From Flac to m4a(AAC) without loosing tag

2007-08-01 04:50:26

Hello from a newbie,
I ripped over 1,200 CD into FLAC and completed most of the available tags: Artist, Title, Album, Track, Year, Genre, Comment, Album Artist, Disc ID, Composer, Disc, Encoded by, Encoder, Encoder settings, Ensemble, Label, Length, Lyricist, Lyrics, Source, UPC, Album Art (OGG/Flac tag format).
I would like to convert the Flac files into AAC/M4a format to listen on an ipod, but I especially look for preserving the most significant tags (for me) in the process: Artist, Title, Album, Track, Year, Genre, Album Artist, Comment, Composer, Disc, but also (and especially) Lyrics and Album Art.
What software would you recommend for?
Thanks!

From Flac to m4a(AAC) without loosing tag

Reply #1 – 2007-08-01 06:10:38

Foobar2000+Nero AAC encoder+(perhaps)foo_dop.

Right click on files in playlist, Convert to... MP4 Nero. In the converter preferences page it gives you a link to download the nero encoder.
If you choose to use iTunes instead of foo_dop, to send your files to your ipod, you'll need to create a custom converter preset in foobar2000, first open the AAC preset then go to custom and everything will be set, just change extension to .M4A as iTunes doesn't recognise MP4 as audio.

From Flac to m4a(AAC) without loosing tag

Reply #2 – 2007-08-01 07:41:26

Thank you David for the quick answer.
I managed to follow your advice, and it almost worked, but only almost.
In the conversion process, most of the Tags are saved: Artist, Title, Album, Track, Year, Genre, Disc, Lyrics, etc.
But some important tags were lost: Album Artist, Composer, Comments (and Album art, as you said).
Is there a way to get also those ones kept in the conversion process?
Thanks.

From Flac to m4a(AAC) without loosing tag

Reply #3 – 2007-08-01 09:02:12

If you load the original and the converted files into the same playlist, you can directly copy tags from one to another. The original files have to be in the first half of the playlist, the converted in the second in the same order as the originals. Then select all, right-click and select "Tagging > Copy Info between files".

From Flac to m4a(AAC) without loosing tag

Reply #4 – 2007-08-02 02:52:07

Thanks Elpres.
I try your method, which works well but does not solve the issue.
In fact, when checking the files converted in AAC/m4a with Foobar, they contain the same tag information than the original Flac ones, including Album Artist, Composer, and Comment Tags (not album art, but that is known).
Thus, the issue seems to be the import process in iTunes. Maybe the tag mapping for iTunes differs from Foobar ones.

From Flac to m4a(AAC) without loosing tag

Reply #5 – 2007-08-02 07:46:48

I have found a workaround, but not a comfortable one:

1) I convert fully-tagged Flac files into AAC/m4a with dBpoweramp; the m4a files display Artist, Title, Album, Track, Year, Genre, Comment, Album Artist, Disc ID, Composer, Disc, Encoded by, Encoder, Encoder settings, Ensemble, Label, Length, Lyrics, Source, UPC, and Album Art in a way compatible with iTunes.
2) As Elpres proposed, I then create a playlist with foobar with Flac files first and m4u files in second position, in the same order. I apply the command "tagging/copy info between files" for lyrics tag.
It is quite boresome for a huge database, but it is better than nothing.

BTW, as the discussion has evolved towards using Foobar, it should be better to continue posting there (I have already opened a post there).

From Flac to m4a(AAC) without loosing tag

Reply #6 – 2008-09-16 07:53:27

Hello,

I'm currently in the same situation as you (cd collection ripped in flac), but I can't seem to have the lyrics kept when I convert the .flac to .m4a.
To tag the flac-files, I used MediaMonkey (only some have been tagged with lyrics, for test purposes; I want to have a working workflow before I tag them all); with dBpoweramp I can convert them to .m4a (using the Nero AAC codec). When I open the file in iTunes, almost all tags are present, apart from the lyrics (other software such as dBpoweramp, Mediamonkey, etc. do still show the lyrics)...
Images are also kept, but I think they loose their tag (e.g. "front cover", ...).

Which software did you use to tag your flac files? (I'm beginning to think that might be a problem)

The "tagging > copy info between files" also does not appear on my context menu in foobar, so I think I may be doing something wrong here...

Thanks!!



Jörg