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I've been storing my FLAC files as ALAC for iTunes compatibility for the past decade. Max.app on macOS, while old and creaky looking, does a fine job of transco

I've been storing my FLAC files as ALAC for iTunes compatibility for the past decade. Max.app on macOS, while old and creaky looking, does a fine job of transcoding them and maintaining tags.

moogly 5y ago
Now imagine storing it in FLAC and playing them everywhere, without having to transcode at all.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- floatingatoll 5y ago
  That's someone else's windmill to tilt, sorry.
floatingatoll 5y ago
Oh, if you're using homebrew and you want ffmpeg to support ALAC, you can do that. brew edit ffmpeg; add `depends_on "fdk-aac"` and `--enable-libfdk-aac`, `--enable-nonfree` to the relevant sections, remove the bottle section; then, brew reinstall ffmpeg. There's probably a better way to do this that doesn't trigger a merge conflict each time they update the bottle hashes (resolved easily with brew edit ffmpeg, repeat above), but I'm lazy and ffmpeg doesn't update frequently. I have no idea if ffmpeg can maintain ID3 tags from FLAC->ALAC or not, but if you have need of this knowledge someday, say hi to that future for me! (And if compilation fails with a specific weird error about corefoundation corevideo coreaudio etc, uninstall and reinstall your macOS command line tools, because they're broken; `sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools ; xcode-select --install` will do that.)
- Ericson2314 5y ago
  > There's probably a better way to do this that doesn't trigger a merge conflict Well if you want to try Nix, https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/9dba669e8a53f00114b53d0b7ee2ee8de5f426e5/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix#L14518 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/9dba669e8a53f00114b53d... right out of the box :D
  - joshspankit 5y ago
    Though I had read about it already, your comment is the first time I’ve seen a compelling real-word reason for me to install Nix.
  - floatingatoll 5y ago
    That’s what I get for not saying “in Homebrew”!
    - Ericson2314 5y ago
      I mean it was perfectly clear in context. That's why I wrote the "Well..." dependent clause; I know I'm providing the better way for homebrew.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - Ericson2314 5y ago
        oops "not providing the better way for homebrew." (edit window.)
thirdsun 5y ago
I wonder why you wouldn't just use ALAC full time? As mentioned in my other comment any decent piece of software or hardware supports ALAC these days. Sure, if you don't have any use for iTunes or iOS FLAC is the obvious choice, but if you do use iTunes there's really no need to keep two formats around. Just use ALAC.

I've been storing my FLAC files as ALAC for iTunes compatibility for the past decade. Max.app on macOS, while old and creaky looking, does a fine job of transcoding them and maintaining tags.

moogly 5y ago

Now imagine storing it in FLAC and playing them everywhere, without having to transcode at all.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
floatingatoll 5y ago
That's someone else's windmill to tilt, sorry.

floatingatoll 5y ago

Oh, if you're using homebrew and you want ffmpeg to support ALAC, you can do that. brew edit ffmpeg; add `depends_on "fdk-aac"` and `--enable-libfdk-aac`, `--enable-nonfree` to the relevant sections, remove the bottle section; then, brew reinstall ffmpeg. There's probably a better way to do this that doesn't trigger a merge conflict each time they update the bottle hashes (resolved easily with brew edit ffmpeg, repeat above), but I'm lazy and ffmpeg doesn't update frequently. I have no idea if ffmpeg can maintain ID3 tags from FLAC->ALAC or not, but if you have need of this knowledge someday, say hi to that future for me! (And if compilation fails with a specific weird error about corefoundation corevideo coreaudio etc, uninstall and reinstall your macOS command line tools, because they're broken; `sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools ; xcode-select --install` will do that.)

Ericson2314 5y ago
> There's probably a better way to do this that doesn't trigger a merge conflict Well if you want to try Nix, https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/9dba669e8a53f00114b53d0b7ee2ee8de5f426e5/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix#L14518 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/9dba669e8a53f00114b53d... right out of the box :D
- joshspankit 5y ago
  Though I had read about it already, your comment is the first time I’ve seen a compelling real-word reason for me to install Nix.
- floatingatoll 5y ago
  That’s what I get for not saying “in Homebrew”!
  - Ericson2314 5y ago
    I mean it was perfectly clear in context. That's why I wrote the "Well..." dependent clause; I know I'm providing the better way for homebrew.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - Ericson2314 5y ago
      oops "not providing the better way for homebrew." (edit window.)

thirdsun 5y ago

I wonder why you wouldn't just use ALAC full time? As mentioned in my other comment any decent piece of software or hardware supports ALAC these days. Sure, if you don't have any use for iTunes or iOS FLAC is the obvious choice, but if you do use iTunes there's really no need to keep two formats around. Just use ALAC.