flac to Ipod?

[daniel_paul_]

I have my music saved mostly as Flac and a very few as WMP files. My wife wants to put a bunch on her Ipod. How do I convert the selected files to Ipod format? The goal being to reduce the size of the files. Please keep in mind that I do not want to delete the source files. I am running windows XP.

FYI: I will be back on line in the morning.

Thanks, Dan

[Keiko]

hmmm...I'm not to sure about windows since I use Apple, but if you have Roxio Toast you can export flac to AAC. Simply add the files into Toast and export them as AAC into an alternate folder. From there straight into itunes to be uploaded into the ipod.

[fatchowmein]

You'll have to convert them to apple lossless. I have the same problem. I would love to keep everything in flac (squeezebox 3) but my wife is an ipod lover.

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

The other option is to reimage her ipod and turn it into a flac player. Sorry, I don't have that information and I have never attempted the procedure.

[mmadden28]

You could convert them to mp3 them import them to iTunes.
MediaMonkey (http://www.mediamonkey.com/) supports FLAC and can convert although I think you have to have the upgraded version ($).

You could convert the FLAC back to CD and them rip into iTunes.

I was able to use the FLAC Frontend (http://flac.sourceforge.net/index.html) (free) and decode a FLAC file to a WAV file, then bring that into iTunes and convert to MP3-Its a little work but not too painful. Only took me about 5 mins to completely convert about an hour of music from FLAC to MP3.

[daniel_paul_]

If I use the Flac Frontend to wav wont I lose the tags?

[Marty913]

I have my music saved mostly as Flac and a very few as WMP files. My wife wants to put a bunch on her Ipod. How do I convert the selected files to Ipod format? The goal being to reduce the size of the files. Please keep in mind that I do not want to delete the source files. I am running windows XP.

FYI: I will be back on line in the morning.

Thanks, Dan

The free version of MediaMonkey will convert FLAC directly to MP3 which can then be used in the IPod. I just converted a couple to confirm so if you need help just PM me.

[jpolz]

The way I do it is burn the FLAC files to an audio CD image using Nero, then I mount the CD image to a virtual drive using Alcohol 120%. That way iTunes will grab the CD title/name info automatically.

All my iTunes library is ripped using AAC @ 256kbps, which is much better than MP3 at the same bitrate.

[unc2701]

OK, DON'T put them to MP3, you'll lose the CD quality and you can't get it back. Same thing for lossy AAC. Since you've got them as flac's, I'm guessing that you have the original CD's, so the easiest way is to just re-rip in iTunes.

I believe that the newer versions of Roxio Toast have FLAC and apple lossless support, so you could use that to convert over.

Now, I'm assuming that you want to keep it lossless. If you have the space, you could just duplicate your library in an MP3/ AAC format for your wife's Ipod since the quality out of it isn't going to be too hot anyway.

[daniel_paul_]

OK, DON'T put them to MP3, you'll lose the CD quality and you can't get it back. Same thing for lossy AAC. Since you've got them as flac's, I'm guessing that you have the original CD's, so the easiest way is to just re-rip in iTunes.

I believe that the newer versions of Roxio Toast have FLAC and apple lossless support, so you could use that to convert over.

Now, I'm assuming that you want to keep it lossless. If you have the space, you could just duplicate your library in an MP3/ AAC format for your wife's Ipod since the quality out of it isn't going to be too hot anyway.


The goal is to do this quickly. I have spent months ripping the cd to flac. I am not doing this again! I am over 5000 songs and like 350 differnt cds. I do not care about the quality because I am keeping the Flac files. This is just for her headphones.

[Marty913]

The goal is to do this quickly. I have spent months ripping the cd to flac. I am not doing this again! I am over 5000 songs and like 350 differnt cds. I do not care about the quality because I am keeping the Flac files. This is just for her headphones.

Dan.

I PM'd you details on doing it with MediaMonkey. No reason to re-rip, destroy originals, lose TAG info. 10 or 15 seconds a song and you're done. If you don't like the results, do it again. FLAC to MP3 the into ITunes is pretty simple stuff.

[fatchowmein]

The goal is to do this quickly. I have spent months ripping the cd to flac. I am not doing this again! I am over 5000 songs and like 350 differnt cds. I do not care about the quality because I am keeping the Flac files. This is just for her headphones.

dbpoweramp has a "Batch Convert" option. Let's say all your music is in a "Music" folder, separated by artist folder. Just point batch convert to the music folder, click on the subfolder option, and it will list every flac song. Click one button to start and walk away (you can change the option to output to the original folder or elsewhere). Once done, point itunes to the music folder and it will pick up anything that's not flac.

Like Media Monkey, all conversions are free except when converting to mp3. You have to pay for that portion of the software. Apple lossless (m4a), apple (mp4), ogg, ra, wma, flac, ape, etc are all free.

Good luck

[adam2434]

In my opinion, a high bitrate mp3 (say lame vbr 0, which is around 250 kbps) is good enough for most portable applications unless you're doing critical listening with high end headphones.

I use Foobar to convert my flac files to lame vbr 0 mp3's for my Zune and use the flac files for home listening (using Foobar for the player). The mp3's will keep all the tag data you had in the flac's. It's nice having one piece of software for playback and conversion. The only other software I use is EAC to rip CD's to flac.

One advantage of mp3 is that it is a universal format that will play on any portable or software.

Foobar is free and so are the flac and lame codecs.