iTunes AAC to Audacity MPEG

[bhoskins]

This has happened since I got a new Dell with "Vista".
I import a track into itunes. It says it is AAC format. When I go to open this track in Audacity, it comes over as MPEG. Did not used to do this.
I have used Audacity for 2 yrs. Never had any trouble like this before. Want to standardize on WAV.

[kozikowski]

Apple AAC Advanced Audio Coding is a variation on MPEG4 - H.264. So they were right.

However, Audacity 1.2 has never understood what that was and will either reject it outright or try to import it anyway and damage it in the process.

Someone will correct me, but Audacity 1.3 knows what AAC is?

If you purchased music from iTunes it arrives with FairPlay® copy management as well as AAC format, so strike one and two.

You can configure iTunes to import music as WAV (or AIFF on a Mac). That's what I do to live performances that I want to burn to Music CD. No compression and no conversion damage.

Vista may layer its own music management on top of that, so you could be suffering from any of those problems.

The traditional escape was to burn the music to a Music CD (not Data CD) and then rip the CD.

Koz

[bhoskins]

Where can I go to select WAV format for importing into Itunes.
Or, how can I arrange that Audacity converts to WAV.
So, the work around is to burn the CD to a new one that (magically) ends up as a new WAV version (or at least something that Adacity can easily deal with.
Previously I had no need to convert. I was presented, by Audacity, with a graphic that I could immediately start editing and then export the result as WAV.
As it is, the "less dense" display that occurs when I open the track is uneditable.
Is Apple (or Audacity) aware of this nonsense. As it now stands Audacity is useless to me.

[kozikowski]

<<<Or, how can I arrange that Audacity converts to WAV. >>>

Audacity doesn't convert well. It's a simple audio editor.

<<<Where can I go to select WAV format for importing into Itunes.>>>

In Windows it would probably be itunes > Edit > Preferences > CD > importing.

I noticed you carefully avoided telling me you are trying to rip iTunes purchases. Purchases don't go through iTunes Importing.

iTunes should let you burn a music CD from your purchases. I think it lets you do that five times before it locks you out. That's your license.

I think there should still be a progam called cdex that lets Windows machines rip a CD directly into WAV files. Those should drop right into Audacity for editing.

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

Yes, it's intentionally hard to do.

Koz

[bhoskins]

Your restoration path for Itunes to WAV import worked fine.Thanks a lot for this aid.
Here's what I am up to. I have put a 45 yeat-old vinyl on CD . Some of these tracks are clicky and hissy. Successfully removed the hiss, but had only limited success with clicks. So I now spot a click, magnify ten times and delete .01 sec thus removing the click without a noticeable change in beat. Fortunately I only have to do this about 8 times per track, otherwise life would be too short.
Thanks once again.

[kozikowski]

Had you said all that at the beginning...

http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic ... air#p36396

Koz