I Just reformatted and reinstalled all software on my machine including Windows XP.

Loaded all latest drivers for hardware.

Transfered my entire archive back to HD from DVD's(mostly FLAC but some ogg, some LAME and some MPC).

I have these FULL (paid for)programs: NERO 6, Tag&Rename and iTunes 5. Also, I have FB2K(Special installer download version) loaded.

OK, now I just recieved my new iPod Nano in the mail yesterday and realized I need to transcode from flac to aac(or mp3).

I searched the HA forum for the best solution and went at it with Foobar.

I've tried a lot of different things with Foobar and Nero both, so sorry if I get the exact details mixed up a little. The end results with both programs is about the same.

First, I tried going directly from flac to acc in FB2K but IIRC, there was no aac choice in the drop-down box? So, I decided to go to wav. I figured most everything can handle wav's so that would be a good starting point?

This is what has me pulling my hair out: Both FB2K and Nero get partially through the process' and lock Windows up! I found it was a little better if I did a single file at a time, but still sometimes they locked me up!

I can't remember everything I tried, because it was during appx 4 hours of "trial and lock-ups"........... SO FRUSTRATING!

I've come to the conclusion that Audio should be catagorized as a field of computing in and of itself! There's so much to it! The files are so big that everything requires much patience.... and I have a screamer of a machine!(AthlonXP2400 +1G DDR+ SATA200G plus,plus,plus...) I would consider myself advanced in most other aspects of hardware and most software, but I haven't experienced this locking up since the days of Windows98.

Ok, does anyone have something I can try?
Thanks in advance!

Hmm i too have most of my cds ripped in FLAC now and have begun to transcode into aac for my ipods.

I too use fb2k converter using faac. Under converter there should be a option for faac encoder, which the default should q-150 mid/side TNS enabled if im not mistakened. i simply went in & edited it to q-100 for my purposes.

That works fine for batch transcoding ... if you dont hve that option i sugguest u look in the fb2k forums for the .dll for faac.

alternativley u can search for neroaac dll for f2bk which uses nero's aac engine/codec to transcode. i think that was made by case, but it too should be in fb2k forum.

those dll allow easy changes in the settings of the reencode.

Case's foo_naac can be found on his site.

Another alternative is Otto's iTunesEncode which can be found here or on Rarewares. You would set up a new CLI profile in foobar and point to iTunesEncode.exe.

foo_naac is going to be easier to set up as it doesn't require the CLI interface - just put the DLL in your components folder, start foobar, click "Add new" to create a new Diswriter profile, select "Nero AAC Encoder" from the dropdown, and pick your settings.

I've no idea why you are getting problems decoding from FLAC to WAVE, but you may have to resolve that first.

ty both....I'll try when i get home from work

can itunesEncode be used with foo_pod's transcoder feature to convert my flac files to aac on the fly on the way to the ipod?

i'd have to have both foo_pod and itunes sensing the ipod at once. is this ok?

Now there's something I didn't think about? I was just trying to transcode to any folder....Wonder if I could transcode directly to the iPod? It is recognized as a drive on MY COMPUTER?

With as much trouble as I'm having, I'd just be happy to get it to spit out a single aac file for me without locking up!..EITHER Nero OR Foobar. The more I think about it, the more I'm dreading the thought of having to go flac>wav>aac? I have to calm down though, I have only spent four hours on this problem, compared to the 40+ it took EAC to rip all my cd's to wav. To think I should have let EAC convert to aac along with flac AND mp3 AND ogg AND for a short period mpc. FRACK!

By the way, does anyone else have a problem if they leave their iPod connected during re-boot? My machine thinks it's a bootable drive and goes to it....even though I'm set up to boot from C: I never had this problem with my Karma?

anyway you can maybe upload ur flac somewhere and try another system to decode/transcode it?

maybe its ur files :-/

or ur system.

at least you'll know.

can't you use foobar to transcode flac directly to aac? you can use itunesencode, faac, whatever.

any thoughts on the foo_pod trancoding with itunesencode?

ideas?

yes. his system keeps crashing however.

You can use MEnc to transcode your FLAC into AAC/HE-AAC or any other format you want.

Yes, the iPod is basically a drive letter on the computer. However, you'd want to:
a) Setup iTunes to use the iPod in "Manual" mode.
b) Enable Disk Mode in iTunes.
c) Test it.

I can see there being conflicts, such as iTunes locking the iTunesDB file and not allowing foo_pod to write to the file while iTunes is open.

Your better bet would be to transcode first and copy to the iPod second. Doing it directly might work, but no guarantees.

yeah, it's probably the safer way, anyway