Can I convert audio files? I have recently started to re-record some of my favorite CDs onto a thumb drive to use in the car instead of carrying several pounds of CDs with me (my last...

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

I have recently started to re-record some of my favorite CDs onto a thumb drive to use in the car instead of carrying several pounds of CDs with me (my last drive was swiped from my car along with a container of spare change).I had been using .wav to burn the music but just noticed that .flac is also lossless, but takes up less space. Can I somehow convert from one format to another or so I need to just scrap what I did and re-rip with .flac? So far I have 6 CDs on the drive ranging from Miles Davis to Star Wars. I use Windows Media Player.

therwol Loc: USA

planepics wrote:

I have recently started to re-record some of my fa... (show quote)

I would just redo what you've done if there are only 6 CDs involved. You might want to test your car stereo to see if will play .flac files. It should.

Klickitatdave Loc: Seattle Washington

NCH software has a audio converter that will convert wave files to flac format. There is a free version but the description on their website notes that there is a limitation but not specifically what that limitation actually means.
The non-limited version is $40 for non-commercial use. I would try the free version first to see if it will meet your needs. I have purchased their photo format converter and I was not disappointed so I believe that they are a good software company to deal with.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

From what I can find, flac is only playable on the most advanced media players.
(So I'll guess that my old boom box won't play them.)
Will it work in your car?
Windows Media Player does not support flac.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

I found a "free" version, but when I found out it would only convert about 2 of the songs on the disc (1/3 of the files) I said "fuggetaboutit", deleted the album from my thumb drive and re-ripped in .flac. I tried it in the car, but it's always been wonky and couldn't get the search thing to work right...kept on trying to play Beethoven...then my car shut off to conserve the battery, or so it said. So I gave up and tried it on my Denon receiver - I'm listening to it now. I'll just delete everything else on the thumb drive and re-do them. I may just get a few more drives and put jazz on one, pop on another, etc. My current drive is 15 GB...I have no idea how much I can put on it, but somewhere in a pile of crap on my floor is a 120 GB drive I was going to use to transfer pics and other things from my old laptop.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

Longshadow wrote:

From what I can find, flac is only playable on the most advanced media players.
(So I'll guess that my old boom box won't play them.)
Will it work in your car?
Windows Media Player does not support flac.

Not true. It was one of the ripping quality options.
Happy New Year, everyone!

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Audacity is free and will convert almost anything to anything (but I haven’t checked .wav to .flac files)

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

planepics wrote:

Not true. It was one of the ripping quality options.
Happy New Year, everyone!

Well, that's what I read, on the internet.......

Maybe the Win 10/11 version supports it?????

No one puts rev #s in their statements, they simply say "media player"..... "Windows"....

BebuLamar

I simply just use the *.wav format. It takes less than a gig per hour of music and it's uncompressed. A small 32GB is good for more than 32 hours so it's a lot of music.
If I really want to save room I use MP3 but I rarely do that. I am not familar with *.flac format.

Mr. SONY Loc: LI, NY

BebuLamar wrote:

I simply just use the *.wav format. It takes less than a gig per hour of music and it's uncompressed. A small 32GB is good for more than 32 hours so it's a lot of music.
If I really want to save room I use MP3 but I rarely do that. I am not familar with *.flac format.

But mp3's work fine usually.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Mr. SONY wrote:

But mp3's work fine usually.

But the Flacs files will sound better.

therwol Loc: USA

TriX wrote:

But the Flacs files will sound better.

In my experience, high bit rate MP3 files sound fine in a car. The problem I have with MP3s is that the format doesn't support gapless playback. No matter how you copy a CD to MP3 files, there will be a pause between tracks on playback. This is annoying when there isn't a gap in the music when playing the CD, when one movement or song blends into the next. An example is the transition between the third and fourth movements of Beethoven's fifth symphony.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

therwol wrote:

In my experience, high bit rate MP3 files sound fine in a car. The problem I have with MP3s is that the format doesn't support gapless playback. No matter how you copy a CD to MP3 files, there will be a pause between tracks on playback. This is annoying when there isn't a gap in the music when playing the CD, when one movement or song blends into the next. An example is the transition between the third and fourth movements of Beethoven's fifth symphony.

The reason MP3s sound reasonable in automobiles is the background noise limits the dynamic range, so the compression isn’t that noticeable. In fact, the compression may actually help by making the quieter passages above the noise floor and audible.

Laramie Loc: Tempe

I have used CDex on ~1100 CDs. It serves my purposes, and is portable.CDex will rip to Flac format.

w8vln

try these file converters

https://www.freefileconvert.com/formats