Old 04-02-2008, 12:44 PM   #1
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Default How can I import .m4a files

I bought the Radiohead "Nude" multitracks from iTunes and there in .m4a format - I cant seem to import them, can they be imported or, failing that, is there a way that I can play them in iTunes and record them into Reaper?
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Old 04-02-2008, 01:01 PM   #2
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I've just tried setting my sound card to Stereo mix(built in sigmatel on a Dell D810 laptop) and recorded the output into Reaper - sounds rough though, lots of hiss.
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Old 04-02-2008, 02:58 PM   #3
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iTunes has a convert to MP3 function. Convert it in iTunes then use the MP3 in Reaper.
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Old 04-03-2008, 01:32 AM   #4
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Originally Posted by bigwoody View Post
iTunes has a convert to MP3 function. Convert it in iTunes then use the MP3 in Reaper.
Has it - I didn't notice that, thanks for the info.

I discovered Foobar2000 while searching the forum and was able to use this to convert to .wav, which I think is lossless - so i've now got the track in reaper, the next task is to decide what to do with them - i'm not sure that I can improve on perfection!
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Old 04-03-2008, 02:39 AM   #5
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Foobar is the best. It converts iTunes files and compresses brilliantly from wav or whatever. The fastest and best. You just have to download the AAC/MP4 codec from here:

http://www.nero.com/ena/technologies-nerodigital.html
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Old 04-03-2008, 03:10 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by drillbit View Post
Foobar is the best. It converts iTunes files and compresses brilliantly from wav or whatever. The fastest and best. You just have to download the AAC/MP4 codec from here:

http://www.nero.com/ena/technologies-nerodigital.html
is this codec better than the one its already got?

I didnt need to add anything else to convert AAC/MP4, it just did straight off - right click/convert to
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Old 04-03-2008, 03:33 AM   #7
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Hmm, well you must have Nero installed already or something. Cool.
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Old 04-07-2008, 07:30 AM   #8
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Ditto for Foobar. It industrial electronica [rocks...]. There's no better and more useful audio player for a DAW as you can convert so many audio formats to another audio format. It's got ASIO and supports VST, too. Hell, you can ReaRoute it directly into Reaper if you want .

v0.951 works wonderfully. There were some ASIO issues concerning different sample rates before, but now it works flawlessly. Nice simple and usable GUI, too.

Cheers!
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Old 02-24-2010, 02:19 PM   #9
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Why would you want to take a compressed file and re compress it?? So much sound quality would be lost. Mp4 is lossy, then converting it to mp3 compresses it even more.
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Old 02-24-2010, 03:08 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brendan27 View Post
Why would you want to take a compressed file and re compress it?? So much sound quality would be lost. Mp4 is lossy, then converting it to mp3 compresses it even more.
to bring it into reaper
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Old 02-24-2010, 04:21 PM   #11
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Brandan27 is right of course.

Makes no sense re-encoding to mp3. Converting to .wav and then importing to Reaper makes more sense.

Btw .m4a is a lossless codec, afaik.
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Old 02-24-2010, 04:26 PM   #12
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Originally Posted by nofish View Post
Brandan27 is right of course.

Makes no sense re-encoding to mp3. Converting to .wav and then importing to Reaper makes more sense.

Btw .m4a is a lossless codec, afaik.
of yeah correct of course, but this was just for playing around with - it wasn;t a serious thing.

...and anyway, it was two years ago, I'm way past that now
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Old 02-24-2010, 04:42 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dazzathedrummer View Post
of yeah correct of course, but this was just for playing around with - it wasn;t a serious thing.

...and anyway, it was two years ago, I'm way past that now
Ah ok...so all good then
Didn't even notice that the thread is two years old.
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Old 08-29-2010, 03:31 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DuX View Post
Ditto for Foobar. It industrial electronica [rocks...]. There's no better and more useful audio player for a DAW as you can convert so many audio formats to another audio format. It's got ASIO and supports VST, too. Hell, you can ReaRoute it directly into Reaper if you want .

v0.951 works wonderfully. There were some ASIO issues concerning different sample rates before, but now it works flawlessly. Nice simple and usable GUI, too.

Cheers!
Hey DuX,

By supports VST, you mean I can run VST plug-ins in Foobar? For example, I have the ARC System VST plug.. would I be able to run that in Foobar? I looked into it for the last 30 minutes and can't seem to figure out how to do this. :/
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Old 08-29-2010, 06:42 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DeyBwah View Post
By supports VST, you mean I can run VST plug-ins in Foobar?
Not directly. You have to install George Yohng's VST wrapper first: http://www.yohng.com/foobarvst.zip

Installation etc is explained in the readme file.
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Old 08-29-2010, 10:52 PM   #16
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Wow... this is awesome! I can use the ARC System now with my music without having to pull it into REAPER.

Thanks so much.
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Old 08-30-2010, 08:31 AM   #17
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it's not that hard to convert that format, but it would be nice if reaper could just do it on the fly... so we could drag them in like any other audio file.
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Old 08-30-2010, 09:14 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hopi View Post
it's not that hard to convert that format, but it would be nice if reaper could just do it on the fly... so we could drag them in like any other audio file.
Agreed, likewise for WMA files. I wouldn't be doing production work on any of those formats but sometimes I need to give something a quick listen for reference.
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Old 08-31-2010, 10:24 PM   #19
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Reaper can import .mp4s and .movs now (and also export .movs with FFmpeg).

Just rename .m4a or .m4r to .mp4, its the same container(.mov).

(Would be nice not to rename them before importing, and also export without renaming after, I have asked a few times already so not likely soon imo)
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Old 05-28-2011, 05:17 PM   #20
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Reaper can import .mp4s and .movs now (and also export .movs with FFmpeg).

Just rename .m4a or .m4r to .mp4, its the same container(.mov).

(Would be nice not to rename them before importing, and also export without renaming after, I have asked a few times already so not likely soon imo)
Is this true? I tried it with no luck. I know its an old thread so maybe things have moved on a bit since then (hope so). I just want to use some music in my iTunes library to make a track for a slideshow I'm making. I've had no luck importing iTunes music into Reaper...any ideas?
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Old 05-28-2011, 05:34 PM   #21
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Originally Posted by The Walrus View Post
Is this true? I tried it with no luck. I know its an old thread so maybe things have moved on a bit since then (hope so). I just want to use some music in my iTunes library to make a track for a slideshow I'm making. I've had no luck importing iTunes music into Reaper...any ideas?
Yes it works, but you have to rename the extension to .mp4

If using a Windows computer, find folder options, then view, and uncheck "hide extensions for known file types", and apply, then rename the end to mp4.



It's kinda weird for now because Reaper thinks it's a .mov file, an displays the video preview, but it will play. Maybe they will fix that soon.

Hope this helps.
Regards, Wyatt
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Old 05-28-2011, 06:08 PM   #22
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Yes it works, but you have to rename the extension to .mp4

If using a Windows computer, find folder options, then view, and uncheck "hide extensions for known file types", and apply, then rename the end to mp4.



It's kinda weird for now because Reaper thinks it's a .mov file, an displays the video preview, but it will play. Maybe they will fix that soon.

Hope this helps.
Regards, Wyatt
I'm using a Mac and I'm just renaming the file with .mp4 but reaper doesn't like it?
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Old 05-28-2011, 06:52 PM   #23
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Quote:
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I'm using a Mac and I'm just renaming the file with .mp4 but reaper doesn't like it?
Oh,
Sorry about the windows screenshot.

I have a Macbook, and just checked it, and it worked.

Here's what I did for a test.

1. I copied a .m4a out of my itunes music folder, and pasted that on the desktop
2. Rename the .m4a to .mp4
3. Open Reaper, make it smaller, and drag the file into Reaper.

See if that works
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Old 05-28-2011, 07:06 PM   #24
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Thanks WyattRice, but it didn't work...I'd been trying that as it seems a pretty straightforward thing to do, but I'm suspecting I have something wrong with my preferences or something.

This is the first time Ive used Reaper at home and at work it seems to import anything with no issues at all, which makes me think its something to do with the way I'm set up!

Thanks anyway...
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Old 05-28-2011, 07:18 PM   #25
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Originally Posted by The Walrus View Post
Thanks WyattRice, but it didn't work...I'd been trying that as it seems a pretty straightforward thing to do, but I'm suspecting I have something wrong with my preferences or something.

This is the first time Ive used Reaper at home and at work it seems to import anything with no issues at all, which makes me think its something to do with the way I'm set up!

Thanks anyway...
Your welcome.
Maybe post something in the Reaper Mac forum, and someone might take a look, for I'm not really a Mac guru yet. What version of Mac do you have, or what's your system specs?
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Old 05-28-2011, 07:53 PM   #26
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Your welcome.
Maybe post something in the Reaper Mac forum, and someone might take a look, for I'm not really a Mac guru yet. What version of Mac do you have, or what's your system specs?
Thanks mate. Its OS X and all up to date. Just imported a track from a CD with no problems so its clearly able to import, it just seems to be an issue with an iTunes file! Its not a major issue but I was going to buy the required tracks from iTunes and use them but I'll try another option...

Thanks
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Old 04-04-2017, 02:48 AM   #27
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Hi guys

I know this is an old thread, but it's the first one that shows up when you search "m4a in Reaper." I was puzzled as to why I could drag m4a's into Reaper (without renaming) on my old laptop and not on my new one (both running Windows). I figured it out.

In Reaper's preferences > Media > Video/REX/Misc, the video decoder priority starts with VLC. What I realised was that I was running the 64-bit version of Reaper, and the 32-bit version of VLC. Once I installed the 64-bit version of VLC, I could drag m4a files into Reaper without renaming.

The VLC website is quite strange - the Videolan.org home page has a blue download button and the 64-bit version is nowhere to be found, even on the "other versions" page. However if you Google VLC, the "VLC for Windows" page shows up: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html
This page has an orange download button and if you click the dropdown arrow next to it, it shows a 64-bit option. Bizarre site design!

EDIT: I'm curious as to whether this works on the Mac. The default OS X version of VLC is 64-bit. If you need the 32-bit version you'll have to Google it.

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Old 04-04-2017, 03:55 AM   #28
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Weird, I always thought VLC was 32-bit only because of this awkward website design!
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Old 02-01-2018, 08:44 AM   #29
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Argh I'm struggling with this same thing. My recording devices uses .m4a for whatever reason -- I don't have any video here just audio.

I know the file isn't at fault - it plays fine via ffplay on the command-line. Here's what I've done:

1. Updated to REAPER v5.70 (x64)
2. Installed the ffmpeg-20180201-b1af0e2-win64-shared dlls into my UserPlugins dir
3. Added the UserPlugins dir to REAPER's VST search path (not sure if necessary but it wasn't explicitly listed in the UI)
4. Moved ffmpeg to the front of the "Video decoder priority" (to try and rule out VLC)
5. Clear cache/re-scan the VST plug-ins

After doing all this and restarting REAPER (many times), attempting to insert one of the .m4a files just creates an OFFLINE item. "Source properties" just says "Unknown file header".

If anyone can see what I'm doing wrong that would be great!
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Old 02-01-2018, 09:27 AM   #30
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Quote:
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2. Installed the ffmpeg-20180201-b1af0e2-win64-shared dlls into my UserPlugins dir
They shouldn't be in UserPlugins dir but in the dir where REAPER.exe lives.

edit:
On Windows that is, on Mac I see in the linked post it seems indeed to be UserPlugins (sorry, not on a Mac myself).

Quote:
3. Added the UserPlugins dir to REAPER's VST search path (not sure if necessary but it wasn't explicitly listed in the UI)
Not necessary as the FFMPEG .dll's are not VST plugins.

Here's a detailed post about adding FFMPEG which worked for me (if you haven't seen it yet):

https://forum.cockos.com/showpost.ph...59&postcount=1
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Old 02-08-2018, 06:14 AM   #31
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Quote:
They shouldn't be in UserPlugins dir but in the dir where REAPER.exe lives.
Thanks, I tried that too. I've also now tried getting rid of the existing FFmpeg.dll from C:\Program Files\Reaper (x64)\Plugins and removing qt entirely from the "Video decoder priority" list.

I found the "Show available decoder information" button today, which reveals the problem; it's not picking up the DLLs:

Quote:
========== ffmpeg/libav ==========
ffmpeg/libav not found

ffmpeg/libav search path:
%PATH%
C:\Program Files\REAPER (x64)
C:\Users\sqwee\AppData\Roaming\REAPER\UserPlugins\ 64
C:\Users\sqwee\AppData\Roaming\REAPER\UserPlugins
C:\Program Files\REAPER (x64)\Plugins
Hm, I wonder if reaper needs a specific version of the DLLs? As I said I've been trying with ffmpeg-20180201 from https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/win64/shared/ (found in the video thread), which includes avcodec-58.dll. I see the oldest download, ffmpeg-20170130 has avcodec-57.dll...


Yes! There we go, the 20170130 version works:

Quote:
========== ffmpeg/libav ==========
ffmpeg/libav DLL decoder v57.75.100

Loaded from: C:\Program Files\REAPER (x64)\Plugins\avcodec-57.dll
<snip huge list of --configure options>
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