How to import songs into itunes is easy. You just put the CD in, select it in itunes, and click on advanced – convert selection to MP3.
Easy!
But…
the default setting on itunes is not the best setting to use when importing songs. In fact, there is a better way to import songs that uses a program called LAME. This article describes how to import songs into itunes using the better quality of the LAME encoder.
If you want to skip the technical stuff and go straight to having good music, jump down to the ‘How to do it’ section.
Introduction
If you go to itunes:preferences and click on the advanced then importing tab you will see some options like Import Using: and Setting: This raises a few questions.
1. Why does Apple allow me to use different formats like AAC and MP3? Which one is better?
2. There are different ‘bit rates’. If a smaller bit rate uses less space, but has worse quality, and a higher one means better quality, how high do I have to go to get the best quality? How good is the default setting of 128 high quality (See picture below – click to enlarge).
Unfortunately I assumed the defaults were the best, so I used the built in defaults in itunes to import my CD collection. But if you listen carefully to your ipod through my stereo, and compare it to a CD you will see that at 128kbps there is a big difference in audio quality.
The bottom line is, if you want the best quality that still is compressed, use a little program called the ‘LAME encoder’ on the ‘insane’ setting. I have reimported all my CD collection using the LAME encoder set to the insane setting, and it sounds much better – I now cannot tell the difference between the ipod and the CD player.
What is LAME? What is insane?
Lame is an mp3 encoder that is open source, which means rather than being developed commercially, it was developed by unpaid enthusiast programmers. It was originally not as good as the commercial mp3 algorithm, but as many people worked on LAME, it actually overtook the original mp3 encoder and is now better, and free!
There are literally hundreds of possible settings to use with lame, regarding audio quality, there are lots of different ways LAME can encode. There are some standard settings, called standard (as good as the itunes defaults) extreme (better that itunes default) and insane (best possible quality). We are using insane, and even if you cannot hear the difference between extreme and insane, I would go with insane as the extra disk space used is minimal.
How to do it:
STEP 1. Download the itunes LAME Encoder.
Download the itunes-LAME Encoder from here (click on itunes LAME importer – download) and unzip it.
Download the Import with LAME script from here and unzip it.
Download the little iTunes LAME installer folder here and unzip it. This is a magic folder and anything dragged onto it will automatically be installed into the itunes script library.
You should have three files looking like this:
STEP 2. Install the itunes LAME Encoder.
Drag the itunes-LAME icon (left fiel above) onto the |||Drag here to install||| icon.
Drag the iTunes-LAME script icon onto the |||Drag here to install||| icon.
In itunes there should me a new menu item between window and help.
Step 3. Import a CD.
Open itunes and insert a CD into your computer. Make sure the CD is selected in itunes.
Select the new itunes menu item Import with LAME…
A new iTunes-LAME window will appear that looks like this:
In the window type in –alt-preset insane as you can see above. Select prefs and select ‘cache tracks to hard drive’ also in prefs make sure destination is set to iTunes Music Library.
Click import, you will have a great quality CD in itunes, in a playlist called imported from LAME. You can delete this playlist, it is only so that you can see what you just imported.
Why trust me?
I am an Electrical Engineer, I worked at ABC radio in audio electrical engineering, I have been playing with audio gear and electronics gear for over 20 years. I have read a lot of stuff from the net re the best way to import into itunes, and this is what I use. When I got my ipod there were literally hundreds of pages of information regarding which is the best format to store songs in. I have understood all the technical arguments, and apart from copying your CD into itunes with no compression (apple lossless encoder) which takes 650MB per CD, this is the best quality you will get in itunes. I have 2000 songs fitting on my 15G ipod. If you are low on space, I think you are better off deleting some less favourite CD’s than encoding at a lower quality.
If you are really short on space, then use ‘–alt-preset’ standard instead of ‘–alt-preset extreme’. But I would use insane and have less songs on.
Happy Listening!
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Fantastic!
The quality improvement is GREAT!
Thanks for easy to follow explanations & instructions.
Is it possible to use LAME when purchasing / importing from the iTunes store?
To quote from apple “Purchased songs are encoded using MPEG-4 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format, a high-quality format that rivals CD quality.” Apple AAC files at 128kbps are approx equal in audio quality to 160kbps mp3, so not as good as LAME insane or extreme. I buy CD’s from http://dirtcheapcds.com.au for $10 and import into itunes!
Good news itunes is now giving you the option of paying more for better quality downloads, but still not as good as with LAME!
itunes LAME’s newest version is 3.97 which works well… but is hard to access through iTunes… no extra window item … got to go into the library/itunes/scripts folder to open the app.
any suggestions?
Well itunes 7.1 did cause problems with LAME and so lame was upgraded with this:
http://blacktree.cocoaforge.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7610
TO get it back in the menu is a bit messy you need to make an alias of the “Imoprt with lame” script file and move it into the itunes scripts folder.
right click on itunes-lame.app and select show package contents
open contents
open resources
make alias of “Import With Lame…..scpt”
put alias into User/library/itunes/scripts
will be back in your menubar of itunes.
Just noticed a typographical error in the first question in ‘Introduction’. You ask why Apple allows you to use different formats like ACC and MP3. It should read AAC.
Fixed thanks!
thank you for the step-by-step! not being a coder, that makes all the difference for me. now i’m happily importing cds into itunes on the insane setting and it’s sounding excellent.
i have one curiosity: is it possible to have folders of music on one’s hard drive and somehow get itunes/LAME to recognize them as something to import? sorry if i’m exposing untold ignorance by asking, i’ve just been copying cds onto my hd for easy portability and sharing, and now i want to import them into itunes with LAME to free up the space. what would be the intelligent way to do that (that wouldn’t create duplicates in itunes)?
First go to itunes preferences, the Advanced tab, and make sure that the box that says “Copy files to itunes Music folder when adding to library” is NOT checked. This stops it creating duplicates in itunes.
Then make a new playlist, and drag all the CD audio files that you want to convert into that playlist.
Now select them all and import using lame.
Then delete the playlist, and, if you are game, after you’ve checked the import worked, delete the original files to save space.
Nice tutorial, just what I was looking for. But in Step 1 you say, “Download LAME version 3.95.1″ but the link leads to a page to download version 2.0.9t4. I couldn’t find any other versions on their site.
I’ve also seen other references to the 3.x versions thru the same website, so I know it’s not just a typo on your site. I’m a bit confused what happened to the 3.x versions of the LAME encoder. Do you know what’s going on?
You can get the latest version of lame from here:
http://lame.sourceforge.net/index.php
Click on “get lame”, then click on the link that says “file area”.
It looks like the latest version is 3.98, but 3.97 is the recommended version.
There is a great discussion about lame here:
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Lame_Compiles#Recommended_encoder_compiles_and_source_code
I’m new to Mac, new to Ipod and overall confused. I’m on a Mac OS X v 10.4.11 with the new Itunes v 7. In my research in how to import my CD collection to Itunes I came across your site. Very informative, but every time I try to follow your instructions it doesn’t work. I’m not sure if I’ve got the download saved properly. For whatever reason, it keeps going to the desktop. I searched and found some bundles with the enabling software for the Lame Encoder but still nothing. I don’t get that “added” tab between Window and Help, I don’t see in Preferences where I can change it from the AAC to LAME. I’d wait to ask my kids but since they are only 3 & 4 yrs old, and can’t read yet – I’ll be waiting a long time. I’d really like to be up with the times, era, before they beat me to it. Thanks Wayne!
Dear Wayne,
I just followed your directions for installing LAME on my Mac, and when I click “here” the version of LAME I get to download appears to be 2.0.9t4, not 3.95.1. Then, when I download this LAME what I get on my desktop (iMac PPC) is the iTunes-LAME icon, rather than the four icons where I move the iTunes-LAME icon into the folder icon. I have tried putting the icon into Library/iTunes/Scripts, but this doesn’t seem to accomplish anything. At the same time, the iTunes-LAME window appears, but it doesn’t seem to do anything. In addition, when I go to switch the alt-prest to “insane” it is not an available option (nor is “extreme”). What do you suggest?
By the way, I have iTunes 7.7 (43).
Donna and Mark.
I have totally rewritten the instructions and also provided an installer folder. See how that goes and get back to me.
to get the best quality would it better to start again importing all my library with each original CD?
I just wanted to say a huge thank you for posting this how to and providing the install scripts. It worked beautifully!
I have been looking for a good solution to ripping my CDs for a long time and this is just perfect. Combining the power of the LAME encoder and the Gracenote database in iTunes means I can rip through them much faster and with excellent quality than with other LAME encoding programs that use the frankly limited freeDB or MusicBrainz databases…
You guys rock!
Can someone tell me where to find my music folder
Frank, I only have my best CD’s done at insane quality, and the ones I don’t listen to much at lower quality. But, yes, if you really want good quality, go again!
Your music folder is in your home folder, then a folder called Music, then iTunes. But the simplest way do delete ones you don’t want is just to delete them from within itunes.
I just downloaded 3.98 from Soundforge, but when I unpacked it, there are a bunch of files & not just the 1 file like the old one. I’m currently using the Lame Encoder from step 1 but how can i install this new one?
[...] has now doubled so that the music is better quality. (I suggested the itunes bitrate was too low here, and how to get round it, but now apple have ‘fixed’ [...]
Hi,
i have a netbook and it doesn’t have a cd drive. I recently managed to use another computer to download my cd’s to memory stick save them to my computer and put them on to itunes but this morning my iTunes won’t let me add the new files on my memory stick onto my iTunes. Any suggestions to another way to get around it?
My son is in the army. He bought a jump drive and had it sent to me so I could put all of his music…over a hundred cds…on it. The first two took 30 minutes each! I was just reading about using Lame and am wondering if it will help speed up this process or if you have any suggestions.
Thanks
Nope LAME will make it better quality, but if anything slower as the files will be larger.
If you and he both have macs, it will be faster if you reformat it as a mac drive using disk utility, but then you can’t read it on PC’s.
how do i save a song onto my itunes library. I have tried the add a file button but when i add d file i just cant find the song anywhere.. is it possible to help me.. thx
Can you tell me roughly how much space I will need on my hard drive to copy a cd to itunes? I want to transfer all of my cd’s over but would like to know before I do it if I have space or need an additional drive. Is there a formula? thank you
Well depends on the CD of course, but about 7-10MB per song at the insane settings, about 3-4MB at 128kbps, about 6-8MB at 256kbps.
If you want a rough formula:
Minutes of music * 60 seconds * bitrate/8 (because 8 bits in a byte)
So for a 72 minute CD at 320kbps
72 * 60 * 320/8 = 172MB is the maximum for a CD at insane quality.
A 40 minute CD at 256kbps:
40 * 60 * 256/8 = 76MB.
Hi, thanks letting me know about LAME. Up until today I have had no problems importing CDs but today after clicking import I get the following error:
An error occured during import:
LAME failed (255)
Arguments:–alt-preset, insane, /var/folders/Y4/Y4+DPN1HFZ89+qBmeAzLsE+++TI/-Tmp-/lame_input_0001.aiff, /Users/lisajones/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers/Greatest Hits/American Girl.mp3
Data:
Nothing appears after Data:
Any idea what might be wrong? I am using LAME v 2.0.9 (34) and Mac OS X 10.5.7
Thank you.
Wonderful site, just stumbled across it while I was looking for ways to import my new remastered Beatles CD’s into iTunes without losing all that extra fidelity.
I’m using iTunes 8.2.1, Mac OS 10.5.8
All went perfectly UNTIL I selected the little extra “Import with LAME” item on the iTunes menu.
The little iTunes-LAME window popped up just fine, but my only two choices are “–alt-preset standard” and “-h -b 160″. Nothing about “Insane”.
Now I’m really bummed, hate to spend bucks on re-purchasing the Beatles music I already own, only to degrade the sound quality as I put the music into iTunes.
Any help you could provide would be very welcome! Thanks!
Jim
You type in the
-alt -preset -insane
into the window.
Hi
Maybe anyone can help me. It all worked fine on my Mac so far too but today I got the same error message as Adam states two postings above. Unfortunately that doesn’t get me any further… tried several encoding options but nothing happens…
Mac OS X 10.5.8
iTunes 8.2.1
LAME v2.0.9 (34)
Any help would be very much appreciated…
Regards, Roman
I had the same problem. I clicked on the “?” mark in the iTunes-Lame application and scrolled down to the presets, then cut and paste the insane option – including the leading double dashes – into the pop-up. It then worked, and has remembered my settings.
My question (as I too want to import my new Beatles collection) is: Is Lame at the insane setting better than AAC at 320 (with VBR turned off)? I’ve used the latter through iTunes in the past, and recently imported some CDs using Lame/insane. I can’t really hear a difference. Searching the net seems to imply it is up to my ears. Has anyone run some tests?
Thanks,
Stephen
Probably not a great difference. LAME is better than AAC at lower bitrates but the higher you get the more debatable it is. I can’t tell any difference on my setup. From what I read (do a google search on AAC vs LAME insane) LAME has the edge. There is an article form 2003 saying AAC is better but remember LAME only just started in 1998 and has improved a lot since 2003.
I am getting the same lame error as the others. Any fix?
Since I installed Snow Leopard – same error message 255 as mentioned above in Adam’s post on July 18. 2009. No longer works. Was working perfectly before Snow Leopard install.. Any answers?
I recently installed iTunes on two of my Mac’s (24″ aluminum iMac and Mini), both running Snow Leopard and it’s working fine.
Excellent write-up. Thanks and much appreciated!
I recently installed iTunes LAME on two of my Mac’s (24″ aluminum iMac and Mini), both running Snow Leopard and it’s working fine.
Excellent write-up. Thanks and much appreciated!
How do I import only selected tracks from a CD please ?
Doh ! Sorry just worked it out RTFM …………..
I just wanna tell that I also got the error:
Import Error
An error occured during import:
LAME failed (255)
Arguments:-v, -V, 2, –vbr-new, -h, /Volumes/Songtitle/Filename.aiff, /Users/Username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/ArtistName/AlbumName/Songtitle.mp3
Data:
Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.2
iTunes 9.0.2 (25)
This is the only place I found were this is mentioned. If i find a solution I will come back.
Hello, and thank you for all the info. Just wondering how LAME compares to Apple Lossless or WAV formats? Looking for the best quality of course and have noticed a lot of of downloadable music is Lossless, and those are both already available on iTunes. Would it be worth it to aquire LAME? Thanks
Oh yeah, MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone!
Why can’t latest iTunes 9.0.2 convert MP3 files to AIFF
files anymore(from the ADVANCED drop down menu)?
OR am i missing it somewhere?
reply to Mark at
bamm@rio[dot]com
You first need to go to iTunes preferences | General | Import Settings and chose AIFF as what you want to use, then ‘create AIFF version’ will appear in the advanced menu.
I’m getting the same import error as others:
An error occured during import:
LAME failed (10)
Arguments:–alt-preset, insane, /Volumes/Lorraine Hunt Lieberson At Wigmore Hall/1 Mahler: Rückertlieder – Blicke Mir Nicht In Die Lieder.aiff, /Volumes/MyBook/MP3/Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Roger Vignoles/Lorraine Hunt Lieberson At Wigmore Hall/01. Mahler_ Rückertlieder – Blicke Mir Nicht In Die Lieder.mp3
Data:
Has anyone got a solution?
THANX SO MUCH ‘ADMIN’!
It works OR rather…appears now in the ADVANCED drop down when i change(d) it in iTunes prefs!
You’re THE ONLY Mac Help Site that was able to help in a fast, easy to understand way!
Your site is bookmarked!
Take care – Mark
Hi! I am trying to import a music file which has the following characteristics:
– 320 Kbps
– 2 Channels Stereo
– Sample rate of 44 Hz
It’s a 5 minutes with 11 MB of size song but iTunes does not recognize it at all!
I tried drag and drop, importing through the “Add File to Library” features and nothing…
Has this ever happen’d to anyone?