Total noob needs help.

[raid517]

Hi it's true I'm afraid, I'm a total codec noob. The thing is most of my stuff is recorded in Flac and I want to convert this to the most exteme highest possible quality setting for Apple Lossless so that I can tranfer this to my 60GB Iphoto Ipod.

Can anyone suggest what is the best settings to use? I selected 500 VBR for the apple lossless compression, but this said that it was only a 'low complexity' conversion. But I want no loss whatsoever from the original to the conversion (while still trying to save some space). The resulting file sizes are about 1/3rd of the original FLAC source. Is it possible that the Apple lossless encoder is really that efficient, or am I still loosing data?

What is the advantage of 'VBR'?

GJ

[xoas]

Re: Total noob needs help.

I'm afraid I can't be of much help as I don't use iTunes or Apple lossless. But once you adopt to a lossless codec the quality should be the same regardless of the degree of compression you use. So a highly compressed Flac file should sound exactly the same as a less compressed Flac file. Where the degree of compression varies the trade-offs are strictly in terms of file size (high compression leads to smaller files) vs. conversion time (low compression is faster). The same is true of Apple Lossless.

I cannot access a window for the Apple Lossless/mp4/m4a codec (because I don't use iTunes) but I suspect that your Apple Lossless file should be about the same size as your Flac file. I base this supposition on the following from the Help file for this codec:

Apple Lossless as the name suggests does not loose audio quality on compression (aac does), it is like Zip for audio and because of this compression is likely to be 2:1

You might want to check this Help file yourself. You can access it through Start>All Programs>dBpowerAMP Music Converter>Help>Codecs>m4a Codec Help.

Best wishes,
Bill

[raid517]

Re: Total noob needs help.

Yes thank you for your kind answer, however I can't quite grasp if 'lossless is just lossless' there are different quality settings provided for this codec? Or is this just different compression settings?

Also I have given sveta explorer a go and I can't work out how to tell it just to leave certain file types alone and to transfer them to my Ipod without any conversion at all. I would like to set individual rules for various file types, such as FLAC to lossless m4a, WMA lossless to M4a, ogg to MP3, MP3 with no re-encoding and so on. How exactly do I do that?

Additionally I can't seem to get sveta to transfer folders or directories to my Ipod, only files. Is this a limitation of the software? For example if I wanted to transfer the entire contents of the 'My Music' directory to my Ipod, which contains several hundred individual albums/folders/ which in turn contain several thousand music files and have it obey the transfer rules that I set - how would I do this using this software?

GJ

[LtData]

Re: Total noob needs help.

First, use File Explorer in the dMC Start Menu folder to transfer folders to your iPod.
As for transfer rules, use "Smart Conversions" to setup rules governing what files it leaves alone or what files it converts.

And yes, if a format is "lossless" the only thing that changing the settings for it would do is change the compression and therefore the amount of CPU that would be required to decode the file.

[xoas]

Re: Total noob needs help.

however I can't quite grasp if 'lossless is just lossless' there are different quality settings provided for this codec? Or is this just different compression settings?

Apple lossless is lossless. However, the .m4a/mp4/Apple Lossless Codec offers not only Apple Lossless but .mp4 encoding other than lossless. You need to have iTunes installed for Apple Lossless conversion to be available. I suspect (based on your report of file size) that your initial conversion was NOT to Apple Lossless but to .m4a/.mp4. If there are different settings in Apple Lossless, they would just be compression settings (as in Flac or Ape) and not quality settings.

I would like to set individual rules for various file types, such as FLAC to lossless m4a, WMA lossless to M4a, ogg to MP3, MP3 with no re-encoding and so on. How exactly do I do that?

Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to work with Sveta since I don't own a portable digital music player other than one that plays mp3 discs. My understanding however, is that while Sveta can support the various conversions you mention, it does not, at this time, support automatic different encoding rules for different file tpes as you describe here. Should I be in error about this, I am sure another of our users who is experienced with Sveta will straighten up this matter.
Addition: In light of LtData's observation of Smart Select (which I am familiar with through dB CD Writer), you can use that feature to help facilitate your conversions although I am not sure it will be as flexible as you wish.
My understanding is that you can only convert a given file or set of files to one (or now 2) different formats/settings at a time and that there is no selectivity available as to handling different files within a batch any differently than others.
You can use File Selector (another feature of Music Converrter) to sort out all of the files you wish to convert to a given format/setting (such as Flac and WMA Lossless to lossless m4a, ogg and mp3 to mp3).

Best wishes,
Bill

[LtData]

Re: Total noob needs help.

Smart Select, or whatever its called, can have a whole host of rules. It can do formats above a bitrate, all bitrates of a format, below a bitrate, and a whole lot more. There should be something in Sveta's help files that can show you how to use this better.

[ChristinaS]

Re: Total noob needs help.

Isn't one of the features of Smart Seelctalso that it will not perform a conversion if the file is already in the given format? Am I dreaming it?

[raid517]

Re: Total noob needs help.

Isn't one of the features of Smart Seelctalso that it will not perform a conversion if the file is already in the given format? Am I dreaming it?

That is the default behaviour - but it's not very useful if your media player doesn't support the (unconverted) file type. Really as far as I can see there is only an optiion in the smart select to not include (or not to convert) specific file types. There is no way to set individual rules for individual file types in the way I described above. (As in do convert from format a to format b as well as don't convert. Right now it seems a bit all or nothing, either you exclude certain file types - or you convert everything using one specific codec. Individual rules for individual file types would certainly be an improvement.

Also it is not clear from looking at it how File Explorer is related to Sveta - or how this will enable automatic conversion and tranfer to my Ipod?

Really the purpose of setting individual rules in the way I described is to have them as part of a single interface that would enable me to tranfer music files - regarless of the format, seamlessly to my Ipod in the exact format and quality settings that I specify. This would certainly and immediately make Sveta infinately more useful than Itunes. It would also be cool if there was a way to add Album art to tracks on - by perhaps downloading the art automatically from the web during tranfer to my Ipod. (Given that all recent 5G Ipods are Iphoto compatable).

Lastly can someone please confirm if I really do need Itunes installed to convert Flac (and other lossless formats) to Apple lossless format? I thought Spoon had fixed this so that Itunes wasn't needed? I don't like Itunes very much. It is always 'in your face' and always pops up - even if you tell it not to, every time you plug your Ipod in.

GJ

[LtData]

Re: Total noob needs help.

I'm not sure if the settings depend on the drivers, but with my Karma, I told it to leave mp3 files alone, leave ogg files alone, and convert wma files over 192kbps down to 192kbps.

What version of Sveta are you using? You should be using hte latest Sveta beta and the latest iPod driver for Sveta. Links below.

Edit: Look in the Sveta help files, it specifically shows a "leave these files alone" example.

[Spoon]

Re: Total noob needs help.

>I selected 500 VBR for the apple lossless compression, but this said that it was
>only a 'low complexity' conversion

You are converting to aac (a lossy codec) not apple lossless.

[xoas]

Re: Total noob needs help.

Lastly can someone please confirm if I really do need Itunes installed to convert Flac (and other lossless formats) to Apple lossless format?

This is from the description of the codec from Codec Central:

Encoding - .m4a (FAAC v1.24.1, Apple Lossless encoding is only supported below through iTunes).

This is what I based my earlier statement on and it would would be consistent with why I can't visualize an Apple lossless setting on my iTunes free computer.

BTW-I don't know as you actually ever have to USE iTunes to be able to use Apple Lossless with dMC/Sveta, I think the codec just has to rely on some aspect of iTunes to work (this is also true of the dMC mp3pro codec and basically true of the dMC WMA codec although the latter you can get by with certain system files rather than having WMP on your system).

Best wishes,
Bill

[raid517]

Re: Total noob needs help.

I'm not sure if the settings depend on the drivers, but with my Karma, I told it to leave MP3 files alone, leave ogg files alone, and convert WMA files over 192kbps down to 192kbps.

What version of Sveta are you using? You should be using the latest Sveta beta and the latest Ipod driver for Sveta. Links below.

Edit: Look in the Sveta help files, it specifically shows a "leave these files alone" example.

Erm... I don't know... Am I making any sense? As I said there are scenarios when 'leave these files alone' isn't quite enough. It is useful to specify 'leave these files alone', for file types that my media player can handle. But imagine if you will a scenario where I might have a lot of music files encoded in different formats, for example some of my files might be recorded in ogg, some in FLAC, some in MP3, some in WMA - while still others might be in monkey's audio. While I can say I want some files specifically excluded from any kind of conversion, I can't say that I specifically want file type a) to always be converted to file type b), or file type c) to be converted to file type d), or type e) to f) and so on. Do you understand what I'm saying yet? Nor it seems is this 'batch convert' mechanism in any way (or so it would seem) an integrated part of Sveta - which is where for me it would be most useful. To have a single interface where I could convert (or not convert if I should so choose) a large number of different file types from the specific format I specify to the format I specify at the quality settings I specify - and then have these transfered to my Ipod in one single step would be hugely useful to me. It is though, not quite the same thing as simply allowing exclusions.

>I selected 500 VBR for the apple lossless compression, but this said that it was
>only a 'low complexity' conversion

You are converting to aac (a lossy codec) not apple lossless.

Thanks for that Spoon. That is what I suspected. But perhaps I should have been more specific? How then, exactly do I go about re-encoding from FLAC (or another lossless codec) to Apple lossless? Since I am a codec n00b as I said, this is not something that is very clear to me, so a step by step guide would be very much appreciated. I know I might only need to have Itunes installed, but I dislike it with a passion. Even if you just have it installed, no matter what you do, it will always insist on starting every time you plug in an Ipod. (There is AFAIK no way to disable this behaviour). So it is always in your face whether you like it or not. It is a big, fat and cumbersome interface for transferring music files too - and it also conflicts with a couple of other packages I have installed that enable me to better organise my music collection. (Or at least they enable me to do it a bit better than Itunes can).

Once more, all input would be appreciated.

GJ

[Spoon]

Re: Total noob needs help.

Are you using dbpoweramps itunes encoder? just right click on FLAC and >> Convert To Apple Lossless

[raid517]

Re: Total noob needs help.

Yeah, I figured that part out. It seems I have to have Itunes installed whether I like it or not.

I still haven't worked out the other stuff - although from what I can tell what I was talking about currently isn't possible with Sveta.

I still like all your music conversion stuff a lot though!

GJ

[LtData]

Re: Total noob needs help.

Go into your serivces and disable the iPod service that iTunes installs (start --> run --> services.msc). Then go into the iTunes options and poke around, disabling everything that says "iPod" on it. That should tell iTunes to leave your player alone.

I still think your just not looking in the right spot regarding the Smart conversions. You CAN tell it to convert formats of a certain bitrate to another format at a certain bitrate. Did you play around with the options for this?