Although not an application itself, this audio compression file format has some great advantages over other formats like Mp3 particularly for people looking for a higher level of digital audio quality or those looking to retain the full quality of their digital recordings when transferring files (e.g. ripping Cd's) to Computer. As you will have probably guessed from the picture, FLAC stands for 'Free Lossless Audio Codec'. Being lossless, FLAC does not remove information from the audio stream, as lossy compression formats such as MP3, AAC and many other popular formats do... Click the read more link below for more information and to download FLAC for free.

Just like mp3, FLAC is suitable for everyday audio playback and archival, with support for tagging, cover art and fast seeking. There are many free applications which can be used to playback, rip or edit flac files. FLAC reduces bandwidth and storage requirements without sacrificing the integrity of the audio source. A digital audio recording (such as a CD track) encoded to FLAC can be decompressed into an identical copy of the audio data.

A small file called a 'CUE' can optionally be created when ripping a CD. If a CD is read and ripped perfectly to FLAC files, the CUE file allows later burning of an audio CD that is identical in audio data to the original CD. This is great as it means that if you lose the original CD, then you can make an exact copy that is not of reduced quality, but is in fact an exact duplicate of the original. Bare in mind however that FLAC files are considerably larger than Mp3 files however still no where near as as large as uncompressed audio data in WAV format.

After using FLAC for while now I have really started to notice the difference in audio clarity and depth particularly when playing music on large sound systems. Digital Dj's may find it particularly useful as a compromise between a laptop disk space saving and maintaining high end digital audio quality. Highly recommended.To download FLAC for free and for a whole hosts of FLAC related applications and ripping programs click the following link:

FLAC - Home Page