Okay, so now I've gotten pulled to the dark side. (Not of the moon, either.) I'm re-ripping my CD collection in FLAC.. Since the Karma can handle it, and the Empeg is rumored to (haven't tried it yet).. However, Have a question..
Is there a good FLAC -> MP3 encoding program? Using LAME frontend and the FLAC frontend (for windows) seperately. I'd LIKE a program that converted FLAC to MP3, and *KEPT* my tags from the FLAC to Mp3. Save ALOT of typing.. I was surprused at first to note that the LAME frontend couldn't handle FLAC file as input..

Me.

[Edit: I should mention, to the inevitable answer, 'Why not let it download the info from freedb?' is this: I have alot of songs on Dj mix CDs, Radio-only CDs, and 12-inch Vinyl that either aren't in the freedb/cddb databases (CDs..) or can't be. (Vinyl..) So I'm stuck entering in the info..]

Try dbpoweramp music convertor :-

http://www.dbpoweramp.com

I use it to convert from ape to mp3. It uses lame for mp3, and has a downloadable codec for flac.

Ah, thanks! I'll give it a shot..

Me.

i havent been able to find a way to use custom switches for lame in dbpoweramp. have you? all they give you is a simple encoding options window.

Hate to bring this up again, but I'm stumped...
I found a number of really useful ustilities(*) for doing what I need. Now I'm stuck with one problem...

All of the user-configurable ones come with/use the DOS executable "TAG.EXE". This program can only write ID3v1.1 tags. No 2.x tage. I really would like 2.x tags, since 30 chars often cuts off album/artist/song info. Anyone know of a command-line utility (or another way to get around this..) for ID3v2.x?

(I found what's got to be the absiolute best utilit for conversion. Frontah (http://home.vxu.se/mdati00/frontah/). Completely 100% configurable, reprogrammable, can be used with ANY program. (Not just encoders/decoders). I give it very high marks.)

Me.

this was the response I got when I asked this same question some time ago.

It may be the case something is available now which will do the job 'straight out the box' for ID3v2.x, if so I would love to know ...

Interesting.. You said you couldn't run tag on XP. It runs on mine just fine... However, the juiciest bit of news, from the TAG page, is:

Tag is released as freeware. Use at your own risk.
ID3v2 support with id3lib, which requires msvcp60.dll to function.

"support with id3lib".. That mean if I have the DLL file, it will write v2 tags? Or does that mean the "reading and removing" onl;y with the library? Too many unanswered questions. Erf.