How can I batch convert ALAC to FLAC on MAC?

Yes, I know I really don't have to, but I really do have to.

I recently got a new receiver that can play music from a hard drive. It works but I got to reformat the drive so it's PC based. No problem. While trying different files as a test I noticed that my OPPO 103 can show album art when the file is FLAC but it doesn't when the file is ALAC though it can still play them. (The 203 is fine with showing album art in ALAC.) So already FLAC proves to be more accessible for my electronic sound gear. I figure there may be other benefits I'm not aware of yet. Since I'm going through the trouble anyway, I'd like to do it right from the start.

I'm happy to make an additional drive of my music in FLAC. I can easily change a single album at a time to FLAC but that's tedious. Unfortunately, I don't recall how to do it in a batch with XLD. I remember dragging and dropping the folder on the icon in the dock but I don't remember what modifier keys I had to hold while doing it.

I've tried googling with no luck. Can anyone here help lead me to the answer or have suggestions?

 

XLD
XLD

 

XLD or Max.

Edit: as Max isn’t being actively developed XLD.

 

XLD is what you want, as others say. My Oppo 203 also displays artwork from a file named folder.jpg in the folder containing the album. Does this work on your Oppo? That’s an option. Might be more trouble than batch converting though.

 

dBPowerAmp batch converter. Not free, but awesome.

 

Yes. I have XLD. The problem I’m having is how to do a large batch of files.

 

If you have XLD set to output FLAC files you can drag your folders with ALAC files on to the XLD icon in the dock.
Be aware XLD will delete your ALAC files by default unless you uncheck that in it's settings.

 

I need to batch convert a bunch of high-res and CD-res FLAC files on a NAS to ALAC (or something) so I can import them into iTunes for playback on my iPhone. I will try XLD.

 

As mentioned, drag and drop on the dock icon, works great. If you are not multi-tasking, it can handle a pretty large 'batch'.

The "Batch" preference pane is where you set whether you want to delete original files after successful conversion or not.

 

Huge fan of dBP here. And the Mac version is really well-done. I use the batch converter all the time.

 

XLD has done me well for ripping CDs over the years but for some reason it keeps crashing when I try to batch convert a bunch of files. dBPowerAmp on the other hand has really impressed me. It's taking me a bit to understand the whole Dynamic Naming biz but this software is pretty solid in execution. I didn't know they had an Apple version. Thank you!!

 

I have a question about dBPowerAmp. If I atch convert a bunch of FLAC files and later add more to the source. Is there a way I can tell it to do just an incremenal batch convert (i.e. ignoring what it did beofe that still exists at the destination).

I buy high-res FLAC for streaming and rip CDs to a NAS, but I want to batch convert these to my Mac for an iTunes library. When I add more FLAC files to the NAS I would like on ocassion to batch convert them again to update the iTunes library with what was added since I last did a btach convert.

 

I’ve been running into some FLAC files that trip up XLD lately. Went back to Max with good results. Note that Max preferences limit the number of threads, but I bumped it up to 16 and my 8 core iMac blew through them in no time. Should note that I was going from FLAC to ALAC.

 

Yeah, I've been really impressed with dBP, and I use the dynamic naming thing all the time. Plus it efficiently uses all the available cores of the machine you have, so it can move at a very fast clip.

 

XLD. Set your preferences, select a batch of files, drag to the dock icon. Always works for me, never trips up, and free.