What is Reddit's opinion of X Lossless Decoder?

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I just use xld to convert FLAC to ALAC and have resigned to simply using iTunes to manage my folders and playlists. My family has a few macs and iphones, so this just makes it easier all around.

Your request could be done with a Tweak. To me it would only be useful if I could also have FLAC in iTunes.

I convert all my FLAC to ALAC. The best gui is XLD http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html

but I prefer to use ffmpeg from the command line. https://www.ffmpeg.org/

1. Instead of EAC, Mac users can use XLD
2. TT Dynamic Range Meter is available for OS X.
3. Room EQ Wizard is cross-platform (Java) and runs on Mac. Depending on what you're after, you may want FuzzMeasure Pro instead
4. Harman How to Listen is available on Mac
5. I've never found a mac alternative for Audio Diffmaker, and couldn't make it work with Wine/WineBottler either
6. As noted, Audacity is available for Mac. That said, I like to have (cross-platform) Reaper for recording, since it behaves better when recording from a multichannel interface.

A/ If you're on a Mac, use XLD. Its free and it can do everything you need, plus a lot more. It's an amazing app.If you're on Windows, I'll let someone more knowledgeable than myself advise you.

B/ Lossless means exactly what is sounds like: you get a file that's smaller than the uncompressed orignal (generally AIFF or WAV), but without any data loss. Furthermore, lossless files (FLAC, ALACn etc. can be restored to their original, uncompressed master (AIFF, WAV, etc.).

Let me know if this doesn't make sense to you or if you require clarification.

Why not reduce the wear on your CDs by rippping them to a lossless format using XLD (X Lossless Decoder) and playing them directly from your hard drive? It has the added benefit of backing up your CDs.

Edit: A couple of other CD ripping software options for Mac OS X include Rip and cdparanoia.

If you want the most accurate rip possible then XLD is your best bet.

It is pretty complicated to setup so you might want to use a guide.

You could always use XLD to convert to ALAC and just use iTunes. This should sound pretty good, but if you wan't to take it to the next level you could always get BitPerfect to go along with iTunes. It uses Core Audio Exclusive Mode which is akin to using ASIO on a windows computer. This is also how the more expensive Mac media players handle playback.

iTunes, with the following changes in preferences/settings:

1. EQ, sound check and sound enhancer turned off.
   
2. "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" unchecked
3. "Copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library" unchecked

The first change ensures iTunes is bit perfect, changes 2 and 3 ensures that the organization on disk is unchanged.

Any FLAC I buy, I convert to ALAC, using XLD.

Files on disk are organized first by source and quality (So a folder for "Lossy bandcamp" or "Lossless CD Rips"), then Artist/Album/[Track number] - Track name.

If you had it started earlier and just closed all its windows, it would still be open. Click the Xcode icon in the dock and press Cmd+Q to close it. Most OS X applications have the same behavior: Closing all windows does not actually quit the application. There are some exceptions, one is the built-in System Preferences.app.

Some applications does not even have an ordinary GUI, they start without any windows open (the menu bar changes though). An example is XLD, where you need to open files before anything appears.

Instead of having a dedicated FLAC player on my iPhone, I convert the FLAC files to ALAC files on my Mac using XLD ( http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html ) and put them into iTunes and then play them on my iPhone using the default Music app.

FWIW, I might recommend ripping/exporting another copy of your tracks in 320Kbp/s MP3 for maximum compatibility. ALAC will be great for iTunes/Apple playback, but having something more cross-platform would be a great backup. Or AIFF maybe?

XLD is also a great app for re-encoding to/from obscure audio formats.

As someone who meticulously organized their music library, bravo.

AIFF (lossless) or MP3 320Kbs (ok it's compressed but usefull)

XLD is most likely the conversion you want to use, it's shareware and fast

http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html

If you're using a Mac, the best option is generally considered to be XLD, which is free and will convert from pretty much any audio format to any other audio format.

Alternatively, iTunes can do it I believe, but XLD is considerably faster.

Download XLD, open it, set the desired format and bitrate from preferences, drag all the files you need to convert on its icon in the dock.

It should retain all the metadata and art.

Keep in mind that with a lossy to lossy conversion you end up with a lower audio quality in the output file.

Apple is very confusing.

So XLD only opens losless files (it's in the name, X Losless Decoder). m4a is commonly referred to as "Apple Losless audio", so... It's losless, right?

Nope. From good ol Wikipedia:

> Apple Lossless data is stored within an MP4 container with the filename extension .m4a. This extension is also used by Apple for lossy AAC audio data in an MP4 container (same container, different audio encoding).

For the uninitiated: lossy is the opposite of losless. So... they use the same extension for losless and lossy audio formats? Well that's not confusing at all! Anyhow that's PROBABLY the reason for your problem. XLD THINKS it can open your files because they have ".m4a" at the end but when it converts them it's probably not whatever XLD expects it to be. I don't know the inner workings of Apple encoding or XLD though so I could be wrong.

Point is, use another converter for this.

+3 for XLD on OS X.

I did some tests with it and found it's conversion to be extremely good, even when downsampling from 48k/24bit to 44.1k/16bit.

Here's my thread: Satisfied With CD/Lossless Quality?

As long as I'm starting with a lossless copy (FLAC, WAVE, etc.), I usually use XLD. It has good batch handling and can convert to a number of lossless and lossy codecs.

You can use either X Lossless Decoder or Max to do this. Both can convert to and from pretty much any audio format there is, including all the lossless formats. Both are Mac apps and both are free.

Edit: I saw your cross-post about converting iTunes (256k AAC) files to Flac. Don't do that. You'd be converting a lossy format to a higher resolution format and you'd lose quality. Either rip the CDs if you already own them or buy uncompressed (WAV or AIFF) files from Tidal or Qobuz and convert them to Flac. That way you'll play untouched tracks on your new player.

Any chance for the following apps? Flat, circle, whatever you think looks best and fits with the existing icon.

X Lossless Decoder (http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html) MusicBrainz Picard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MusicBrainz_Picard)

And someone else mentioned Skim, which I'm also interested in!

xld, my man. best thing since sliced bread was blended into a smoothie with pudding, cooked until half set, frozen, and then sliced again.

Which is basically what you're doing to your music with xld.

X Lossless Decoder (X.L.D.)
for Macintosh / OSX
http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html
It i s free and opensource (no spying)
{Do not use itunes = spying}
.
Exact Audio Copy (E.A.C.)
http://exactaudiocopy.de/
for Windows
It is free and opensouce (no spying)
..
Whipper for linux
https://github.com/whipper-team/whipper
...

Ok guys this is a new and surely noteworthy one. Serious troubles with the MP3 codec in the Denon DJ #Prime ecosystem.

I was approached by someone watching the Prime Tutorial video's (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4-PAOT-xI9UGXkMWslavHkDtdpeNjlEP&disable_polymer=true). He was complaining about tracks not being able to stay in sync. Not using the sync button, but as in, I set the beatgrid correct, I set my pitch correct and these tracks don't stay in sync. they drift like crazy both on the SC5K and in Engine Prime. However the same tracks in NATIVE INSTRUMENTS TRAKTOR are solid in sync.

So he sends me these tracks, turns out to be both 130 BPM UK garage tracks. so kinda hard to analyze. Traktor analyze them correct. Engine gets one almost right the other at 142.2 bpm so way off.

Manual corrections in EnginePrime.. but indeed.. even if the grid is visibly correct.. they start to float. Not using any of my apps yet just drag 'n drop in EP.

Back to Traktor. grid is 100% ok for both tracks DJ Conversion Utility - DJCU conversion to rekordbox.xml Denon Conversion Utility - Decu conversion from the rekordbox.xml to engine prime boom everything off (tho beatmarkers = yellow cue set correct) see the picture.

So I noticed these weird audible thing you see in front of the first kick (where the beatmarker = yellow cue is set)

that is not in the actual audio file, it doesn't show up in Traktor and not in Ableton.

Time to convert the mp3 track to FLAC, no editing at all using the freeware XLD http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html

import the FLAC in Traktor conversion to EP and boom everything is 100% fine!

In short there are some strange things going on in the MP3 codec of the Prime ecosystem. these files were both 320Kbs but on both the SC5K as well as in Engine Prime it was impossible to sync them up

so be warned if you run into these kind of issues, Convert to lossless first.

No, but there is an iTunes alternative, Swinsian, which does support .flac.

Personally, I use XLD to convert .flac to .alac. XLD automatically adds the converted files to iTunes.

I've been using XLD to rip and convert formats for years now.

Ain't pretty but it's fast and gets the job done.

It can rip from CDs and supports a few options for rippers.

http://imgur.com/a/6798F

I was using VOX which handles all the lossless formats and has a nice, streamlined interface. But I've since gone over to just keeping my FLAC files on an external archive drive and converting them with XLD to Apple Lossless format, importing them in to iTunes. That way they're available on my other Apple devices via my iTunes Match subscription.

Edit: Replaced SourceForge XLD link with the dev's site link. Less dodgy.

Also if you use iTunes and iPhone, you should check out this app. It'll convert all your FLAC into ALAC, so iTunes can read it and store it on your laptop, and iTunes supports converting them to AAC on the fly as you sync it to your phone so you don't have to manage two libraries.

http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html

I have used XLD for the last several years on my various macs. http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html What is this? X Lossless Decoder(XLD) is a tool for Mac OS X that is able to decode/convert/play various 'lossless' audio files. The supported audio files can be split into some tracks with cue sheet when decoding. It works on Mac OS X 10.4 and later.

XLD is Universal Binary, so it runs natively on both Intel Macs and PPC Macs.

Screenshot

Features Support various formats XLD can decode following formats:

(Ogg) FLAC (.flac/.oga) Monkey's Audio (.ape) Wavpack (.wv) TTA (.tta) Apple Lossless (.m4a) TAK (.tak) [Requires Wine, CrossOver Mac or WineBottler] Shorten (.shn) [SHN v3 only] AIFF, WAV, etc Other formats supported by Libsndfile are also decodable. XLD uses not decoder frontend but library to decode, so no intermediate files are generated. All of the supported formats can be directly split with the cue sheet. XLD also supports so-called 'embedded' or 'internal' cue sheet.

XLD supports various output formats. It can convert audio files into WAVE, AIFF, Raw PCM, Ogg Vorbis (aoTuV), MPEG-4 AAC (QuickTime/CoreAudio), MP3 (LAME), Apple Lossless, FLAC, HE-AAC (aacPlus v1/v2), Wave64, WavPack, and IETF Opus.

You can tell iTunes to rip in ALAC (and AIFF, MP3 or WAV).

I still use XLD to rip my CDs because it'll check the integrity of each rip with AccurateRip. I rip everything to ALAC for storage/backups, but transcode everything to AAC (True VBR mode) before importing to iTunes.

If you're still having trouble playing on your iPod try this application if you have a Mac

http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html

Has a lot more settings but I prefer it to iTunes. Use AAC equivalent to 256 Kbps (since I doubt the audio files are lossless could be wrong).

> Oh I have done the flash drive thing with friends but something about that they just can't get motivated to figure out how to watch it off a usb. It's been kind of infuriating really.

I feel your pain!

> Do you get flac files from hdtracks ?

Generally ALAC. It's easy enough to turn them to another lossless format if needed. I generally convert them to 256 kbps AAC files with XLD for storage on my iPhone—damned if I can tell the difference even on my system.

Any iPod has done lossless audio since June 2004.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lossless

How well can Neil Young hear these days anymore?

If you want to convert FLAC to ALAC use this program:

http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html

Use XLD or Max to transcode the FLAC files to ALAC. Problem solved.

XLD: http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html

Max: http://sbooth.org/Max/

You can configure each of them to output to a certain file format. You then drag and drop the files you want to convert, and they will be output in the correct format. Then simply drag the converted files to iTunes.

What I do: I rip the CD using XLD first, then I have digital format of my CD. Then I transfer it to my phone/itunes.

XLD link: http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html

There's a really good tuto which will help you getting started with XLD http://www.digitalvertigo.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=26740

I subscribe to iTunes Match

So I then pirate music via torrent sites, drag it to the "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder* and let iTunes chew on it for a few minutes, and then I can download it or stream it over cellular anywhere I go with my iPhone.

If it's FLAC, I use http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html to convert it to ALAC (works really well, and hey it's lossless!)

* (On a Mac it's ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Automatically Add to iTunes/ where the ~ means the current user directory)

WAV is a crazy old file format that doesn’t allow metadata embedded. Same with AVI, MKV, etc. Grab XLD to convert all kinds of audio like a breeze (you’ll want to pick AAC).

I know you want to stay on FLAC, but consider transcoding to ALAC and test it. There's no quality loss and it integrates better. Two really good apps for batch conversions are XLD and Max.

http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html
http://sbooth.org/Max/

I've actually gone through quite a few music players on Mac and I found I actually do like iTunes the most. You just need to learn how to work it and it's pretty good. The main issue is no FLAC so I use XLD to convert FLAC to M4A lossless.