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If anyone is wondering, the way to get a .flac file as a ringtone on iPhone through iTunes is pretty simple:
1.) Convert the .flac file into a .m4a file (I like to use Max for Mac)
2.) Rename the .m4a extension to a .m4r extension
3.) Drag and drop the file into iTunes and it'll show up in your "Ringtones" section.
4.) Sync your iPhone
5.) Go to Settings>Sounds and voila, you can now use your newly formatted sound on any one of the categories under "Sounds and Vibration Patterns"
iTunes is fine, the AAC codec is really a reference in the medium.
ALAC works just right.
If you are using ALAC, I don't see any need for third party tools, IIRC, iTunes fetches metadata from iTunes store, the biggest album database.
Then, there's Max, it's oldie, but goldie, and it's free, for more advanced control: http://sbooth.org/Max/
Another vote for iTunes. It's taken a while but I've finally got it how I want.
I'm using version 12.3.3.17 which you'll need to install with Pacifist. In preferences I've disabled iTunes Store and internet radio. I'm using Artist view with album sorting by year. For compilations the album artist and crucially the 'sort as' album artist is Various. My library is ~250-300 artists with 7000 tracks and finding and playing what I want is a breeze. Then I use Max to convert any FLAC files to ALAC which takes maybe 15 seconds per album.
Hey I just noticed that you wrote (windows) at the end of this, but if you ever get a mac (or anyone else reading this has a mac) then IMO "Max" is the best converter that I have found in a long while...
it can convert in both directions between 20 compressed and uncompressed formats including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, Apple Lossless, Monkey's Audio, WavPack, Speex, AIFF, and WAVE.
And it's free...
Max > http://sbooth.org/Max/
"Max can read and write audio files in over 20 compressed and uncompressed formats ... including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, Apple Lossless, Monkey's Audio, WavPack, Speex, AIFF, and WAVE."
Most believe that using a LAME encoder gets you the best quality results - which iTunes does not use. Max has it and has been my go-to osx audio convertor for years and handles pretty much every existing format.
My favorite is from Sbooth.org, it's called Max. Lightweight, simple and quick, no going back into a DAW to do something quick and easy. Free, no bullshit to deal with (just navigating on Foobar2000's site makes me queasy).
Years ago I had some kind of extension that would like QuickTime decode FLAC (and Ogg and other formats), but iTunes wasn't able to read/write any of the metadata from those files, and it just wouldn't you transfer them to an iPod.
This was a long time ago, so the situation may be different now - but if you use iTunes, have an iPod, etc, you might be better off just converting your FLAC files to ALAC (Apple's lossless codec). You'll keep all the original sound quality, it's roughly the same size as FLAC, and it'll work with all your Apple stuff, including the iPod.
The only con is it'll only work with your Apple stuff.
On Mac OS you can use Max to do this: http://sbooth.org/Max/ - it should preserve all your metadata no problem.
I have no recommendations for Windows. Maybe install ffmpeg and convert via the CLI, if you're comfortable with that.
Try Max - it hasn't been updated in a while, but it can split files from Cue sheets.
Either write a cue sheet manually, or search google to find one that matches your album.
I was going to say get dbpoweramp and do a batch conversion to apple lossless as iTunes on Mac is really quite good.
But then I realized they don't have a Mac version :(
Then I saw this recommended on the apple forums: http://sbooth.org/Max/
My missus has 'our' Mac at the moment, so I have no idea what this is like.
But the main point is, when you get a DAC you can also get an airport express and use your laptop across the room while still listening to your music! And because both FLAC and Apple Lossless are exactly that, nothing should be lost or gained by file conversion (except convenience!)
From memory, you need the file to be in a ".m4r" format. From there, you can simply add it to your iTunes library, then sync it to your iPhone.
I'm sure there are many ways to do it, but I found this to be a simple way to convert .mp3 to .m4r. Feel free to correct me is if there is a more simple or efficient way.
Firstly, convert the .wav file into a .mp3 file. This allows me to add it to my iTunes library. To do this, you can use any old audio converter. I used Max, a free converter that is (unfortunately) Mac exclusive, but you can use pretty much whichever one you want. If the converter gives you the option to convert to .m4a, do so, instead of converting to .mp3, as this will save you from doing the next step.
Secondly, once you have your .mp3, add it to iTunes, then click Advanced -> Create AAC Version. This will convert the file to .m4a. Right click on the song, and Show in Windows Explorer, or the option along those lines. You should also remove this song from your iTunes library.
Thirdly, rename your song's extension to .m4r, and readd it to your iTunes library. This will cause it to load under "Tones", instead of "Music".
And there you have it. If you don't feel like doing all of that, here's one I prepared earlier.
Is it crackling when you pump the volume up? Is it like static or the music cutting out? Do you hear the crackling when you listen to the CD on another source? Your drive might be having trouble with the error correction or it might be iTunes not catching everything.
If you're using iTunes to rip the song, you might want to try either dragging the files from the CD onto your desktop and then convert or use another program like XLD or Max. There are a couple other things you can try, but see if any of those work first.
Looks good, but the issue wasn't converting on OS X. I've used Max for a long time to do that (as well as rip CDs with error correction).
The issue was converting ALAC around on non-OS X operating systems. Sure, I could go ALAC to WAV in iTunes, and then WAV to FLAC through some other program... but what a damn pain that is. This open sourcing should fix that problem.
Convert the FLACs to ALAC/Apple Lossless. You can always convert them back to FLAC again... yay lossless formats.
(But yes.. they should just support FLAC out of the box)
i can understand the hate but i've found the best way to work with itunes is to let it do things how it wants. i've turned on copy music to itunes folder and i download all torrents to "automatically add to itunes" folder. it's not very flexible but it's solid and i haven't come across too much pain unless i want to download flac, then i use maxx to convert to aac lossless
**SOLVED**
OMG… That was the most ridiculous, over complicated workflow
I selected all samples from each folder (Kick, Hat, Snare, Perc) and dropped them onto a track in Arrangement view…
Selected everything… CMD+A Right Clicked "Crop Clip(s)". This kicks off a folder being created in the project samples directory (Samples/Processed/Crop)
Using MAX 0.9.1 http://sbooth.org/Max/ — I dragged all AIF files from the Crop folder… and clicked Convert (after having defined the target export format)
Tada… All the damn AIF files got converted to WAV files…
That was such a painful ask of a PRO level DAW…
Max (which is really just a frontend to cdparanoia) to rip and convert to either FLAC (if you don't own an iDevice) or Apple Lossless.
The nice thing about going lossless is that when you need to jump formats (like when I stopped using a Cowon PMP and started using an iDevice) you can bulk transcode and not lose quality).
Some will say storage is cheap why bother compressing at all. Sure, if you've got tons of harddrive space left, go for it. It would cost me about 600 GB of space if I went with uncompressed audio. That's a lot of space, I'd rather stick my BluRays or something else in there.
If you don't mind converting your files, then the best software to do so that I've found for the Mac is called "Max".
It's free, supports pretty much every format I've found and it's fast.