FLAC to MP3 audio converter

Worked example

Convert FLAC to MP3 for phones, cars and shared drives: choose MP3 at 256 kbps for a high-quality copy, or 192 kbps when space matters.

FLAC to MP3 is the classic lossless-to-lossy move: the FLAC keeps every sample, while MP3 keeps a perceptual approximation. Because your source is clean, the bitrate you pick sets the final quality, so this is one place where 256 or 320 kbps is worth considering rather than wasted.

Size math for a 40-minute album (2,400 s): the WAV would be about 423 MB and a FLAC of it typically 210 to 250 MB. MP3 comes to 57.6 MB at 192 kbps, 76.8 MB at 256 kbps and 96 MB at 320 kbps, so 20 such albums shrink from roughly 4 to 5 GB to about 1.5 GB at 256 kbps.

Scenario: you have a lossless library and a phone with limited storage. If the FLACs are 96 kHz hi-res files, choose 44100 or 48000 for Sample rate explicitly, because MP3 is defined for 32, 44.1 and 48 kHz. Leave Channels on Keep source for stereo music.

Common mistake: deleting the FLACs after converting. Fix: keep them; you can always make a new MP3 from a FLAC but never a FLAC from an MP3. Check by comparing the durations, A/B listening to a dense passage such as strings or crowd noise, and confirming the track count matches.

sample.flac

sample.mp3

The 24-bit depth of a hi-res FLAC is not an MP3 property, so do not expect it to survive.