My love of music AND Converting FLAC music files to AAC format (Part Two)

THIRD STEP:  Configuring the fre:ac converter

As mentioned earlier other converters should work.  I am going to outline the process for using fre:ac so if you use another converter you will need to learn how to configure it properly.

To understand why I take the steps I am you need to understand how I keep my music organized.  I use a main folder for my .flac music that is named Lossless.  Next I sort the music by artist, album, track number, and file name. The folder tree for a typical song looks like this: 

C:\LOSSLESS\QUEEN\A NIGHT AT THE OPERA\A NIGHT AT THE OPERA – 04 – YOU’RE MY BEST FRIEND.FLAC

For compilation albums such as collections of 80’s music or soundtracks that have multiple artists I have them sorted into a subfolder named VARIOUS ARTISTS.  

Here’s how to configure fre:ac encoder to produce the results I am leading you towards.

Select the “general settings” menu either from the drop down menu or from the buttons at the top of the screen   Leave settings on all of the tabs at their default except for what I instruct.

ENCODERS tab:

Select the FAAC MP4/AAC Encoder v 1.28  from the drop down list.

Click the CONFIGURE ENCODER button and set the quality to what you desire while on the QUALITY tab.  This is the response from Robert Kausch (a fre:ac developer) in the user forums regarding the quality settings for FLAC to AAC conversion:

“In general, you can keep fre\:ac's default settings for any codec in order to get perceived CD quality sound.

For FAAC, this means choosing the quality option and setting it to 100%. The AAC bandwidth option should be left at 16.000 Hz as higher values do not usually improve perceived quality, but take up bits in the encoded files that could otherwise be used to improve quality of lower frequencies.

The AAC object type should be left at LC (low complexity) which is best optimized and used in 99,99% of AAC files nowadays.”

Under the encoder section clear the “Use input folder if possible” box and browse to select your 

M4A – Temp folder instead. Under the FILENAME PATTERN section I chose:

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