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Topic: Convert Apple Lossless to other formats (Read 3828 times) previous topic - next topic
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Convert Apple Lossless to other formats

Hi everybody,

After much consideration I decided to convert my whole music collection to Apple lossless, because it is the only lossless format that is actually *usable* on the Mac (there is no *real* alternative to iTunes on this platform) and I use Macs 90% of the time. The only problem is, that it is much more difficult to transcode to other formats than with FLAC for example.

So here is my actual question: Has anybody found an easy way to convert files encoded with Apple's lossless to other formats (LAME MP3 and FLAC) and *preserve* the *tag info*?

I am using both Mac OS X and Windows, but I would prefer a solution for Windows because I need my Mac for serious work...  (I also know there is a script called iTunes LAME for the Mac but unfortunately LAME is so slow on the Mac...)

At the moment I am using EAC + MAREO with LAME and iTunesEncode to rip my CDs and encode them to Apple Lossless and MP3 at the same time. But if I ever want to re-encode my MP3s I would either have to re-rip or use the Apple Lossless files as a starting point. Of course I could convert back to WAV and re-encode but then I would have to enter all the tag info again. Maybe there is an easier way?

Thanks for any help,

Andreas

Convert Apple Lossless to other formats

Reply #1 –
dbPowerAmp has a plugin that can understand/decode Apple Lossless and decompress it for passing to LAME and such. It might be in a beta plugin. Check the dbPowerAmp forums.

Convert Apple Lossless to other formats

Reply #2 –
thanks a lot! That was exactly what I was looking for. Transcoding from ALAC to FLAC works great. This provides the flexibility I need: If I ever want to use another format than ALAC I know that it is very easy to convert...

Convert Apple Lossless to other formats

Reply #3 –
I am thinking about purchasing dpPowerAmp Music Converter because this seems to be the only solution for directly converting ALAC to LAME MP3 (or are there other possibilities??).

On the other hand, the free version would allow me to convert to FLAC (or other lossless formats) and I guess there are other free programs out there which I could use to convert my FLAC files to LAME MP3. Can anyone recommend a program that can convert from FLAC or APE to LAME MP3 while preserving tag info?

Thanks, Andreas