is it just gllitch in my system or does cubase 8 actualy canot import m4a format ?
It doesn’t import, sadly. You have to convert.
pfff…
I know. Probably some license Sternberg’d have to buy (then charge us for)
That’s not very ‘pro’ of Cubase PRO 8
Probably it’s just a sloppy oversight. The m4a format is supported in WaveLab 8.5, so why not in Cubase 8?
I doubt it’s oversight. I’ve yet to hear official word on why we don’t have m4a transcoding, but I’d bet my life it’s due to licensing fees. They were willing to pay it out for Wavelab because that worked for the price-point, or, with such a smaller user base, the fees were reasonable. (I’m just guessing here, I’ve never tried to buy a license like this) [emoji5]
e.g., In some of the lower forms if Cubase, you cannot export mp3s. This is so that Steinberg can offer the lite versions cheaper.
BTW: I’d be willing to spend a few bucks ($20-50) for the m4a transcoder, Steiny!
Actually, you can…but you have to pay extra for the privilege. Personally, I’m not that concerned. Why should I pay extra for something I get for free with iTunes?
Exactly. I meant you can’t out of the box. And most customers find out the hard way.
Personally, I’m not that concerned. Why should I pay extra for something I get for free with iTunes?
I see m4a’s enough that I’d be willing to spend a bit… Not a lot… To get the transcoder. I imagine this must be a growing headache for many people though. Only gonna get worse.
Of cause, that’s your prerogative. But I still don’t see the point, of wasting any money, when you get a transcoder for free with iTunes?
Convenience and speed!
I’m for anything that keeps the flow going.
Doesn’t iTunes put copy protection management on everything? that only works on the computer that iTunes decoded it on.
I don’t know where you got that crazy idea from. You’ve definitely been had. iTunes has never put any kind of DRM on ripped files. Songs bought from the iTunes store were once DRM damaged, but that ended many years ago.
All my songs on SoundCloud has been transcoded with iTunes and they work perfectly.
Just at first. Their first format was totally locked-down. And that was only on iTunes purchases themselves.
I can think of other words for it 
Then you really should adopt the iTunes route. It’s actually much faster than exporting from Cubase!
Preparation!
Open ITunes Preferences and click on “Import Settings…”
Make sure that “Import Using…” is set to MP3 Encoder or AAC Encoder (whichever you prefer) and that the quality is set correctly. I regularly use AAC Encoder and iTunes plus.
Now make a new playlist and name it “Import” or something like that. Select New Playlist, either from the File menu or the little + sign at the bottom left. This only has to be done once.
Now, when you have mixed a bunch of songs in Cubase that you wish to transcode:
- Open iTunes and make the “Import” playlist active.
- Drag and drop all the songs onto the “Import” playlist.
- Hit [Cmd]+A and [Cmd]+I
- Enter the required matadata (Artist, Album, Year, etc) and click OK.
- Now right and select “Create AAC Version” from the context menu.
This will all take only aboute a minute, for an album worth of songs!
Not counting the preparation time (which only has to be done once), it’s much faster (and easier) than messing about with exporting mp3 files from Cubase!
Smart Alec.
Then you really should adopt the iTunes route. It’s actually much faster than exporting from Cubase!
Preparation!
Open ITunes Preferences and click on “Import Settings…”
Make sure that “Import Using…” is set to MP3 Encoder or AAC Encoder (whichever you prefer) and that the quality is set correctly. I regularly use AAC Encoder and iTunes plus.
Now make a new playlist and name it “Import” or something like that. Select New Playlist, either from the File menu or the little + sign at the bottom left. This only has to be done once.Now, when you have mixed a bunch of songs in Cubase that you wish to transcode:
- Open iTunes and make the “Import” playlist active.
- Drag and drop all the songs onto the “Import” playlist.
- Hit [Cmd]+A and [Cmd]+I
- Enter the required matadata (Artist, Album, Year, etc) and click OK.
- Now right and select “Create AAC Version” from the context menu.
This will all take only aboute a minute, for an album worth of songs!
Not counting the preparation time (which only has to be done once), it’s much faster (and easier) than messing about with exporting mp3 files from Cubase!
I’ve got Wavelab, if I have such batch needs. Don’t need iTunes unless I’m buying music.
All I was saying was, if it was free, or close-to-free, it’d be nice to just drop an m4a INTO Cubase. This thread was about importing m4a’s.
I use fre:ac to convert, but m4a import/export was something I expected would find it’s way into Cubase 8.
Exactly where I’m coming from. It’s not laziness, as Smart Alec above was hinting at, but, rather, flow.
Stopping for a minute-of-awkward-nothingness to mess around in other apps, with clients present, feels like an eternity.
Kind of a cheesy work around that drives me a little batty, but you can change the extension to .mov and then import “Audio from Video File…” basically using QuickTime to do the conversion. Not sure if this works on Windows though. Unfortunately Video hangs all the time so I removed the video codec since Steinberg’s official temp solution still doesn’t solve all the hangs anyway I digress.
Want quick and easy? What could be quicker and easier than this? You can import m4p files (and just about any audio format) into Cubase (or any DAW or program that accepts audio) simply by dragging and dropping.
Play the “100 Second Tour”.