Is there an easy way to transcode straight from ALAC to LAME MP3 in windows without losing tag info?

I know that I could use the iTunes MP3 encoder with ease... but from what I've read here on the forum, the iTunes MP3 econder is garbage.

There is a plugin for iTunes on the Mac that allows iTunes to use LAME (and therefore convert ALAC to MP3 by the ctrl+click--> Convert to MP3 method), but I couldn't find anything similar for Windows.

dbAmp, how about dBpowerAMP? Based on your name, you should like it.

Thanks for the suggestion... last I had heard was that the iTunes6 update had broken ALAC support in dbpowerAMP, but it appears to have been fixed.

I was, however, hoping there would be a way to do it for free...

I may just buy another HD and use EAC + Mareo + iTunes Encode + LAME and create both libraries at once.

I wanted to avoid re-ripping... but I'm not that far into it yet.

EDIT: It appears that dBpowerAMP is still using LAME 3.96.1. Is there a way to update this to LAME 3.97b2? I could not figure out how to do this. (Hopefully this won't take the thread too off topic...)

I think dropping a newer LAME_ENC.DLL in C:\Program Files\Illustrate\dBpowerAMP\Compression\lame will do it... if not, check the dBpowerAMP forums..

I think foobar2000 has a ALAC input plugin. From that, you should be able to convert to mp3.

I just checked this suggestion, and it worked like a champ. I encoded a file using dbpoweramp and lame 3.97b2 without resorting to the CLI add on.

I'm not sure whether the same encoding options are available on the DLL as on the CLI...

yea, swapping out lame_enc.dll does work, but.. IMHO using the CLI for LAME is much better

* it can do everything the DLL can do
* more switches to play with

I use a costom made options file with it so I don't have to retype the whole command line when I want to change settings, combo boxes are prettier (located in my website's 'how-to' section if anyone is interested)