iPod apple lossless or aiff before burning a CD?

[Keebler]

Hi there,

I'm ripping LPs, editing for cracks and pops in CD Spin doctor from roxio, then importing as apple lossless into itunes.

In the past, i imported as aiffs then burned CDs. In trying a lossless file, i noticed that it's about half the size of an aiff. therefore, i can fit more songs on a CD (the client wants to fit as many per cd as possible).

My question then: is the quality of apple lossless inferior to aiffs? I know folks go by their ear to tell the difference, but in burning a CD of LP recorded tracks, I would think the difference wouldn't be there?

any ideas? In the end, the most important thing to me is quality for my client.

Cheers,
keebler

 

[WildCowboy]

As the name of the codec implies, Apple claims that it's lossless, and therefore you can't tell the difference. And that's almost certainly true.

But really the client needs to specify what format he wants them in. AIFF gives him large filesizes but maximum flexibility for future conversions. If he's planning on using software that doesn't support Apple Lossless, he won't be too happy if you give him a disc full of files in that format.

 

[Tourist]

Hi there,

I'm ripping LPs, editing for cracks and pops in CD Spin doctor from roxio, then importing as apple lossless into itunes.

In the past, i imported as aiffs then burned CDs. In trying a lossless file, i noticed that it's about half the size of an aiff. therefore, i can fit more songs on a CD (the client wants to fit as many per cd as possible).

My question then: is the quality of apple lossless inferior to aiffs? I know folks go by their ear to tell the difference, but in burning a CD of LP recorded tracks, I would think the difference wouldn't be there?

any ideas? In the end, the most important thing to me is quality for my client.

Cheers,
keebler

Apple lossless is a lossless format akin to FLAC, it has compression, but no loss, AIFF is lossless but has no compression, thus Apple Lossless is smaller,

Ask your client what file format they would prefer,
If they are simply stuffing them into an itunes library, Apple lossless is probably fine, but if they are wanting to do other things ( mixing/fading etc) it may be easiest to give them AIFF,

 

[Keebler]

good points. thanks for the clarification.

i neglected to mention the client wants CDs he can play so i only need to burn them as an audio cd. he can rip per his choice at a later date.

Cheers,
Keebler

 

[WildCowboy]

i neglected to mention the client wants CDs he can play so i only need to burn them as an audio cd. he can rip per his choice at a later date.

If you're ultimately burning audio CDs, there's no sense using any compressed file format like Apple Lossless. You'll only be able to put 74 (or 80) minutes of music on a disc no matter what, as any compressed files will be expanded to Audio-CD format.

Just rip in AIFF and burn.