Why can't Pro Tools import FLAC files?

[Teej]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

I haven't been concerned about drive space for PT session in years and wouldn't care for a compressed format, however, the ability to "import" FLAC files, offline, would be most welcomed.

This ... I'm not sure why this thread degenerated into talking about using compressed audio on the fly in sessions ... we're simply talking about being able to import a widely used archival audio format directly into PT without other steps/apps.

[JFreak]

Just use afconvert if flac is so important. Unnecessary to make this an issue. I have seen people jumping under a train more often than a flac file on anyone's session folder.

# afconvert -f wave -d lei32 mysource.flac -o mydestination.wav

[huzzam]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Just use afconvert if flac is so important. Unnecessary to make this an issue. I have seen people jumping under a train more often than a flac file on anyone's session folder.

# afconvert -f wave -d lei32 mysource.flac -o mydestination.wav

wow, i never knew about afconvert, what an amazing tool! it seems like it can convert anything to anything! i've been using a hodgepodge of command line tools all these years...

btw i believe you don't need to specify both the output filename AND the output format (-f) & data format (-d). in brief test, you could simplify your command line to either of these:

 # afconvert -f wav song.flac
 # afconvert song.flac song.wav

[off the wall]

Why I’m sure there is a use case for some to import FLAC, in using PT professionally since v1, I have never needed it. Exporting/bouncing to FLAC has come up a few times for deliverables for devices. That would be useful for me.

[dominicperry]

If you want one which doesn't rely on a command line, there are countless options. I like this one. Free.

https://www.mediahuman.com/audio-converter/

[Eric Lambert]

If it's that easy to convert FLAC files then Avid has no (good) excuse for not including it in PT. I'd be curious to hear from them as to why it's not yet been included.

[Teej]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Just use afconvert if flac is so important. Unnecessary to make this an issue. I have seen people jumping under a train more often than a flac file on anyone's session folder.

# afconvert -f wave -d lei32 mysource.flac -o mydestination.wav

Okay great. I want to be able to drag and drop. Path of least resistance.

I've also never seen FLAC in anyone session folder. Considering there is no native support for the format in Pro Tools, hardly surprising. However, this is not the use case.

Pro Tools cannot have a Spotify/Apple/Tidal audio track. References have to be standalone files. My entire library of references is in FLAC. This is certainly not common, but I'm not unique. I use XLD to convert. It's super fast, drag and drop. Drag and drop directly into PT is faster.

The feature request still stands.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

If it's that easy to convert FLAC files then Avid has no (good) excuse for not including it in PT. I'd be curious to hear from them as to why it's not yet been included.

Maybe they don't want to introduce so many Mac-only features?

[Tweakhead]

For the seemingly limited amount of programming resources Avid have on hand, I'd personally rather they continue to focus everything on an Apple Native code release than divert a single neuron to FLAC support.

... and for the maximum two occasions per year I need to decode FLAC I simply use the opensource XLD.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/xld/

[Sugarnutz]

I use Cubase Pro occasionally to collaborate with a friend in Nashville and the online collaboration section of Cubase uses FLAC for audio files. There is software called FLAC Tools which can be used to quickly convert FLAC to WAV, has batch commands to do a lot of files quickly.