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.

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Filed under: Apple, Entertainment

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15 Responses

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

    Thanks for introducing the app! Neat little application..

    Reply
  2. Lars, on May 16, 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 24, 2008 at 5:07 am Said:

    People are pimping Fluke – SWEET =)

    Reply
  4. plusungood, on June 10, 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 12, 2008 at 10:29 am Said:

    Thanks! Great application, just what i needed.

    Reply
  6. tfg, on December 12, 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 2, 2009 at 8:26 am Said:

    Thanks for this. Worked a treat

    Reply
  8. Jim Howerton, on February 3, 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 20, 2009 at 2:33 am Said:

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

    Reply
  10. Brian, on December 6, 2009 at 6:24 am Said:

    Great job you just made it super easy. Thanks for your time and effort!!

    Reply
  11. Chaz the Great, on March 11, 2010 at 9:08 pm Said:

    I could not find a link to download X Lossless Decoder on your link. But I found another place to DL it (this version is only for Windows and Linux however). http://www.avs4you.com/AVS-Audio-Converter.aspx?type=GoogleImageAds&gclid=CPCfw63MsaACFQk65Qod4ULrUA

    Reply
  12. Chaz the Great, on March 11, 2010 at 9:20 pm Said:

    Oops i’m an idiot. I got distracted by an ad for a different converter. Real URL:
    http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Audio/X-Lossless-Decoder.shtml

    And it’s actually only for Mac. Dammit.

    Reply
  13. Chris, on May 24, 2010 at 12:53 am Said:

    try http://www.oggconvert.com

    nothing to download, all online

    Reply
  14. Tonya Henson, on May 27, 2010 at 8:43 am Said:

    You can also go to http://www.oggconvert.com/ to convert OGG files to MP3, AAC, FLAC, OGG, WMA, M4A, WAV online. I hope its big help.

    Reply

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