Freeware FLAC to MP3 Converter

How To Get a FLAC to MP3 Converter

FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. As the codec name suggests, it is a digital audio encoding that always retains the quality of the original audio data (e.g. a CD track). Unlike other formats (e.g.) MP3, FLAC compression doesn't trade audio quality for file size. In the past this codec was typically used for backing up CDs. However, with the increasing capacity of HDDs and connection speeds, .flac is now also used for everyday listening and online audio streaming.

Despite the advantages of the FLAC format, there are some situations where you'd want to convert it to another audio codec. On portable players size still matters, and lossy codecs like .mp3 generally produce much smaller files. Another possibility is that while most popular hardware players support the FLAC format, once in a while you will need to convert Flac to MP3. The extra-popular .mp3 format supported almost universally.

To convert Flac to MP3 you will need a .flac to MP3 converter. Some tips about what to to look out for in a file converter :

* Is it simple to ues? At the very least, there should be a graphical user interface, and preferably drag & drop functionality. Well explained codec settings are also certainly nice, because converting audio files can end up as a deep mystery if if you must configure everything manually.

* Time. This obviously will depend on the selected codec and software configuration, but raw performance can be very important if you want to convert a large .flac collection to say, .mp3.

* Freeware or Commercial. Just one note here - you won't need to spend money on anything. There are good no-cost .flac converter applications anyone can peruse.

As a final note I suggest to use either dbPowerAmp or SUPER to convert Flac-encodec music. Some converters are more easy to use while SUPER support a huge list of sound formats. Pick the right tool for the job.