note: the OS X version of this tutorial can be found here.
You’ve downloaded a concert 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 Microsoft Windows.
First things first, make sure you’ve downloaded and installed Winamp, the Flac with library support plug-in for Winamp, and iTunes, all 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 Winamp
Encoding .wav files with iTunes
Decoding .flac files with Winamp
- Open Winamp and select Options and then Preferences… (note: if you’re using the “classic version” skin, open the Winamp Preferences by clicking the Control and p keys on your keyboard)
- Select Output from the Plug-ins section of the left window, and then select Nullsoft Disk Writer. Click Configure.
- Click the Directory: button so you can choose a location to save the .wav files
- Navigate to the folder you want to save the .wav files in. I usually save them in the same folder as the .flac files.
- Click OK to return to the Preferences window, and then Close to return to Winamp. Now select File -> Play file… and navigate to the folder with your .flac files. Select all of the .flac files by single-clicking the first file, holding down the Shift key on your keyboard, and then single-clicking the last file. When all of the files are selected, click Open
- Press the Play button. Winamp will now decode the .flac files and turn them into .wav files. It typically takes about 20 seconds to convert a 5 minute song, but this depends on how “fast” your PC is.
Once Winamp is done decoding the files, make sure to set the Plug-ins -> Output back to DirectSound output, or the next time you try to play a file using Winamp, it will decode that file instead.
Check to make sure all of the .wav files were created.
Encoding .wav files with iTunes
- First you need to make sure that iTunes will encode the songs to .mp3 (rather than the default, which is .aac). Start by selecting Edit and then Preferences…
- On the General tab click the Import Settings… button.
- Select MP3 Encoder from the Import Using: list, and then choose a quality from the Setting list. Click OK when you’re done.
- Back in the main iTunes window, select File and then Add Folder to Library…
- Navigate to the folder that you saved the .wav files in and select it. Click OK
- Find the newly imported .wav files in iTunes and select them all (single-click the first file, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard, and then single-click the last file). Right-click on any of the selected files and choose Create MP3 Version. You may want to get a cup of coffee right now, as this step will take a while (depending on the number of files you’re converting).
- iTunes will let you know it’s done converting the files by playing a little “beep”. Now is also a good time to remove the .wav files from your iTunes library so you don’t confuse them with the (identical looking) mp3 files. With the .wav files still highlighted, click the Delete key on your keyboard. If prompted, click the Remove button.
That’s it, you’re done! Rename the files in iTunes (if you wish), give them a listen or transfer them to your iPod/mp3 player. Don’t forget to delete the .wav files if you no longer need them – they’re pretty big and take up quite a bit of space on your hard drive.
The .mp3 files can be found by going to My Documents -> My Music -> iTunes -> iTunes Music -> Artist Name -> Album Name
If you’d like to speed up the conversion and encoding process, try out RegistryBooster 2009. Not only will it make speed up converting your flac files, your whole system will run faster.
You can just use Winamp for the conversion of the FLAC to mp3 it worked for me.
These instructions worked really well for me. Many thanks.
This was perfect. Thanks so much!
Wow Great Post
Many Many Thanks
Brilliant! So simple, thank you.
thanks advice was great and worked perfectly
Worked great, thanks so much!
This was extremely helpful. Thanks so much!
the ‘right click and click change to mp3′ option (step 6) didn’t appear for me, so instead i had to click ‘advanced’ then ‘create mp3 version’ from the bar at the top. just FYI yeah. thanks for all the help it worked like a charm
Thanks for the well-written explanation. Super helpful.
Thanks so much! That was great help. Also want to add, as stated in a comment above, that the create MP3 [step 6] wasn’t available for me via right click either. Just go to Advanced at the top bar and select from the drop down menu there.
It worked great! I LOVE YOU!
this cause the speed of music in output file faster then source. Any one face like me?
Thanks
Thank you! That worked perfectly! Much appreciated!!!
Thank you, this is great info!!
100% SOOOO HELPFUL!
Easy to follow instructions & worked well
THANK YOU for sharing your knowledge!!
What is the name of this plugin for winamp? The link seems to be broken:
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Your search for “details.php” returned no results.
The conversion worked perfect BUT now ALL my iTunes AAC files are WINAMP files with the little WINAMP logo. Why did this happen? I didn’t select my whole library to be converted. PLEASE HELP!!!
thanks, very helpful.
Jake de Backer: Relax, your library has not been changed in any way. What most likely happened was that Winamp is now configured as the default player for audio files (including AAC files). This means that you’ll see the Winamp icon instead of the iTunes one.
You can revert this by going into iTunes, opening the Edit menu, selecting Preferences, going to the Advanced tab and selecting the “Use iTunes as the default player for audio files” option. If you ever run Winamp again and it prompts you to select Winamp as your default player, just hit Cancel or No.
Awesome worked perfectly didnt bother doing anything after getting them into wav. files though you can just play them with Itunes THANNNKKKSSS
Callum – yes, the wav files will play perfectly with iTunes. But they’re also very large files and take up a lot of space on your hard drive. If you’re ok with that – cool. But if you ever need to free up some hard drive space, you’ll want to convert those .wav files to MP3 or AAC – then delete the .wav’s.