AAC?

I just bought an 80-GB iPod video and i wanted to start importing songs from my CDs. I'm really strict about sound quality so I'm choosing between the following encoders:
AIFF
or
AAC with 320-kbps sampling rate
I'm not really worried about the output file size.
If you were me, which one would you use?
What is the advantage of one over the other?
Please help me decide...

AIFF files are much too large to use on an iPod, you'll get very little battery life if you use them. The iPod has a 9MB cache so it can load up a small file into memory and reduce the number of times it has to access the hard drive. The larger the file the more often the hard drive has to be read. If you want better quality at least consider Apple Lossless which will give you files of half the size of AIFF but even then each file will be much more than 9MB in size. Make two copies of something you are familiar with in Apple Lossless and AAC and have a listen for yourself. People will have different preferences so it's always best to go by your ears. You may find that through earphones or a car stereo that the Quality of the AAC file is perfectly acceptable.

Lossless to ACC Automator Conversion/Multiple Libraries/External Hard drive

I've been playing around with setting up a home media server, and have run into a few issues and have a few questions about this.
Question 1: Best way to rip into lossless format?
-apple lossless vs. other: has anyone had problems streaming lossless files to iTunes/Airport Extreme?
Question 2: Best way to manage multiple libraries?
-Library manager vs. option key during startup?
-see below
Question 3:Any Automator scripts to convert Lossless to AAC, then save to desktop?
Why this is important to me:
-goal is to have large external HD as a media server with a mac mini/iTV as front end.
-would like to have iMac hardwired to external HD via Firewire for data manipulation/editing, then upload into 'Master Source' file for photos, music, movies
-would like mac mini/iTV (eventually) to act as always on front end client for external HD; would be hardwired/firewired to external HD to prevent lag time; thus could use front row for browsing photos, music, movies off TV monitor
NOTE: no desire for cable/sattelite viewing - what I want to watch I would buy on DVD (backup reasons)
-would like to have music stored in lossless format on external HD for home stereo use, etc, and have a duplicate library in AAC on desktop for syncing with ipod nano
-look for my posts on Front Row issues/wish list for TS file viewing, problems with multiple iPhoto libraries
BTW any external HD that have 2 firewire ports? Most that I see either have two USB 2.0 ports or 1 USB and 1 firewire port

Hi Kirby-
My IMac is 10.7.5 Aperture 3.4.5
My MacBook is 10.8.5 Ap 3.4.5
Guess it's been a while since I've posted.
Thanks,
J

Can you maintain both lossless and lossy versions of a library?

I want to rip my entire CD collection losslessly to a large external drive for listening in my living room (streaming via an Airport Express). But I also want to down sample the entire library to 160kbs for storing on my iPod. Can iTunes support both versions simultaneously? If so, is there an easy way to get it to down sample every song in my library to 160 kbs?
Is Apple Lossless the only lossless format that will work?
Would it be better to use some software other than iTunes for managing a music library like this?
Thanks.

Yes, you can definitely do this, although it's a bit complicated with iTunes.
You would need to keep a watchful eye over your import settings (in Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Importing) so that you know when you're going to be creating Apple Lossless files as opposed to AAC files, using the settings you desire.
Also, it would be helpful to display the Kind colum in your iTunes library window so you can easily distinguish between Apple Lossless and AAC versions of your songs. You can do this by going to View > View Options and checking the Kind box.
Then you can do some kind of sorting based on file types, etc. Additionally, you may want to create a specific playlist (this could even be a Smart Playlist based on file type/kind) for your lossy AAC files, for example. Then when you connect your iPod, you can manually select that playlist as the one you want to sync with the iPod. At the same time, your main (visible) iTunes library would display only the Apple Lossless versions of your songs for your usual listening and streaming via AirTunes.
Just to be thorough, since I haven't mentioned it yet, you can convert your Apple Lossless files to AAC by selecting all the Apple Lossless files, setting your encoder to AAC with the desired settings (as described above), and using the Advanced > Convert Selection to AAC menu.

Apple Lossless file type question....

I rip CD's with my preferences set to Apple Lossless. I import from the iTunes store, also supposedly Apple Lossless. However, the music files are labelled as AAC or protected AAC (get info>file type)
Why is this?
Fabian

I thought that all content from the iTunes store was Apple Lossless files (either 128 or 256 for +).
It isn't. It's AAC content at those bitrates. Apple doesn't sell Apple Lossless songs.
Shouldn't the file type come up as Apple Lossless rather than AAC?
See above.
Isn't AAC a lossy file type, different from Apple Lossless?
AAC is lossy.
(40753)

Converting to aac

just finished ripping my 700 cd's into itunes using apple lossless (8500 songs = 260 gig)I would like now to convert them to aac to fit on the ipod, is there any harm converting all and leaving everything in the itunes folders, i do want to keep the apple lossless to make compilations cd's (I bought a 500 gig drive just for this purpose so i have plenty of space left for the aac's)

I also found this note on macosxhints.com:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20061025105820390
*Smart playlists for lossless and AAC files in iTunes and iPod*
*Tue, Oct 31 '06 at 7:30AM PST • Submitted by reg*
I have ripped all my CDs in Apple Lossless format, so I won't have to rerip them when a new or better codec comes along. I have found many ideas on how to copy all songs into a second iTunes library in and then convert all songs in the copied library to a lossy format such as 192 kbps AAC.
However, with smart playlists, it is possible to create a single iTunes library that is still fairly convenient to use, and that contains both the lossless versions for listening on the big home stereo, and the AAC versions for syncing to the iPod. Here is the setup:
Create the following two playlists:
"Lossless": match all conditions - Kind contains Apple & Kind contains Lossless
"AAC-192": match all conditions - Kind contains AAC & Bit Rate is 192
Now the two main playlists for use on iTunes and the iPod:
"All-Mac": PlayList is not AAC-192
"All-iPod": PlayList is not Lossless
These two playlists are defined by excluding the unwanted versions, so other MP3s and purchased songs will appear in both playlists. (If you want to use the same scheme, but rip to a different bit rate, such as 128 kbps, you will need to set up the corresponding playlist containing the rule "kind does not contain protected".)
Once you have set up these playlists, "Lossless" will contain all your CD-ripped music. If you now set the "Importing" settings in the Advanced tab of iTunes' preferences to AAC and 192 kbps, you can select the Lossless playlist, select all songs, and choose "Convert selection to AAC" in the Advanced menu to create the AAC versions. Once this possibly lengthy process is finished (it can take a few hours, or more, depending on the size of your library), you'll find the iPod versions of all your lossless songs in the "AAC-192" playlist.
Now you have to set up your iPod to only sync the "All-iPod" playlist, and you're reading to listen to your music on the move.
If you now create additional smart playlists, you will have to include a condition "playlist is All-Mac" if the playlist is intended for use in iTunes, or "playlist is All-iPod" if the playlist is intended for use on the iPod. I have started to prefix all my iPod playlists with "i-" to easily identify them.
There are some caveats:
You have to manually keep the AAC versions in sync with your lossless versions: if you add to or modify your Lossless library, you have to manually convert the files to create corresponding AAC versions.
Also, play counts, skip counts, last played times and ratings of lossless and AAC songs are separate, which means you'll have different information for the two different versions of a same song, but this still a fairly straightforward way to manage these two types of files, and, in my opinion, better than using completely separate libraries.
[kirkmc adds: Interestingly, I have an article coming in the December issue of Macworld about this very question. I discuss the process of ripping to lossless to use files as "archives", for the same reason as reg, that is to be able to re-rip to any format at a later date. In my article, however, I discuss using two libraries for the different types of files; since iTunes 7 has built-in multiple library support, and because there are third-party solutions such as Doug Adams' iTunes Library Manager, I prefer the multiple-library solution. But reg's presentation here of using smart playlists is a very good way to do the same thing with a single library. Just make sure you have the necessary disk space!]

Re-ripping CD's in lossless creates duplicates in music library

Hi,
My music has already been ripped into iTunes using AAC 256kbps which is fine for mobile music. I'm planning on picking up an Apple TV for a music only server to my home music system and I want to re-rip my music into iTunes using Apple Lossless. I created a new folder under playlists for the lossless music but duplicate copies remain in the music library! Is there a way for me to re-rip my music and have it in one folder and not have the duplicates in the music library? Thanks in advance!
Cheers,
Brent

I think I understand what you want to do.
I have about 200 CD's and a dozen albums bought from the iTunes Store. I thought about ripping all my CD's in Lossless format and then creating AAC versions from these. Music streamed to my Airport Express should be Lossless whenever possible, while music on my iPhone should only be AAC versions.
In iTunes, the "Music" category will contain both versions, as "Music" is your music library. You can create smart playlists to select only Lossless or AAC versions, but you can't have "Music" show only one of these versions.
At the moment, iTunes isn't able to handle the same song in different formats (the way I want it to). Ideally, there would be an option like "Prefer Lossless version" or "Use AAC versions when syncing iPhone/iPod" or something like that. You could also use two separate iTunes libraries (start iTunes while holding the Option key).
Kind regards,
Michael

WMA lossles to Apple Lossless

I have the same problem and the wish like this guy:
"I’ve also been migrating of my music library from WMV Lossless to AAC Lossless.
I initially tried to drag a big folder full of nested album folders containing WMV Lossless media from a networked drive (SMB) over to iTunes on the Mac, but it did… absolutely nothing. So now, my $700 Dell is cranking away at 95% CPU on both cores, converting a list of more than 5,000 songs, many of which are long, classical tracks. It is maintaining a conversion rate of 11.8x, which Victor says is pretty fast.
At 3am this morning, iTunes had converted more than 3,000 songs in 26 hours when Windows forced a reboot due to software updates. ARGH! So I had to dig around to find the 2,000 songs hadn’t been converted yet and drag them over again. Needless to say, I have disabled Automatic Updates.
Keeping both lossless and compressed versions of music is not easy. I was telling Victor last night that I wished iTunes supported “stacking” of music not unlike what Aperture does with photos. My main music library should be able to track compressed versions alongside lossless versions, or at the very least, have an option to auto-compress when sharing music or transferring music to portable devices (like what iTunes does when you attach a Shuffle). What I want to do is to have access to my lossless media at home and my compressed music on the road."
http://echeng.com/journal/2006/09/13/converting-wma-lossless-to-apple-aac-lossle ss/
is there any hope to have this features ???
I need something like this too
Thank you

Thanks Bottlerboi - a useful distinction between lossless compression for space saving, and lossy compression. I am partly interested in this because of my general interest in hi-fi, and Naim Audio in particular. Naim are just launching a new product which is essentially a CD player with 2 hard drives (albeit one is a back up of the other). The Naim HDX is said to store approximately 600 albums on 400Gb hard drives while making bit-for-bit copies, which I assume from what you have said, to be in WAV format (clearly even Apple Lossless would be many more albums than this). A great piece of kit until they tell you it costs £4,500 sterling...

Lossless v. AAC

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