Filed under: Audio, Software, iTunes
Play FLAC in iTunes with less mess
Since switching to the Mac full-time last year, my only remaining complaint has been the abysmal (and finicky) FLAC support in iTunes. FLAC, or Free Lossless Audio Codec, is an open source lossless compression format that offers a nice compromise betweeen storing the uncompressed music file -- which is very large -- and converting the file to a lossy format like MP3 or AAC. Apple has its own lossless format, Apple Lossless, and Apple Lossless is great -- but I have lots and lots of live performances archived in FLAC and haven't wanted to spend the time converting all those files so that I can play everything in iTunes. About 6 months ago, I pretty much gave up and started just ripping CDs in Apple Lossless and using Max to convert favorite albums or performances.Reader Mitchell wrote in and told us about Fluke, which aims to be an easier way to play FLAC files in iTunes. I've used other XiphQT based solutions, but none have worked as well as Fluke. Install Fluke and then open up a FLAC file with it (or drag your FLAC files to the icon) and it automatically runs a script that tricks iTunes into adding a FLAC file to the library. For the most part, tagging and even album art will be converted -- though I did have to add track numbers to some of the files I tested. It isn't as seamless as an actual FLAC player, like Cog, but it is certainly more hassle-free than some of the other script-based solutions I've used in the past.
Fluke is free and available for download here.
Thanks Mitchell!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Simon Arch said 5:06PM on 8-13-2008
Interesting little tool. I'll have to give it a shot. If you don't mind doing a little file conversion though you can download XLD, configure it to convert to ALAC, drop your FLAC. APE, whatever files on it and let it go to work. You'll be left with Apple Lossless files which you can just drop into iTunes.
It's nice to have this option though. I definitely want to give Fluke a try.
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Simon Arch said 12:22PM on 8-18-2008
I just got done importing an album with Fluke, and I have a few thoughts.
First, it works. It was completely seamless. I really like that. It copied the files to my library and that was that.
However, the original FLAC files weren't tagged, so Fluke just gave me a completely untagged album. It didn't take too long to get everything tagged, but it's a slight inconvenience. It would be nice if Fluke could call the CDDB when it finds untagged files. I can only think of one other feature I'd like to see added, and that's an option to import the files as Apple Lossless (or MP3 or AAC, whatever you have set in iTunes). If it could do that I'd be in hog heaven.
Simon Arch said 4:37AM on 8-21-2008
OK, I've played with it a little more. I've noticed some problems with tagging the FLAC files. Some of the tags don't stick.
And a few of the songs I converted from FLAC to ALAC had skips and glitches in them, which were not present in the original FLAC files. So...back to my old way of doing things for now, kludgy though it might be (use Toast to make a disc image, mount it and import to ALAC via iTunes).
Codey H. said 5:18PM on 8-13-2008
Thanks for this. I was using xACT to convert and put into itunes, but I'd rather keep the FLACs intact if possible.
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Gordon Werner said 5:19PM on 8-13-2008
I always use xACT for this purpose
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21952
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Bob Mc said 5:30PM on 8-13-2008
Call me when you find a way to allow my iPod to play back FLAC files. Until then, I'll use XLD to convert them to Apple Lossless.
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Christina Warren said 7:11PM on 8-13-2008
True enough -- I still have to run xACT or Max if I want to listen to lossless, but there are very few albums I won't just convert to LAME V0 for portable audio.
If you have pre-Classic iPod (so up to Gen 5.5), you can install the alternate firmware Rockbox (http://www.rockbox.org/) which will play a ton of formats in addition to FLAC.
tuaw said 6:35PM on 8-13-2008
TwistedFLAC for teh win!
http://twistedwave.com/TwistedFLAC.html
Uses MacFUSE to make all FLAC files show up as WAV's and can be played or converted by anything that reads WAVs (everything). Plus it keeps meta-data. I installed it a few months ago and stopped using anything else.
KRS Juan
CapsGetPeeled.com
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Simon Arch said 4:19PM on 8-14-2008
Interesting. What's the performance like?
cpb said 6:38PM on 8-13-2008
why would i want something which is "less hassle-free"??
:p
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Hermes said 9:20AM on 8-14-2008
Hmm, Fluke does not appear to work as described. Dialog box comes up I hit 'yes' to add to iTunes and nothing is actually moved.
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pyite said 7:30AM on 8-17-2008
Same here. Received an error on initial launch, then nothing.
mike said 8:40PM on 8-13-2008
FLAC is open source fail. Possibly one of the reasons that Apple hasn't implemented FLAC in iTunes is that there is no full, comprehensive documentation on FLAC. How do you fully implement something when there isn't documentation on it? I'm actually glad Apple has left out support for this shoddy, half-implemented codec.
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RobK said 9:38PM on 8-13-2008
Give me a break Mike. I am sure you know the REAL reason why Apple has not implemented FLAC. It does NOT create lock-in. Apple loves to lock you into the Apple world. Apple wants you to ONLY use Apple Lossless and NO other lossless codec for your rips to ensure that you continue to buy Apple products and ONLY Apple products in the future.
Since the quality of the audio is the same for FLAC and Apple Lossless, the real question is what codec produces smaller files. In my tests, FLAC always produces smaller files than Apple Lossless. So FLAC is a BETTER lossless codec than Apple Lossless!
Simon Arch said 4:37PM on 8-14-2008
The "better" format is the one which works best for the user. I prefer ALAC because I can use it natively with iTunes and play it on my iPod without conversion (although I confess that doesn't happen too often).
FLAC is just fine by me though, as are APE and even Windows Media Lossless. There's also WavePak, True Audio and Shorten, all of which are perfectly fine if they happen to meet your particular needs.
FLAC might render slightly smaller files on average, but the difference isn't really significant. To compare, I ripped a 16 track album with a total play time of 75:31. FLAC level 8 rendered it down to 568mb. ALAC was 575mb. I don't consider seven megabytes to be significant. Yeah, that adds up over a hundred albums to room for a couple more CDs every fifty gigs or so, but it's not a make-or-break feature.
And Mike, I'm willing to bet FLAC is better documented than ALAC. RobK's right - Apple went with ALAC for the lock-in effect. I'm not really worried about it, because I can easily convert my ALAC files to any other format I want using free tools, but don't ever mistake anything Apple does as being for the consumer. Apple does what Apple does for Apple's benefit. If that means doing things for the customer's benefit, they'll do that, but they're not going to go out of their way to do something pro-consumer which might have a deleterious effect on their bottom line.
Bob S. said 9:15PM on 8-16-2008
Mmmm, RobK, loosen that tinfoil helmet a little, wouldja?
ALAC can be played on every single XP and Vista system directly via a free download. That's hardly "Apple and ONLY Apple." It's also, as I say, free.
ALAC can also be played on any Linux distro that Firefly runs on. That's also hardly "Apple and ONLY Apple." It's also free. (And if you object to iTunes on Windows, or even on the Mac, Firefly is available for both of those OSes.)
vijay kate said 10:36PM on 8-13-2008
fluke works real well-been using it for a while, though it's easier to convert flac to apple lossless, to put it on ipod. however, though fluke lets one play flac easily with itunes, it does not support album artwork
mike, flac works damn well, nothing shoddy about it, robK's got it right. not supporting flac makes it that much more convenient for peeps to buy from itunes store, ergo more $ for apple
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PistolPeet said 3:22PM on 8-14-2008
Christina: Give firefly a go, it shows up as a bonjour-compatible iTunes network server and transcodes the FLACs automatically. It also means you don't have to do anything extra to add music, just tell firefly to auto scan your FLAC folder every x minutes and the music will show up when you next click on the entry in the Shared section of iTunes.
It's not perfect (doesn't show number of times played, album art seems to be missing) but it's very easy to use.
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Christina Warren said 4:57PM on 8-14-2008
Thanks for the tip -- I'll definitely give it a shot.
caleb said 4:07PM on 11-08-2008
ROCKBOX!
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