How to Convert FLAC to Apple Lossless (MP4) on Mac OS X

Posted on March 26, 2008 by Adam Nash

Another helpful file conversion tip.

FLAC is a lossless audio codec that is very popular on Linux and on Windows.  However, it’s virtually non-existant on the Mac, which is a problem if you have a library of music that you have encoded in FLAC and you want to upload to your iTunes library.

There are various command-line solutions out there on Windows, but very few available for Mac OS X.

XLD is the answer.

The “X Lossless Decoder” offers super fast conversion of various lossless formats on the Mac, with a decent GUI, and better yet, drag-and-drop conversion.

XLD supports the following formats:

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.

Currently you can choose output format from WAVE,AIFF and Raw PCM. In addition, you can choose Ogg Vorbis (aoTuV), MPEG-4 AAC (QuickTime/CoreAudio), MP3 (LAME), Apple Lossless, FLAC and HE-AAC (aacPlus v1/v2) in the GUI version.

Hope this helps you audiophiles out there converting to the Mac.  I converted entire albums from FLAC to Apple Lossless in just minutes on a PowerMac G5.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

Filed under: Apple, Entertainment

« Company Profiles Launch on LinkedIn Iraqi TV Debate: Is the Earth Flat or Round? »

10 Responses

  1. Yonghwee Foo, on March 26th, 2008 at 12:00 pm Said:

    Thanks for introducing the app! Neat little application..

    Reply
  2. Lars, on May 16th, 2008 at 8:11 am Said:

    Another option is to use the Fluke (http://earpick.cubicfruit.com/2008/05/15/fluke-play-flacs-in-itunes) program that installs flac support into iTunes, however it relies on the sometimes unstable XiphQT plugin, so I just import the files into iTunes, select them, and right-click and choose convert to AAC.

    Reply
  3. earpick, on May 24th, 2008 at 5:07 am Said:

    People are pimping Fluke – SWEET =)

    Reply
  4. plusungood, on June 10th, 2008 at 7:24 pm Said:

    After going through dozens of website and trying many other solutions, it is a pleasure to find this little but amazingly useful applications! Kudos to the developer!! Hasta luego, plusungood

    Reply
  5. Adam Gatenby, on September 12th, 2008 at 10:29 am Said:

    Thanks! Great application, just what i needed.

    Reply
  6. tfg, on December 12th, 2008 at 8:26 pm Said:

    Hey man, I appreciate this post very much.

    Your link to XLD does not work. Could you update?

    Reply
  7. Charles, on February 2nd, 2009 at 8:26 am Said:

    Thanks for this. Worked a treat

    Reply
  8. Jim Howerton, on February 3rd, 2009 at 9:44 pm Said:

    Good little app. Can you tell me how to transfer tags when converting FLAC to iTunes? Not sure if the cuesheet is what I need to use.

    Thanks.

    Reply
  9. Aaron, on February 20th, 2009 at 2:33 am Said:

    FINALLY, a sensible app for FLAC conversion on Macs. Thanks for the tip!

    Reply

Leave a Reply