When I made my decision to no longer convert FLAC files to MP3 I knew this was going to be trouble for some of you. I stand by my decision and it has made running this blog so much easier. Not having to take the time to convert everything and upload both FLAC and MP3 has saved me loads of time. But I know making things easier for me has made things harder for some of you.
So I wanted to create this post so that those of you who know how to easily convert FLAC to MP3 can explain what software you use and how you use it.
I’m on a Mac and I use xACT. It is totally free and super easy to use. You just throw the files into the Lossy tab, choose your bit rate and you are off to the races. It easily converts FLAC files, WAV files and even those old SHN files.
I haven’t been on a Windows machine in over a decade so I’m not at all up to date on what’s best there. I know a lot of folks used to use Traders Little Helper. So, what do you all use to make your conversions?
Traders Little Helper is the best for FLAC & WAV files.
Agreed.
I’ve used xACT for years. Transfers FLAC to Mac friendly really easily.
I use a lovely bit of Freeware called Flac Frontend. Quick easy and works a treat.Cheers, Keef.
i work also on Mac and use Flac Mp3 Converter, it’s possible to download it from the Mac store! and is free and …. is working very fast .. https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/flac-mp3-converter/id982124349?mt=12
I use free MediaHuman Audio Converter for Windows. Extremely easy to use. It converts to any audio file type you prefer.
Hi Matt I work with windows and I always use foobar2000 for all conversions. You can use any file you want and converse it. It can even converse flac files with other bit rates to the standard 16/44. Sometimes you need plugins. But they are all easy to plug in. You can also make one big file from a number of small files or tag song titles from a text file. You could call it a swiss knife for file managing
I use windows and I’ve been using Free Flac to Mp3:
https://download.cnet.com/Free-FLAC-to-MP3-Converter/3000-2140_4-75206134.html
For SHN files I started using Traders Little Helper. It works fine for Flac, too.
Super helpful everybody, thanks! And thanks Mat for posting!
Traders Helper still works well for me…very easy to use as well. Thanks for all the music!
I’ve been using All2MP3 for years. I’m on a MAC but I think it’s good for Windows, too. It converts everything, totally free, totally easy. Highly recommended!
I use Switch by NCH Software that converts flac to mp3 with no problems.
I use traders little helper for Windows. Free and simple. Highly recommend.
I use XLD on my Mac and foobar2000 on my PC. It all boils down to personal choice. The one thing I like about foobar2000 is it will also play HiRes audio files up to 24/192.
I do the same as Poboy1965. Free Flac to MP3 is super easy to use and TLC can do a lot of things. Now if anyone knows a way of doing the conversion to mp3 that also keeps all of the meta data such as title, #, artist, album etc. I’d love to hear about that. I like to convert some shows to mp3 just for ease of using on the go but as I think someone mentioned before it is a hassle to have to enter all of the show info (I think it was Matt). Fully support the decision to do FLAC only. People are pretty much free to do what they want with it when they get it and are really lucky to have entered the Midnight Cafe
On a Windows machine, I’ve used “Pazera Free Audio Extractor” for years (http://www.pazera-software.com/products/audio-extractor/). On the rare occasion Pazera doesn’t work, WinRAR (their free trial version has been working for years for me), and 7-Zip get it done.
Wow Pazera works awesome. Copies all of the metadata. I’d been typing that all back in when converting to MP3..haha.
Thanks for the tip Polypheme!
I’m on a Mac and switched from iTunes (now The Music App) to Swinsian. It’s a lot faster when dealing with large libraries, but the main advantage is it plays FLACS. It’s now a whole lot faster and easier to just choose “add files to library” in Swinsian and point it to the downloaded folder full of FLACS. Done. 25 bucks, but in my case it was well worth it.
I also use Switch by NCH Software that converts flac to mp3 with no problems.
From a Windows user: i burn CDs using a free version of BurnAware. this program does the conversion for you as it burns a disc. From the help file: Tracks can be in MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG, M4A, AAC and FLAC audio. I’d also recommend trader’s little helper, as others have noted. it’s great to use for any format that’s not supported (like SHN),
I am on a Galaxy phone and use this …free and easy
https://online-audio-converter.com/
Forgot to mention “if I have to”…..my phone plays flac but if I want to upload a track to youtube, it has to be mp3
As a PC-only user, I use Foobar2000 for most things that deal with conversions, because it also contains a lot of additional functions such as equalizers, etc. It is a freeware and meant to be HIGHLY configurable, so setting it up can be quite a nightmare, if you are not a PC savvy person – look up an installation instruction on youtube – you will find hundreds of videos outlining Foobar2000 setup. I had a new pc just 2 months ago, and it took me more a less a week to get Foobar2000 up and running like on the previous pc – I am not that bad when it comes to pc installation and setting up, and I had it on the previous pc and therefore already knew a lot about how it works.
Foobar2000 is a program made for the enthusiast, not the occasional user – I use it every day, and to me it works as a dream. It can convert all sorts of sound file formats into most others. As a lossless format FLAC is perfect, but for universal playback the mp3 or m4a are preferable, so that is what I convert to – I have given up mp3 file format and switched to high quality m4a (which is meant to be the successor to mp3) as playback format, which is also supported by Foobar2000 – but again installation of the converter is quite a task. However, Foobar2000 gives so many possibilities for tweaking files, dealing with sound quality issues, applying metadata etc, that almost all your “library” work can be accomplished from this single application – and there are quite some plugins that cater for very specialized demands as well.
For file splitting, recording of vinyl, channel balance adjustments, etc, I use Sound forge audio cleaning Lab 2019, which unfortunately is a commercial program, but not the most expensive. It also has a lot of presets for cleaning up stuff such as clicks and pops from vinyl, hum removal, noise reduction, equalization application, mastering etc, but the quality of the suggestions the presets or wizards come up with are somewhat questionable – they tend towards being too encompassing, also robbing away some of the quality of the sound in the process.
For playback I use (quite surprisingly) the Groove Music player from Microsoft, because it presents the albums graphically in a fairly simple layout, and does not alter any metadata, like some other music players do – it is very slow in indexing files though. In the past I used Windows Media player, but it has its problems with metadata management and is no longer a good choice – too many files cannot be identified any longer. However, I still use Media player for cd ripping – it is fast, has good lookup facilities for metadata and covers, and in the latest version it can now convert to FLAC directly. So I convert my cd’s to FLAC, save them in a folder for source files, then convert them to m4a and saves them in a playback folder. Takes a lot of folder space to do and a little additional time also, but ensures that I have a lossless file in the archive and a lossy file in the playback folder.
And to Mat: publishing in FLAC (only) is the best decision, because lossless formats are ideal for post-processing, which I do a not – bootlegs are unique, but very often the sound can be improved quite dramatically (to your liking) to a raw soundboard and in particular to an audience recording before you commit it to the playback folder – I will not call what I do for “remastering”, but more like “tampering with to suit my own taste”. So I prefer to do the tweaking and let you do the publishing :-). THAT is a good work sharing process.
I use Bigasoft Audio Converter. It will convert audio files to most formats. Pretty easy to use. I use it to convert FLAC to m4a so that I can burn CDs in itunes. I don’t know of a way to burn directly from FLAC. I am not using an up to date Mac so it is not easy to use all software. Anybody have any ideas of good Mac audio CD burning software that I could use with OS 10.4.11 and OS 10.11.4 ?
Stuffit Expander on my Mac
Switch Sound Converter by NCH is really a breeze to use with Windows and it’s free!
I use Media Human Audio Converter for Windows , friendly, free of viruses and also very handy splitting single track shows into individual tracks ( that is if the cue file is included in the text)