Convert AIFF to M4A on Mac OS X Lion For Free

Using Mac OS X’s powerful built-in media encoding tools, large AIFF audio files can be quickly and easily converted to compressed high quality M4A audio, ready for use on in iTunes or an iPod, iPhone, or elsewhere.

No additional downloads or software is required, the media encoding tools are free and bundled in Mac OS X since Lion. They should be available by default, but you can enable the media encoders if they aren’t visible in contextual menus for you.

How to Enable the Video & Audio Encoder Tools in Mac OS X Lion?

• Launch System Preferences from the Apple menu
• Click on “Keyboard” and then click on the “Keyboard Shortcuts” tab
• Select “Services” from the left, and scroll on the right for “Encode Selected Audio Files” and “Encode Selected Video Files”
• Check the box next to both of those options and close out of System Preferences
• Confirm encoding tools are now enabled by right-clicking on an audio or video file and looking for the Encode option

Convert AIFF to M4A Easily from Mac OS X

• Right-click the AIFF audio file and choose “Encode Selected Audio File”
• At the “Encode to MPEG Audio” window, pull down the Encoder menu and choose “iTunes Plus”, this will result in a 256kbps m4a file
• Change Destination if necessary, otherwise click on “Continue” and let the encoder do its work
• Look for the newly converted m4a file in the same directory as the origin AIF

How long the conversion process takes depends entirely on the processing power of the Mac, but it’s always quick. Other than greater compatibility and portability, the other benefit of encoding audio is file size reduction.

If you want to convert M4A to MP3 on Mac, please follow this guide: How to convert M4A to MP3 on Mac?

Source from osxdaily.com

How to Convert Audio to M4A with OS X Lion’s Built-In Encoder

One of the many understated features in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is the ability to natively convert audio to m4a directly in OS X Lion’s Finder – without any additional downloads or add-ons. Yes, an MPEG audio encoder is built directly into Mac OS X 10.7, meaning you can convert audio directly on your desktop without using any other apps, and it’s really fast too.

How to Convert Audio to M4A with OS X Lion’s Built-In Encoder

OS X Lion’s audio encoder is confirmed to support AIFF, AIFC, Sd2f, CAFF and WAV files, but other formats are likely supported for m4a conversion as well. Here’s how to use it:

a. Locate the source audio file(s) that you want to convert
b. Right-click on the audio input file and choose “Encode Selected Audio Files”

c. Select the Encoder Quality you wish to use, the menu translates as follows:

• High-Quality is 128 kbps
• iTunes Plus is 256 kbps
• Apple Lossless is lossless
• Spoken Podcast is 64 kbps

d. Specify the Destination, otherwise it will default to the same location as the source file
e. Click on “Continue” to start the conversion

The audio encoder is very fast and within just a few seconds you will have an m4a file ready to import into iTunes or elsewhere. You can also batch process a group of audio files to convert them to m4a using this tool, just select a group of files instead of one.

The same encoder in OS X Lion also includes the ability to encode and convert video files directly in the Finder too, making this utility even more powerful. By selecting a movie file, you can also choose to strip the video and directly encode the audio track, which is another nice touch.

Source from osxdaily.com

You may also have interest in:

How to Convert M4A to MP3 on Mac OS X
How to Convert iTunes M4A to MP3

Comparison Among AAC, M4A, M4P, M4B And M4R

What is AAC?

Advanced Audio Coding, or AAC, is a MPEG (Motion Pictures Experts Group) audio standard first adopted as part of the MPEG-2 family of standards. Like its predecessor, MP3, AAC is a Lossy Compression format capable of delivering relatively high quality at relatively low bitrates. There are actually two AAC specifications. In addition to the MPEG-2 version of AAC, there’s a newer specification developed for MPEG-4. This version is normally found in the MP4 Container, either with or without accompanying video.

How to Convert AAC to MP3?

What is M4A?

Audio-only MPEG-4 files generally have a .m4a extension. This is especially true of non-protected content.

How to Convert M4A to MP3?

What is M4B?

Audio book and podcast files, which also contain metadata including chapter markers, images, and hyperlinks, can use the extension .m4a, but more commonly use the .m4b extension. An .m4a audio file cannot “bookmark” (remember the last listening spot), whereas .m4b extension files can.

How to Convert M4B to MP3?

What is M4P?

MPEG-4 files with audio streams encrypted by FairPlay Digital Rights Management as sold through the iTunes Store use the .m4p extension. iTunes Plus tracks are unencrypted and use .m4a accordingly.

How to Convert M4P to MP3?

What is M4R?

The Apple iPhone uses MPEG-4 audio for its ringtones but uses the .m4r extension rather than the .m4a extension.

How to Create iPhone Ringtones?

How to sync iTunes music m4p with Windows Phone 7

“I have 5.81 GB (approximately 1200 songs) in my iTunes. How do I transfer ALL of those songs to my Windows Phone 7? I want EVERY song I have in my iTunes on my Windows Phone 7. What is the best way to go about this?”

If you want to play iTunes music M4P, M4A, AAC on your Windows Phone 7, you just need to use some software to convert iTunes music to Windows Phone 7 compatible format and then transfer the output files to your Windows Phone 7. The following guide is going to show you how to remove DRM copy protection from iTunes music, convert DRM iTunes music M4P to MP3, M4A to MP3, AAC to MP3 and sync iTunes music to Windows Phone 7 using TuneClone Audio Converter.

1. Create a new playlist in iTunes.

2. Add the iTunes songs to the playlist.

3. Launch TuneClone Audio Converter. Click the “Settings” tab. In the pop-up window, you can specify output folder, output file name format, output format, etc for the output files. Note: You can check whether TuneClone virtual CD drive is successfully installed and where it is installed at the bottom left corner of the interface.

4. Switch to iTunes. In iTunes, Right click the playlist you just created and choose “Burn Playlist to Disc”.

5. In the pop-up window of “Burn Settings”, select “TuneClon Virtual_CD-RW” from the “CD Burner” drop-down list, click the radio button next to “Audio CD” and tick “Include CD Text” option. Click “Burn” to start burning.

6. Upon the completion of burning the disc and encoding the music, you can open the TuneClone manager screen to show all the converted music files. To locate the output folder, simply click the “Folder” tab on the interface.

After you get the output music files, connect your Windows Phone 7 to computer via the USB cable, drag and drop the converted music to the music folder, then you can play the iTunes M4P music on your Windows Phone 7 at ease.

How to Convert M4A to MP3 on Mac?

Below is step by step guide that shows you how to convert iTunes M4A to MP3 on Mac OS X with TuneClone Audio Converter for Mac.

Step 1. Download TuneClone Audio Converter for Mac from http://mac.tuneclone.com and run it.

Note: During the startup, a virtual CD burner will be installed, which will be used to convert iTunes music files.

Step 2. Make settings in TuneClone Audio Converter for Mac

Go to top-left “TuneClone -> Preferences…” a window will appear as below:

Step 3. Make settings in iTunes (iTunes 9.0.1)

Create a new playlist and add the songs you are going to convert.

Right click the playlist you just created and choose “Burn Playlist to Disc”. Or you can click the “Burn Disc” button at the bottom right corner of iTunes interface.

In the pop-up dialog of “Burn Settings”, you can make settings as highlighted below:

Note: You need to tick the “Include CD Text” option to perserve the music metadata such as name, artist, album names.

Step 4. Start to burn

Click the “Burn” button to start burning. After the burning get started, TuneClone will automatically convert the iTunes music to MP3 files. You can open the TuneClone manager screen to check out the burning status.

Tip: You can easily get the output MP3 files on your Mac machine by clicking the “Reveal in Finder” button on the manager screen.

Note: The most important step is to choose the CD burner. Then the software can convert music files automatically. It is especially easy when you want to batch convert lots of files.

Extracted from
http://mac.tuneclone.com/convert-m4a-to-mp3-on-mac.php

How to Transfer iTunes M4P M4A AAC to Zune HD?

This guide is going to show you how to remove DRM protection from iTunes music, convert DRM protected iTunes M4P to MP3, M4A to MP3, AAC to MP3 and transfer iTunes music to Zune HD. First, let’s take a look at the video/audio formats Zune HD accepts:

Video Support:
WMV
MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) (.mp4) Part 2 video
H.264 video
DVR-MS

Audio Support:
Windows Media? Audio Standard (WMA) (.wma)
WMA Lossless
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) (.mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mov): .m4a and .m4b files without FairPlay DRM
MP3 (.mp3)

So, if you want to play DRM protected iTunes M4P, M4A, AAC music on your Zune HD, you just need to use TuneClone Audio Converter to convert the iTunes music to MP3 format and then transfer the output MP3 to your Zune HD.

Now let’s take a look at how it performs to convert the iTunes music to MP3 format for Zune HD using TuneClone Audio Converter:

1. Create a new playlist in iTunes.

2. Add the iTunes songs to the playlist.

3. Launch TuneClone Audio Converter. Click the “Settings” tab. In the pop-up window, you can specify output folder, output file name format, output format, etc for the output files. Note: You can check whether TuneClone virtual CD drive is successfully installed and where it is installed at the bottom left corner of the interface.

4. Switch to iTunes. In iTunes, select the playlist you just created and click the “Burn Disc” button.

5. In the pop-up window of “Burn Settings”, select “TuneClon Virtual_CD-RW” from the “CD Burner” drop-down list, click the radio button next to “Audio CD” and tick “Include CD Text” option. Click “Burn” to start burning.

6. Upon the completion of burning the disc and encoding the music, you can open the TuneClone manager screen to show all the converted music files. To locate the output folder, simply click the “Folder” tab on the interface.

7. After you get the output music files, connect your Zune HD to computer via the USB cable, drag and drop the converted MP3 files to the Zune Software, then you can sync the iTunes M4P music to Zune HD with the help of Zune Software at ease.

Extracted from
http://www.tuneclone.com/transfer-itunes-music-to-zune-hd.php

AAC to MP3 Converter – Convert iTunes AAC M4A M4P to MP3

Author: terry007

AAC to MP3 Converter is a DRM removal for converting iTunes to MP3, AAC to MP3, M4A to MP3, M4P to MP3 for playback on non-Apple MP3/MP4 players and mobile phone players including Zune, PSP, PS3, BlackBerry, Creative Zen, iriver, Walkman, Pocket PC, Xbox, Nokia, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Google Phone, etc.

Q: Why Use AAC to MP3 converter?

A: When you purchase music from iTunes Store, they are actually DRM protected content and you will not be able to play the protected AAC (M4P) files on MP3 players which do not support their formats. In such case, the option is to Burn those tracks to a CD and then Rip them once again to the computer hard drive wherein the DRM will be removed and you will get the tracks in (DRM free) MP3 format. After this you will be able to transfer them to a memory card or to MP3/MP4 players.

In case you have purchased a great amount of music from iTunes Store, you can go ahead and use AAC to MP3 Converter which acts as a Virtual CD-ROM drive on your PC, and lets you remove the DRM element without having to waste actual CD’s.

How to: Convert iTunes AAC M4A M4P to MP3 Using AAC to MP3 Converter?

Step 1. Create a new playlist in iTunes and add the iTunes/AAC/M4A/M4P songs to the playlist.

Step 2. Download and install AAC to MP3 Converter. Run it. In the main interface, click the “Settings” button. In the pop up window, you can choose the output folder, output file name format, output format (actually you can choose MP3, WMA or WAV), etc for the output files.

Step 3. Back to iTunes. Click the “Burn Disc” button. In the pop-up window of “Burn Settings”, select “TuneClon Virtual_CD-RW” from the “CD Burner” drop-down list, click the radio button next to “Audio CD” and tick “Include CD Text” option. Click “Burn” to start burning. Note: You can check whether TuneClone virtual CD drive is successfully installed and where it is installed in the bottom left corner of the TuneClone interface.

Step 4. Upon the completion of burning the disc and encoding the music, you can open the TuneClone manager screen to show all the converted music files. To locate the output folder, simply click the “Folder” tab on the interface.

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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – AAC to MP3 Converter – Convert iTunes AAC M4A M4P to MP3

How to convert your itunes m4a to mp3?

Itunes was really really starting to piss me of when I tried to load some mp3′s into my mixing software and it wouldn’t read them due to its DRM protection…par! So I set about sorting this issue out I knew there must be something out there and this was the best solution I found and its legal… I think?!

The key component of getting your tracks to mp3 is downloading some software called TuneClone which you can get here($35 = £20) bargin imo. Basically how it works is that it will create a virtual cd drive, you then tell Itunes to burn the virtual cd of tracks, it then “burns” them to the virtual drive and converts them to mp3 all sorted.

1. Get yourself a copy of TuneClone download and install
2. Launch TuneClone click settings and adjust the output file names to which ever format your prefer, adjust the bitrate click ok.
   
3. Crack open Itunes create a playlist containing all the tracks you want to convert, make sure all the check boxes are ticked
   
4. Click Burn to Disc button (bottom right – on Itunes 8 )
5. Select the virtual drive from the cd drive dropdown make sure you check audio cd and include CD Text finally click Burn
   
6. Itunes and TuneClone will do their thing and you will have mp3 versions of your tracks to use anywhere
   

Once Itunes stops its burn process TuneClone kicks in and begins the conversion to mp3 once this is done the process is complete. The other thing to note is that if Tuneclone doesn’t pick up the track names and artists you can ‘tag’ the track in the TuneClone library by dragging the file from Itunes to Tuneclone where it says “Track Info”.

The result is a happy me as I tried various places Amazon, Napster, 7digital and Itunes was far far superior music catolgue wise. It had everything I was after and it gets to a point where buying cd’s is silly as you have most of the tracks so all you want is to add the odd track here and there. Now I have mp3 versions it just makes life a hell of alot easier.

If you look at it like this £20 gets you 25 songs which you want to listen to with no fillers like most albums…downloading makes sense?

Source from:
http://www.richard-bell.co.uk/2009/06/23/how-to-convert-your-itunes-m4a-to-mp3/

How to share DRM protected iTunes M4P M4A M4B music with your Facebook friends?

Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet. And recently, I found Facebook offers an application called Twist me! to help Facebook fans share music with their friends. Below is the brief steps:

First, visit Facebook website and add the Twist me! Application to your profile.

Second, click Twist me! from the Applications list and click Next to import the music files from your local PC. Of course, you can also import videos and images. The supporting formats are various. Here I focus on music. You can add a maximum of 8 audio files here. What’s more, you can leave a message to your friends accompanying the music files.

Third, choose your friends to send the music files to.

It is very easy to share music files with your Facebook friends. However, we always have very classic music on our iTunes accounts and are willing to share them with our Facebook friends. Here comes the headache! The music files under the iTune account are DRM protected. So how to strip the DRM off the protected iTunes music files and output them as Facebook supported unprotected music files? 

The program called TuneClone I talked about in my previous post How to convert iTunes M4P to MP3 with TuneClone can be the perfect solution. It can be used to batch convert DRM protected iTunes M4P to MP3. It uses a virtual CD burner for converting the music files. Compared with using real disc, it is much faster. Moreover, this cute program can keep the information about artist, title and album intact. It can even save the artworks of the album. It is a very good software for iTunes users who have hundreds of M4P files ready to be converted.