Easy (read: FREE) way to convert FLAC to MP3

[Flare]

When I got an Ipod Touch, I ditched Winamp in favor of iTunes but that God-damned turd of an app doesn't support FLAC natively.

I'm not an audio snob so I'm fine converting a few of my albums in FLAC to MP3.

Anybody has suggestions? I don't want to spend money on something that I'll use once. Maybe there's a freebie out there that would allow me to simply load them and get MP3s back?

[miner2049er]

What about the VLC batch files on our server? Does VLC do it?

[JoshWright]

i'm also an audio snob, and FLAC is something that peeves me to no end. I understand that people have a need for higher quality recording formats, and if your listening to radio telescope static trying to filter out random space junk from the message that might change human history, sure go for it. However, unless you have some massively over tuned system, FLAC is overkill in the extreme. 90 percent of mass media players will show no difference between FLAC and high quality MP3.

As for your question, there are a number of freeware audio converters that will translate the files so that they play. VLC I think can do it, as well as a myriad of other pretty awesome stuff, so I say go with that. If that doesn't do the trick, torrent 4music's converter, thats what I use. Or, and i mean this, don't download FLAC torrents. Honestly, an album with 12-15 songs, should never clear more than 115 megs of space, so if you see something insanely larger than that on the entry of album listings, its a pretty safe bet that its an FLAC recording and should just be avoided. On a more personal note, FLAC, OOG, and MP4 music can go to hell.

[Cynicaster]

www.mediamonkey.com

^^the only software you'll ever need for maintaining a music library, IMO.

There's a free version and a "gold" version. I can't remember if the free version does format conversion or not but it would be worth checking out.

[Flare]

Thanks for the tips.

Cynicaster, can Media Monkey replicate the functions of iTunes that matter to me? I don't use the iTunes store for buying music or apps, but I do subscribe to Podcasts through it and I like how it keeps my music and podcasts in sync with the iPod (meaning, if I'm done listening to a Podcast on the device, iTunes marks it as "played" and it removes it from the iPod).

I think that, and media playback is what I use iTunes for.

[Cynicaster]

Thanks for the tips.

Cynicaster, can Media Monkey replicate the functions of iTunes that matter to me? I don't use the iTunes store for buying music or apps, but I do subscribe to Podcasts through it and I like how it keeps my music and podcasts in sync with the iPod (meaning, if I'm done listening to a Podcast on the device, iTunes marks it as "played" and it removes it from the iPod).

I think that, and media playback is what I use iTunes for.

I know MM can be used to sync an iPod, but to be honest, I'm not very familiar with the podcast functionality in either iTunes or MM. Going by memory, I want to say that MM does include "podcast functionality" but I couldn't tell you what that consists of.

IMO, iTunes is deplorable compared to other music players/organizers out there. Bloated, slow... gah, just thinking about it makes me want to go take a shit.

If you only have a few hundred songs in your collection, the benefits of MM might not be apparent. But I have several thousand, and I insist on keeping them as organized as possible--not just when viewed through MM as a "front end" but in the way they are actually stored and archived on the storage media. When I first ditched WMP and iTunes in favor of MM, I had probably only 5000 or so songs but there was no file naming convention, no directory structure, it was a disaster. I was able to use MM to "auto tag" the songs from the internet so that their ID3 tags were populated, and then use the "auto organize files" function to automatically re-name and move every file such that they all had a common filename format (i.e. Artist - Album - Track number - Track name.mp3) and were moved into a Library\Artist\Album directory structure. Maybe WMP and iTunes have added this seemingly no-brainer capability in the intervening years, but it's too late, I've found my player of choice.

Other things I like are the visualizations (which are customizable with your own art, etc), the party mode and "auto DJ" stuff, and the overall absence of fluff and bloat to provide a streamlined git-er-done tool. The company is even OK with you installing the "Gold" version on more than one PC after you pay for it. I can't remember what it costs, but I want to say it was in the vicinity of $20 or so.

That's my sales pitch, good luck.

[BydoEmpire73]

Like anything else iTunes has plusses and minuses (it used to be pretty slow on PC iirc), but I've got many thousands of songs, in addition to movies, podcasts, etc and it runs really well for me on my iMac at home and work PC. Not sure if the software has improved, or just beefier hardware. Some of the viewing options like "cover flow" are pretty dumb, but you're one click away from disabling that stuff. It's free, the store is integrated, it works seemlessly w/ iOS apps (of course), and has a bunch of good ways to organize your music. Just my 2c. Media Monkey does look cool, though. I might have to give it a shot... ;)

[miner2049er]

iTunes fails for the simple reason that you have to keep all the media on your laptop/pc for it. If you delete it, it goes from your iPod.

The only functional way to manage an iPod or similar is to have full drag and drop. I have a media server with all my videos, audio and images on it, and when I want something from there putting on my iPod, I hook up my iPod to whichever computer I'm using (Linux / PC or Mac) and drag and drop the content to it.

The only reason i can do that is because I did away with Apple, iTunes and Apple iPod firmware. Once you unlock your iPod and install Rockbox you realise what an awesome device it is under the right circumstances.

Rockbox actually makes your iPod dual boot seamlessly, so if you want rockbox you just turn it on with the lock button off, if you want Apple you turn it on with the lock button on (see the irony?) The only concession I make is that video playback under Rockbox is not great, so I use the Apple firmware to watch video. I put videos on it with a 3rd party app called Floola that writes to the iTunes database on the iPod, so I listen to audio or view images using Rockbox and watch video using Apple.

It is the best of both worlds.