You’ve downloaded a show or two from http://bt.etree.org and now you want to convert the .flac files to .mp3 to take with you on your iPod or MP3 player. This tutorial will walk you through the steps to do just that, using OS X. Read on ..
First things first, make sure you’ve downloaded and installed xACT and iTunes, both of which are free.
There are two steps in converting your .flac files to .mp3. The first is to decode the .flac’s into .wav files. After that’s done, you’ll encode the .wav files into .mp3’s.
Decoding .flac files with xACT
Encoding .wav files with iTunes
Decoding .flac files with xACT
- Launch xACT and select the decode tab
- Click the add button
- Navigate to the .flac files you want to decode, select them all, and then click Add files
- Now you’ll need to select the output – I use and suggest .wav. Click Decode when you’re ready
- You’ll be prompted to choose a location to save the output files. Select the same folder where the .flac files are located and then click Choose
- Go put on a pot of coffee. The decoding process only takes a few minutes.
- When it’s completed you’ll be back at the decode screen but there won’t be any files in the decode list. Feel free to close xACT now.
Encoding .wav files with iTunes
- Open up iTunes and select iTunes from the top menu, and then Preferences… from the drop-down list
- Select the Advanced tab from the top menu, and then Importing from the lower menu
- From the Import Using: list, select MP3 Encoder
- From the Setting: list, select your quality preference. I happen to have a lot of space on my portable MP3 player, so I opt for Higher Quality (192 kbps)
- It also annoys me to have songs playing while they’re importing, so I disable that feature by removing the check from the box labeled Play songs while importing. This is entirely optional. Click OK to return to iTunes.
- Now select File from the top menu, and then Add to Library… from the drop-down list
- Navigate to the folder where you saved all of the .wav files from xACT, select that folder, and then click Choose
- iTunes will now import all of the .wav’s into iTunes. Find all of the newly added files (usually at the bottom of your iTunes list, but it depends on how you sort your music) and select them all. Once they’re all highlighted, right-click (ctrl-click for you one-button folks) on any of the selected songs and choose Convert Selection to MP3 from the pop-up menu.
- Remember that pot of coffee you put on while the .flac files were decoding? Now’s the time to get a cup. While iTunes is encoding your MP3s, a status indicator will appear in the left window (see image below). Depending on how “fast” your mac is (processor speed, memory etc) and how many files you’re encoding, this step can take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour.
- Once all of the files have been encoded, iTunes will probably beep to get your attention. Before you start listening to your music, now’s a good time to get rid of the .wav files, since they’re no longer needed. You should notice that ever other track in iTunes is highlighted. These are the .wav files – get them out of iTunes by clicking the delete key on your keyboard. If iTunes asks if you want to delete the files as well as remove them from iTunes, feel free to do so (you should still have the source .flac files if you ever need an uncompressed version again)
- That’s it! You’re done. You can now tag the files in iTunes, transfer them to your iPod etc. If you need to get at the MP3s, they will likely be located in Mac Hard Drive:Users:you:Music:iTunes:iTunes Music:
Related content: How to convert .shn files to .mp3 using OSX
THANK YOU!!!!!!
I accidently followed a link here from a “how to play .ape files” thread to this, and I can’t believe people are still using this method. It’s a very nicely made tutorial, but so out of date. There are plenty of free applications can convert from flac to mp3 in like 1 click. I use X Lossless Decoder but if you google it there are many others.
Also doing all this with wave files means you loose the metadata as wave doesn’t support it. Which means typing out all the track names all over again.
Don’t forget that you can always convert to aplle lossless if you don’t want to loose the lossless-ness of your files
Amazingly easy.
If only everything on the internet was this well written and helpful. Thank you so much!
Thanks a lot!
Amazing. Ive tried and faild to do so for months. if only i found you sooner!!
Cheers!!
To whoever wrote this page, you are the Socrates of the schools of the cyberage, and I pay tribute to a sage.
All you have to do is add the tracks in WAV format or AIFF format to itunes. Then go to preferences, GENERAL-> IMPORT SETTING-> CHOOSE MP3 OR which ever you like. Then go back to the playlist, select all tracks and control click to show get info,rating, reset play count…. ect. Then click on convert or create mp3. This will do it with the tracks you have selected.
I got bad news. There have been some updates to iTunes and since I haven’t converted a flac in a while, I noticed that the Advanced screen in iTune preferences has changed; it no longer has the sub menu for ‘importing.’ So, I can’t continue after this step. Any ideas?
Thank you for your very thorough and helpful description of how to convert FLAC files to MP3s on Macs! Very very helpful!
Wouldn’t it be easier just to go straight from .flac to .mp3 with the LAME encoder using xACT (under “lossy” tab if LAME is installed)?
Thanks !!
Thank You. Good.
I am trying to convert a DMB show (.flac format), and keep getting this error –
Can’t get «class view» id 15 of «class tabV» id 5 of window id 1. (-1728)”
Any thoughts? I am using a mac….
Agreed. This option worked fine for me.
looks like this artical needs to updated to include the flac to mp3 (via LAME) button that exists on the newer version.
drage drop, change your bit rate (encode MP3 at the 128 default? I think not) click the button. done
Thank you so much. I was glad to hear i wan’t in a dirt hole after finding out .flac files were compatible for conversion. This guide/ tutorial was smooth and used graphics we needed to see. Thanks again for the .flac to .mp3 guide! 5 out of 5 stars!
These instructions were AWESOME! I’m a very happy reader! Thanks for your time.
thanks!
ur a lifesaver. just got dave matthews’ live performance at Alpine converted to my iTunes today!
thanks! very helpful!
Hey guys
i just find out. that you can decode, transform or convert .Flac Files in to mp3
Download xACT, install the aplication, run it
click on the tab LOSSY. select CBR Bitrate onto 128 kbps, drag the file you wanto to convert, and click Encode.
finaly
the flac file in to mp3
Numi From Chile
…or you could use Audacity, a free app that will convert flac to mp3 with just one click. Audacity rocks!
But this program does convert to mp3 as well … just click on the “lossy” tab and follow the same directions as above. Although I do agree – Audacity rocks!
EXCELLENT! thank you so much!
you. are. awesome. ive been googling how to turn flac files into itunes files for like half an hour. thankyou
Thank yooooo
Perfect instructions! Thanks a lot!
Thanks! awesome, good suggestion the cup of coffee
thank you so much, aside from the fact that the conversion tool was changed =took me awhile to figure that out xP= this tutorial was great. thank sagain
thank you!
Perfect! Worked like a charm first time around.
This is a great tutorial. Thanks!
THANKS! it WORKED!!!
thanks a lot! i converted my .flac to .mp3 smoothly
Fantastic easy advice, well happy
Awesome. Thanks for the help
Thanks for the very easy to follow instructions! It works.
this works! thank you!
Hello there, thank you so much for posting these steps.
Why is that only a few of the .wav files get added to my library?
I can’t seem to find an answer for this, please help.
Thanks, L
just sick to the .wav! if you have a big ipod i recommend to anyone to keep their FLAC files in wave
Tried converting some FLAC files to WAV using xAct and kept getting applescript error “The variable theStatusPanel is not defined. (-2753)” Had bettter luck with All2MP3 program
Thanks for your help!!
umm. How do I make the coffee?
Converting .flac files for me is very frustrating – I’ve tried All2mp3, and it simply spins the beach-ball forever, never converting anything even when left for over an hour to process a single 30 mb flac file (not that big for my iSight iMac running 10.5.8 with 2GB of RAM). And Xact, which is recommended by most, simply gives me an error instantly, like this for example: – 01 – Down.flac: flac: invalid option — / flac: invalid option — U. And another program, named Switch, returns a very similar error. I’d think that perhaps my flac files were bad except that I’ve tried with about 3 dozen different, separate, unrelated in any way downloads. It’s just not the files, I really don’t think it’s the computer limited in any way by hardware, but certainly could be a software problem somewhere, somehow. These programs work fine for me translating other audio files, just not any flacs. Anyone have any ideas? It’s been driving me crazy since I got this iMac about 8 months ago =/ Thanks in advance if you have any other programs or ideas in mind, I’m at the end of my rope, don’t know what else to do. I’ve spent dozens of hours working on this problem without any results.