Selecting Import Settings (MP3, Apple Lossless, AAC...): definitive guide?

Can anyone point me to a "definitive" article discussing the various choices importing CDs into iTunes? I'm looking for something that gives sound advice (pun intended!) on which format to use, laying out some sort of matrix that compares file size to sound "quality".
Apologies for posting what's been posted a gazillion times before, but my searches in the forum led me to lots of long threads, short on information).

Argelius, It is truly an area with thousands of opinions being expressed. Each of the formats represents some tradeoff of size, audio quality, and compatibility. If you have particular uses or preferences, that will influence your choice.
If you are interested in knowing what the commercial stores are doing, the iTunes Store uses AAC at 256 kb/s and amazon.com uses MP3 at 256 kb/s.
Across the total range of players, programs, and phones, MP3 is by far the most widely accepted.
Lossless formats are used by people whose ears, systems, and listening conditions will benefit from top-notch audio quality. Lossless formats are also used by those who plan to do further processing (e.g. remixing) of their music.

Similar Messages

Custom Import settings (MP3) not working?

I downloaded itunes today having read the help guides that I could d/l files in MP3 format. I changed the custom import settings as per the help guide and purchased music - only to find the downloads are still in m4p format & as such are no good for my mp3 player.
Right clicking & converting doesn't work as they are protected.
I am hoping this is just an error on the custom set up on my part, but reading this forum I did read about protected and Plus purchases, which I did not see in the help guide before I bought the music.
So, my question is: can the protected files be downloaded with the customized MP3 encoder settings or am I completely limited to Plus purchases?
Thanks!

The import setting have no effect on store downloads, all iTunes store downloads are AAC (MP4). The import settings are used to convert the songs imported from CD or to convert unprotected songs in iTunes, not for choosing a format to download song from the store.
You can't convert standard iTunes copy protected songs, only the iTunes Plus purchases can be directly converted to another format. Where possible if you need to convert you should go for iTunes Plus tracks. The only thing you can do with standard songs apart from playing them in iTunes or on an iPod/iPhone is burn them to Audio CD. You can use that CD just like any regular one. If you need songs that will play on a non Apple player you'd be better looking around for other stores that provide unprotected MP3 downloads.

No settings for Apple Lossless Audio Codec found in Compressor

For archiving reasons I have to convert many audio files to Apple Lossless (ALAC). So I thought it would be easy using Compressor 4 and and a suitable droplet. I was astonished that here are only settings for the following audio formats: AAC, AC3, AIFF, CAF, MP3 and WAV.
No Apple Lossless Codec in the settings?
Does anyone know how to create ALAC files

Thomas A. wrote:
This setting generates a QuickTime file with the extension .mov
Of course it does. Why would that be a problem? "Apple Lossless" is not a file format, it's a codec.
OK, if I change the extension manually to m4a it seems to be an ALAC file, but I am not sure if it a "correct" one in regard to the specifications.
There is no "ALAC" file format specification. What are you going to use the files for?
ALAC isn't specified at all. The audio codec is called "Apple Lossless", and it is a set of algorithms to encode audio data, and a specification for a bitstream of audio data encoded such. It can be put in various containers, the most common being MPEG-4 and Apple Quicktime, but nothing will stop you from using AVI, .mkv, .ogg or anything else as the container format.
If you're unhappy with Compressor, which only seems to offer the QuickTime container format for Apple Lossless-encoded audio, there might be other tools that will transfer it into another container while leaving the actual encoded data untouched.
Since the Apple Lossless codec is now free, mencoder might work, even for the encoding itself. I haven't checked MPEG Streamclip, Handbrake, VLC or others, which might also offer such options.
Quick tests didn't yield any success, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't work.
An alternative for lessless encoding is the "FLAC" (free lossless audio codec), which is usually stored in an ogg container file. I don't think Compressor offers that, although VLC does.
It seems that the exact thing you want is not readily available (i. e. mpeg-4 audio-only with Apple Lossless audio codec.)
Bernd

Cannot change custom import settings in iTunes on aac

For some strange reason, my ability to change the AAC import settings in Itunes has very recently been eliminated. when i go to custom AAC it will not allow the drop down any longer? I had this ability!
using Itunes 10.5.3
Lion OSX 10.7.3
All updates are curent

Ooops........
My Bad, correct, posted in Itunes for windows by mistake. thanks.
Answer does not deal with my issue anyways thanks for the help.
wil repost in correct area.

Sequence Settings for "Apple Lossless" codec !?!?

Help,
I am editing a project and the material was delivered to me in the "Apple Lossless, stereo, 44100 khz DV, 720x480 (640x480), millions
Is there a Sequence settings I can use to edit this without having to render it in the timeline ?!?
Many thanks,
David Berry

o maybe FCP is only able to work in certain formats without having to compress ?o maybe FCP is only able to work in certain formats without having to compress ?
All the formats in the EASY SETUP are what it works with basically. But you can create custom setups..but they will NOT be realtime. That is what that trick is all about. If that trick doesn't work, then it is a format that FCP isn't gonna work with without recompressing. But audio still needs to be 48Khz 16-bit aiff files.
There are other NLEs out there that do this...Vegas, SpeedRazor...you can look into using them if you are constantly going to be dealing with odd codecs.
Shane

Apple Lossless lower bit rate than AIFF - why?

Why is the bit rate of Apple Lossless lower than that of AIFF for the same song?

Chris2881 wrote:
I can understand the file size thing but why the lower bit rate?
Chris2881,
In your iTunes library, the figure shown for bitrate is just the file size divided by the duration of the song (with adjustments for bytes to bits, and mega to kilo). If you look at an Apple Lossless file, the size and the bit rate are each about half of a standard AIFF for the same song.
As noted by fullcream, the Apple Lossless format is compressed but not lossy; it contains the full audio content of the CD (or AIFF) original but in a more compact file. Unlike AAC or MP3, Apple Lossless does not remove any audio content.
Ed

Apple Lossless streaming on Apple TV

When streaming Apple Lossless files on on Apple TV, what is the maximum bitrate? I realize Apple TV can stream AAC and MP3 files at 320 kbps, but what about Apple Lossless file that can often provide up to 1,000 kbps? Does Apple TV support such high bitrates? (I know the sampling is always 16 bit / 48 kHz).

Hello. For some reason, your reply to my May 2 post, has disappeared, though I still have it in email. I've reposted in below.
First, let me thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I'm confident that you've zeroed in on a solution. The clarity of your response is greatly appreciated.
Your points about compressed/lossy formats make sense. This explains the lower bitrates for those formats.
You also asked about the original source of my alac (Apple Lossless) files. As you may have guessed, the original files are typical itunes downloads, which I understand are usually MP3s at 256 kbps.
I had assumed that running them through the itunes converter would transform them into proper (16/44.1) lossless files with the associated bitrates ranging around 1,000 kbps -- with a much richer sound.
At first glance, it would appear that I was wrong. Merely upsampling the music has created larger files but without the added clarity, depth and soundstage. That's how I read your previous post. Again, correct me if I am wrong about this.
However, there is a twist.
As I mentioned, when I play these alac files through Apple TV -- through homesharing on my computer -- they sound no better than the 256k files. However, when I play the same files through the foobar2000 media streaming software, they sound much better and show the proper bitrates at around 1,000 kbps.
On this last question, my ears may be playing tricks on me, but I don't think so. I'm playing the files through a good system: an audiolab 8200CDQ pre-amp and 8200p power amp.
So, this has me stumped.
One last question: what is the point of having a program that upconverts MP3/AAC files to lossless if there is no improvement in sound quality. Why would you have a bigger file that sounds just as bad as the small one?
Regards
Here is your May 3 post, which has disappeared from the websit.
May 3
No problem. Sorry for the long reply.
I see what you mean about my equation. All 16/48 stereo signals would equate to 1536kbps. If you changed the sample rate to 44.1 (what CDs use) or something else, then the bitrate would change.
Now thats for uncompressed formats like WAV, AIFF, and PCM. And in the case of Airplay, the stream getting sent to the AppleTV is always uncompressed, no matter the the original format (aac, mp3, apple lossless, etc).
AAC files (and mp3, wma) are known as compressed formats: some fancy math equations are used to reduce the file size w/o your brain noticing the missing bits, so that initial stream (1536 kbps for instance) gets reduced to 320 kbps or lower in order to fit more songs on your device. the way this happens is really crazy but if you want to learn about it theres a magazine that did a good article. WARNING, its really technical!: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr12/articles/lost-in-translation.htm
you seem to be able to hear the difference between compressed and uncompressed formats. many people do but many dont. It all depends on your hearing, sound equipment, etc. I was wondering if the reason your not hearing a difference btwn apple lossless and aac might be because of where the lossleess files came from. did you rip them from CD's or convert them from another format? If they didn't come from CD's, WAV, or AIFF files, you probably won't hear a difference, because you can't "upconvert" from something like AAC to Apple Lossless and get higher sound quality. If they came from CDs, then maybe the AAC versions are just really good quality to begin with and so you are having a hard time telling. That article has some examples of the same music in different formats, so you can test your ears and see if you notice a difference.
bE

Apple Lossless drains my iPod's power!

After doing the battery tests on my Ipod, I've realised that while I can get the full 20 hour battery life from it, if I import songs using Apple Lossless, the battery life is reduced to just 12.5 hours. Does anyone know the reason for this? Does Apple Lossless consume more power? Will anyone from Apple actually answer my question?

Apple lossless files are much larger in comparison to files compressed at say 128kbps or 160kbps.
As such, the iPod's cache has to load more frequently and this inolves spinning up the hard drive more than usual.
Hence the reduced battery playback time.
Typically, any file larger than about 9MB will start to have a noticeable effect on the battery.

What are the best import settings for iTunes - AAC 160 / AAC 192 / MP3??

Hi I originally imported all my treasured CDs to iTunes several years ago, and they've served me well (AAC 128 - default setting) but in recent times hard-drive sizes have trebled and my much loved iTunes Library has not been updated.
I am thinking of re-importing all of my original CDs - as I think now that hard-drive space would allow for a higher quality but at the same time I do not want to fill my hard-drive completely with music - hence my question;
WHAT ARE THE BEST IMPORT SETTINGS CONSIDERING SIZE AND QUALITY?
(I know this has probably been asked a million times, but I did a search and nothing came up that answered my Q - also all the answers that came up in Google search where dated 2003/ 2004 - a little out-dated me thinks!!)
Rachael

Personally I've started ripping everything Apple Lossless. That way I hope I never have to rip again.
I used to rip 320 mp3. I couldn't tell the difference between 320 mp3 and lossless, but, one day I might be able to - big maybe. But since disk price is not likely to go up, I figured I'd rip lossless from now on "just in case."
Probably few, if any, people could tell the difference between 256 AAC and lossless (I've done it at 192, but never at 256, and I have not bothered trying again recently - there might be a song out there where I could hear the difference, hence ripping lossless from now on - my time costs more than disk space . . .)
256 AAC is a pretty safe bet, unless you need mp3 compatibility, then use 256 (or 320) mp3.

No matter what itunes import settings, I select its always MP3

Hey guys, Ive been downloading music from youtube. No matter what import settings I choose it always downloads as MP3. Ive tries selecting ACC, and apple lossless nothing changes.
Also what is the best music format for quality, I dont care about file size. Thanks!!!!

Johnrambo66 wrote:
Ok thanks guys this helped, I have heard you can't attach cover art to WAV files so I don't want that. So would apple lossless, or aiff be better?
Either one. Apple Lossless is ~50%-60% of WAV/AIFF size.
Oh and do you guys know of a youtube converter that allows you to download file other than mp3 ?
You can only donwload files in whatever format they are.
Once it is downloaded you can convert it.
But if it is downloaded MP3, don't convert it to anything else. You will simply reduce the quality or greatly increase the file size (with no gain in quality).

I selected "ACC Encoder-iTunes Plus" for import settings to import cd's. I assumed music purchased from the iTunes Store was mp3 format.Which is it?

I selected "AAC-iTunes Plus" as my import settings when importing CD's to my iTunes library. When I reviewed "get info" on purchased songs from iTunes, it says "Kind: Purchased AAC audio file". All of the purchased songs in my library say this. I assumed all purchased songs were "automatically" imported in mp3 format. Do the import settings I chose also apply to purchased music? Also, what can I do to have my library songs changed to mp3 format?

All songs sold in the iTunes Store are AAC/256.
The import setting affects ripping and conversion. It has nothing to do with purchases from the iTunes Store.
If you need MP3s, you can convert your AACs by using this procedure: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1550 But it would be easier to buy MP3s in the first place, for example from Amazon MP3.
MP3s can be used in iTunes or almost any other player, program or device.

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.

Hello, I have a Toshiba netbook with i-tunes loaded, when I go into import settings and choose MP3,instead of AAC, it defaults back to AAC when I leave the diaglogue box.

Hello, I have a Toshiba Netbook that I just put i-tunes on and when I go into import settings, I want to change it to MP3, but when I leave the dialogue box, it defaults back to AAC. What am I missing? Thanks.

I wonder if I'm missing that OK because the screen on this netbook is smaller than a laptop and only supports 1024 X 600. I can't scroll that box up any, and can't grab the top and move it up. So when I exit that box I have to click the x in the top right corner.
Acck. Yes, that'll be the issue. There's an OK and a Cancel down at the bottom of the screen.
This is going to seem a weird suggestion, but it's the only thing that is springing to mind at the moment ... Do you know someone with an external monitor, or a TV that supports PC input? If so, try temporarily attaching the netbook to that. Can you do the preference change on the larger monitor?

Import settings....no option to change custom settings in AAC

If I select to "Import using aac" and then select "custom" I am not given any further options to customise. This used to be an option where an other small page would open and give me all the various custom settings available but now nothing. If I try "import using mp3" and then select "custom" then I am given all the custom options. I have uninstalled itune and reinstalled but no change. This is really anoying as until I can sort this problem out I can not rip my cd collection as I wish to. Any help appreciated. Thanks

That one can be caused by damaged iTunes preferences files. If that is what is afoot, rebuilding one set of your preferences files can get past the issue.
Prior to doing the preference file rebuilds: Best to make a note of any custom preferences you have set up for your iTunes. (Rebuilding pref files returns preferences to their defaults ... so you'll likely have to set some of those custom preferences up again from scratch.) Also make a note of any third-party plugins/add-ons you have installed. You may have to reinstall those after the rebuilds.
First, quit iTunes if you have it open.
Next, you'll need to make sure you are set up to view hidden files and folders in Vista (or 7).
1. From the Start menu, click Open.
2. In the Organize menu, click Folder and Search Options.
3. Click the View tab.
4. In the "Advanced settings" pane under "Hidden files and folders" make sure that the "Show hidden files and folders" option is selected.
5. Click OK.
Next, you'll remove the iTunes preference folder (and contained file).
6. In Computer, open Local Disk C:\ or whichever drive your documents are stored on.
7. Open the Users folder.
8. Open the folder with the name of the Vista (or 7) user account in which iTunes isn't showing the Custom AAC options.
9. Open the AppData folder.
10. Open the Roaming folder.
11. Open the Apple Computer folder.
12. Drag the iTunes folder out onto the Desktop.
Now you'll rebuild the preference folder and file.
13. Launch iTunes. This will cause iTunes to rebuild that preference folder and file. The iTunes Setup Assistant will run. Do not add files to your library when prompted to do so. Otherwise you'll end up with a library full of duplicates.
Once iTunes has launched, check your importing preferences again. Do you get the AAC options again?

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.

Selecting Import Settings (MP3, Apple Lossless, AAC...): definitive guide?

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