This guide will explain what lossless audio is, how to convert lossless audio files (flac, shn) to mp3, how to burn lossless audio to CD etc. Windows and OS X are both covered. Read on..
- What is lossless audio?
- Where to download lossless music
- How to play lossless audio files (Windows and OS X)
- How to convert lossless audio to mp3 (Windows, OS X and Linux)
- How to burn lossless files as audio cds (Windows and OS X)
- Related Tutorials/Help (how to download w/ bittorrent etc)
Lossless audio (.flac, .shn, etc) allows the exact original audio to be reconstructed from the compressed audio. This can be contrasted to lossy audio (.mp3, .aac), which does not allow the exact original audio to be reconstructed from the compressed. What does this really mean? If you encode a CD/audio file to mp3, you lose quality. If you encode a CD/audio file to .flac or .shn, you do not.
2. Where to download lossless music
- archive.org (web or ftp)
- bt.etree.org (bittorrent)
- dimeadozen.org (bittorrent, registration required)
- The Traders Den (bittorrent, registation required)
- cotapers (bittorrent)
- your favorite bands home page or online store (Gov’t Mule, Umphrey’s McGee, etc)
3. How to play lossless audio files
- How to play flac in Windows
- How to play shn in Windows
- How to play flac, shn and other audio formats in OS X
- How to play flac files in iTunes
4. How to convert lossless audio to mp3
- How to convert flac files to mp3 in Windows
- How to convert shn files to mp3 in Windows
- How to convert ape files to mp3 in Windows
- How to convert flac files to mp3 in OS X
- How to convert shn files to mp3 in OS X
- How to convert ape files to mp3 in OS X
- How to convert flac files to mp3 using Ubuntu Linux
- How to use Foobar2000 to convert audio files
5. How to burn lossless files as audio cds
- How to burn audio cds from flac files in Windows
- How to burn audio cds from shn files in Windows
- How to burn audio cds from flac files in OS X
- How to burn audio cds from shn files in OS X
How to download files using Bittorrent in OS X
How to join (combine) multiple MP3 files in OS X
How to join (combine) multiple MP3 files in Windows
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nvm guys i got it
I have played with a large number of compression programs that claim to be “LOSSLESS” and this is not one I would choose. There is no such thing as LOSSLESS compression schemes. They al discard parts of the music in the compression formulas and as a result cannot duplicate the real music when de-compressed. Working with single discrete tones and multiple tones, there is some loss and cannot be replaced during de-compression.
Mike,
They do not all discard parts of the music. From:
http://flac.sourceforge.net/features.html
Notable features of FLAC:
* Lossless: The encoding of audio (PCM) data incurs no loss of information, and the decoded audio is bit-for-bit identical to what went into the encoder. Each frame contains a 16-bit CRC of the frame data for detecting transmission errors. The integrity of the audio data is further insured by storing an MD5 signature of the original unencoded audio data in the file header, which can be compared against later during decoding or testing.
nice explanations!
When converting flac to wav, what is the difference of converting at 44.100 khz 16 bit stereo 172 kb/sec and 48.000 khz 16 bit stereo 188 kb/sec? Which gives the best quality? Do all conversion methods of flac to mps result in the same quality? I am using winamp to wav and then itunes for wav to mp3. This method is free but I’m curious if some of the software that can be purchased results in a better (cleaner)mp3 result.
@MIKE …u kidding me? Take a PCM file and run it with ZIP or RAR arciver, then decompress… any difference? NO period. Same with FLAC or any other compression that is lossless. It’s a mathematical process and NOT a lossy way that inwolves throwing away parts. Read and learn before giving your opinion.
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