You’ve downloaded a show or two from http://bt.etree.org and now you want to convert the .flac files to .mp3 to take with you on your iPod or MP3 player. This tutorial will walk you through the steps to do just that, using OS X. Read on ..
First things first, make sure you’ve downloaded and installed xACT and iTunes, both of which are free.
There are two steps in converting your .flac files to .mp3. The first is to decode the .flac’s into .wav files. After that’s done, you’ll encode the .wav files into .mp3’s.
Decoding .flac files with xACT
Encoding .wav files with iTunes
Decoding .flac files with xACT
- Launch xACT and select the decode tab
- Click the add button
- Navigate to the .flac files you want to decode, select them all, and then click Add files
- Now you’ll need to select the output – I use and suggest .wav. Click Decode when you’re ready
- You’ll be prompted to choose a location to save the output files. Select the same folder where the .flac files are located and then click Choose
- Go put on a pot of coffee. The decoding process only takes a few minutes.
- When it’s completed you’ll be back at the decode screen but there won’t be any files in the decode list. Feel free to close xACT now.
Encoding .wav files with iTunes
- Open up iTunes and select iTunes from the top menu, and then Preferences… from the drop-down list
- Select the Advanced tab from the top menu, and then Importing from the lower menu
- From the Import Using: list, select MP3 Encoder
- From the Setting: list, select your quality preference. I happen to have a lot of space on my portable MP3 player, so I opt for Higher Quality (192 kbps)
- It also annoys me to have songs playing while they’re importing, so I disable that feature by removing the check from the box labeled Play songs while importing. This is entirely optional. Click OK to return to iTunes.
- Now select File from the top menu, and then Add to Library… from the drop-down list
- Navigate to the folder where you saved all of the .wav files from xACT, select that folder, and then click Choose
- iTunes will now import all of the .wav’s into iTunes. Find all of the newly added files (usually at the bottom of your iTunes list, but it depends on how you sort your music) and select them all. Once they’re all highlighted, right-click (ctrl-click for you one-button folks) on any of the selected songs and choose Convert Selection to MP3 from the pop-up menu.
- Remember that pot of coffee you put on while the .flac files were decoding? Now’s the time to get a cup. While iTunes is encoding your MP3s, a status indicator will appear in the left window (see image below). Depending on how “fast” your mac is (processor speed, memory etc) and how many files you’re encoding, this step can take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour.
- Once all of the files have been encoded, iTunes will probably beep to get your attention. Before you start listening to your music, now’s a good time to get rid of the .wav files, since they’re no longer needed. You should notice that ever other track in iTunes is highlighted. These are the .wav files – get them out of iTunes by clicking the delete key on your keyboard. If iTunes asks if you want to delete the files as well as remove them from iTunes, feel free to do so (you should still have the source .flac files if you ever need an uncompressed version again)
- That’s it! You’re done. You can now tag the files in iTunes, transfer them to your iPod etc. If you need to get at the MP3s, they will likely be located in Mac Hard Drive:Users:you:Music:iTunes:iTunes Music:
Related content: How to convert .shn files to .mp3 using OSX
Very helpful, although with the new itunes update some bits are no longer quite accurate. Otherwise quite good though!
brilliant
I recently got my first iMAC. I was able to convert flac files to wav using the method described here. Now, every time I try, I get error messages on nearly every track. (Occasionally, one track will convert successfully, but not often.) The error report I get is:
/Volumes/My Book/Bob Dylan/2010 live/Bob Dylan 3-16-10 Osaka hide taper/bd2010-03-16_01.flac:
bd2010-03-16_01.flac: ERROR while decoding data
state = FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_READ_FRAME
Can someone help me out with this. I never had any problem like this when I had a PC.
Thanks
Wayland
hey wayland,
i have a brand new MAC with snow leo. If you notice this xACT program help is a bit different when it comes from the instructions between OS X and SnowLeo. Eventually I figured it out.
In some occasions I have converted the flac to wav and then to MP3 for iTunes to play and for some reason (after being converted to MP3’s) ITunes could not play them showing that the tracks couldn’t be found and asking: “would you like to search for them?”, weird!!!!. Once again, some how, now it works.
Have you try do them one at the time?. Have you try to convert other flac music files in your new MAC?.
I suggest to keep trying and see if it would work, I am puzzled why it is showing that error report in your brand new MAC.
Please let us know if you get it to work.
µolyfool
Thanks for this info. I’m a new Mac user and it’s weird not knowing how to do everything after being a Winblows poweruser for so long. This guide was much appreciated!
Just a huge thanks for making the effort and the info available, BRAVO!
thank you very much!
Thanks dude. Although there wasn’t time for a coffee as I have an 8 core mac pro and the flacs were done in seconds
i must say this is a great tutorial! thanks for ur help now mate i can listen to m afx collection on my phone
i have a mac, and when i open my itunes, go into preferences and go to advanced, mine looks completley different from the picture, anyone know why?
hello, i’ve been reading this tutorial and it shows to work very good, (i haven’t try it yet). but my question is: i don’t like to have mp3 format on my i-pod, all my music is in AAC format, does the .flac format loose quality when is converted to mp3 and then to AAC? if it does i won’t work for me. Thank you.
@ james o,
mine too, i think it i s because we are using snow leo os, and thiswas shown by using just os.
you just to look arouns and try couple of things, but it works just as the same. good luck.
One step:
Use Max
(http://sbooth.org/Max/)
Set the prefernces of Max to what you like (I use 320 MP3 for top quality), and where you want the converted files to be saved. Drop Flac files (bunches is fine) into the Max window and click the “Convert” gear icon.