dBpoweramp Music Converter        { Help Index   >   Apple Lossless Encoder } This Apple Lossless Encoder (ALAC) use the Apple Open Source Library and encodes to .m4a files, both 16 & 24 bit are supported. Portions are (c) Apple and are licensed under the Apache License. Supported by this Codec:

• Encoding: Yes   [.m4a (Apple Lossless)]
• Multi-processor Encoding: Yes  (with dBpoweramp reference)
• Decoding: Yes   [.m4a, .mp4, .m4b]
• ID Tag Reading: Yes   [iTunes Comments]
• ID Tag Writing: Yes   [iTunes Comments]
• Unicode Tagging:Yes
• Supports Album Art: Yes
• Gapless Encoding & Decoding: Yes
• Explorer Audio Popup Information: Yes
• Unicode Filenames: Yes

Compression Options

Apple Lossless does not have many options, actually it has no configurable options, it does not need any (being lossless).

Advanced Options dBpoweramp Configuration offers advanced options for this codec (dBpoweramp Control Center >> Audio Codecs):

m4a / mp4 Tagging

m4a Layout can be 'Optimized for Streaming' (where the audio details and tags are placed before audio data), or 'Streaming Incompatible' where audio data appears first.

Tag Padding by using padding, minor tag changes save the whole file being shuffled (as tags are generally before the audio)

Compatibility Sony and Nokia players require an id3v1 tag, whilst strictly breaking the m4a standard, this option will write those for compatibility.

Terminology Encoding:  compress and write audio track,
Decoding:  uncompress and read the track,
ID Tags:  meta data such as artist & album are embedded inside the audio file,
Lossless:  compression without audio quality loss,
Lossy:  audio quality is sacrificed (how much depends on bitrate and codec used) to achieve smaller files,
Gapless:  allows the decoder to decode audio stream without gaps (silence).

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