Looking for...

[JimiP]

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for the absolute best FLAC to MP3 audio convertor for Windows Vista. I did a quick google search and came up with a product called "Switch - Free Audio Converter" from Brothersoft. I didn't want to download and install the program without coming here and checking to see if any of you have previous or present experience with this specific software.

If anyone could point me in the right direction, I'd be most appreciative. Thanks!

 

[The Boston Dangler]

dBPowerAmp

 

[JimiP]

Thanks for your quick reply The Boston Dangler!

I searched dBpowerAmp on google and it looks legit enough. Has a good amount of features too... Can anyone confirm that this would be the best choice?

 

[DaveSimmons]

I've used it to batch transcode a couple of hundred CDs using the mass selector, it works great. It uses the LAME encoder which is considered one of the best.

You do have to pay ~$15 for a license, mainly because Fraunhoeffer Labs sicced the lawyers on the dbPowerAmp folks to make them pay to license the MP3 patents.

It also can mass apply ID3 tagging to files based on the file names and their folder location. This was handy for me to fix up MP3s that came from WAV files ( = no tags).

 

[JimiP]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
I've used it to batch transcode a couple of hundred CDs using the mass selector, it works great. It uses the LAME encoder which is considered one of the best.

You do have to pay ~$15 for a license, mainly because Fraunhoeffer Labs sicced the lawyers on the dbPowerAmp folks to make them pay to license the MP3 patents.

It also can mass apply ID3 tagging to files based on the file names and their folder location. This was handy for me to fix up MP3s that came from WAV files ( = no tags).

OK, so you're saying that you've used dBpowerAmp and would recommend it to me? I downloaded it from a link @ CNET for free about ten minutes ago and it seems to be working. I had one problem though... I decided to try it out so I took The Who's "Baba O' Riley" and convert it from MP3 > FLAC. I used "Compression Level 8 (Best)" and it took 8 seconds to complete the task. I opened the file in VLC and all was well until I got about two minutes into the song and it stopped playing. I tried playing through it again and it stopped at the same time as the first time around. I'm a little confused by this as the file worked great before as an MP3. Do you think it might be the Level 8 Compression causing this?

Thanks in advance!

-EDIT- I see what you mean about the license DaveSimmons. I was going to convert my John Petrucci - Suspended Animation .FLAC files to MP3 and it gave me a Error dialogue box stating that the MP3 Converter trial has ended. That sucks!

One more thing... I was going to play my Baba O'Riley again but with WMP to see if I had the same problem I had within VLC and I noticed that WMP doesn't natively support .FLAC. So I downloaded and installed the Illiminable Ogg Codec. After that, I couldn't seem to get WMP to even open a music file. It simply came up stating that WMP has encountered a problem and needed to close. Odd...

 

[The Boston Dangler]

mp3 -> anything = blech!

anyway, here's some links i find handy:


http://www.dbpoweramp.com/
http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/
http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/sh...p?p=59783&postcount=26
http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/sh...0&highlight=vista+flac
http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/sh...ighlight=output+folder
http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=13928

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/f.../index.php/t40895.html
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/f...ex.php?showtopic=52353
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/f...ex.php?showtopic=52292

http://flac.sourceforge.net/
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/f...ex.php?showtopic=51896
http://www.accuraterip.com/
http://www.gracenote.com/music/
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
http://team.thenexusnet.com/nexus/AAA/

http://www.foobar2000.org/
http://www.foobar2000.org/components/index.html
http://pelit.koillismaa.fi/plugins/
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/...x.php?title=Foobar2000
http://www.techspot.com/tweaks/foobar/
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/f...c=28647&hl=foo+columns
http://yuo.be/columns.php
http://music.morbo.org/wiki/columns_ui:faqs
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/f...topic=35270&hl=buttons
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/f...view=findpost&p=373503
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/f...ex.php?showtopic=49783

 

[The Boston Dangler]

if you're using wmp and flac, you'll need WMP Tag Support Extender.

http://wmptagext.sourceforge.net/

 

[JimiP]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
if you're using wmp and flac, you'll need WMP Tag Support Extender.

http://wmptagext.sourceforge.net/

Awesome, thank you very much!

I was wanting to know... how come MP3 > FLAC = Blech? I'm new to the whole concept of FLAC so I don't really know a whole lot about it yet. I'll download that WMP Tag Support Extender and give that a try.

Thanks again for the surplus of information!

 

[Nohr]

Originally posted by: JimiP
I was wanting to know... how come MP3 > FLAC = Blech? I'm new to the whole concept of FLAC so I don't really know a whole lot about it yet.

MP3s are lossy meaning there is quality lost when they're encoded. They remove bits of audio information that you may or may not notice is missing in order to save file space.

FLAC is lossless which means no audio quality is lost but this naturally results in a much bigger file than any lossy format such as MP3.

You can not convert a lossy format to lossless or even a higher quality lossy format and get back the audio information that was removed in the initial lossy encoding. It's gone forever. The only solution is to rip and encode the source CD again.

Think of it like copying a VHS tape to Blu-ray, it's still going to look like a crappy VHS video. A 128kbps MP3 converted to FLAC is still going to sound like a 128kbps MP3, just in a much bigger file!

 

[JimiP]

Originally posted by: Nohr

Originally posted by: JimiP
I was wanting to know... how come MP3 > FLAC = Blech? I'm new to the whole concept of FLAC so I don't really know a whole lot about it yet.

MP3s are lossy meaning there is quality lost when they're encoded. They remove bits of audio information that you may or may not notice is missing in order to save file space.

FLAC is lossless which means no audio quality is lost but this naturally results in a much bigger file than any lossy format such as MP3.

You can not convert a lossy format to lossless or even a higher quality lossy format and get back the audio information that was removed in the initial lossy encoding. It's gone forever. The only solution is to rip and encode the source CD again.

Think of it like copying a VHS tape to Blu-ray, it's still going to look like a crappy VHS video. A 128kbps MP3 converted to FLAC is still going to sound like a 128kbps MP3, just in a much bigger file!

Great explanation... thanks!

I tried out the new Foobar2000 and I love it. I used it a few years ago and it was just... good. Now it's a lot nicer and has more advanced library adjustments. Right on!

 

[ZetaEpyon]

I just use foobar's converter for everything. Super easy, if you're already using that as your player.

 

[Nurn]

I too am a FOOBAR fan.

 

[Schadenfroh]

In Windows I use CDex to do my batch music conversion, works well, but you may have to update some components as the core program does not get updated often.

CDex has a clean, no bloat interface and it is freeware.

 

[Auric]

Fraunhofer Pro encoder is included with WMP11 so why not use that with the interface of your choice?

p.s. the codec can be extracted from the package and installed manually

 

[bjlockie]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmonsYou do have to pay ~$15 for a license, mainly because Fraunhoeffer Labs sicced the lawyers on the dbPowerAmp folks to make them pay to license the MP3 patents.

One reason why everyone should use .OGG

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: bjlockie

Originally posted by: DaveSimmonsYou do have to pay ~$15 for a license, mainly because Fraunhoeffer Labs sicced the lawyers on the dbPowerAmp folks to make them pay to license the MP3 patents.

One reason why everyone should use .OGG

With 750GB hard drives for $100ish no one should be using lossy compression on music at all.

(unless it's to transfer the songs to their PMP)

 

[The Boston Dangler]

ogg is lossy?

 

[Nohr]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
ogg is lossy?

Yup.

 

[potato28]

Originally posted by: Nohr

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
ogg is lossy?

Yup.

But a lot better than mp3 at the same bit rates.

 

[weovpac]

I prefer .ogg myself. Anybody interested or want more info click me.

 

[potato28]

Originally posted by: synth17
I prefer .ogg myself. Anybody interested or want more info click me.

I'm with you, but majority of portable players atm don't have the firmware to decode .flac's or .ogg's at stock. Thats why I like Rockbox, they add these codecs for my pleasure

 

[The Bakery]

Lossy formats make sense for some people. I personally use FLAC, but the average
person can't tell the difference between an MP3 or lossless formats. And if they use
mp3 over FLAC they get 150 songs on that mix CD instead of 25.

Agreed though, to archive music as MP3 is like paying extra for less.

 

[mc866]

My collection is all in mp3, and I understand the limitations of this format and the fact that this is a "lossy" format but one thing I do like is that mp3 is almost universally accepted. Meaning I can play it with most if not all pmp's and with just about any PC/Mac and most all media playing programs.

Oh and as far as the OP, for conversion's I use foobar2000 and for ripping I use EAC.