Lossless Audio?

1075 Views 28 Replies 6 Participants Last post by jluv, Aug 30, 2009

jluv

Discussion Starter · Aug 29, 2009

I'm not good with Ipods or Itunes or downloading stuff at all, but I'm learning.

I do know that my CDs sound a million times better than anything on my Ipod. I've heard of lossless audio, and wonder if I can do that.

I want to move a ton of songs from my CDs onto my Ipod. I may also download other stuff from the internet, Itunes, whatever, if I can get CD quality from there as well.

Can I do this without compressing the crap out of it? Can I get my CDs onto my Ipod without losing much, if any quality? If it takes up a lot more room, I don't care. And secondly, where could I find losless downloads for music I don't already have on CD? Does Itunes have it? Do any of the "free" sharing sites have it?

And if I can't get it perfect, what is the best "version" I can download for the best sound quality?

1 - 20 of 29 Posts

Rafa

· #2 · Aug 29, 2009

ALAC(Apple Lossless) I believe will compress about half of original WAV file(format that CD uses). Ipod can play both of these types. There's another popular one called FLAC, but I don't think ipod can play that type unless there's a plug-in for ipod. Hope you have a lot of room on your ipod. Songs on your regular CD range from probably around 30 to 40+ Megs. Itunes can convert your CD's to ALAC...preference/general tab/import settings.....then choose ALAC.

50M .wav song

about 25M(roughly half) on ALAC
MP3 128K-320K...varies up to about a 1/10 of original....around 5M

I'm probably about less than average when it comes to this, but hope this kind of points you in right path. MOMO and/or Andrew will know a lot more than me.

Slowhand

· #3 · Aug 29, 2009

FLAC > *

More reasons not to get an iPod...

jluv

Discussion Starter · #4 · Aug 29, 2009

Rafa said:
ALAC(Apple Lossless) . Itunes can convert your CD's to ALAC...preference/general tab/import settings.....then choose ALAC.

So, if I already downloaded my CDs into my Itunes library, can I convert them to ALAC before I put them on my Ipod? Will I still have them in their normal version in my Itunes library as well?

Thanks for the info.

jluv

Discussion Starter · #5 · Aug 29, 2009

Okay, so when I go to the Import tab, I have the following options:

AAC Encoder
AIFF Encoder
Apple Losless Encoder
MP3 Encoder
WAV Encoder

Which one is best? How do I know what form the ones are in that I already downloaded? Can I change those now that ithey're already downloaded? Can I change them as I, or before I put them from the computer/Itunes into the Ipod?

Fuck, this shit is way too complicated.

I just want the best possible sound quality. If I can have the file on my Ipod for each song be exactly identical to the file on my CD, that's what I want. If not, I want the closest thing possible.

See less See more

Geor!

· #6 · Aug 29, 2009

jluv said:
Okay, so when I go to the Import tab, I have the following options:

AAC Encoder
AIFF Encoder
Apple Losless Encoder
MP3 Encoder
WAV Encoder

Which one is best? How do I know what form the ones are in that I already downloaded? Can I change those now that ithey're already downloaded? Can I change them as I, or before I put them from the computer/Itunes into the Ipod?

Fuck, this shit is way too complicated.

I just want the best possible sound quality. If I can have the file on my Ipod for each song be exactly identical to the file on my CD, that's what I want. If not, I want the closest thing possible.

You'll have to rip the CDs again. You might be able to convert to lossless format, but it would be for naught as the MP3s you have are already extremely compressed. I rip mine at 256 and that's suitable for me when I'm listening through the speakers on the computer or through headphones.

I want to get my entire collection in FLAC/ALAC as well, but I'll need a 2-4TB drive. If they ever come out with a car stereo that supports lossless audio, I will begin the process then.

jluv

Discussion Starter · #7 · Aug 29, 2009

Geor! said:
You'll have to rip the CDs again. You might be able to convert to lossless format, but it would be for naught as the MP3s you have are already compressed.

I want to get my entire collection in FLAC/ALAC as well, but I'll need a 2-4TB drive. If they ever come out with a car stereo that supports lossless audio, I will begin the process then.

Rip them again? How do I know how they are ripped now?

Which setting is the absolute best?

And what do you mean by a car stereo that supports lossless audio? Are you saying that if I have losless audio on my Ipod or a disk, my stereo won't play the music?

Geor!

· #8 · Aug 29, 2009

jluv said:
Rip them again? How do I know how they are ripped now?

Which setting is the absolute best?

And what do you mean by a car stereo that supports lossless audio? Are you saying that if I have losless audio on my Ipod or a disk, my stereo won't play the music?

If you downloaded the files, I believe they are high bit-rate MP3s. If you ripped the songs off of CDs, then it's whatever file type and bit-rate you set iTunes up for.

ALAC/FLAC is the best, but it's a hog on disk space.

No, your car stereo will not play FLAC -- it might play ALAC through the iPod, but I'm not too sure.

jluv

Discussion Starter · #9 · Aug 29, 2009

Geor! said:
If you downloaded the files, I believe they are high bit-rate MP3s. If you ripped the songs off of CDs, then it's whatever file type and bit-rate you set iTunes up for.

ALAC/FLAC is the best, but it's a hog on disk space.

No, your car stereo will not play FLAC -- it might play ALAC through the iPod, but I'm not too sure.

Is ALAC/FLAC the format that it's in as it sits on the original disk, os it that a wav file? If it's wav, or whatever else, can I "rip" it into that exact same file type as I put it into Itunes, and then from there to my Ipod?

I ripped the songs off of CDs, but I didn't set up any kind of file type or bit rate before I started, and I have no idea what they are in now.

Hmmm... If you can't play FLAC, or any other format on a car stereo, what can you play it on?

jluv

Discussion Starter · #10 · Aug 29, 2009

Okay, okay, let me keep it simple, for my own understanding. Please help me answer these two questions, if you can.

1. Is it possible to take the songs from my CD and copy them EXACTLY as they are onto my Ipod, without losing ANY quality at all?

2. If not, what is the absolute best way to get as close as possible to having the original file onto my Ipod, and how do I do it?

TIA

Rafa

· #11 · Aug 29, 2009

The .wav is the original file that is on a CD. If you didn't change any settings in itunes when you 1st used it for you ipod, then it's not in ALAC(Apple Lossless). ALAC(playable on ipod) is one format and FLAC is another type of lossless format.

Change the settings to ALAC(Apple Lossless)
Delete songs/albums on your ipod so you don't have duplicates.
Insert CD and re-rip, but this time it will convert it to ALAC to put in ipod.

jluv

Discussion Starter · #12 · Aug 29, 2009

Rafa said:
The .wav is the original file that is on a CD. If you didn't change any settings in itunes when you 1st used it for you ipod, then it's not in ALAC(Apple Lossless). ALAC(playable on ipod) is one format and FLAC is another type of lossless format.

Change the settings to ALAC(Apple Lossless)
Delete songs/albums on your ipod so you don't have duplicates.
Insert CD and re-rip, but this time it will convert it to ALAC to put in ipod.

Can I not keep it in .wav, since that is the same as my CD?

Rafa

· #13 · Aug 29, 2009

jluv said:
Okay, okay, let me keep it simple, for my own understanding. Please help me answer these two questions, if you can.

1. Is it possible to take the songs from my CD and copy them EXACTLY as they are onto my Ipod, without losing ANY quality at all?

2. If not, what is the absolute best way to get as close as possible to having the original file onto my Ipod, and how do I do it?

TIA

Just choose wav

Choose Apple Lossless Encoder

jluv

Discussion Starter · #14 · Aug 29, 2009

Rafa said:
[/COLOR][/B]

Just choose wav

Choose Apple Lossless Encoder

Okay, so wav is better than Apple Losless? If that way works, then that's what I will do. Is there any reason (besides size) that I would choose Apple Losless over wav?

Rafa

· #15 · Aug 29, 2009

jluv said:
Okay, so wav is better than Apple Losless? If that way works, then that's what I will do. Is there any reason (besides size) that I would choose Apple Losless over wav?

YES

NO

wav>flac>alac>..............mp3's

What you could do is rip one song you like in WAV and ALAC and listen to it. I bet you could not really tell the difference between the 2.

Rafa

· #16 · Aug 29, 2009

How big is you ipod? To give you an idea, 80gig ipod can handle about 1600 songs if each one is about 50meg(wav file) each.

jluv

Discussion Starter · #17 · Aug 29, 2009

Rafa said:
YES

NO

wav>flac>alac>..............mp3's

What you could do is rip one song you like in WAV and ALAC and listen to it. I bet you could not really tell the difference between the 2.

Awesome. Thanks for the help, dude.

Rafa said:
How big is you ipod? To give you an idea, 80gig ipod can handle about 1600 songs if each one is about 50meg(wav file) each.

The one I have now is just a 30 gig, but I will go bigger to get enough of my favorite songs on there if I can get CD quality sound out of it. I don't need every song off of every CD.

Thanks again.

jluv

Discussion Starter · #18 · Aug 29, 2009

Oh ya...

What about songs I find on Itunes or Limewire? Do I just look for the ones with the best bit rate?

Rafa

· #19 · Aug 29, 2009

no problem man

Slowhand

· #20 · Aug 29, 2009

Geor! said:
I want to get my entire collection in FLAC/ALAC as well, but I'll need a 2-4TB drive. If they ever come out with a car stereo that supports lossless audio, I will begin the process then.

I'm slowly gathering/converting what I can of my collection in/to FLAC but like you mentioned, it takes a lot of HDD space. It's impractical at the moment because it's just not useful right now, but I'm anticipating that technology will catch up here in the next few years.

1 - 20 of 29 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.