New Mac Mini owner with music conversion problems!!!!

[Renerator]

Ok folks. I'm in. Mac Time is here. Let me describe what I aim to do with my 2010 Mac Mini. I plan to use the Mac Mini as a music server. I want to draw the AIFF files from an external HD, and eventually an NAS. As I've began to crawl, I first downloaded MAX for FLAC to AIFF conversion. I had a problem telling MAX to convert the files and place them on the same external drive that they are located on. I finally get MAX to convert the files. The only catch was the only way MAX would do the conversion was by placing the newly converted file in the Mac Mini's subdirectory. Obviously this is no good, as I will soon run out of hd space. Two things I would like to do: 1) Have MAX convert the FLAC to Aiff and place it in the external HD it originated from and 2) Have iTunes play the music out of the external HD, thus freeing up the small HD on my Mac Mini.

Can someone help me with this small issue?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[bnumerick]

Well I can help with the second issue. In iTunes goto Preferences -> Advanced and uncheck "Copy files to Itunes Media folder when adding to library". That will basically just create a link in iTunes to the file.

It's possible for the first issue you can create an alias to the folder on your external drive and put it on your main drive. Maybe MAX will treat it like it's a local folder on the internal drive. To do that just right click the folder on your external drive and in the menu select make alias then just copy it to your internal drive.

[TonyMontana]

You might check XLD as a conversion app, I have been very happy with it. I have used (and still use) xACT and MAX both.
http://tmkk.hp.infoseek.co.jp/xld/index_e.html
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MacMini 2.0GHz C2D (2009)
MacMini 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo
Dell Mini 10v *OSX 10.6.4*

[Fred76]

I agree with Tony. I find XLD to be better than Max at converting and at the same time splitting 1-file albums based on a .cue file

Apple lossless supports up to 192Khz / 24-bit for playback in Itunes and saves disk space compared to AIFF.
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Mac mini 2,1 2.33Ghz C2D with 1TB 12mm internal HDD / 2GB RAM / Broadcom Crystal HD Mini PCIe
Apple TV with 500 GB HDD / Broadcom Crystal HD Mini PCIe
i7 iMac / 12GB RAM
Denon AVR-3312 with Airplay

[Fred76]

[billb]

Some software you might find useful:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/33916/adapter

http://thelittleappfactory.com/evom/

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/35123/iquickconvert
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2011 Mac mini 2.7 GHz i7 with
16GB RAM, Samsung 512GB SSD
MacBook AIR 11 Inch
Mac mini, Model 1.1, 2.33 GHz C2D Proc
20" iMac G4 PPC