Recording from iTunes to Audacity

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

How do I setup to record from iTunes into Audacity?
I was going to ask how to record from a CD to Audacity, but I can just upload the CD to iTunes first.
Thank you!
Windows 10

2

A few things…

Audio CDs don’t have regular “computer files” so you can’t open them in Audacity or simply copy/drag to your hard drive.

Digitally extracting the audio to a computer file is called “ripping”. Audacity doesn’t rip or burn CDs. There is some information [u]here[/u]. If you rip to WAV you can get the exact-same digital data as the CD, but in a WAV “package”.

With iTunes you probably get an M4A (AAC) file, which is a lossy compression format. You can open it in Audacity if you’ve installed the optional [u]FFmpeg Import/Export Library[/u] but it’s better if you start with WAV (or some other lossy format). I don’t know if iTunes can rip to WAV.

If you want MP3 or M4A you can compress ONCE as the last step after any editing in Audacity.

For ripping, I use [u]EAC[/u] or [u]CUERipper[/u]. CUERipper is easier to set up and configure. Both of these support AccurateRip which checks the results with an online database to confirm there we no errors during the ripping process.

3

It can, i do that a lot

My workflow when I buy a new CD is:

  1. set iTunes to import as WAV
  2. import the CD into iTunes (i.e. rip it with iTunes)
  3. copy the WAV files to a USB stick for loading on my 1TB hi-fi “jukebox”
  4. Reset iTunes to import as AAC (import and conversion are the same setting, annoyingly, in iTunes)
  5. use iTunes to convert the WAVs to 256 AAC
  6. delete the WAVS from iTunes (the conversion in iTunes makes a copy it’s not actually a “conversion”
  7. plug in my iPod to update it with the AAC files

Peter

4

thanks!

5

P.S.

but I can just upload the CD to iTunes first.

If you’re not going to edit the audio you don’t need Audacity at all.

6

Yes, I needed to edit the CD in Audacity. The songs were not all recorded at standard 440 pitch and I was trying to practice playing the songs along with the CD. I put it in Audacity and changed the pitch. Now I don’t have to retune my guitar song to song. Makes things a lot easier.
It worked fine and now I have my practice CD.