Anyone recommend a "de-flac'er" for Lion?

[(vikm)]

the app I used to use says it doesn't work with Lion for converting Flac files. Any apps anyone likes? Thanks.

[deckeda]

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss: XLD.

Scroll down to the Downloads section for the GUI version, "xld-gui-20110924.tar.bz2"

[weapon]

I use max. Not sure if it is updated for lion.

[(vikm)]

Worked perfectly! Thanks.

(sorry, i meant... I tried XLD). Didn't see the other post. Thanks for that, too, though

[deckeda]

I haven't used Max but it should do the trick, too. The developer, Stephen Booth, also makes the least expensive high fidelity music player for OS X, Decibel. (It can switch sample rates on the fly and play from RAM, not hard disk etc.)

[Article Accelerator]

I thought you were talking about a "Don't-give-me-no-flack-er" for Lion.

[Rolando]

I use XLD to convert to ALAC. Question:

Anybody remember to make sure iTunes uses 24 bit instead of 16 bit audio. I remember it was a Quicktime Control Panel Setting...

[deckeda]

@Rolando

You have to quit iTunes and launch AudioMidi Setup. Change the relevant popup, close it and relaunch iTunes.

And then repeat the process if you want to play a 16-bit file again.

Well, strictly speaking, you don't need to do either, as CoreAudio will do a sample rate conversion on the fly, but it does an audibly poor job. No one I know who uses a Mac as a dedicated music server with such mixed files does it this way. That's insanity.

The practical solution is to use software that plays outside of iTunes, to avoid having to quit iTunes and edit AudioMidi Setup each time for CoreAudio to only be presenting the file in its native sample rate.

Decibel, Pure Music and Amarra will take care of it as well as permit loading the songs into RAM and other improvements. They each have a list of quirks and caveats that prevent the experience from equalling just using iTunes, but when considered in the context of what they're intended to do, work well.

The software I mentioned is respectfully $33, $129 or starting at $99. I just bought Pure Music and can discuss it later for anyone that's curious about it or the others.