How To Convert FLAC to MP3
FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is a lossless audio compression format. It’s often used to digitally store and transfer music without any loss in quality. The files tend to be rather large though – for example, 3 minutes of audio could take up around 18 Mb.
On the other hand, MP3 is a lossy compression format that is supported by pretty much any audio player (plus the files tend to be smaller). Sometimes you need to convert FLAC to MP3, e.g. to be able to play it on your iPod. In this post I’ll describe how you can do that.
I tried out several free FLAC to MP3 converters prior to writing this tutorial. According to my testing, dBpoweramp seems to be the best choice. So that’s what I’ll use here. However, if this converter doesn’t work for you, there are certainly other viable alternatives, e.g. Foobar2000.
Okay, on with the tutorial 🙂 Here’s the step-by-step guide for converting FLAC to MP3.
- Install dBpoweramp Music Converter. You can download it here.
- Install the FLAC codec for dBpoweramp.
- Start up the dBpoweramp Batch Converter. Usually you can find the converter here : Programs -> dBpoweramp Music Converter -> dBpoweramp Batch Converter
- Locate the FLAC files you want to convert using the built-in navigator and tick their checkboxes. You can also select an entire folder (or several) by clicking the boxes near them. Click “Convert”.
- A conversion settings window will pop up. There’s a lot of options here, but don’t worry – in most cases you will only need a few of them. First, select “MP3 (Lame)” from the Converting To dropdown. Then set the quality and bitrate according to your preferences. And finally, choose where you want the MP3 files to be placed. Then click “Convert >>”.
- dBpoweramp will then convert the FLAC files to the MP3 format. Depending on how many files you’re converting, and the quality settings, this could take a few minutes.
- Congratulations! Now you can put the converted MP3’s on your iPod, or whatever 😉
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Nice guide.
OT: I stumbled here from your “Blog Personality Analyzer”. Ha, nice try. Gotcha.
Heh, thanks 🙂
Cheers, if u like FLAC quality downloads check this out
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3695611/Rolling_Stone_Magazine____s_500_Greatest_Songs_Of_Al
Hey thanks man, works great for me! bout time i found something simple!
You can also use the VBScript at http://code.google.com/p/reflacer to convert from FLAC to MP3, including tags and images.
useful tip. i also use eufony from http://www.softe.net
Epic article. Cannot thank you enough for making this hassle free
thnx so much
I’ve been using this method already for converting my FLAC to mp3 and other various formats, but because I feel lazy I don’t want to type this out for my members @ my forum.
I have copied your instructions on there as well as giving you credit for the tut
If you would like to look at it here it is:
http://www.japanimusic.net/technical-support-center-f32/flac-flac-to-mp3-t2504.html
Thanks again!
Thanks! And since the comment was too short to post with thanks alone, Thanks again!
does powerrap work for mac???
@stroy – your comment is entirely irrelevant and looks spammy, I think.
thx so mich i had dbpoweramp wasent using correctly this was so helpfull
piece of CRAP!
do not bother because it simply doesnt work
@ed – You are, of course, wrong. From my personal experience, and the other comments, it does in fact work.
White Shadow, nice tutorial. Worked great. Thanks!
hey, not sure is this a dumb question but do you have to keep the flac file after converting or can you get rid of it cause they’re huge
If you want you can delete the .flac file after you’ve got the .mp3.
thanks you saved my life! xD
Cheers mate!
I was looking for this desperately…