Convert FLAC to ALAC
 

I'd like to convert about 4000 FLAC files to 16/44 ALAC. Most of the
FLAC files are 16/44, a few are 24/96, and a few are in between.

Speed isn't an issue - I can leave the PC (or Mac) running all day. I've
been using this recently to no apparent ill effect:

https://www.mediahuman.com/howto/con...c-to-alac.html

However, I want to be sure that the conversion is as accurate as
possible. Is there a way of checking, or a preferred method?


--
Cheers, Rob

Convert FLAC to ALAC
 

Bob Latham wrote:

RJH wrote:

I'd like to convert about 4000 FLAC files to 16/44 ALAC.
https://www.mediahuman.com/howto/convert-flac-to-alac.html

I'd would love to know why you wish to do this. Am I not correct in
thinking that Flac is open standard and anyone can build devices that
support it and Alac is proprietary Apple?

The first paragraph of that web page says ALAC hasn't been proprietary
since 2011, seems correct

https://macosforge.github.io/alac/

Convert FLAC to ALAC
 

Bob Latham wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:
Bob Latham wrote:

RJH wrote:

I'd like to convert about 4000 FLAC files to 16/44 ALAC.

I'd would love to know why you wish to do this. Am I not correct in
thinking that Flac is open standard and anyone can build devices that
support it and Alac is proprietary Apple?

ALAC hasn't been proprietary since 2011

Happy with that, still can't see the advantage.

iThings can't play FLAC?

Convert FLAC to ALAC
 

On 18/10/2017 08:50, Bob Latham wrote:
In article ,
RJH wrote:
I'd like to convert about 4000 FLAC files to 16/44 ALAC. Most of the
FLAC files are 16/44, a few are 24/96, and a few are in between.

Speed isn't an issue - I can leave the PC (or Mac) running all day. I've
been using this recently to no apparent ill effect:

https://www.mediahuman.com/howto/con...c-to-alac.html

However, I want to be sure that the conversion is as accurate as
possible. Is there a way of checking, or a preferred method?

I'd would love to know why you wish to do this.

With a heavy heart ;-)

I'm going to park my music on a Mac Mini, and use that as the source for
playback through my hifi. It's an old machine so not worth much if I
sold it - but it's pretty much silent and low power consumption.

And the critical thing is that iTunes (the Mac software equivalent of
Windows Media Player - or whatever it's called nowadays) can serve the
music alongside a very capable smartphone app. iTunes is a pain on its
own - I can't get it to act as a simple media player. But it works very
well as a software server.

Am I not correct in
thinking that Flac is open standard and anyone can build devices that
support it and Alac is proprietary Apple?


No, not really. More a ridiculous Apple quirk. Just about any media
application will play FLAC files natively except flippin iTunes.

I just can't see the advantage unless it is just that apple don't support
Flac by default which is a short coming of Apple not Flac. There are
plenty of Apple apps that will play hi-res flac.


Yes indeed - VLC is my app of choice. And it has half decent smartphone
support. But it has quirks like erratic gapless playback.


--
Cheers, Rob

Convert FLAC to ALAC
 

On 2017-10-18 16:56:45 +0000, RJH said:

On 18/10/2017 08:50, Bob Latham wrote:
In article ,
RJH wrote:
I'd like to convert about 4000 FLAC files to 16/44 ALAC. Most of the
FLAC files are 16/44, a few are 24/96, and a few are in between.

Speed isn't an issue - I can leave the PC (or Mac) running all day. I've
been using this recently to no apparent ill effect:

https://www.mediahuman.com/howto/con...c-to-alac.html

However, I want to be sure that the conversion is as accurate as
possible. Is there a way of checking, or a preferred method?

I'd would love to know why you wish to do this.

With a heavy heart ;-)

I'm going to park my music on a Mac Mini, and use that as the source
for playback through my hifi. It's an old machine so not worth much if
I sold it - but it's pretty much silent and low power consumption.

And the critical thing is that iTunes (the Mac software equivalent of
Windows Media Player - or whatever it's called nowadays) can serve the
music alongside a very capable smartphone app. iTunes is a pain on its
own - I can't get it to act as a simple media player. But it works very
well as a software server.

Am I not correct in
thinking that Flac is open standard and anyone can build devices that
support it and Alac is proprietary Apple?


No, not really. More a ridiculous Apple quirk. Just about any media
application will play FLAC files natively except flippin iTunes.

I just can't see the advantage unless it is just that apple don't support
Flac by default which is a short coming of Apple not Flac. There are
plenty of Apple apps that will play hi-res flac.


Yes indeed - VLC is my app of choice. And it has half decent smartphone
support. But it has quirks like erratic gapless playback.

Try Nightingale (http://getnightingale.com/) It works perfectly on a
Mac, can construct a database from the file metadata, can play gapless
audio and flac and the scaling of the display can be fudged so that you
can use it at a distance with a wireless mouse.

Otherwise, a Raspberry Pi with a HiFiBerry DAC+Pro and an external USB
drive is cheap and hard to beat. The complementary smartphone app would
be Rune.

Arthur
--
real email arthur at bellacat dot com

Convert FLAC to ALAC
 

On 18/10/2017 23:03, Arthur Quinn wrote:
On 2017-10-18 16:56:45 +0000, RJH said:

On 18/10/2017 08:50, Bob Latham wrote:
In article ,
RJH wrote:
I'd like to convert about 4000 FLAC files to 16/44 ALAC. Most of the
FLAC files are 16/44, a few are 24/96, and a few are in between.

Speed isn't an issue - I can leave the PC (or Mac) running all day.
I've
been using this recently to no apparent ill effect:

https://www.mediahuman.com/howto/con...c-to-alac.html

However, I want to be sure that the conversion is as accurate as
possible. Is there a way of checking, or a preferred method?

I'd would love to know why you wish to do this.

With a heavy heart ;-)

I'm going to park my music on a Mac Mini, and use that as the source
for playback through my hifi. It's an old machine so not worth much if
I sold it - but it's pretty much silent and low power consumption.

And the critical thing is that iTunes (the Mac software equivalent of
Windows Media Player - or whatever it's called nowadays) can serve the
music alongside a very capable smartphone app. iTunes is a pain on its
own - I can't get it to act as a simple media player. But it works
very well as a software server.

Â* Am I not correct in
thinking that Flac is open standard and anyone can build devices that
support it and Alac is proprietary Apple?


No, not really. More a ridiculous Apple quirk. Just about any media
application will play FLAC files natively except flippin iTunes.

I just can't see the advantage unless it is just that apple don't
support
Flac by default which is a short coming of Apple not Flac. There are
plenty of Apple apps that will play hi-res flac.


Yes indeed - VLC is my app of choice. And it has half decent
smartphone support. But it has quirks like erratic gapless playback.

Try Nightingale (http://getnightingale.com/) It works perfectly on a
Mac, can construct a database from the file metadata, can play gapless
audio and flac and the scaling of the display can be fudged so that you
can use it at a distance with a wireless mouse.


Thanks for the tip. Seems to work fine. From a quick play, navigating
the ~10,000 tracks is rather clunky, and I would prefer to use it
without a screen - it is attached to a largish TV which I'd prefer to
keep switched off when listening to music.

On which, the smartphone iOS app is no longer available. Also, it's 32
bit - a problem if it doesn't get updated.

Otherwise, a Raspberry Pi with a HiFiBerry DAC+Pro and an external USB
drive is cheap and hard to beat. The complementary smartphone app would
be Rune.


Yes, thanks, one of those things I've been meaning to have a look at and
not quite managed. Again the iOS side of things (I have an iPad and
iphone) can be an issue, although Volumio seems to have it covered.

For now, though, the pain free option seems to be converting FLAC and
using iTunes.

By the way, thanks to the emailer for the tip to check that 'lossless
means lossless' - convert both files to wav, and file compare the
resultant wav files.


--
Cheers, Rob

Convert FLAC to ALAC
 

On 19/10/2017 09:04, Bob Latham wrote:
In article ,
RJH wrote:
On 18/10/2017 08:50, Bob Latham wrote:

I'd would love to know why you wish to do this.

With a heavy heart ;-)

I'm going to park my music on a Mac Mini, and use that as the source for
playback through my hifi. It's an old machine so not worth much if I
sold it - but it's pretty much silent and low power consumption.

And the critical thing is that iTunes (the Mac software equivalent of
Windows Media Player - or whatever it's called nowadays) can serve the
music alongside a very capable smartphone app. iTunes is a pain on its
own - I can't get it to act as a simple media player. But it works very
well as a software server.

Okay, I get it, personally I see iTunes as a hostile attempted takeover of
the music industry and although my wife ues it for her iWhatever I find it
a pain.

What we do is run a proper NAS, in our case Synology but Qnap are similar.
On that I keep my 2.5K flac albums and share the music folder with samba
so that Sonos and Blusound work fine and also run MinimServer and
BubbleUPNserver. I have several players of different types including


My music (650GB) is stored on a Synology NAS in the cellar, which is
hard wired to most rooms in the house. It'll still get used as a backup,
and to dish music out to various other devices. That said, if I could
find a decent solution that can be operated using a smartphone or some
sort of remote with a screen, I'd ditch iTunes. On which . . .

Denon mini system N9, Sonos, Linn Akurate, Sony Sound base, Raspberry Pi
with a HiFiBerry DAC+Pro and all work and with the single exception of the
Sonos they all play hi-res flac. I'm not saying hi-res is needed!


I'm not worried about hi-res. It's just a decent interface so I can
select and play music, and decent digital-analogue conversion.

In amongst the toy box I have a Cambridge NP30 music server (fine, but a
truly rubbish app), a Cambridge DAC, the Mac Mini, a Google dongle
thing, and a QED uPlay (app no longer works, the support form doesn't
send - tried on 3 browsers, no phone number, rubbish).

Each of those work to some degree or other, and it wouldn't be anything
approaching world end if I had to fall back ob say the NP30.

Which out of interest is your favourite, in terms of ease of use?

I did get to play with a Naim system trhough an iPad. Very slick. But
I'm not in their market, far too expensive.

When my wife wants music for her iWhatever I get foobar200 to create a
full whack mp3 copy of the flac and push that into iTunes.

The NAS goes to sleep when not in use and is in a cupboard away form
everything, not that it makes more than a murmur of noise.

My advice, get a NAS this is what they're made for, second hand if needs
be, stick Minimserver on it.


Yep, I have all of that. And more ;-)


--
Cheers, Rob

Convert FLAC to ALAC
 

On 19/10/2017 12:46, Huge wrote:
On 2017-10-18, Arthur Quinn wrote:
On 2017-10-18 16:56:45 +0000, RJH said:

snip

I haven't really been following this thread but have you considered a
Logitech Squeezebox? The server software is open source and runs on macOS,
there are soft and hard clients, and although it's obsolete, the hardware
is easily available on eBay and there's a large enthusiast community.


Thanks - happy to give it a go. Just looking at wikipedia/ebay I see a
number of versions. I think the SB3 should do it? I don't think I need a
display.

--
Cheers, Rob

Convert FLAC to ALAC
 

On 19/10/17 17:26, Huge wrote:
On 2017-10-19, RJH wrote:
On 19/10/2017 12:46, Huge wrote:
On 2017-10-18, Arthur Quinn wrote:
On 2017-10-18 16:56:45 +0000, RJH said:

snip

I haven't really been following this thread but have you considered a
Logitech Squeezebox? The server software is open source and runs on macOS,
there are soft and hard clients, and although it's obsolete, the hardware
is easily available on eBay and there's a large enthusiast community.


Thanks - happy to give it a go. Just looking at wikipedia/ebay I see a
number of versions. I think the SB3 should do it? I don't think I need a
display.

That should be fine. There's a smartphone controller client, too, so you
can drive the whole thing from the comfort of your armchair. Or you can
use the web interface on the server.

Why did Logitech scrap this product, I ask yet again!?


The installation and administration of LMS was too geeky for the
mainstream, I suspect.

The system also needed an 24/7 application server with power and noise
issues, where other media streaming devices were content with using just
SMB or DNLA (yuk) on simple NAS things.

As well as Logitech ditching the squeeze hardware line, another sadness
for me is the loss of the remote hosted (and LMS integrated) MusicIP
service that acoustically fingerprinted all of my (and others) music and
enabled an auto-DJ function with uncanny good selection tastes. The
iTunes Genius function is pants in comparison.

But, it's still a worthwhile product for me. Some time ago I even
contributed some software for it. I'm currently building something
in-wall dashboard like to put my SB3 straight in my eyeline while
wibbling on this computer. The current location on the equipment pile
isn't optimally visible from my seat.

--
Adrian C

Convert FLAC to ALAC
 

On 18/10/17 23:03, Arthur Quinn wrote:


Otherwise, a Raspberry Pi with a HiFiBerry DAC+Pro and an external USB
drive is cheap and hard to beat. The complementary smartphone app would
be Rune.

Arthur

I'm doing pretty much that: A Raspberry Pi, external USB disc enclosure
with 2 1TB drives mirrored, Runeaudio, and a Cambridge Audio DACMagic.
Works really well.