Recording in Apple Lossless

Can anyone please tell me how many songs (approx 4 mins per song) can fit onto an 80gb and 120gb iPod Classic when recorded in Apple Lossless?
Thanks, Rob

Apple Lossless would be around 5MB-6MB per minute or around 50 songs per Gigabyte.

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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.

Apple Lossless & automatic mono/stereo detection?

Apple lossless is supposed to have auto detection when it comes to mono or stereo. Unlike AAC, there is no option to choose. However, when I rip older mono music in lossless and look at a file summary of the track by entering command i, it is indicating stereo. Is this problem? I would think that a mono file that has been changed to stereo would be larger than necessary and have more noise.

Just as a footnote to your original question :
There are two slightly different uses of the word 'mono' - one for analogue, the other for digital.
In the analogue world, recording engineers use a single track to create a mono recording, then mix it to two identical tracks so it comes out of both speakers
In the digital world, mono means using only a single channel so that files are only half the size - a player (e.g. minidisc) would then output the single track to both channels
As your old mono CDs are in effect 2-track mono (as a mono vinyl album would be also), Apple Lossless simply detects this and thinks of it as 'stereo', not being sophisticated or clever enough to analyse both channels and see they are the same. It would need that information to be encoded into the CD's digital footprint, and I don't believe that it is.

Size of Apple Lossless Files

According to iTunes help, an Apple Lossless File should be about 5MB per minute of music. I am experiencing from 6.5MB to 7.5MB per minute. Is this related to a setting which is incorrect, the type of music I am importing, or is Apple simply wildly optimistic?

Your second reason--the type of music you're importing. Apple isn't far off, on average, but there can be a wide range of encoding rates, depending upon the complexity and nature of the source recording audio. Just look at the variable encoding rates on any full CD you might have imported. One that I have, for example, ranges from 678 to 982 kbps among its 13 tracks.

Nokia N95-8GB, won't play Apple Lossless.

Hello All,
I have a large number of tunes ripped to Apple Lossless (via iTunes). I've tried everything I can think off, but my new N95 just won't play them. There are two problems: a) the tracks end up on the device as "Artist:Unknown" and "Album:Unknown". and b), the tracks won't play on the phone (the elapsed time just sticks at -:--).
Nokia Music Manager either just hangs or copies the tracks to the phone. ANd I get the same results if I copy from my PC via "Data Transfer" on the USB.
Does anyone know how I can get these files onto the phone so that it'll play 'em? Or can anyone recommend a better format-changer so that I can downgrade them.
Cheers,
John

People in the know use analog....
But regardless, Apple Lossless is yet another compression algorithm as such it will tamper with the audio quality.
Not to get into that debate, but if you think you are getting "lossless" you are "clueless". In a good way, we are the victims of the storage problems.
To accurately depict real sound, you will need infinite amounts of bandwidth and storage.
So now that we have settled that, what we are talking about is how much is "good enough quality".
What can people REALLY perceive. I'll bet good money that if you record the same song in different codecs and bitrates you will be hard pressed to find people that can pick any codec over another at over 300 kbps. At this bitrate it's very difficult to tell MPEG4 AAC to MPEG-1 Layer 3, or eAAC+, never mind WAV or Apple Lossless.
If you don't believe me try it. encode the same song into MPEG4 AAC, MP3, eAAC+ at 300 kbps then also put the WAV and Apple lossless. Create a playlist and play them back through a good set of headphones or home stereo system at random or with someone else selecting the different versions. BTW if your pair of headphones cost you less than 200 pounds then you won't be able to tell the difference.
Since I'm already compromising by going digital then all I have to decide is how much I'm willing to compromise. If I want high Q, I have my home set-up.
640K Should be enough for everybody
El_Loco Nokia Video Blog

When will itms have apple lossless available?

The topic says it all.
I would never pay money for a compressed audio file when I could just go buy the cd (which gives me liner notes, and a hard copy backup to boot).
When itms has apple lossless available, I will go on a spending spree.. but not until then.
How long will I have to wait?
(ps - ive checked the faq, googled, and searched apple.com to no avail. the most I cam up with was a rumour from June 22, 2006)
crappy windoze Windows XP Pro major gear list

Apple lossless is still a compressed format. Just not
as compressed as MP3 or AAC.
Right. But it is lossless. Meaning that when its uncompressed and listened to, you are listening to data that is exactly of the original recording.
This is not the case with mp3 or aac.
I have a digital audio out on my soundcard that goes into my 5.1 home theatre setup. I can definitely hear the difference between some aac files ive downloaded at itms compared to the lossless files I am ripping from my CDs.

When will Apple Lossless Music be Available from the iTunes Store?

I have recently rediscovered the wonders of uncompressed music. I bought my first CD player in 1984. The best vinyl records were better then than the best CDs, and still are, but the average CD was a lot better than the average vinyl. The CD average has probably gotten better since then. At some point, I imported the CDs I listened to into my Mac, initially as 128K AAC, and later as 256K AAC, and thought I was still getting good quality. A couple of months ago, I bought an external USB DAC (NuForce Icon µDAC) and some better-than-the-usual-computer-speakers powered monitors (M-Audio AV40). And I reimported my CDs in Apple Lossless format. Oh! Sweet new music!
The difference between 256K AAC and Apple Lossless is subtle, but through good equipment it's still very noticeable. I have lots of music I bought from the iTunes Store over the years, in 128K and 256K AAC. Some of those I've replaced with CD rips, but I don't have all those CDs. I sure would like to be able to upgrade to Apple Lossless through the iTunes Store. I'd be happy to pay the HDTracks.com prices of $12/album or $1.49/track for the privilege, but it isn't available. The best Apple will sell me is 256K AAC. So now I'm getting all my new music from HDTracks.com, who have wonderful recordings, but a small selection, or as CDs from Amazon.
Apple, when are you going to step up to the plate for the audiophiles in your market and sell us Apple Lossless (or FLAC) music? I realize that we aren't nearly as big a market as the teeny-bopper iPod users out there, but we ARE a market, and I for one would happily return to the iTunes Store if I could buy full-resolution music there.

Wonderful question, would be nice if Apple was not so hush-hush about new developments, but alas, that is what they must do to stay on top of the game. I cannot wait for the day when I will open iTunes and see the phrase, "All Downloads now in Full CD Quality Apple Lossless!" Woohoo, what a momentus occasion that will be. Fortunately, we can hope that they will allow upgrades to Apple Lossless just like they did for iTunes Plus (and why wouldn't they, it's a money maker).
I too have only been purchasing cds mostly from amazon to rip in Lossless, and just came across an album of interest to me that is unfortunately only available through iTunes and Amazon. The hard copies of Steve Jablonsky's Transformers Score are only found in highly marked-up quantities on amazon and ebay, so i am left to bite the bullet and purchase the adequate 256kbps AAC version from the iTunes store. At least I don't have to buy Amazon's MP3 coded versions(typed with a smirk).
With the capacity of most iPods ranging between 8 and 160 GBs, I think it is safe to assume that storage space is not really an issue anymore. Let us cross our fingers for Apple Lossless soon(or use those fingers to raise typed awareness).

Will Apple Ever Offer Music @ ITMS in Apple Lossless or Other Such Format?

It's galling to me when I look at the stacks of full-quality albums and CDs I've purchased over the years and then consider the apparent "way of the future" which is lower-quality music purchased on the ITMS and other (more lame) music stores.
I am 99.9% sure that the reason is the record companies who fear any loss of control and who are hard at work writing new viruses to infect our PCs and Macs with if we dare buy music the "old fashioned" way via CD. Sure, there are ways around those DRM schemes to control our computers, but it just seems that once again, the consumer is the slave to the corporation's desire to control everything at the expense of the consumer's rights.
The day of the audiophile is fast dying I think. Music on ITMS should be sold (as an option) in Apple Lossless format or some other lossless format so music lovers can then convert them into whatever format and size that best suits their needs as music lovers and not the shadowy corporate thugs who fear every customer and every digit they don't have complete control over.
I think Apple has done a spectacular job getting us this far and I hope Steve Jobs and Apple will continue to push the dinosaurs over at the Fascist Recording States who control most of the artists and most of the music.
One promising sign is artists who are banding together to sell their music directly to us, their fans. I look forward to a day when artists will control their own fates and their own music and we will be able to download our music at full quality. Yes, there will be piracy, just as there always has been, but we should err on the side of freedom and not control. A way for artists to be compensated can be figured out and in the long run and, I am sure, they would be MUCH better compensated than they are now in the corporate stables where hugely popular stars often retire penniless because of the egregious contracts imposed on them by their consciousless corporate masters.
How do you think the future of digital music will unfold?
JoeL
PowerMac 1.25 DP, .8 TB (in 4) HDs, 1.75GB RAM, Superdrive Mac OS X (10.4.2)

I'm not really looking for a reliable answer as such, just offering my thoughts on the subject and wishing out loud . . . user2user.
And if anyone has anything interesting to say on the subject, I'd love to hear their thoughts as well. I think Apple should offer lossless recordings, don't you?
. . . but I think I understand why they don't at this point.
I know that such conversations do break out here from time-to-time.
JoeL

Problems syncing Apple Lossless Files with iphone 3.0 and 3.1.

I recently started having problems with syncing apple lossless files with my iPhone 3G. They were recording I made using Logic Pro and the same as have been working with no problem since I got my iPhone last year. Although the songs would play and indicate the correct total time in iTune, on the iPhone they would indicate a total time of over 2 hours even though they were 2-3 minute long. The same files converted to mp3 did not have this problem. Since updating to iTunes 9 and 3.1 on the iPhone, the problem is worse. The Apple Lossless format files do not show up on the iPhone at all even though they are fine in iTunes. mp3 format do not have this problem.
Anyone else having the same issues?

Hi Allen,
I would like to thank you very much for your help with Forte 3.0 and WTK 1.0.1 beta.
Thank you for the pointing me to the ForteJ2MEGuide.pdf file. It is very useful document.
However, even following it I did not succeeded in accomplishing my task.
I was able to follow the instructions and create, compile and run the Hello midlet which
was generated by the IDE. My previous problem related to the fact that I did not create
project and midlet suite for the midlet. After doing all of that the generated midlet worked. However, it was not what I wanted.
First, the instructions in the guide only described how to generate new midlet. I tried
to add the existing midlet to the current project. Unfortunately, the IDE always picked
up the generated template, not my code.
Second, when the generated midlet started to work, it was difficult to debug it. I set
up the breakpoint, but the IDE did not stop at it. I think the reason is the compiler
did not have debugging flag set up. Do you know where it is possible to set it up?
So, at the end I still cannot accomplish very simple task which should not be very
difficult at all:
1. Use my own code to create a midlet.
2. Compile and execute the midlet and see how it runs in emulator.
3. See step-by-step execution of every line of my code and the value
of every variable in the code.
Regards,
Jacob Nikom

Can't Import Songs To iTunes Using Apple Lossless Encoder

I have about 4,000 songs in FLAC format (which is a lossless format) on my external hard drive. I want to import them into iTunes using the Apple Lossless Encoder. I called Apple support and asked them how to do this, and they told me to go under "Preferences" in iTunes and chose to import using Apple Lossless Encoder.
I did this using Preferences>General>Import Settings, and then went to File>Add Folder to Library, however, it still imported my songs as AAC Audio Files. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Thanks.

iTunes cannot read nor import FLAC files - not without third-party plugins, anyway, and I don't know of any that will allow iTunes to convert a FLAC file to another format - so I'm a bit confused as to the procedure you're following. If all you're doing is using the Add to Library command and choosing the FLAC files, it's quite possible that iTunes is misinterpreting the format and adding what is in reality an invalid link with erroneous format information.
If you have some sort of third-party plugin for FLAC for iTunes, please post that information and perhaps someone here can determine whether iTunes can do a conversion successfully.

How do I Download from Itunes store using the Apple Lossless format?

I use my music on a home sterio and import locally from CD's to Windows using the Apple Lossless format only, to achieve the Highest quality sound. However, When I buy from Itunes store I can only get AAC format, which is low quality. How can I get Itunes to give me only Apple Lossless format?
Your help will b e appreciated.
Thanks
Phil

I do agree with what i have been said. I am a musician, i think AAC is definitely medium-low quality. I bought this year lots of AAC 256 for Itunes. I have been surprised. SO many times i need to go to the equalizer to counter-balance the weakness of this file format.
I advise you to do the following. Import a CD using Apple LossLess and then import a CD using AAC 256. You will see a HUGE difference.
Now i start to buy CD again in order to get the music Quality. Then i import my CDs to Itunes using Apple LossLess (920Kbps). You will ear that on Snares and Rides. Bass will sound more natural. Bass, Medium, Sharp will more balance with each other. You will hear instruments with more clarity especially when there are a lot of instruments. Because of that, you will not need to raise up the volume.
But more than anything... you will gain VOLUME in your files.
In general over the internet all the online music stores including Itune doesn't provide HD quality. AAC 256 is not enough. A track bought over Itune Store should weight 30 megabytes, not 5. And then you would decide to compress it or not.

How do i convert my exsisting itunes library to apple lossless?

Also whrn i do this will i have duplicate files(original/lossless)? If so what is the best way for me to delete them form my macbook? Thanks

Not to pile on here, but the only point of Apple Lossless is to have a slightly compressed version of the an original CD (AIFF). I have converted my full CD collection (too many disks to even count) to Apple Lossless. The sound quality is indistinguishable from the original CD. Because the files are rather large for use on an iPhone or smaller iPod, I then convert them to 256 AAC (for my iPhone) or 160 MP3 to burn MP3 disks for my cars. I keep the Lossless files as the original content.
However, lately, I'm just purchasing 256 AAC iTunes Plus files. I'm losing quality, but it's just not worth the time to purchase CD's and convert them any more.
There is absolutely no reason to convert 256 AAC files to Lossless. In fact, I'm sure it might degrade the sound quality in that a lot of information just isn't in the 256 AAC file. However, don't quote me on this.

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

Apple Lossless Tags won't Save

Hi everyone,
Has anyone experienced this? I have about 4 CDs that I've ripped in iTunes (I think), and they are all in Apple Lossless m4a. Despite the fact that their tags load just fine in other programs, iTunes is treating these files as if they had no tags whatsoever. I've tried to rewrite some of the tags within iTunes, but removing and reloading my library into iTunes reveals that these tags were never written in the first place.

Yes, I have experienced it. (not written into the audio file)
What version of iTunes are you using?
Over on the LogicPro8 forum
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8108295#8108295
describes a problem with adding metadata (the ID3 tags) in to a file with
versions of iTunes higher than 7.6.2 it won't write them into the audio file.
Versions of iTune 7.6.2 and lower seem to work ok and will write the info into the audio file.

IPod Nano 4G Skips During Playback with Apple Lossless Songs

My iPod Nano 4th Generation has been consistently skipping a brief portion of music about every 5th Apple Lossless song during playback. I've been working unsuccessfully to resolve this issue with tech support and fixed the problem when I disabled the energy level setting in the playback menu. While this is a hit to battery life, the skipping no longer occurs. Hoping that this issue is permanently resolved in an upcoming software update.

Hi,
I brought my ipod yesterday and had the exact same issue. it would skip certain songs frequently and was extremely frustrating. Im not sure if this is the case for all ipods (i have an ipod nano 16Gb 4th gen, with firmware 1.0.4), but i fixed my issue in a series of steps. Im not sure which exact part of my method did the job, but here it is:
1. plugged it into iTunes and clicked "restore" under the tab "summary". WARNING: This will delete everything, and restore factory settings. im not sure if this is necessary, but youll need to delete the songs which skip anyway.
2. pressed the eject button IN ITUNES (under "devices", and next to your ipod icon), ejecting the ipod. wait for the ipod to specify when it is ready for it to be unplugged. proceed to unplug said ipod.
3. Choose the language of your ipod, and go into playback settings and (settings/playback or something) and turn OFF "shake" and "energy saver"
4. Plug your ipod into your computer again and drag all the songs onto your ipod using itunes.
5. after it has finished copying, WAIT until the ipod no longer says "synching", and until it says "connected"
6. Press the eject button IN ITUNES (again, under devices, and next to your ipod icon)
7. Eject when the ipod says it is ok to do so.
As i said, im not sure which part of the method did it for me, but i think it might be the way in which i was ejecting it. Before i was ejecting the ipod on my desktop. I think it is important to eject it using itunes. Anyway this fixed my ipod. Im not sure if it will do the same to yours, but if its making you very angry (to say the least) like it made me, its worth a try i guess. I would appreciate it if people let me know if this works.

Recording in Apple Lossless

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