Converting ALAC files to FLAC

[mrarroyo]

Fang from Head Direct has loaned me a HiFiMAN HM-801 portable player. I am waiting for the Kingston 32GB SD card I purchased from Newegg to start trying this player. I would like to load the SD card w/ FLAC files however I first would need to convert the music I have in Apple Lossless to FLAC files and I would appreciate your help in which converter I should use.

I have spent the last two days doing searches and I am dizzy with all the names (foobar, dbamp, etc). Look forward to your suggestions. Thanks.

[Dusty Chalk]

I vaguely remember someone saying that if you have a large amount of files, that really dbpoweramp is the only way to go, and there really isn't any alternative. Someone confirm or deny -- I haven't actually done this myself.

[postjack]

i think dbpoweramp would be your best bet. i use it primarily to convert FLAC files to MP3 to dump on a USB stick for my car. What I like is it will automagickally put your converted files in directories and name according to their META info, i.e. F:\artist\album\[track#] - [track title]. makes it easy to convert a bunch of files at once.

It does have an ALAC codec, I just downloaded it to check.

[elnero]

A third nod to dbpoweramp, I'm not sure if anything is quite as good for converting a large number of files. I think using the converter in foobar would be another possibility, I know I've used it for various files but don't remember what exact formats I've done with it.

[mrarroyo]

Thanks to all, dbpoweramp is it.

[Torpedo]

Yep, dBPower Amp is great

[Iron_Dreamer]

Foobar can definitely do it. I'd use it over DBpoweramp any day.

[Beefy]

Foobar can definitely do it. I'd use it over DBpoweramp any day.

Is it actually a different encoder?

In any case, the interface for dbpoweramp's batch encoder is pretty powerful. Indeed the whole package is well worth the money - far more robust/stable than EAC for ripping as well.

[morphsci]

Dbpoweramp is definitely the way to go especially if you have a multicore processor. I usually go FLAC to ALAC but it has always worked flawlessly. Beefy pretty much nailed it concerning the batch interface and ability to do bit-perfect rips easily and quickly.

[Iron_Dreamer]

Well, I have never had issues with foobar and EAC, both free. Foobar works great batch encoding hundreds of files on four threads simultaneously with a core 2 quad.

[mrarroyo]

As we speak the PC is converting about 7,300 songs from ALAC to FLAC. However it is not keeping them together, I had a folder per artist w/ several albums in each folder. Now all the converted songs are being placed in a general folder w/ no organization. Is there a fix? Thanks.

[morphsci]

If you are using dbpoweramp try the following.

After Folder --> The actual drive and folder location you want to write the transcoded files too

After Dynamic -->[iFCOMP][iFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],Various Artists[]\[album]\[track][artist][][iF!COMP][iFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[track] [artist][] - [title]

That should put everything in folders by artist and then album name under artist. It will also group compilation albums under the "Various Artists" folder.

[deepak]

Is it actually a different encoder?

In any case, the interface for dbpoweramp's batch encoder is pretty powerful. Indeed the whole package is well worth the money - far more robust/stable than EAC for ripping as well.

dbpoweramp does have a more robust feature set than EAC. But I don't see how it is more stable? I have never had either program crash and I have been using EAC for close to ten years on every computer I've owned.

[Beefy]

dbpoweramp does have a more robust feature set than EAC. But I don't see how it is more stable? I have never had either program crash and I have been using EAC for close to ten years on every computer I've owned.

EAC used to crash quite regularly for me - only software that ever has done so on this otherwise rock solid laptop. Perhaps it just didn't like the external drive I was using, perhaps it was an unstable build I was using.

Still dbpoweramp has been rock solid, so that's just my experiences.

[morphsci]

Yeah, I have never had any problems with either EAC or Foobar. Just prefer the interface of dbpoweramp and I really like accurateRip and their album cover artwork feature, which has been significantly better in the latest revision.

[grawk]

I still really like max , but if you don't have a mac, I supposed dbpoweramp is a good choice

[n_maher]

far more robust/stable than EAC for ripping as well.

I have ripped literally thousands of CD's with EAC and I can count the number of problems I've had with it on one hand, what stability problems have you had?

[Beefy]

I have ripped literally thousands of CD's with EAC and I can count the number of problems I've had with it on one hand, what stability problems have you had?

It just used to crash

No biggie really. When it was working I had no complaints...... but since moving to dbpoweramp, I never look back.

[aardvark baguette]

man, its been a while since I ripped anything.

[mrarroyo]

If you are using dbpoweramp try the following.

After Folder --> The actual drive and folder location you want to write the transcoded files too

After Dynamic -->[iFCOMP][iFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],Various Artists[]\[album]\[track][artist][][iF!COMP][iFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[track] [artist][] - [title]

That should put everything in folders by artist and then album name under artist. It will also group compilation albums under the "Various Artists" folder.

Thanks, I will try it and report back tomorrow.

[deepak]

As far as ripping engines go dbpoweramp and EAC are identical and what everything else is measured against. The only benefit I see with dbpoweramp as a ripping tool goes is that you can rip discs that are present in the AccurateRip database in burst mode if the CRC match. I don't mind leaving EAC in secure mode and checking CRCs with AccurateRip, it only takes 5-10 minutes longer per disc, really a non-issue on a multiple core CPU.

Also with a lot of my CDs, which are using unique or rare mastering dbpoweramp switches to secure mode if there is no AccurateRip info in their database. So it ends up taking the same time or longer than EAC test and copy any way.

The batch conversion features in the full version of dbpoweramp are fantastic. But for my uses EAC is fine since I only rip to FLAC.

Edited June 9, 2010 by deepak

[dallan]

I use something called XLD on my macbook pro. Works perfectly, never have to think about it.

On my old PC i used dbpoweramp for years.

[nnotis]

It was already mentioned, but I'll give a second shout out to Max, a free program for Mac OS. I've used it for years without incident.

[grawk]

Wow, thanks, now that you've supported it, it's gotta catch on!

[crappyjones123]

as i look forward to the new ipod touch, i have an issue with the exact opposite conversion. itunes still does not support flac and most of the music i have is in flac. would it make sense to convert it all to alac just for the touch or is some other way to make the ipod touch play flac. i dont mind jailbreaking stuff but as long as it is reversible to factory settings (in case the ipod has to go back to apple for any service issues). what would i even use after the jailbreak?

sorry for the thread jack but i figured i would ask here instead of creating a new thread as it was a related question.