Converting ALAC to MP3 for SD card in Zumo (& FLAC possibly)

[MickyBlueyes]

Does anyone know of a Mac app for converting (batch or whole) an iTunes database, or part there of from ALAC (which is how it is all ripped currently) to MP3 & possibly FLAC, without re-ripping it all again. Or another way of doing it??

On a second tack if that's not going to work, does anyone know of a good MacOS ripping app that rips to FLAC, ALAC and MP3 if I end up having to re rip stuff.

TIA
Mike

 

[cookie]

iTunes can do it. just need to set the Preference to MP3, highlight the tracks required to be converted, right click and choose Convert To MP3.

you will probably have to fish the resulting files out of their folders in iTunes Music though.

edit: iTunes won't do FLAC though.

another alternative would be to use a program like AudialHub. now discontinued by the developer, but still available i see. that is what i've used for some years, but there is probably some updated prog somewhere.

 

[MickyBlueyes]

iTunes can do it. just need to set the Preference to MP3, highlight the tracks required to be converted, right click and choose Convert To MP3.

you will probably have to fish the resulting files out of their folders in iTunes Music though.

edit: iTunes won't do FLAC though.

another alternative would be to use a program like AudialHub. now discontinued by the developer, but still available i see. that is what i've used for some years, but there is probably some updated prog somewhere.

Thanks Cookie I thought iTunes could do it but it's a rather counter intuitive way of doing it, I remember it being easier in older versions

I realised itunes doesn't do FLAC but just wondered if their was a good Mac ripper anyone knew of.

 

[ianf]

I use Max (sbooth.org), you can do a whole library with it, and set the output format.

 

[MickyBlueyes]

Thanks

 

[original_concept]

Search for 'mehTunes' it will convert any playlist, any file format to MP3 to any mounted device. It reads your iTunes Library directly.

XLD can be used to convert FLAC to any other format ALAC et al, then drop those files into 'Automatically Add To iTunes'

 

[stolzy]

I use Max (sbooth.org), you can do a whole library with it, and set the output format.

Problem with Max is that it is rather poor at finding album names/artist names/track names etc.

I have been trying to use it to re-rip my CD collection to flac/alac, but gave up with Max for this reason, iTunes almost always finds the track info, but Max often records unknown title/unknown artist/unknown track.

An odd thing also, and possibly related, is that the track durations in CDs ripped by Max are often slightly different to those from reference sources.

 

[ianf]

I only use max for transcoding files from ITunes, not ripping. I haven't actually seen if it's smart enough to find the album art in the existing library.

 

[stolzy]

I only use max for transcoding files from ITunes, not ripping. I haven't actually seen if it's smart enough to find the album art in the existing library.

I have the same problem when transcoding downloaded flacs to alacs - it can't find the track names etc.

 

[cookie]

XLD can be used to convert FLAC to any other format ALAC et al, then drop those files into 'Automatically Add To iTunes'

i've used XLD to transcode FLAC to MP3, then i drop them into iTunes and all artwork and metadata seems fine.