Work around for iTunes music?

D

DVX100Shooter

Veteran
Before when I wanted to use a song I bought in iTunes, I would convert to the format over to AIFF and was able to import the file into FCP. I just tried that and it seems like it cannot be done anymore. It said I can't convert a protected file to a new format. Is there another alternative?
 
You've never been able to do this... since iTunes 4 or so.

Now... THIS IS COMPLETELY UNRELATED TO WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO DO....

But, iTunes will let you burn a CD of a playlist and then you'll have a standard non-drm'd cd of use with the songs you happen to burn on it.

BUT -- THAT STATEMENT IS COMPLETELY UNRELATED TO WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO DO!!

CaptM
 
You'll need to use an audio recorder that records the audio from your desktop. I use Audio Hijack. You can find a demo version of it on versiontracker.com and macupdate.com. The demo has limits, but most likely the limits won't affect what you need it for.
 
WireTap Pro does this, too, and is really inexpensive. It's a super tool. I use it for recording my VO work with my Powerbook when I'm on the road.

But the easiest way is to just burn a CD, the rip from the CD with QTPro. No extra software needed.
 
CaptainMench said:
But, iTunes will let you burn a CD of a playlist and then you'll have a standard non-drm'd cd of use with the songs you happen to burn on it.
CaptM
Click to expand...

Actually, that doesn't work either. The copy protections follow the song onto the CD.
 
Actually, burning a CD then converting the tracks to AIFF's with QTPro does in fact work. I just did it.
 
BenB said:
Actually, burning a CD then converting the tracks to AIFF's with QTPro does in fact work. I just did it.
Click to expand...
Ben is absolutely correct. I burn my purchased songs to CD (AIFF) as a backup.
 
I know this is an old thread, but...

Okay, well I just did it last night too. But I swear I wasn't able to do it this past summer when I was trying to edit a downloaded song for a video. I had burned the song to a CD, transferred the file from the CD to my project folder and attempted to load that file into Soundtrack, and it wouldn't let me do it. Last night, though, I was able to load the AIFF file directly into FCP and edit there (it was a simple edit, unlike the previous project).

So, mea freakin' culpa, but it really didn't work for me before! Glad it does now though!
 
CD tracks are not plain AIFF, but "Red Book AIFF", and not supported directly. You have to rip the CD with QT Pro and make the tracks normal AIFF files.

If you have AIFF files in iTunes, they should work. I think it's the MPEG-4 format Apple uses that has all the copy protection in it.
 
Not quite true...

In fact, since a few versions of OS ago you can actually drag the aiff right off the CD in the finder and put it in the browser window of FCP and start editing with it.

Of course it will go offline when you remove the CD... but it's there when you put it back in.

No need to go thru iTunes at all. The ONLY reason for going thru iTunes or QTPro would be to put the 44.1/16 to the 48/16 you should be using.

Or were you talking about Soundtrack? Never tried it there.

CaptM
 
CaptainMench said:
Not quite true...

In fact, since a few versions of OS ago you can actually drag the aiff right off the CD in the finder and put it in the browser window of FCP and start editing with it.

Of course it will go offline when you remove the CD... but it's there when you put it back in.

Or were you talking about Soundtrack? Never tried it there.

CaptM
Click to expand...

Dragging it right off the CD is what I did, except that I dragged it / copied it into a folder, so it doesn't go offline.

I haven't tried importing this into Soundtrack yet, but It doesn't seem like it would be a problem.
 
Ok, here's what you do if you have a CD in that you have some tracks on you want to edit with.

1- Inside FCP, insert the CD, import the tracks you want directly, into a single, specific Bin.

2- Then you highlight that Bin, Go to File > Batch Export, then set the AIFF specifics and destination specifics only once, click Export.

3- Finally, you import the folder you just exported those tracks to.

4- Eject the CD, done.
 
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