flac2aac

What is `flac2aac`?

flac2aac is a simple frontend to Apple's Music.app (previously iTunes) and
flac. It currently is written in AppleScript. Commenting is supported
through metaflac; see the code to add your own fields if necessary.

Recently added was a routine to convert ReplayGain differentials (from
REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN) to iTunes' Volume Adjustment. This eliminates
having to rely on an external app like iVolume. In fact, a few quick tests
here show that the Volume Adjustments determined by flac2aac were nearly
the same as iVolume-1.6 for the standard ReplayGain 83dB level, for levels
other than 83dB, and when "Adjust for iPod with buggy firmware" was
emulated. Warning: this does not do any kind of analysis on the sound data
so clipping may result when gains higher than 83dB are desired.

What does `flac2aac` require?

Starting with v0.5, flac2aac requires macOS 10.15, Apple's Music.app, flac
and metaflac 1.1.1 and later.

For v0.4d and earlier, flac2aac requires macOS 10.2-10.14, iTunes 4.x or
later, and flac and metaflac 1.1.1 and later.

Usage

Double-click to start, click Run in Script Editor to run.

If you want to use a gain other than 83dB, set "desired_loudness" to an
integer other than 83. If the AACs you're making will be played on an
iPod, the value 92 is preferable; additionally, you should set "with_ipod"
to true.

Known Issues

flac2aac was hacked together from example code and working AppleScripts
from all over the place. It's amazing that it works.

- Will crash old versions of iTunes unless "iTunes -> Preferences ->
  Importing -> Play songs while importing" is UNCHECKED. There is no known
  way to disable this through iTunes' AppleScript API.

- Will lock up if an info window is open in iTunes before the script
  accesses iTunes

Future Release Plans

- Fine-tune the REPLAY_TRACK_GAIN to Volume Adjustment conversion
- Use droplet instead of file selection dialog; in the meantime one should
be able to select multiple individual files for transcoding
- Encode multiple AIFFs at once in iTunes
- Implement better argument checking / error detection and handling

Licensing

Feel free to hack flac2aac up, but give me credit where credit is due as I
have done for others in this code.

Download

It is highly recommended that you download the latest version:

flac2aac-0.5b - ChangeLog (2023-07-12)

Past Releases

flac2aac-0.5 - (2020-04-19)
flac2aac-0.4d - (2019-07-28)
flac2aac-0.3d - (2007-08-21)
flac2aac-0.3c - (2007-05-10)
flac2aac-0.3b - (2006-09-12)
flac2aac-0.3 - (2006-04-24)
flac2aac-0.2d - (2005-02-26)
flac2aac-0.2c - (2004-11-20)
flac2aac-0.2b - (2004-09-06)
flac2aac-0.2 - (2004-08-23)
flac2aac-0.1 - (2004-08-12)

Contact

Using flac2aac? Want more features? Hate flac2aac? Let me know.

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