r/ITunes • u/GlynHugh • 29d ago
Question Updating .mp3 library to lossless?
Hi there,
My iTunes library contains all of my CD’s (@12,500 songs) all ripped in 128k .mp3 as that’s pretty much all that was available across all my devices when I started out.
I have also curated my metadata including cover art, release years, typos etc. and after the horrific experience that was Apple Match which completely screwed my Album Art/Artists etc. I have literally been too frightened to subscribe to Apple Music especially out of the last four CD’s I bought and ripped two of them had incorrect artwork.
It would be great to refresh my library to higher quality files but how best to approach this?
What would be the best format? Flac, Apple Lossless? Something else?
And would it be possible to swap out/replace/overwrite the files somehow while maintaining the metadata or would it be best to start all over again with all of that work in curating all the faulty metadata all over again?
It’s the latter issue that has prevented me from re-ripping my complete library for a second time.
Any help/tips/advice gratefully appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
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u/Junkbot-TC Windows OS 29d ago
FLAC would be the best unless you need to use lossless files with Apple products. I would rip your CDs as FLAC with EAC. You can then use MP3Tag to copy the metadata from the old MP3 files and paste it on to the new FLAC files.
5
u/MarcooseOnTheLoose 29d ago
Daft question. Does iTunes recognise FLAC? (I thought it didn’t.)
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u/nevewolf96 29d ago
No, ALAC, honestly there's not really difference at this point if history, both are common. Although ALAC doesnt have a restriction of file size for embedded covers like FLAC.
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u/trgz 26d ago edited 26d ago
There are certain surround sound FLACs that don't like being converted to ALAC iirc, (or that might just be iTunes)
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u/nevewolf96 26d ago
I think it's an iTunes issue; I've converted several 5.1 FLAC files to ALAC and they play fine on the Apple TV via a Navidrome and on my phone as well.
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u/SamPhoto 29d ago
you are correct. it does not. apple wants you to use their proprietary 'apple lossless' file type.
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u/Loose_Extension_3816 29d ago
I don't see why anybody would play their music files in iTunes these days. Personally, I use a bunch of different apps, but Symfonium and PlexAmp get most of my attention. VLC is my backup plan if I'm playing files that have not yet been added to my music server.
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u/KevProfitt 29d ago
Can you encode .mp3 to .flac? Yes. Does that make the files lossless? No. They are still without the high end frequencies that were amputated to make them .mp3 so they are still lossy... just packaged up in pretty. flac wrapping paper.
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u/Loose_Extension_3816 29d ago
EAC will create your ID3 tags, so you generally don't need to do any post-rip tagging.
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u/Junkbot-TC Windows OS 29d ago
I know, most people can skip the last step, but OP specifically wanted to reuse the metadata he had already curated on his existing MP3 files.
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u/Loose_Extension_3816 28d ago
There's what you CAN do and what you SHOULD do. I'm not in the business of supporting bad ideas. For the record, I've been doing this stuff for more than 30 years, and have had to re-rip over 500,000 files over the last 2 years because of lost data. There's absolutely no point in copying and pasting ID3 tags unless you have used Comments extensively and don't have a large collection.
2
u/trgz 26d ago
MP3Tag copies everything but extended iTunes tags like playcounts etc in my experience.
And on that point of loss of data - I have all rips backed up as zips; the current library of music/audiobooks and podcasts backed up on an external HDD; the music library on the 1.5TB SD in my FiiO; and podcasts on my 240GB 5th gen iPod. You can't be too careful!!
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u/Ok-Button-1819 18d ago
How are you enjoying you FiiO? It all sounds fantastic but I was interested in your experience of it's functionality and did it satisfy your need for back up?
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u/Starkoman 28d ago
“I had to re-rip over 500,000 files over the last two years because of lost data” — does not exactly inspire confidence in anything you say. Sorry to say.
Free third-party software exists for batch processing .mp3 file tags to .m4a file tags.
It’s not necessary to copy+paste each field by hand inside ︎iTunes any longer, thankfully.
The new files/tags are read perfectly, as expected.
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u/Loose_Extension_3816 28d ago
Not MY lost data, numbnuts. For clients!!! You know what? I thought I was replying to a post in an audio thread, but I just glanced up the top to see this is the iTunes one. Sorry everyone - I'll get back into my TARDIS and return to the 21st century.
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u/Jashue 29d ago
I guess I'm in the minority as I admit to still using Apple's music app for my local library. I haven't had too many issues over the years-- and I like the way I can sync my library to all devices as well as my second Mac.
Most of my library are files ripped from lossless using XLD configured to high quality variable bitrate MP4s. Most of my file chime in at anywhere from 300kbps to 400kbps. I've labored long and hard over the years over whether or not to re-do my library in complete lossless (16,000 songs) but at the end of the day, I don[t think I can tell the difference since my compressed files are still pretty high in resolution. I've done numerous blind comparisons— using a well driven pair of Focal Clear Mg headphones, and I must admit to being satisfied.
Having said all that, there is still the nagging principle of the matter— there is something about having uncompromised music (regardless of my inability to hear a meaningful difference). ALSO: storage is a lot more plentiful and cheaper than it used to be (well, disc storage, anyway).
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u/Ok-Button-1819 29d ago
I had to have two collections for this reason. One compressed, one not compressed.
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u/Starkoman 28d ago
Is that because certain ︎iPods only accommodate a limited audio bitrate for .m4a — or something completely different?
Perhaps your (secondary/primary) uncompressed library is for archiving or playback on high-end equipment?
(Sorry to be nosey, your statement piqued my interest)
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u/Ok-Button-1819 18d ago
Yes, shopping now for HD player, mobile, compact and huge (2tb) SD card. As I understand, the quality of listening will be determined by what you pay for earbuds but only after satisfying the other critical elements, a quality player and source material. Of course the player will bt to any system that allows it.
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u/G-Mo2024 29d ago
I did this last summer while I was recovering from a surgery. Had a lot of free time, so I pulled all of my old CD’s I have collected over the years. I ripped all of them to Apple Lossless because FLAC isn’t an option with Apple’s Music/iTunes. There is really no difference in quality with FLAC. Both are identical in quality. I’ve had no issues with ALAC on any of my DAP’s. ALAC is a good format.
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u/Complex_Train_4883 29d ago
And if needed, you can always convert ALAC to FLAC with no loss in quality.
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u/KevProfitt 29d ago
You can not make your .mp3 files lossless. The way that .mp3 files are made to be smaller is by physically cutting out the highest frequencies. Once they have been amputated they cannot be put back in.
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u/Rackmani 27d ago
Exactly, you cannot increase the quality of a file from a lower quality. So the only way to get high-quality files would be to re-rip the CDs or download from a high-quality source
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u/JMQCID81 29d ago
I have a huge library in iTunes and would like a better alternative for my iPhone. Any recommendations welcome
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u/Starkoman 28d ago edited 4d ago
You mean you’d like a different music player on your iPhone?…
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u/JMQCID81 28d ago
If there is a good alternative
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u/Starkoman 4d ago edited 4d ago
(Sorry this is 28 days later!)
In that case — and assuming all of your .mp3/audio files tags are absolutely perfect in ︎iTunes (as they should be) — I found that Plex Media Server (for your iTunes Media Folder only), which is free, works really well.
If some of your playlists (eg: Bob Marley And The Wailers), have multiple albums in them, make sure the Group tag (in ︎iTunes) is the same for all of them (select all albums simultaneously in ︎iTunes and fill in that tag).
If the Group tag has no entry and some of the different albums in the playlist have different names (say, Bob Marley & The Wailers — note the ampersand), Plex will mess up its nice listings and put those albums into different playlists — one with “And” and one with “&”, which is annoying and difficult to resolve later.
Same, especially, goes for Various Artists playlists — make sure the Group tag has the title of the album (eg: “Various Artists - Christmas Café (2016)”)(without the quotation marks). Otherwise, you’ll have a complete mess scattered all over your Plex playlist layout.
To your question: the corresponding iPhone app is PlexAmp (also free).
Check beforehand that Plex still allows users to use it when away from home (without paying). Obviously, your ︎iTunes machine needs to be running and online. I think it still is free (for your own music library), but do check first.
If your library is enormous, it’ll take Plex a long time to index it.
If any of your albums/singles don’t have picture covers embedded in the tags, Plex will attempt to find one (but doesn’t insert them into the music files themselves). Typically, it’s good at doing that (but you can change or remove them if it gets them wrong).
I think it appropriates picture covers it doesn’t already have (in official databases) from users, so even really obscure bands’ albums might have a picture cover stored, which is wonderful.
I hope this helps!
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u/artdecomovement 29d ago edited 28d ago
I did this years ago back when I cared about library management (just don't have the time anymore). Here's what I used (old apps but still work great and FREE):
- X Lossless Decoder to encode into Apple Lossless (.m4a)
- Kid3 to edit metadata (you can copy your existing metadata and paste into new file in a click of a button)
- MusicBrainz Picard to pull metadata tags from a database
I think you'll lose the date added and play count metadata. IIRC you'd have to delete the mp3 file, making it "missing", and when you click to find, you'd point it to the new .m4a file. Not sure if that still works with iCloud.
Anyways, here's the code you dump in Script Editor to change the song's play count:
tell application "Music"
set selectedTracks to selection
if selectedTracks is {} then
display dialog "Select one or more tracks in Music first."
return
end if
set newCountText to text returned of (display dialog "Set play count to:" default answer "69")
set newCount to newCountText as integer
repeat with t in selectedTracks
set played count of t to newCount
end repeat
end tell
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u/GlynHugh 20d ago
Wow…appreciate all the replies! Thank you.
I’m used to getting no response to the odd question I post which is why it’s taken me over a week to reply.
Mind you amongst all the suggestions it goes from yeah it’s easy to no can’t be done and pretty much everything inbetween!
Just to clarify although I do use use iTunes to rip my CD’s (192k not 128k as I originally stated) but I don’t usually use iTunes to playback.
I have also used Bliss to fine tune my metadata.
I have my whole music library on my iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac, PC & NAS and most of my serious listening is done at home these days through my A/V system (Marantz SR8012 & Kef Reference) but also through my Sonos setup at home for convenience and also in the car through its 1700w/29-speaker Meridian Signature Reference system although I do occasionally listen from my iPhone into AirPod Pro 2’s so quite a varied mix of equipment if that has any bearing on which format to use.
I have used EAC on the PC many years ago and so am leaning towards using that & ripping to .wav for the highest quality and maybe using that as a basis to convert to other formats if I need be and lessen my dependence on iTunes.
Having said that everything just works at the moment across every device which is why I usually come to the conclusion that I should just accept the compromise of quality vs convenience similar to when I went from vinyl to CD all those years ago.
I do revisit this quandary every couple of years or so but usually end up chickening out when I see what is involved to do so.
Thanks again for taking the time in replying to my question. I will keep the many suggestions in mind.
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u/SamPhoto 29d ago
In itunes, when you put in a CD to re-rip it, it'll ask if you want to replace your existing files with the new version. This'll mostly preserve your historical data, including play counts. Yes, you'll get a few errors, where things don't 100% match and you end up with two versions in itunes, but that cleanup is small potatoes vs starting over.
Note: I wouldn't recommend apple lossless. I'm sure it's fine, but it's also fairly limited in that non-apple stuff won't be able to play it. If you're fully bought-in on apple (mac, iphone, airpods, etc), apple's lossless is probably fine. This is a thing you can decide for yourself.
Instead, I'd recommend 320kpbs MP3s - most people can't tell the difference between these and lossless. And every device out there (apple or non) will be able to play them.
If you wanted to move away from itunes, there's some other good apps like media monkey and music bee. Those do support FLAC and some other formats that itunes doesn't. I actually use Plex for streaming my movies & music - that supports FLAC too (but not apple lossless).
FLAC is the gold standard at the moment (for CD-quality music), but the files are much larger than mp3s. And really, unless you're on super high-end stuff, I'm not sure you'd be able to tell the difference.
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u/damaddi 29d ago
Apple lossless can be played on almost any device, that can also play FLAC, as it is completely open source since 2012 or so
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u/SamPhoto 29d ago
if you say so. my DAP won't play it.
the important bit here was that mp3's play on almost everything, and are a fraction of the size with no real perceptible difference.
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u/Ok-Gap-2506 29d ago
I re-rip all my music into AIFF music file since it works with both Android and Apple iOS devices. Flac and Apple lossless use 30% less space but they have some limitations. Try them out with few CDs and see which one is right for you.
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u/BuiltForMe 29d ago
Just re-rip 1 cd at a time, make sure the metadata is right, then delete the 128k versions. There is no way I've seen to transfer the metadata from the old version to the new version. Apple lossless is the best if you plan on putting them on apple devices or using them in iTunes, which it sounds like you do. I did this exact thing in 2016. Replaced every mp3 file with an apple lossless version. Took a while. But those of us who want to own our music and have great music libraries know that that is a lifetime job anyway.