Using the latest qaac64.exe to encode in MusicBee without installing iTunes

[OWEI]

The "Save as" type should have been left as Text Document, the default.

Just put the two files in some generic folder, make one like "C:\test" or something.  Run the *.cmd from there normally, and when it finishes move the folder it creates as described in the instructions.  Do NOT choose "run as Administrator."  Remember that as described there will be a pause during the run, do NOT exit, the process will exit on its own when it completes.

Tried that, still nothing (W10 10.0.19045 Build 19045), must be something wrong with my set up?
When I double click there's a quick flash as though it's trying to run, then nothing however long I leave it.

[Roby]

To make things easier for those with problems, everything is found here already done:
https://github.com/AnimMouse/QTFiles

[OWEI]

To make things easier for those with problems, everything is found here already done:
https://github.com/AnimMouse/QTFiles

Thanks, I have done that and followed the how to set up the converters but when I try to rip it says no output file created/specified.
Any idea what Im doing wrong now, please?
https://imgur.com/a/kpV078B

[Roby]

Qtfiles64.7z is a compressed archive, you have to extract its contents into the Qtfiles64 folder inside the Codec folder (MusicBee/Codec/Qtfiles64).

[sveakul]

The "Save as" type should have been left as Text Document, the default.

Just put the two files in some generic folder, make one like "C:\test" or something.  Run the *.cmd from there normally, and when it finishes move the folder it creates as described in the instructions.  Do NOT choose "run as Administrator."  Remember that as described there will be a pause during the run, do NOT exit, the process will exit on its own when it completes.

Tried that, still nothing (W10 10.0.19045 Build 19045), must be something wrong with my set up?
When I double click there's a quick flash as though it's trying to run, then nothing however long I leave it.

Do you have 7-Zip (www.7-zip.org) installed on your PC?  I forgot to mention that makeportable2.cmd needs it to decompress the iTunes setup file.  If you don't want to install 7-zip, just download the portable and put the two files 7z.exe and 7z.dll into the folder with makeportable2.cmd and iTunes64setup.exe, THEN run the cmd.  You can delete the 7-zip files aftewards.  Sorry, some things pass into folklore like "everybody has 7-Zip" and people (like me) forget to mention things like this.  You can see if you look in the cmd file contents that it's looking for it in the first few lines, and the execution will fail immediately if 7z.exe is not found.

I have added a reference to this requirement in my first post;  sorry for the oversight!

[OWEI]

Hi -
No I don't have it!
But I will have it very shortly...cheers

[wealstarr]

Hi -
No I don't have it!
But I will have it very shortly...cheers

No need for any scripts to extract the encoder from iTunes setup as it's already done for you, noted in post #16 by Roby. Just extract the QTFiles in the same folder as Qaac.exe is and you're good to go.

[OWEI]

The "Save as" type should have been left as Text Document, the default.

Just put the two files in some generic folder, make one like "C:\test" or something.  Run the *.cmd from there normally, and when it finishes move the folder it creates as described in the instructions.  Do NOT choose "run as Administrator."  Remember that as described there will be a pause during the run, do NOT exit, the process will exit on its own when it completes.

Tried that, still nothing (W10 10.0.19045 Build 19045), must be something wrong with my set up?
When I double click there's a quick flash as though it's trying to run, then nothing however long I leave it.

Do you have 7-Zip (www.7-zip.org) installed on your PC?  I forgot to mention that makeportable2.cmd needs it to decompress the iTunes setup file.  If you don't want to install 7-zip, just download the portable and put the two files 7z.exe and 7z.dll into the folder with makeportable2.cmd and iTunes64setup.exe, THEN run the cmd.  You can delete the 7-zip files aftewards.  Sorry, some things pass into folklore like "everybody has 7-Zip" and people (like me) forget to mention things like this.  You can see if you look in the cmd file contents that it's looking for it in the first few lines, and the execution will fail immediately if 7z.exe is not found.

I have added a reference to this requirement in my first post;  sorry for the oversight!

Sorted - it's working!!!
Thank-you everyone for their advice and help

[BuzzyOrange]

Hi, I'm trying to test qaac64 with the windows command line, but it tells me "ERROR: Not available input file format". Command used : "C:\Program Files (x86)\MusicBee\Codec>qaac64.exe --alac --ignorelength -o atom.alac Mother.flac" with "atom heart mother" weighing about 1Go and 20 minutes long as input, named Mother.flac. The reason I'm testing this is because qaac64 seem to be unable to convert such large files (at least through musicbee). Got any solution for that ?
Also, according to this post (https://superuser.com/a/1029164), I shouldn't be able to convert without a certain dll that I don't currently have AFAIK, yet musicbee has no problem doing this job YET I get this error in command line. What is going on ?
Another question I had was this one : if I understand correctly, qaac64 keeps a track's artwork by default ? Because I just have to check the "embed artwork in the music file" in a device's settings in musicbee for it to keep the artwork.

[sveakul]

If the DLL you refer to is libFLAC.dll, MusicBee includes that file by default in its main directory, in 32-bit of course.  Because your command line conversion attempt is using qaac64.exe, it may need to see a 64-bit version of libFLAC.dll?

However, using the regular MusicBee GUI I was able to convert a FLAC of around 33MB to ALAC using qaac64.exe without any problem, or the need to supply a 64-bit libFLAC.dll.  The file size or tag structure may be what your attempt is choking on.

You're better off posting in a forum like https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/board,19.0.html for this.

[BuzzyOrange]

ok so I managed to make it work, I have no idea why it does but this is what I did : I changed the alac converter path to foobar2k's qaac64.exe that I had installed prior and used a different set of command line options than the one mentioned earlier in this topic, as instructed here : https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=26374.msg163192#msg163192 (cubsfan129's message). Here are the two command line options set :
- from this topic : "--alac --ignorelength -o [outputfile] -"
- from the other topic : "--ignorelength -s --no-optimize --alac -o"
After checking the command line options on this wiki https://github.com/nu774/qaac/wiki/Command-Line-Options for a bit and testing removing parameters, I came to the conclusion that the parameter that changed my results was "--no-optimize", even though it seems that the wiki says that it only acts on mp4s ("Don't optimize MP4 container after encoding."), unless "mp4" is used here to say "audio files in general". Changing back to the qaac64 acquired via this topic's instructions changed nothing.
So --no-optimize solved it all for some reason I am losing my mind right now

[Zak]

qaac64.exe --alac --ignorelength -o atom.alac Mother.flac

According to the documentation:

-i, --ignorelength     Assume WAV input and ignore the data chunk length.

So you shouldn't be using that parameter if you're using a FLAC file as the input.
(This would be used when reading from a stream where the length of the input data isn't known before the encoding begins)

The online examples also have the output file last.

Try:

qaac64.exe --alac Mother.flac -o atom.alac

-- EDIT --
Replied before I saw you got it working in your most recent post.
The above would be for command-line conversions only - the parameters you need to make it work in MusicBee may be different.