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Tool
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fre:ac is a free audio converter and CD ripper which integrates various popular formats and encoders. It currently supports MP3, MP4/M4A, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC and Bonk files. It makes it easy to convert your audio CDs to MP3 or Ogg Vorbis files which you can use in your hardware player or with your favorite audio software. The program supports the CDDB/freedb online CD database and CDText and automatically writes song information to ID3v2 or Vorbis comment tags.
Free software
OS:
File size: 22MB
Portable version
Old versions
Version history
Alternative software
OS:
File size: 22MB
Portable version
Old versions
Version history
Alternative software
Screenshots
Latest version
Download
Download fre:ac 1.1.7 Windows 64-bit 21MB Win64
Download fre:ac 1.1.7 Windows 22MB Win
Download fre:ac 1.1.7 Mac 64-bit 29MB Mac64
Download fre:ac 1.1.7 Linux 64-bit 21MB Linux64
Download Beta, Portable and other versions
Portable 
Download fre:ac 1.1.7 Portable Windows 20MB Win
Portable Download fre:ac 1.1.7 Windows ARM 64-bit 21MB WinARM64
Download fre:ac latest Beta/Nightly Portable Windows 64-bit 24MB Win64
Portable Download fre:ac latest Beta/Nightly Mac 24MB Mac
Download fre:ac latest Beta/Nightly Linux 24MB Linux
Download old versions
Software License
Supported operating systems
Mac OS Linux Version history / Release notes / Changelog / What's New
Version 1.1.7 (March 2023)
- New features
- added a tool for splitting output by various parameters (e.g. duration or number of files)
- added support for dithering when reducing sample resolution
- added a matrix surround decoder DSP component
- added a volume adjustment DSP component
- Improvements
- added support for WavPack Hybrid Lossless compression with correction files
- added support for decoding MPEG-4 DASH files
- added support for opening WebM audio files with the .weba extension
- added support for downmixing 6.1 channel audio
- added support for MusicBrainz metadata in ID3v2, MP4, Vorbis Comment, APEv2 and WMA tags
- added support for sort order fields in ID3v2, MP4, Vorbis Comment, APEv2 and WMA tags
- added support for rating field in Vorbis Comment, APEv2, MP4 and LIST INFO tags
- added rating field to the tag editor
- added optional release year column to the joblist
- changed <disc> filename placeholder to resolve to 1 if disc number is not set
- improved compatibility with applications writing non-compliant LIST INFO tags (e.g. Traktor)
- added an option to use source file names as output file names if no metadata is present
- added an option to control extraction of missing metadata from file names
- added an option to restrict file names for reading cover art
- added an option to disable intensity stereo phase inversion to Opus settings
- added AccurateRip notification options for successful verification and missing database entries
- sample rate conversion no longer converts to 32 bit float when the source rate matches the target
- added negative exit codes to indicate errors when running freaccmd
- added support for KDE color schemes (including dark mode)
- improved HiDPI scale factor detection in KDE desktop environments
- respect text scaling factor in addition to font size setting on X11 based systems
- Bug fixes
- fixed crashes when decoding ALAC files (especially with the Windows Store version)
- fixed failure (hang and abort after several seconds) to decode chapters from ALAC files
- fixed interoperability issues of HE- and HEv2-AAC files created with FDK-AAC with foobar2000
- fixed incorrect gapless information when creating HE- and HEv2-AAC files with FDK-AAC
- fixed incorrect index times in cuesheets for very long multi-track files
- fixed incorrect inclusion of data tracks in the audio track count of CD offset strings
- fixed old data remaining in place after updating WMA file tags
- fixed selected format resetting to first entry when opening WMA config dialog
- fixed excessive bitrate when encoding Vorbis on non-x86 LP64 systems
- fixed decoding of MP4 files with a single chunk taking excessively long
- fixed HDCD detection for tracks starting with more than about one second of silence
- fixed floating point samples being converted to integer when creating WavPack files
- fixed inability to close cover art popup window on Linux
- fixed long paths being converted to 8.3 format on recent versions of Windows
- fixed inability to handle long network paths on some versions of Windows
- fixed disc insert and removal detection working unreliably on Windows
- Updated codecs
- updated ALAC decoder for security fixes and improved performance
- updated FFmpeg to version 6.0
- updated Monkey's Audio to version 9.20
- updated WavPack to version 5.6.0
- updated Tom's Audiokompressor to version 2.3.3
- updated FLAC to version 1.4.2
- updated Speex to version 1.2.1
- updated MP4v2 to version 2.1.2
- updated mpg123 to version 1.31.2
- updated libsndfile to version 1.2.0
- Updated translations
- updated Greek translation
- New features
- added a tool for splitting output by various parameters (e.g. duration or number of files)
- added support for dithering when reducing sample resolution
- added a matrix surround decoder DSP component
- added a volume adjustment DSP component
- Improvements
- added support for WavPack Hybrid Lossless compression with correction files
- added support for decoding MPEG-4 DASH files
- added support for opening WebM audio files with the .weba extension
- added support for downmixing 6.1 channel audio
- added support for MusicBrainz metadata in ID3v2, MP4, Vorbis Comment, APEv2 and WMA tags
- added support for sort order fields in ID3v2, MP4, Vorbis Comment, APEv2 and WMA tags
- added support for rating field in Vorbis Comment, APEv2, MP4 and LIST INFO tags
- added rating field to the tag editor
- added optional release year column to the joblist
- changed <disc> filename placeholder to resolve to 1 if disc number is not set
- improved compatibility with applications writing non-compliant LIST INFO tags (e.g. Traktor)
- added an option to use source file names as output file names if no metadata is present
- added an option to control extraction of missing metadata from file names
- added an option to restrict file names for reading cover art
- added an option to disable intensity stereo phase inversion to Opus settings
- added AccurateRip notification options for successful verification and missing database entries
- sample rate conversion no longer converts to 32 bit float when the source rate matches the target
- added negative exit codes to indicate errors when running freaccmd
- added support for KDE color schemes (including dark mode)
- improved HiDPI scale factor detection in KDE desktop environments
- respect text scaling factor in addition to font size setting on X11 based systems
- Bug fixes
- fixed crashes when decoding ALAC files (especially with the Windows Store version)
- fixed failure (hang and abort after several seconds) to decode chapters from ALAC files
- fixed interoperability issues of HE- and HEv2-AAC files created with FDK-AAC with foobar2000
- fixed incorrect gapless information when creating HE- and HEv2-AAC files with FDK-AAC
- fixed incorrect index times in cuesheets for very long multi-track files
- fixed incorrect inclusion of data tracks in the audio track count of CD offset strings
- fixed old data remaining in place after updating WMA file tags
- fixed selected format resetting to first entry when opening WMA config dialog
- fixed excessive bitrate when encoding Vorbis on non-x86 LP64 systems
- fixed decoding of MP4 files with a single chunk taking excessively long
- fixed HDCD detection for tracks starting with more than about one second of silence
- fixed floating point samples being converted to integer when creating WavPack files
- fixed inability to close cover art popup window on Linux
- fixed long paths being converted to 8.3 format on recent versions of Windows
- fixed inability to handle long network paths on some versions of Windows
- fixed disc insert and removal detection working unreliably on Windows
- Updated codecs
- updated ALAC decoder for security fixes and improved performance
- updated FFmpeg to version 6.0
- updated Monkey's Audio to version 9.20
- updated WavPack to version 5.6.0
- updated Tom's Audiokompressor to version 2.3.3
- updated FLAC to version 1.4.2
- updated Speex to version 1.2.1
- updated MP4v2 to version 2.1.2
- updated mpg123 to version 1.31.2
- updated libsndfile to version 1.2.0
- Updated translations
- updated Greek translation
View full changelog
Sections/Browse similar tools
Alternative to fre:ac
(Latest version updated)CDex (Jan 14, 2015)
Exact Audio Copy (Jul 14, 2024)
EZ CD Audio Converter (Mar 12, 2025)
Guides and How to's
Tool features - Convert
Acronyms / Also Known As
Download fre:ac Portable download from the Download links under Download and Download other versions!
Notify me when software updated or report software
| 18 reviews, Showing 1 to 5 reviews |
This is a best in class program. An update to its libraries would help to keep it that way (hint).
Review by RD on
Jan 28, 2025 Version: fre ac 1.1.7
OS: Windows 7 64-bit Ease of use: 10/10
Functionality: 10/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 10/10
Software which most certainly deserves your support and donations. With this kind of continuos development by the developer- who is a great guy by the way- and his hardwork put into fre-ac you should be looking at paying for a product from the commercial sector such is its quality!
It's not easy to navigate at first as there's a lot to take in, but it is much more than a CD ripper. Is audio normalization a feature now one wonders as it has a lot of useful options? Superb freeware!
It's not easy to navigate at first as there's a lot to take in, but it is much more than a CD ripper. Is audio normalization a feature now one wonders as it has a lot of useful options? Superb freeware!
Review by ALEX on
Jan 23, 2022 Version: 1.1.6
OS: Windows 8 64-bit Ease of use: 9/10
Functionality: 9/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 10/10
There are two versions for Mac. Videohelp only links to M1 and MacOS 11.X.
If you have macOS Catalina 10.15 or earlier versions you can find the other Mac version on it's official website freac dot org
great for extracting audio out of m4b audiobooks to prepare for m4b-tool to make a small 32kbps audiobook
great for converting 320kpbs mp3 to 96kpbs opus music
If you have macOS Catalina 10.15 or earlier versions you can find the other Mac version on it's official website freac dot org
great for extracting audio out of m4b audiobooks to prepare for m4b-tool to make a small 32kbps audiobook
great for converting 320kpbs mp3 to 96kpbs opus music
Review by mrbass on
Jun 27, 2021 Version: 1.1.5
OS: MacOSX Ease of use: 8/10
Functionality: 10/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 10/10
Deserves your support and kind donations. Lovely software!
Review by Jake on
May 11, 2021 Version: 1.1.4
OS: Windows 7 64-bit Ease of use: 9/10
Functionality: 9/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 10/10
At last switched from faac to fdk! Also support for replay gain. Great update. Many thanks. Deserves your support and donations.
Review by Simon on
Feb 15, 2021 Version: 1.1.4
OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10
Functionality: 10/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 10/10
| 18 reviews, Showing 1 to 5 reviews |
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Our hosted software are virus and malware scanned with several antivirus programs using www.virustotal.com. (NOTE! Just one virustotal warning is 99.9% a false positive. And some software might receive 2-6 warnings but it's if they are not all same virus/trojan then it's 99% false positives.)
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Type and download
NO MORE UPDATES? = The software hasn't been updated in over 2 years.
NO LONGER DEVELOPED = The software hasn't been updated in over 5 years.
RECENTLY UPDATED = The software has been updated the last 31 days.
Freeware = Download Free software.
Freeware Trialware = Download Free software but some parts are trial/shareware.
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Free software Trialware = Download Free software and also open source code but some parts are trial/shareware.
Freeware Ads = Download Free software but supported by advertising, usually with a included browser toolbar. It may be disabled when installing or after installation.
Free software Ads = Free Download software and open source code but supported by advertising, usually with a included browser toolbar. It may be disabled when installing or after installation.
Trialware = Also called shareware or demo. Free Trial version available for download and testing with usually a time limit or limited functions.
Payware = No demo or trial available.
Portable version = A portable/standalone version is available. No installation is required.
v1.0.1 = Latest version available.
Download beta = It could be a Beta, RC(Release Candidate) or an Alpha / Nightly / Unstable version of the software.
Download 15MB = A direct link to the software download.
Win = Windows download version. It works on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.
Win64 = Windows 64-bit download version. It works only on 64-bit Windows.
Mac = Mac download version. It works on 32-bit and 64-bit Mac OS.
Mac64 = Mac OS download version. It works only on 64-bit Mac OS.
Linux = Linux download version.
Portable = Portable version. No installation is required.
Ad-Supported = The software is bundled with advertising. Be careful when you install the software and disable addons that you don't want!
Visit developers site = A link to the software developer site.
Download (mirror link) = A mirror link to the software download. It may not contain the latest versions.
Download old versions = Free downloads of previous versions of the program.
Download 64-bit version = If you have a 64bit operating system you can download this version.
Download portable version = Portable/Standalone version meaning that no installation is required, just extract the files to a folder and run directly.
Portable version available = Download the portable version and you can just extract the files and run the program without installation.
Old versions available = Download old versions of the program.
Version history available = Complete changelog on our site.
= Windows version available. = Mac OS version available. = Linux version available.Our hosted software are virus and malware scanned with several antivirus programs using www.virustotal.com. (NOTE! Just one virustotal warning is 99.9% a false positive. And some software might receive 2-6 warnings but it's if they are not all same virus/trojan then it's 99% false positives.)
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