Any good evaluation music software to convert APE to MP3 or AAC please?

[MichaelRabin]

Hi - any answers to the above question please? Thanks.

[Gurn Blanston]

Hi - any answers to the above question please? Thanks.

I would recommend dBpoweramp, it works well for me, has an evaluation version, and if you like it costs just $25. I used it as recently as last night to convert APE to WAV and then to FLAC. Could have gone direct, of course, but wanted to do some editing on the files while they were in WAV. I finally archived the flacs after making MP3's from them. It was ridiculously easy...



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Listening to:
L'Estro Armonico / Solomons - Hob 01 049 Symphony in f 1st mvmt - Adagio

[Josquin des Prez]

I just use the native converting tools to transform apes or flacs into wavs (both obtainable from their own websites), and then use something like lamedrop to convert them into MP3s:

http://www.rarewares.org/mp3-lamedrop.php

All those programs are free. If you need something that does everything in one program you can get Easy Audio Converter, which is not as cumbersome as some of the programs of this type and works for most formats. But, its not free.

[DavidW]

Monkey's Audio will do it.  I don't understand why people use ape, just seems stupid.  I say that because flac is free and many players support it, alac is the format for ipods and is supported by ffmpeg and itunes which are both free and popular.  But mp3 players don't widely support ape, and it is not as convenient as flac or alac.  It seems lame to me.

[Opus106]

Monkey's Audio will do it.  I don't understand why people use ape, just seems stupid.  I say that because flac is free and many players support it, alac is the format for ipods and is supported by ffmpeg and itunes which are both free and popular.  But mp3 players don't widely support ape, and it is not as convenient as flac or alac.  It seems lame to me.

Thread duty (?!): converting Mozart symphonies to ALAC, using dBpoweramp.

[DavidW]

Thread duty (?!): converting Mozart symphonies to ALAC, using dBpoweramp.

Thread duty: I'm about to rip a couple of cds to alac myself before I go in to get some grading done.

[Gurn Blanston]

... It seems lame to me.

No, that's MP3...   Anyway, yes, I went the long way around in my opening scenario to not only show the possibilities, but also because I wanted the flacs for archive, not ape or wav or any other lossless that I can think of.



----------------
Listening to:
L'Estro Armonico / Solomons - Hob 01 049 Symphony in f 1st mvmt - Adagio

[MichaelRabin]

I currently use Goldwave but it does not read APE format.

Got quite good at Goldwave though.

[Gurn Blanston]

I currently use Goldwave but it does not read APE format.

Got quite good at Goldwave though.

That's what kills you, MR. I use Musicmatch for nearly 10 years and when it got killed by the maker, I was totally at a loss for a replacement because I was so intimately familiar with every little quirk of MMJB. Better now though...

Seriously, try dBpoweramp. It's free to try and I really think that the user interface is as friendly as it gets.

[DavidW]

No, that's MP3...  

jejeje

Since we're talking about lossy, lossless and all that jazz I wanted to bring up something that I've found recently... a way to triumph over abx with lossless vs high bitrate mp3s (v0 with lame).  V0 mp3s are transparent, and seem to handle the mids perfectly.  But they lack in bass and treble extension.  My ears are sensitive to deep bass, and once I find a bassy part of the music I can get it everytime!!  Try it, you'll see.   You have to use quality headphones though or you'll never hear it.  I'm not saying that mp3s are crap or that I have golden ears or anything like that, just that sometimes there is an audible loss of quality in deep bass and high treble.

[greg]

XRE Code...
almost too easy to use. Open the program, select the file, choose format, click Convert, and it makes the new file in the same directory (unless you choose another directory). It's also completely free.

[drogulus]

     dBPowerAmpdBPowerAmpdBPowerAmpdBPowerAmpdBPowerAmp

     Another possibility is you could use dBPowerAmp.

     I use it to make .m4a (AAC by another name) for my Pod, mp3s for other uses, and ripping CDs, especially HDCDs since it has a built-in decoder to produce 24/44 files. Nice!

     There is a learning curve involved since you have to DL some codecs separately, but it's well worth learning how to do this.

     

XRE Code...
almost too easy to use. Open the program, select the file, choose format, click Convert, and it makes the new file in the same directory (unless you choose another directory). It's also completely free.

     There are many good programs that do one thing well. I have some of them, or had them, but in the end I stopped using them because I need to perform several functions. The advantage of programs like Foobar and dBPowerAmp is that they do many things well.

     That xrecode II does look good. It's not really a free program, just free to try. If it did Nero .m4a and HDCD I'd be very interested. How does it handle 24 bit? Some programs curl up into a foetal position at the approach of 24 bit FLAC or the like.....

[Opus106]

I use it to make .m4a (AAC by another name) for my Pod, mp3s for other uses, and ripping CDs, especially HDCDs since it has a built-in decoder to produce 24/44 files. Nice!

There is a learning curve involved since you have to DL some codecs separately, but it's well worth learning how to do this.

That's a bit exaggerated. However, I currently use only one separate codec -- for the Apple-friendly formats -- but that was simply an exe file which had to installed like any other 'program.' Perhaps there are others which require a learning curve?

[Gurn Blanston]

That's a bit exaggerated. However, I currently use only one separate codec -- for the Apple-friendly formats -- but that was simply an exe file which had to installed like any other 'program.' Perhaps there are others which require a learning curve?

No, it's been a while now, but I think my dBPoweramp came with just WAV and MP3. It had a whole list of codecs available and asked me what I wanted. I just picked flac at that time and it downloaded and installed itself with no further effort on my part. Last night I needed APE and it did the same thing. So, "learning curve" may be a bit exaggerated, but not the downloading codecs part. WHich is probably what you meant anyway...   

[DavidW]

That's a bit exaggerated. However, I currently use only one separate codec -- for the Apple-friendly formats -- but that was simply an exe file which had to installed like any other 'program.' Perhaps there are others which require a learning curve?

I think Ernie just means in comparison to other programs like itunes where you don't have to download the codec and setup the program to point to it.  I still remember after using musicmatch and then moving to EAC and being like "darnit, do you mean I have to find and download lame and configure EAC! oh man!"   It was worth it, but it required more leg work. 

Edit: leg work?  really I said leg work?  Where am I going exactly?

[drogulus]

That's a bit exaggerated.

      What is? Nice? OK, almost nice.

      So, for evaluation software xrecode looks a good choice, too. In fact I'm tempted to DL it myself as part of my neverending quest to clutter up the Windows registry.

      The learning curve remark concerns some of the more esoteric feature like Nero AAC encoding, HDCD decoding and the like.

[Opus106]

No, it's been a while now, but I think my dBPoweramp came with just WAV and MP3. It had a whole list of codecs available and asked me what I wanted. I just picked flac at that time and it downloaded and installed itself with no further effort on my part. Last night I needed APE and it did the same thing.

That dirty little son of a bit never asked me whether I wanted to install a codec; I had to do it all by myself! [drogulus helped with that actually, so I had the thing already installed when I ran the app. for the first time. ]

[jowcol]

      What is? Nice? OK, almost nice.

      So, for evaluation software xrecode looks a good choice, too. In fact I'm tempted to DL it myself as part of my neverending quest to clutter up the Windows registry.

      The learning curve remark concerns some of the more esoteric feature like Nero AAC encoding, HDCD decoding and the like.

I've been using XRecode II for  a while for Flac, Ape and others, and really like it.   The eval version I have makes you wait a few seconds before you start, but it is fully functional.

[Sylph]

For converters, I do not know which one would suit you because there are so many, but with rippers you need the ones with AccurateRip: Exact Audio Copy (or simply EAC — freeware), dBpoweramp and Easy CD-DA Extractor (both shareware and both can convert from and to multiple formats).

There is also Rip for Mac OS.

[greg]

I've been using XRecode II for  a while for Flac, Ape and others, and really like it.   The eval version I have makes you wait a few seconds before you start, but it is fully functional.

Interesting... didn't know there was an XRECode II. But if it does that when you start it, I'm better off sticking to the original then.