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

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/