Flac is the most common form of lossless compression. This form of file compression does not remove from the audio files any data, as do mp3 and other lossy schemes.
Flac has developed into a cross-platform format. Free software downloads are available for all potential uses of flac audio files, including computer listening and CD burning:
To listen to Flac files on your computer, 4 different programs are suggested:
Foobar is an advanced audio player for Windows.
Winamp is another windows based audio player
For Mac users, VLC is a cross-platform multi-media player which supports flac files
Cog is a Mac program (OS-X) with lossless codecs already installed to play flac on a Mac.
Flac files can be burned to audio CD either by direct burning with a flac plug-in, or by
converting to wav and burning to disc.
Nero is a commercial product which supports directly burning to disc with flac plugin. Unfortunately, although Nero is popular product it is prone to frequent crashes, and disc errors.
Roxio is a commercial product that offers a comparable but more stable software than Nero.
Download Roxio Software at Roxio.com
Multiple alternatives to Nero are located here
Flac Frontend is the flagship program for the flac format in the Windows format. It will convert to wav, which can be burned by any pre-installed CD burner.
For Mac users, an excellent compression toolkit is xACT
This Sourceforge page contains many other flac program downloads and very useful information. A visit to the Sourceforge page is very much recommended.
Trader’s Little Helper is a fine all-in-one lossless toolkit for Windows users.
Nice setup–quick pages too!
Just came across this awesome site. Hoping to download the awesome Roger Waters shows but to be honest I am totally a neophyte to FLAC. I can’t get them to work on any of my music programs (Sonic Stage, WMP, iTunes). Any advice for how to get these files to run on my PC (windows xp)? I tried to install a codec to DBConvert but that failed. Flac front end is a dead link. Is there a easy way for me to listen, and/or convert, and or burn CDs? I know this question sounds lame since most of you are quite experienced. Sorry for the lameness, I’m just a huge Floyd fan.
ddardani@yahoo.com
The Sourceforge page linked above is an excellent starting place.
And thanks for the heads up on the Flac Frontend link being dead. I have fixed that.
Flac is really quite easy to learn, and infinitely worth it. Please be patient and use the links I have posted above for your benefit. Good luck!
Hi Dan,
first I had problems burning flacs with nero too. But there is an good free (!!) alternative:
http://www.burrrn.net/?page_id=4
You don’t have to convert the flac, just “burrrn” it ;-)
I successfully downloaded and burned the Richard Thompson concert (great quality…thanks for preserving a great show…would have appreciated it more if I were drier..) using Media Monkey. However, I can’t get the tracks to play continuously, one to the next…each one has to be started individually. Is this a peculiarity with FLAC? Thanks…
flac files should play continuously if burned “DAO”, or “disc at once”. Check the settings on your burning software. Some software sets the default for “TAO” or “track at once”, which may very well be the cause of your problem.
Along with the above suggestions I found FREERip .com easiest to use.Simply select converter(from `view`in toolbar),then choose the files you`ve downloaded and convert `em.You can choose if you want WAV. /MP3 ect. to burn to cd.Recently,I have downloaded and burnt 5.1 surroundsound and 24 bit Hi-res stereo!!!!.Super!.
Hi,
Just down loaded the Morissey gig and FLAC FRONTEND, I have added the files to be converted to WAV but not sure what to do next ?????
Cheers
AND A MASSIVE THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR EFFORTS
Sorted it out now and listening WOW WOW WOW
thank you.
:-)
I’ve always been “scared” of flac before this; I thought I’d need a grad school course. Thanks for giving me the courage to try – and for making such great concerts available – WOW !!
the flac decoder program explains itself it decodes the files to a folder you click on them
Enjoying the Tune-Yards show in FLAC. Just a note, on a Mac, you can play FLAC files in iTunes using Fluke (ctrl click on the files to open): http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/28768/fluke