Handling Lossless Audio

Essential Software

Mac

• xACt

  Key features: Decoding/encoding FLAC/SHN, checksum, shntool frontend, fixing sector boundary errors (SBE), tagging, lossy compression, batch rename

Windows

• AddaWav

  Key feature: Combining WAV files

• CD Wave (not free, but no limitations on unregistered version)

  Key features: Creating/deleting split points in WAV (supports 24-bit and surround audio), splitting WAV, read/write CUE, encode FLAC/OGG/MP3

• dBpoweramp Music Converter (not free)

  Key features: Convert to MP3, FLAC, Apple lossless easily; also great for downsampling 24bit/96kHz audio to 16bit/44.1kHz audio.

• Exact Audio Copy

  Key feature: Best Windows software for burning error-free CDs

• Medieval CUE Splitter

  Key feature: Easy tool to split MP3s into tracks via CUE sheets

  Warning: Use only for splitting long MP3s. Not recommended for splitting FLAC/WAV as it reportedly introduces sector boundary errors (SBE) into audio. For splitting WAV, use CD Wave

• Trader's Little Helper

  Key features: Decoding/encoding APE/FLAC/SHN, checksum, fixing SBE, tagging, lossy compression, batch rename, torrent creation

Mac & Windows

• Audacity

  Key feature: General audio editing

• shntool

  Key features: Command line data processing and reporting utility for WAV files, with ability to handle other formats such as APE/FLAC (must install helper programs to do so)

  For Mac, the easiest installation method is via Homebrew

• FLAC

  Key features: Most common lossless audio compression format, with large repository of tools capable of handling the format

  For Mac, the easiest installation method for the command line tool is via Homebrew

Frequently Asked Questions

• What are Sector Boundary Errors?

  See detailed answer here