Audio file format conversion (was: Running a service)
Audio file format conversion (was: Running a service)
- Subject: Audio file format conversion (was: Running a service)
- From: Bob Stern <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2016 17:05:26 -0700
> On Oct 22, 2016, at 9:39 AM, Jeremy Roussak <email@hidden> wrote:
>
> I have a load of files which are in AIFF-C audio format, which is good for my home audio system. I need to convert them to .m4a files, so my car audio will recognise them.
.m4a is a container format, not an audio encoder format. .m4a containers can store audio files in either AAC or Apple Lossless encoder formats.
AAC encoding is lossy like a JPEG graphics file; it destroys information irreversibly.
Apple Lossless encoding is truly lossless in that it preserves all the original data, like TIFF or Zip, but consumes half the file space of the original AIFF.
The Apple Lossless encoder is part of the collection of frameworks under the Core Audio umbrella, which is different from the AVFoundation framework used in Shane's solution. I believe the latter, as well as the OS X service “encode selected audio files”, can only output lossy AAC files.
My recommendation from an audiophile perspective is to replace the AIFF files with Apple Lossless encoded .m4a files for both home audio and car audio, thereby eliminating the need for two sets of files and preserving the original audio quality.
The easiest way to convert your AIFF files to Apple Lossless is using the open source program XLD (donations encouraged), which has both a GUI interface and a command line interface that you can invoke in AppleScript. Of course, you can also examine the XLD source code to see how it uses the Core Audio frameworks.
XLD:
http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html
Bob Stern
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