How to Convert Flac to MP3

Flac (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is a great way to store your music without compromising on quality, but the files take up a large amount of hard drive space. In addition, many music applications and media devices do not support their playback. For these reasons, converting Flac into MP3 will save you space and make your music more portable. There are a variety of utilities available for every operating system to encode audio into the MP3 format. Here are three ways to convert Flac to MP3 on Windows, Mac OS X and GNOME on Linux, respectively.

Steps:

Conversion for Windows (XP SP2+, Vista, 7, Server 2003, 2008)

1. Download and unzip the LAME MP3 encoder. This is OSS (Open Source Software) available for free from SourceForge. Remember the location of the extracted files.
   
   
2. Download and install Foobar2000. This software is available for free on the project's website: http://www.foobar2000.org.
3. Launch Foobar2000.
4. Open a Flac audio file that you have stored on your computer.
   • Either drag the audio file into the Foobar2000 window, or select "open" from Foobar2000's file menu and navigate to the desired Flac file.
5. Right-click on the Flac file you want to convert to the MP3 format, highlight "Convert" with your mouse and then select "Convert To ..." A new window will appear.
6. Click on the ellipses button ("...") to the right of the Encoding Preset. A new window will appear allowing you to set the bit-rate (audio quality) of the final MP3.
7. Use the slider in the new window to select the desired audio quality and click "OK" at the bottom of the window. A new window should appear.
8. Browse to the location where you unzipped the LAME MP3 encoder.
9. Select "lame.exe" and click "Open."
10. Input the desired destination folder in the dialogue box that pops up, click "OK" and wait for your file to be converted.

Conversion for Mac OS X

1. Download and install All2MP3. This software is available for free from the creator's website: http://tresrrr.com/.
2. Launch All2MP3.
3. Open a Finder window and navigate to the Flac files you want to convert.
4. Drag the desired files from the Finder window into the All2MP3 window.
5. Use the slider to determine the audio quality of the final MP3 file.
6. Click "Convert," and wait for the MP3 to appear in the folder of the original Flac.

Conversion for GNOME on Linux

1. Download and install SoundConverter. This is free software licensed under the GPL.
2. Launch SoundConverter.
3. Open the "Preferences" pane.
4. Select the folder into which you want the newly converted MP3 file to be placed.
5. Decide the desired audio quality for the MP3.
6. Choose "MP3" as the type of format for the converted file.
7. Go to the main window, and click "Add File" or "Add Folder" to queue the desired media.
8. Click on "Convert," and wait for the MP3 file to appear in the folder containing the original Flac audio file.
   Source: www.wikihow.com