Tip #29: Convert music files from any format to any format

If you read this earlier post on how to import FLAC files into iTunes on Mac and were like "damn, what about us iPod users using Windows?", then this tip is especially for you. dBpoweramp Music Converter (for Windows, can be run on Linux using Wine [sorry Macs! nothing for you this time] ) can convert your music files from nearly any format to any format you could possibly think of (and perhaps even formats you have never even heard of).

But wait - what does this have to do with our previous problem of iTunes on Windows not being able to deal with FLAC files? We will use dMC to convert the FLAC files into Apple Lossless format, which iTunes can natively support. Additionally, we can also use dMC to convert the FLAC files into Windows Media Audio Lossless format, so that those who are using Windows Media Player need not go through the process of installing FLAC codecs and tag support for Windows Media Player.

After dMC has been installed, an "Activate Trial" window will pop out. For our purposes we don't need the free trial for Perfect Meta, so you can untick that and click OK. After that comes the dBpoweramp Configuration window. There's nothing much to see here either, but you may want to take a look at the options in the Music Converter tab. You can tell dBpoweramp to not add the 'Convert To' and 'Edit ID Tags' and 'dBpoweramp Batch Convert' options to the pop-out menu which appears when you right click on files in Windows. I would recommend that you keep 'Enable Pop-up Information Tips' enabled, this will show you useful info about the format and metadata of your songs when you point your mouse at them in Windows.

We're still not done with setting up dMC. We now need to download and install codecs which we will need later on. Simply put, a codec adds support to dMC for a particular audio format, such as WMA and AAC. MP3 support is already included, so that doesn't need to be installed. Here are the links to codecs of several file formats we may be using later on, download and install only the ones you need.

• Windows Media Audio (link) - pick one of the three which matches your Windows version.
• Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) and Apple Lossless (link) - choose "m4a release 9". there are some additional steps to get AAC working, just follow the instructions which appear after installing the codec.
• FLAC (link) - otherwise dMC can't read your FLAC files for converting!
• .. all other codecs are on this page.

Now that that's done, let's get to some real converting work. To begin, we need to first select the audio files which we want to convert. Click on Start > All Programs > dBpoweramp Music Converter.

• To select one or more files within a single folder, choose dBpoweramp Music Converter.
• To select files from multiple folders, choose dBpoweramp Batch Converter.

Once you have selected your files, you will be prompted to choose a format you want to convert to, as well as where you want to save your files. This is where the fun comes in.

1. Convert FLAC files to Apple Lossless to import into iTunes and sync to your iPod

The dBpoweramp Music Converter interface is relatively
straightforward and easy to use. Just pick the format you
want to convert to, and you're all set to go.

Since iTunes refuses to accept FLAC files, we will convert them to Apple Lossless so that they can be imported into your iTunes library and then synced to your iPod. Choose Apple Lossless from the Converting To menu, then set the folder where you want the converted files to appear. click on Convert, and wait. Once the conversion process has ended, just open iTunes and import those converted files into your library and voila! We're done!

2. Convert FLAC files to Windows Media Audio Lossless to import into Windows Media Player and sync to your portable device

It is possible to make Windows Media Player play and import FLAC files into your library, but it is not possible to sync FLAC files to your mobile phone or MP3 player, as WMP can't convert them into compatible MP3 or WMA files. Therefore, select Windows Media Audio 10 from the Converting To menu,  then choose Windows Media Audio 9.2 Lossless from the Codec menu. Check that the settings are VBR Quality 100, 44 kHz and 2 channel 16 bit VBR. Any other setting would be unnecessary and may add to file size. Lastly set the folder where you want the converted files to appear, then press Convert and wait for it to finish. After it's done converting, import the converted files into your WMP library and we're done.

Remember though: dMC is not limited to the two formats which I mentioned as examples just now, you can use it to convert to and from practically any audio format. dBpoweramp Music Converter is like a Swiss army knife for audio files - keep it installed as it may come in handy one day when you're working on a multimedia project or something.