Flac Music Files 2 MP3 Music Files??

what is a small maybe portable program[and free]
to convert 'flac' files to 'MP3's?
thank you for any and all help
G

 

http://www.foobar2000.org/

 

I believe LameDropXPd would be (almost) perfect for your needs - it's small, free, simple and portable (single .exe and an .ini). Get it here.
It's based on the latest stable version of LAME Encoder and it supports FLAC and Vorbis as input formats. Just be sure to set it up well: right-click -> Encoding Options and put the slider on 80 (-V2), which is considered the most optimal setting providing best quality/size ratio. Of course you can set it to whatever you like, if you are familiar with this stuff.

 

@ Thanks..Digitalman..have enough players!
@ Night Raven..will give that a go

edit...cool program!! should I set it at 320kbps in that same section?

 

I like xrecode II. Easy to use and have a portable version, 3.5MB.
http://www.xrecode.com/

Another option would be fre:ac (ex-BonkEnc), portable, 8.6MB.
http://www.freac.org/

And foobar2000 is a lot more than just a wonder player, something like a great all-in-one multi tools box really!

Btw, I'd be curious to know why you have the need to downgrade your flac files.
HD space crowd, incompatibility with some mp3 reader?

 

Well, no. 320 Kbps constant bitrate (CBR) would produce files with the best quality possible but it's also pretty wasteful in terms of hard drive space. For best results (and size/quality) ratio always use variable bitrate (VBR). That's the VBR Quality slider. In the field below the slider there is numerical value which shows the preset (-V0, -V1, -V2, etc.) with 0 being the highest quality and 9 being the lowest. As I already mentioned -V2 is the most optimal preset and provides the best size/quality ratio among the VBR presets, i.e. still transparent (indistinguishable from the original) without taking too much space.
CBR 320Kbps does retain more quality in theory but it's really not space efficient. Besides, if quality was your primary concern, you wouldn't be transcoding your FLAC files into MP3s in the first place.

 

@ ruinebabine, because my Ipod Nano does not play 'flac'

 

Have you considered Rockbox?
It's a firmware built from scratch with support for many formats and lots of extras.

 

I love that my Sansa Clip can natively plays FLAC and OGG files, and I could probably hardly go back now, but I need to had some more flash memory cards

And, yes, I also rockboxed my 2 little players for the many added functionalities...

 

No. Converting to any lossy format (MP3, AAC, MPC, Vorbis, etc.) causes loss of "audiophile quality", regardless of bitrate. That's why they are known as "lossy". What I am trying to explain is that VBR is by far the better mode to use. In VBR mode the encoder compresses each frame with as much bitrate as needed. It will go up to 320 Kbps if necessary but will also drop down to (let's say) 96Kbps when/if the song allows it. Today's encoders are most definitely intelligent enough to allocate the correct amount of bitrate so that quality doesn't suffer.
320Kbps CBR is kind of in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't sound better than a wisely chosen VBR mode but takes more space, and it's not audiophile quality like FLAC (or any other lossless format, that is).
It's not the 90's anymore when formats and encoders weren't well developed.

I have a Sansa Fuze and have 'rockboxed' it too. It's freakin' awesome.

 

Thank you all in the lesson of converting formats!!
I do not however understand how 'RockBoxed'
works with my Ipod Nano 5th gen and Itunes??

 

hayc59, I think the Rockbox firmware works only on Ipod Nano of 1rst and 2nd generation, for now.

You can always check the continually updated list at http://www.rockbox.org/.

 

thank you