Quote:
Originally Posted by Smitty1
OK I am new to this, & I think this is downloading 101, but I can get the Torrent file & convert it with flac. The result is a wave file that I can listen too which is awesome! My question is that the mp3 files seem much smaller & easier to store & burn to audio cd's. Is there a way to set flac up to convert it to an mp3? Also, is there a difference in quality between the wave & the mp3 file? Thanks.
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Flac front end does not convert to mp3. You can find a multitude of programs to do that (dbpower amp, foobar2000).
As for file size: mp3 is much smaller because it is lossy. When you convert it, data is removed to make the file smaller. Usually it sounds ok, but if that file gets saved as an mp3 over and over again data is usually discarded each time. So it ends up sounding really crappy.
Wave is uncompressed and lossless. Flac is compressed and lossless. Shn is another format that is..you guessed it, compressed and lossless.
If you plan on trading you should keep your flac/shn files or do not convert wave files to mp3 before burning to cd. Also converting back to wave from mp3 is baaad. You should never ever trade mp3s or other files made from mp3s. Stick to the lossless for the best quality. You can burn flac/shn to cd as "data" and if anything happens to your collection you can just pull out the back ups.
EDIT: Hope that doesn't make your head explode.