Export formats

What it is

When you export, you choose the kind of file your tracks become: MP3, FLAC, or ALAC. You can also turn on multiple formats and get the album twice, once lossless, once as MP3.

The three formats

• MP3 320 — Smaller compressed files. We level the volume of MP3s for you.
• FLAC — Lossless. Nothing let go, nothing changed: each track is your recording, cut.
• ALAC — Apple's lossless format. The same promise as FLAC, nothing changed.

Lossless files are much bigger than MP3s. That's the price of keeping everything.

Picking one

The format knob sits on the export screen, in the expanded view, and in settings. Turn it to a format, and that format is your pick everywhere, for every record after, until you turn it again.

Multiple formats

Switch Multiple formats on and the knob gives way to a pair: FLAC or ALAC, plus MP3 320. Each track is cut once and written twice. One copy to keep, one to carry.

Like the knob, the switch stays where you leave it — on for every record until you turn it off.

Where each copy goes

Two formats get two homes, so lossless and MP3 never share a folder. In settings, Save location shows two rows: Lossless and MP3. Inside each, the album folder has the same name.

• The first save. The folder you already had stays with the format you'd been exporting. The other row fills on your first save — the Save button names the format it's asking a folder for.
• One folder can't hold both. The two album folders share a name, so we ask for two.
• Just this once. On the Done screen, *choose different folders…* picks a folder for each format, for this album only. Your settings stay as they are.
• Switching it off keeps your second folder for next time.

With GP-33

GP-33's library holds one of the two. You choose which in settings, under GP-33: GP-33 holds lossless or MP3. The row that feeds GP-33 wears its light. The other format goes to its own folder.

When it's done

The Done screen says where each format landed, one line each.

What we never do

We never process a lossless file — no levelling, nothing. The only exception is the one you ask for: Reduce pops and clicks, when it's on, works on every format. Nothing leaves your Mac, and your original recording is never touched.

Still need help? hit us up.