Hiyas folks,

Hopefully i'm not beating a dead horse here, but after searching the forums, I'm still a little confused as to the best procedure for converting my current collection into a format suitable for the iPod I just ordered.

Currently my entire music collection is ripped via Exact Audio Copy into CD images (Monkey's Audio 3.97) with corresponding CUE sheets, and replaygained / listened via foobar.

Now it seems to me that iTunes isn't going to be a very good solution here, besides I'd rather not have to install it all, though I suppose it might be necessary in the end. From what I read it seems like using foo_nero might be a solution, but then again I keep reading how the iPod has compatibility issues with these files, so that leaves questions regarding this method.

Anyone have any insights or other solutions? I appreciate any information you can provide

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foobar with foo_pod can automatically convert lossless files to AAC and then add them to your ipod. Theres a big thread on it in the foobar > 3rd party plugins forum.

I use foo_nero to convert APE to AAC then add replay gain then foo_pod to send to the iPod. The only trouble I have is when I go back and forth between foobar and iTunes and the database gets upset. The files play fine.

If you wish, you should be able go directly from APE to AAC on the iPod - using foo_pod's custom transcoder setting and the Nencode command line interface for the Nero AAC library. I haven't personally tried Nencode/Nero with foo_pod, since I believe that FAAC 1.24 is basically equivalent to Nero in terms of quality (bitrate for bitrate) and it is easier to work with in foo_pod, but Nencode should work fine with the right settings.

Also, if you have ReplayGain calculated for the APE files, foo_pod will convert this to the iPod's SoundCheck format, so you wouldn't have to do the extra RG step.

Aero, thanks for the tips! I will have to give that a try next time a buy a CD. I honestly don't know what to choose between nero, FAAC, and iTunes. I rule out iTunes because I want VBR. (hangover from LAME?) So far, I have not seen a comparison of FAAC and nero using a VBR transparancy setting. I am not the best at ABXing stuff. I did ABX some stuff that I encoded using nero at the transparancy setting and have decided to move up to the extreme setting. Have you had any experience or opinion regarding this?

Skipping the extra RG step would totally rock! I am planning to backup all of my M4A files on tape (when I get a head cleaner for my aging drive, hey it was free) so having the RG information there would help I think.

Thanks!

My only experience with FAAC has been with foo_pod, and transcoding from unsupported iPod formats (like Ogg Vorbis) as well as transcoding from high bitrate MP3 files.

The lower quality FAAC preset (-q 100 -c 16000) produced very good sounding files. I didn't do an ABX test, but on the iPod, I couldn't detect any compression artifacts even when transcoding from '--preset standard' or '--preset medium' LAME encoded MP3 files. The high frequencies were a little muffled due to the16kHz cutoff frequency, but they were acceptable for use on the iPod (just be sure to keep the original, un-transcoded files on your computer).

I currently use the '-q 115 -c 18000' preset, and I'm satisfied that it is transparent enough to the original source material that I can't tell that that the file has been transcoded - other than it requires 20-50% less iPod disk space.

I'm certain that Nero's encoder is even better than FAAC and you might be able to get away with a slightly lower bitrate for the same quality, but as far as I'm concerned, it isn't worth the extra hassle of having to use Nencode and not being able to change the encoder settings on the fly.

I appreciate the replies,

When it was all said and done I ended up using the foo_nero plugin for APE -> AAC and then just uploaded everything to the iPod via iTunes (all the songs work without a hitch). I have quite a number of new CD's that need to be run through EAC, so perhaps when I get off this laptop and back to my Plextor Premium's i'll give foo_pod a shot. On the other hand it seems that foo_pod needs the iPod service installed from iTunes anyway? (it spit numerous errors at me about this when I tried to use it with nothing else installed).

Anyway, thank you all again for the information

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Nope, iPodService is definitely not required, and you shouldn't get getting any errors if it isn't available. You will should see a single info message in the Foobar console at startup, but if you are getting actual errors, please PM them to me.