HOWTO: Convert MP3 to AAC – Using iTunes and MP4UI

This is my preferred method of converting MP3 to AAC. All programs are freely available, and although a lot of people use dbPowerAmp to do these conversions this method is quicker (for the Audio conversion), gives better quality and doesn’t crash on some PC’s which I’ve heard can happen with dbPowerAmp.

First of all you will need to download and install the following programs:

iTunes - http://www.itunes.com/download
MP4UI - http://mp4ui.sourceforge.net/

Installing iTunes

1. Run iTunesSetup.exe


2. Click Next>



3. Click Yes



4. Click Next>



5. Un-tick ‘Use iTunes as the default player for audio files’Click Next>



6. Click Next>


7. Click Next> and wait for the program files to be copied



8. Click Finish to restart your PC

Configuring iTunes

1. Run iTunes by clicking Start -> Programs -> iTunes -> iTunes



2. Click Edit -> Preferences



3. Click on the Importing tab



4. Click the Setting drop down and change it to Custom



5. Change the settings as shown above and then click OK (64kbps at 44.1KHz is very close to the default Nokia Audio Manager setting – you may use a higher bit rate if you want but this will make a bigger file size)

6. Click the Advanced tab.



7. You can choose where to save your converted AAC files by clicking the Change button and choosing a directory or you can use the iTunes default

8. Click OK

That’s iTunes installed and configured.
Installing MP4UI

1. Run MP4UI.exe



2. Click Next>



3. Click Next>



4. Click Install and wait for the program files to be copied




5. Un-tick ‘Run mp4UI 1.0 RC 2’ and click finish

That’s MP4UI installed.

Doing the Conversion

1. Start iTunes by click Start -> Programs -> iTunes -> iTunes




2. Click File -> Add File To Library…
Note: You can select multiple files by holding down the Control key or use the File -> Add folder to Library option to add an entire folder




3. Once you’ve selected your tracks click Open



4. Your tracks will appear in the list as shown above. Left click on the track you want to convert. Again you can select more than one track to convert by holding down the control key.

5. Once you have selected the tracks you want to convert click Advanced -> Convert Selection to AAC or right click on a selected track and click Convert Selection to AAC

6. iTunes will now convert the tracks and create new entries in the library for the AAC version of the file (this will make each track you converted appear twice in the list, one for MP3 and one for AAC). The AAC files will be saved as .m4a to the iTunes directory that you specified in step 7 of Configuring iTunes (with a sub folder for Artist and then Album)

7. To extract the raw AAC file from the MP4 file close iTunes and start MP4UI by clicking Start -> Programs -> mp4UI -> mp4UI




8. Click New/Open and browse to your iTunes directory, Artist folder, then Album folder




9. Click the track you want to extract and click Open (unfortunately you can only extract one at a time)




10. Click on Track 1 under Audio and then click Export




11. Enter the file name and click Save to save the raw AAC file to the same directory.



12. Click Close to close the current .m4a file

13. You can now repeat steps 1 to 12 with the rest of your .m4a files.

Note: The AAC files will have no ID Tags. These will need to be entered using a program like MP3TAG (which can tag AAC files). I have contacted the author of MP4UI who said he will try to include the ID Tags for AAC files in future versions of MP4UI.

You can get MP3TAG for free here: http://www.mp3tag.de/en/download.html