Why do apple lossless file sizes vary ??

[kumakuma]

The MediaInfo app ($0.99) from the App Store might be a useful tool for solving this mystery.

 

The Text View gives a ton of detail about any media file:

 

Quote

 

General
Complete name                            : Nicky Parrott - Strictly Confidential/Nicki Parrott - 05. Hallelujah, I Love Him So.m4a
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Apple audio with iTunes info
Codec ID                                 : M4A  (M4A /mp42/isom)
File size                                : 23.6 MiB
Duration                                 : 4mn 14s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 777 Kbps
Album                                    : Strictly Confidential
Album/Performer                          : Rossano Sportiello, Nicki Parrott & Eddie Metz
Part/Position                            : 1
Part/Total                               : 1
Track name                               : Hallelujah, I Love Him So
Track name/Position                      : 5
Track name/Total                         : 15
Performer                                : Nicki Parrott
Recorded date                            : 2016
Encoded date                             : UTC 2018-11-17 05:21:25
Tagged date                              : UTC 2018-11-17 05:21:25
Writing application                      : X Lossless Decoder 20141129, QuickTime 7.7.3
Cover                                    : Yes
Comment                                  : Purchased from 7digital.com

Audio
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : ALAC
Codec ID                                 : alac
Codec ID/Info                            : Apple Lossless Audio Codec
Duration                                 : 4mn 14s
Duration_LastFrame                       : -88ms
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 774 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 23.5 MiB (100%)
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2018-11-17 05:21:25
Tagged date                              : UTC 2018-11-17 05:21:25

 

 

 

[kumakuma]

4 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

Thx - that's a lot more than the Finder's Get Info facility shows

 

You're welcome. Be sure to let us know if you find out anything interesting.

[kumakuma]

34 minutes ago, wgscott said:

iTunes has really become a nasty piece of bloatware.  I used to think people who trashed it were full of it, but it has gone downhill so much, that I think it is a borderline hazard to use it with your music library.  I used to let it "automatically organize" my library.  Now I do everything manually.  The only thing I really use iTunes for now is as a server to serve music and movies and stuff to various Apple TVs, and to load stuff up onto my iOS devices.  I just recently discovered how many background system calls it makes even when idle, so I wrote a script to automatically quit iTunes whenever I turn my DAC on, just in case I forget.  I've had it do some very weird stuff with my files, and I trust it less and less as the years go by.  It has gotten more pushy, invasive and buggy.

 

Couldn't agree more. The only thing I use iTunes for these days is getting content onto my Apple devices.

 

JRiver is a much better application for managing my library and playing music and XLD does a better job of ripping CDs and converting between formats.