How To Convert HDtracks FLAC High Resolution Downloads and Add to iTunes (Video with Commentary)

Hello Chris!<br />

Thank you for the great how too video, it was very helpful. One question; which version of MAX did you use? On their web site they have two choices:<br />

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The stable version of Max requires Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later.<br />

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The unstable version of Max requires Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later.

Hi soundsolutions11 - I'm using Max version 0.9.2. I guess it's the unstable version available here http://files.sbooth.org/Max-r1438.tar.bz2<br />

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I've had no issues with this version. In fact it resolves an issue where Max would either lock up or quite unexpectedly. <br />

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<img src="http://images.computeraudiophile.com/graphics/2011/0410/max-version.png"></img><br />

I use XLD to convert from FLAC to AIFF in iTunes. You just select the folder containing the FLAC tracks via the File->Open... menu item, and XLD converts the tracks and puts them straight into iTunes. <br />

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Sometimes it automatically converts the cover art and sometimes it doesn't. So you may need to use the iTunes Get Info dialog to paste the cover art into the album. I've never done anything about the album liner notes and Chris's suggestion to add the pdfs to the albums sounds like a good idea to me.<br />

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I need to go the other way, and convert AIFF tracks ripped from CDs to FLAC files, in order to play them on my Samsung Q3 portable player. I've found that Max is best for doing that. With XLD, the meta data, like the track names doesn't get converted, but Max does the full conversion including meta data.

to rename the picture file the same name every time and set the preferences to look specifically for that file name. I think the defaults are cover.jpg, folder.jpg and front.jpg so I just use them but it could be anything.<br />

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It will even reduce bigger pictures down to 300 x 300 (or whatever).<br />

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Hope that makes sense.<br />

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RS<br />

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P.S Tag is also awesome for editing metadata before conversion

Excellent video Chris!, but what if you want to copy the files into an iPod too?. Max can't change the sample rate from 96khz to 48khz in order to play those files on an iPod. I've tried XLD but the resulting files sounds awful with lots of annoying cracks and pops.<br />

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I refuse to play mp3 from my iPod. All my music is either ALAC or AIFF, but I've been having this issue with downloaded HD files. Basically I want to be able to play those files as best as I can from my iPod when I'm at the office, so the only way is to down convert the sample rate to 24bit/48 Khz which is what the iPod is capable to play.<br />

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Any suggestions? second part to your video, maybe?<br />

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Thanks

<p><b>RankStranger: </b><i>"The way to get XLD to add the album art every time is to rename the picture file the same name every time and set the preferences to look specifically for that file name. I think the defaults are cover.jpg, folder.jpg and front.jpg so I just use them but it could be anything."</i></p><br />

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<p>I've just been experimenting with the albums I've downloaded from the B&W Society of Sound. It seems that the ones with names like this 'Undiscovered Voices of the Carribbean - Artwork image.jpg' work fine with importing the cover art, whereas the ones that are called 'cover.jpg' don't work and need manual fixing up after importing into iTunes. I checked my XLD prefs and I have 'cover.jpg front.jpg and folder.jpg'. So I'm not quite sure what is going on here.</p>

but I think that some flac files have the artwork embedded in the file. Sometimes they seem to just come up when it looks like they shouldn't. Don't know about the correctly labelled ones not working. Maybe make sure they use .jpg. even if it is .jpeg it won't work.<br />

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RS

I picked up Amadeus Pro for OS X a few years ago in one of those bundle deals. It has a very simple batch processor that will convert to ALAC while retaining bit and sample rates. What I really like is that is also seems to retain the meta data (although sometimes track numbers get lost).<br />

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All I do is launch the script file, and drag the files on. I really recommend it.

Apple is ridiculous for still holding out on FLAC.<br />

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MAX is garbage...it crashes constantly on my new Mac Mini.<br />

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xACT is far, far superior.

Thanks for the tutorial!<br />

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What's the benefit of AIFF vs. ALAC? The ALAC files seem to end up to be smaller from the same FLAC files.<br />

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I converted some HDtracks files to ALAC, and iTunes could stream it to Apple TV. I did not know iTunes could do that. Is it downconverting the sampling rate and/or bit depth?

The only way to do so would be to use a program like Adobe Audition (Mac beta or Windows versions) and downsample the frequency. But more importantly, this is Stupid, because if you're going to down-rez the files, just convert them into 320kbps MP3's with Max and they will automagically convert to 24/48 files for your silly little non-hi fidelity iPod usage. Why the hell would you "refuse to play mp3 from your iPod"??? That's exactly the place that mp3's of high bitrate are incredibly useful! Never mind the ease of use issues of not having to juggle wav/aiff frequency/sample rate modification in Audition or Logic or the like. We're talking about an iPod here.

Max had crashing issues with the latest "stable" build on 10.6.6 and later. So if your Mac Mini is "new" as you say, you should be running the latest "unstable" build of Max, as it is much more, errr...stable. Go figure. But then again, the latest "unstable" stable build of Max has a fatal flaw right now, wherein one cannot convert high rez FLAC to MP3, for those applications where this would be useful. If you don't care about that however, then again, the latest "unstable" build is perfectly stable :-)<br />

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As for xAct, I find it childish and toy-like, but remarkably effective in a pinch, so I do keep it in the tackle box. Along with XLD, though it is equally the makings of a one-armed traffic cop. Rip/Max/Tag/Decibel are the go-to tools in this cobbler's workbench IMHO.

Most cobblers worth their salt will embed the artwork in the flac files themselves. Why leave things to chance? If ripping a CD, I use Rip on the Mac and embed the album artwork at the time of ripping. If I'm downloading from HDtracks or wherever, I analyze the files with MediaRage and edit the album artwork with higher rez images that I find on the web if/when necessary. MediaRage is a great tool that I use in addition to Tag. Tag is simpler, but does not allow album art to be tagged. MediaRage has batch process stuff built in, regex stuff, complex rules analysis, very cool stuff useful for very very large collections or when modifying metadata of large amounts of files at one time. Oh, and did I mention album art tagging/analysis for FLAC? Cool.

xACT has recently gone through to updates that to me make it a world class conversion tool. The user interface is now very clean. It is fast, and 100% reliable. MAC is just too boxy.<br />

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Nice tools in the workbench you have thee.<br />

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I like Fidelia for playback the best.

ManwithNOplan,<br />

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First, there is a hell of a difference between a crapy MP3 and an AIFF or ALAC at 24bit/48 Khz...if not, what are you doing in this site??<br />

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Second, what you are saying makes not sense at all: <em>"convert them into 320Kbps MP3's with Max and they will automagically convert to 24/48"</em>...<br />

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...Third, if I'm using a <em>"silly little non-hi fidelity"</em> iPod at the office is because is a portable solution, or you want me to move my gear from home everyday?...<br />

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And finally what's the point of having a great portable amp with a great Headphones like the Denon AH-D2000, if I'm going to play an MP3?<br />

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All I'm saying is that I want to play my music AS BEST AS I CAN from an iPod, meanwhile I'm at the office...And an MP3 is NOT. The next time, please save your useless comments like "stupid" or so...<br />

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cheers<br />

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Enough with the attacks. Further nonsense will simply be removed. <br />

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Now back to our regularly scheduled program ...

Really, name calling? Jark appears to be a jerk then, hmmm, wow, that felt good.<br />

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That said, I made a mistake in that Max will convert to 16/48 when converting high rez files to MP3, my mistake, not 24/48. But the overarching point is the same. The iPod is not a very high sound quality device to begin with, no matter what it's paired with. I notice you ignored the fact that reducing sample rate is going to be a laborious process otherwise, and result in a loss of sound quality anyway. But again, if you're willing to do it, I suggested Adobe Audition to you...go nuts with it. <br />

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You might also review other constricting choices you've made, for instance, this business of carrying an iPod to the office so you have your songs with you. Ask yourself, in 2011, with the quality of internet access that most of us enjoy, why carry around digital files on a physical device at all? <br />

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Instead, think about a software tool like Subsonic, a web-based music streaming application that can be simply loaded up at home on a Windows/Mac/Linux machine (any old whimpy laptop will do, nothing fancy), and stream your entire music collection, including High Rez tracks directly to any web browser on the planet. Users get logins, you can limit their access to only be able to stream, not download anything, it has a wonderful user interface, album art, playlist creation, etc. etc. Oh, and it's free.<br />

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Not only would you be able to stream your music in original AIFF or ALAC, but you would also be able to stream to an iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad with a little app called iSub ($5). Imagine working out at the gym and streaming all the original files to your iPod (transcoding optional server-side), without having to decide which music to sync to it and which to leave out, etc. At the office, you can just use a web browser to stream and connect your headphones directly to the laptop you're streaming on. Oh, and with Subsonic, you get to choose your "player" client-side. In other words, instead of just playing thru the web browser's built-in lower quality player, simply set your profile to stream to an external player on the laptop, something like Decibel, or a windows equivalent high quality player, whatever you'd like. <br />

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My suggestion is that you don't really want a faster horse. You may want something better, when you really step back from it.

Why doesn't HD Tracks make ALAC available in addition to FLAC? I can't see any reason why they would not support every popular lossless format.

<i>"...change the sample rate from 96khz to 48khz in order to play those files on an iPod. I've tried XLD but the resulting files sounds awful with lots of annoying cracks and pops."</i><br />

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XLD 20110228 on OS X 10.6.6 does the conversion to 24-bit/48kHz ALAC without audible problem for several files that I've tried. Analysis of the results suggest it is using the well-regarded resampling code included with OS X.<br />

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Are you hearing the cracks and pops on all files converted from 96kHz to 48kHz by XLD?<br />

Do you hear the noises when the 48kHz files are played on your Mac, or just the iPod?<br />

ALAC is proprietary, FLAC is not. You can easily transcode from FLAC to ALAC if that's your choice. You might ask the better question - why isn't AIFF or better yet WAV available across the board on sites like HDtracks, instead of only on certain sites, and only inconsistently on hdtracks?

You can trans-code to ALAC without any licensing fee, so I don't see the relevance of if it open or not. What is relevant is that it is a very widely used format by audiophiles (hence this discussion thread). <br />

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While it is true that I can do the trans-coding myself, it takes time and some effort. I'm certain that I buy fewer titles from HD Tracks because of this and I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling this way.<br />

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I don't understand why they would not make the files available in any popular lossless format that customers want. I think they would say that they don't do WAV or AIFF because of the additional bandwidth costs, but ALAC (vs FLAC) has no such issue.

The point is ALAC is not as ubiquitous as FLAC. Believe it or not, some people do not use Apple products, including iTunes free software, in any part of their music ecosystem. FLAC has been around longer, is widely used by the Unix crowd and others, and is seen by most music archivists as the most ubiquitous format of choice. You may disagree, I suspect you will, but it is what it is. ALAC is proprietary, the inner workings of the codec are not distributed. If Apple makes changes to it, they don't have to explain those changes, they don't have to justify anything, they own the codec. Though it seems ludicrous to imagine a day where Apple does not exist, it *could* happen, and therefore the codec could die along with them. Now, before you go thinking I'm some Unix bigot or something, I will tell you that I own and will continue to purchase more Apple software/hardware than probably 99.9% of the poeple on this forum. You could say I've bought in to Apple big time. But when it comes to proper archiving of my valued digital data, music foremost in that, I would never choose a proprietary format as the "copy of record". It's fine for converting to, playing with, etc., but the archive copy of record should be an open, non-proprietary format - pick one, WAV, FLAC, etc.<br />

Disk is cheap, your work and time are not, right?

By the way, bandwidth is incredibly cheap these days. Some high-rez sites offer AIFF, sites like iTrax and others. If iTrax can afford the bandwidth, trust me, HDTracks can. I used to sell Internet access to businesses for a living, I know what I speak of. HDtracks is hiring kids in New York City right now to help them market their newfound success in high-rez, trust me, that business is BOOMING like Chesky never imagined. It's a gold rush right now, and HDtracks is one of the key winners in the game. No reason they can't offer more AIFF or WAV, and I suspect they could fit in ALAC too, just so you don't feel left out :-)

<i>XLD 20110228 on OS X 10.6.6 does the conversion to 24-bit/48kHz ALAC without audible problem for several files that I've tried. Analysis of the results suggest it is using the well-regarded resampling code included with OS X.</i><br />

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You can export to 24/48 ALAC (or AIFF/WAV) with QuickTime 7 Pro too, which is also Core Audio based. It does require a plugin to decode FLAC. I'm pretty sure you can still buy a Pro license from Apple. Why Apple changed from QuickTime 7, which was a very powerful audio/video editor, to the glorified YouTube uploader that is QuickTime X is quite beyond me.<br />

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Since iTunes is also QuickTime based, you may be able to change preferences around and convert to 24/28 ALAC right from your library.

I don't know what your problem is, but why are you trying to put words in my mouth? What I said is that HD Tracks should support an ADDITIONAL file format that many people use. It would be good for their business.<br />

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>>The point is ALAC is not as ubiquitous as FLAC.<br />

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I'm not sure this is true, but does it even matter? A lot of people use ALAC and would appreciate being able to buy files in this format.<br />

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>>Believe it or not, some people do not use Apple products, including iTunes free software, in any part of their music ecosystem<br />

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I never said otherwise.<br />

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I've been doing digital music for more than ten years and am well aware of the history of FLAC (and SHN before it), so your history lesson is of not interest to me.<br />

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I also have no interest in religious wars over nonsense. Lots of people use ALAC. They should support it and other formats, if they want more sales. End of story.<br />

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