Lossless CD archive but AAC for iPod?

[Pauley]

Hi,

I need to archive all my Audio CDs (about 700) into a format that can:

a) archive audio CD's into a non-propritary LOSSLESS format (disk image?) that can be burned back to CD exactly as the original was.

b) be read by and imported into iTunes.

I don't think I can use Apple Lossless to create the archive because that would create and maintain the (larger lossless) files in iTunes where I'd rather use the smaller AAC format for iPod syncing.

Looking for the most straightforward, cheapest and quickest method...

Any Ideas?

Tx

[hardcle]

It's simple enough to make playlists that only contain AAC files to sync to your iPod. To my knowledge, ALAC is the only lossless format that works with iTunes, but it's proprietary. FLAC is open source, but won't work natively with iTunes.

[rockmyplimsoul]

Originally Posted by Pauley

I don't think I can use Apple Lossless to create the archive because that would create and maintain the (larger lossless) files in iTunes where I'd rather use the smaller AAC format for iPod syncing.

iTunes 9 now has the ability to transcode down to 128kbps AAC on the fly for iPod syncing. Only the lossless versions would remain in iTunes (and your computer), while the iPod would be the only holder of 128kbps files.

[Pauley]

Thought I'd follow up on this in case anyone else had the same issue as I did:

After a lot of searching to find imaging software that could image AUDIO CDs into ONE lossless file (a lot of apps can't and there doesn't seem to be a non-proprietary single file format for this), I came across and settled on "AstroBurn Pro" / "Daemon Tools Lite".

Either of these tools (I think they're created by the same person/company) will create a file from an audio CD (gives it an ".mdx" ext).

You'll then need "Daemon Tools Lite" installed to mount the .mdx file (just double click it) so that it shows up on your system just like a regular CD. At that point it can be imported into iTunes/played in media player etc.

If you want to burn a copy from the .mdx file, use "AstroBurn Pro" (Note that the free "AstroBurn Lite" is supposed to be able to burn .mdx files, but there's a bug in the current 1.2 version that prevents burning of larger images. This is supposed to be fixed in the next version...)

The advantage for me is that I now have a full uncompressed backup of all my CDs on a seperate drive that isn't tied to iTunes.