Errors in Conversion From Apple Lossless

[elasticmedia]

I have a library of music in ALAC format and I tried to convert some of it via MAX and got a lot of errors. Not only that, but I also have to wait at the MAX app and say OK for every error. If I couldn't fix the errors, it would at least be better if it would just convert what it could without forcing me to click the mouse with every error. It seems that in a converted album, there will be several to 6 tracks that have an error. I did about 3 albums and each failed somewhat.

I am using the basic ripper. Flac is compression level 5. The exact message was: An error occurred while encoding the file "My_Song_Title". ExtAudioFileRed failed: nope

I am using MAX 0.8.1 and converting to FLAC and mp3. I have tried single cuts, one album, or many albums - with each way getting very bad conversion rates.

I used MAX with great success to rip to FLAC and MP3. The conversion is not going so well. I am using a 2.8 ghz intel imac with 4 gigs of ram.

thanks for any tips

[Mike1]

I am using the basic ripper. Flac is compression level 5. The exact message was: An error occurred while encoding the file "My_Song_Title". ExtAudioFileRed failed: nope

But if you're converting there's no ripping going on.

I don't recognize the error. Is it possible the files are corrupt?

How if you use a different conversion tool - e.g.:

http://tmkk.hp.infoseek.co.jp/xld/index_e.html

- does the same situation recur?

[elasticmedia]

Thanks for the tip, Mike. I used the gui version of XLD and it worked well - crashed a few times in converting 40 gigs of music. Then I used max to export the flacs/mp3's. As for the corruption, I don't know why max couldn't convert them but xld could. Max is happily converting the wav files - just doesn't like ALAC.

The unfortunate nature of conversion compared to ripping, is that max dumps all the files in the target folder - it doesn't retain the folder structure. Aargh. The only way to effectively do this conversion is to make the new files in the original folder of the source files, which makes it a little harder to do the redistribution.

[Mike1]

I used the gui version of XLD and it worked well ... Max is happily converting the wav files - just doesn't like ALAC.

I'm glad it worked for you.

The unfortunate nature of conversion compared to ripping, is that max dumps all the files in the target folder - it doesn't retain the folder structure. Aargh. The only way to effectively do this conversion is to make the new files in the original folder of the source files, which makes it a little harder to do the redistribution.

The "Organizer" tool in Media Rage could recreate the folder structure for you. It seems to do it by looking at the tags. Here's its window:



Otherwise, it would probably be possible to do something with Automator. It's a tool I confess I never even look at, because I can't see the point in putting the time in to learn a Mac-only solution and then not gaining a transferrable skill.