Back in April 2009 I posted about this and promised to produce a detailed guide…

When making music documentaries iTunes has become such a convenient way to buy music but because of the consumer fair usage limits to get a track from iTunes into your Pro Tools session has involved burning an audio CD in iTunes and then ripping the CD into Pro Tools which takes time and wastes CDRs.

However one of the upsides of the iTunes Plus format and Apple removing the DRM, is that it is possible to convert a purchased track in iTunes to a WAV file, export it, and import that into Pro Tools.

Recently Matt posted on comment asking when there might be an update on this, so for Matt, c-money and others, here it is….

There are essentially two formats that iTunes uses when you buy music via iTunes.  The initial format is m4p protected file format.  If you use ‘Get Info’ on a track by using Command+I or right click and select Get Info you will see that iTunes identifies the file as Protected.

The Digital Rights Management (DRM) built into the m4p file format will not allow you to convert this file either from within iTunes or with a 3rd party file conversion application. The only workaround is to use of one our ‘lives’ that the DRM fair usage policy gives you and burn the track onto an audio CD using iTunes and then importing the track(s) into Pro Tools from that audio CD in the usual fashion.

However with the release of the iTunes Plus format and the lifting of the DRM it is now possible to import the tracks into Pro Tools without having to go through burning an audio CD.

The new iTunes Plus format is an m4a, and if you use Get Info in iTunes then you will see that it is identified as a purchased AAC file. However m4a files are not one of the Pro Tools supported file formats so you can’t import the m4a file direct from your iTunes library, but there is a relatively simple way round the problem using iTunes itself.

Itunes has a feature where you can convert a track int a different file format. Highlight the track you want to get into Pro Tools from the main ‘music’ list from the Library section of iTunes. Right Click it and you will see in the contextual menu you will see Create xxx Version.

But what xxx is depends on what your iTunes Import Settings are set to, even though you are effectively exporting from iTunes. What you need to do is to change your iTunes import settings to WAV format which is, of course,  is a format Pro Tools can import.

To do this go into your iTunes Preferences and select the General Tab. Towards the bottom there is a section on importing from CDs with an Import Settings button.

When you click this button you will get an Import Settings window. From the Import Using menu select the WAV Encoder. You can leave the settings as Automatic.

Click OK, and then OK again on the Preferences window and then when you right click on a purchased track in iTunes you should get the Create WAV Version and  iTunes will create a copy of the selected track and put it in the Music library immediately below your selected track.

Check, using Get Info that this is indeed the WAV version using the Get Info, and then I drag that track out of my iTunes window onto the Desktop of my computer.

Once the track is on the Desktop go back into iTunes and delete the ‘duplicate’ WAV version of the track so that you don’t clutter up your iTunes music library with unneccesary copies.

Now use any of the variety of ways to import audio in Pro Tools. You could drag and drop it into my Pro Tools Edit window,

or use the Import Audio menu,

and select the file from the Import Audio window.

Either way you have the music track into your session. So from purchasing the track in the iTunes Music Store to working on it in your session can be done in no more than a couple of minutes.

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