Music Issues: FLAC to WAV to MP3?

Question

Does the quality of audio, in music, go down every time you convert it into a newer format?

I just finished downloading some music in FLAC format. But since iTunes won't play FLAC files, I have to convert them into MP3s. Will the quality go down?

Please help! Thank you very much.

Answer 1

OK. first of all Flac stands for free loss less audio codec, which means that when you rip a CD into Flac, it is a bit for bit duplicate copy of the original files on the CD. Flac takes the information off the CD and compresses it as far as it possibly can without throwing out digital information, unlike the mp3 format. When Flac is played back it will sound every bit as good as the original source from which you got it from. The Wav format is also a loss less format. However unlike Flac, it does not compress the digital information at all. It is just as big as the files on the CD. But this is the only difference between Flac and Wav. Both Wav and Flac are identical formats, as in they are both loss less audio codecs. mp3 on the other hand is known as a lossy codec. mp3 works by what is known as perceptual hearing. What mp3 does, is take an educated guess at the song you are trying to convert, and throws out sounds from the CD that it doesn't think that you will hear. This is why mp3 files are so much smaller then Flac, and Wav files. Now you can convert loss less audio codecs all day long, and all night long as much as you want, because at no point is any digital information being thrown out. (Hence loss less). Now every time you convert a lossy file like mp3, or a file like aac, or Wma, you will get a worse sounding file with every encoding. The reason is that every time a lossy file is converted, the encoding program that you are using constantly reassess the music file, and throws out sounds it doesn't think that you will hear. The problem is the encoding program usually never gets it right after about 2 conversions. After about 2 conversions even at high bit rates like 320 kbps, your music will start to sound flat and muddy. Lossy files like mp3 will keep on throwing out digital information with every conversion. (Aka, lossy) Now you can copy and paste a lossy codec, like mp3 all day long if you want. you can move it to your mp3 player or a different file folder with no problem. It is just when you covert it from one format like Wav, to mp3 and back, to say Wma, then back to mp3 again, will you loose quality. And NO! mp3 does not have a shelf life where it will deteriorate with time. It will only degrade if you convert it from one format to another.

Answer 2

FLAC files are your highest quality audio files you can get.



I believe is slightly goes down when you convert, but not enough to make a noticeable difference. IMO, use winamp to play the files because it supports almost every file format and, from my experience, has a nicer interface then iTunes. It also boots up way faster.



The main difference between FLAC and an MP3 file at 320kbps (the highest quality mp3) is the fact that mp3 files deteriorate due to 'rotational velocidensity' Flac does not deteriorate and will sound just as good as it did 10 years ago.

Answer 3

Convert flac to wav that won't lost any quality, but convert wav to mp3 that will lose some quality, and you can use a better way to convert FLAC to MP3 for iTunes, you can use RZ MP3 Converter, it's FREE, it can convert any videos and audios to mp3 audio files, such as convert flac files to mp3 files. but you have to know, for iTunes, m4a(aac) file is the best audio format, m4a(aac) offer the better quality than mp3, so if you want to keep the better quality, you can use RZ Audio Converter to convert your FLAC audio files to m4a(aac) audio files, it can convert any audio files between different formats, such as convert flac files to m4a(aac), or convert flac files to mp3 files, etc. You can yahoo or google search and download RZ MP3 Converter or RZ Audio Converter, both easy to use, hope these infos can help you.

Answer 4

You can convert FLAC to MP3, then put it onto your ipod, that's OK.

You can try this Tipard All music Converter.

It can

* Convert audio among almost all audio formats

* Extract music from videos like AVI, MPEG, MP4, WMV, etc.

* Merge several audio files into one file, or split one audio file to several files

Hope it can help you, more informaiton you can get, here:

http://www.google.com/custom?hl=en&domains=www.tipard.com&q=tipard+all+music+converter&btnG=Search&sitesearch=www.tipard.com

Answer 5

hi, it is really easy to do that.

here i recommend you a really nice audio converter.

it can help you to convert your flac to wav and mp3 format easily.

Free download it here:

http://www.aiseesoft.com/audio-converter.html

Answer 6

You can choice an audio converter to help you here.

http://www.drm-remove.com/

Answer 7

it depends on how you convert them