FlacSquisher

FlacSquisher is a simple-to-use software app designed to create MP3 and OGG-formatted files from FLAC. It comes packed with standard and advanced settings alike to please users from both categories.

Setting up the program takes little time and effort. As far as the UI is concerned, FlacSquisher does not put emphasis on the appearance, preferring to take a straightforward approach to audio conversion.

The first step is pointing out the source and target directories. As you may have probably suspected by now, batch processing is supported, which means that multiple FLACs from a directory can be processed simultaneously to reduce overall task duration.

Before starting conversion, users may select the encoder and input additional command lines if necessary, as well as pick the number of threads to speed up the operation or be more forgiving on system performance.

As far as program options are concerned, it is possible to modify the default folders for the OGG, FLAC, Metaflac and Lame encoders, hide Command Prompt windows which otherwise pop up during encoding jobs, and use a non-standard copy of Lame. Output quality settings may be tweaked for each target format.

FlacSquisher also integrates options for creating lists with file extensions to ignore and to copy, respectively. Since the app is only capable of dealing with FLAC files, we find these settings redundant. The more disturbing aspect about the tool is that it processes all files included in the given source directory, and not just the FLAC-formatted ones. Basically, it increases overall task duration for nothing. The output quality of the resulted MP3 and OGG files is pretty good, though.

The tool does not put a strain on PC performance, using low CPU and RAM. However, it forces users to arrange source directories in such manner that they contain only FLACs. It encodes them nevertheless and delivers quality tracks, but jobs take a longer and unnecessary time when multiple files of different formats exist in the source directory.

There is a also a portable edition called Portable FlacSquisher, if you want to bypass the installer and run the app directly from a mass storage device.