Can anyone suggest a good totally free mp3 converter?
cdex version 1.51
Great program to use in conjuction with the lame encoder.
old but not bad (cdex 1.51 is 2 years old too) … in conjuction with lame …
but for a simple single wav-file conversion you can use any free or comercial wave editor that features mp3-encoding.
Lame is definitely the king of mp3 encoders.
Razorlame is my preferred interface to it, but winLame is also very nice and simple to use.
Software for other platforms which uses Lame can be found here:
http://lame.sourceforge.net/links.html
I use RazorLame from wav to mp3 conversion, as already suggested (although I did recently find somebody who couldn’t listen to my tracks encoded with it for some reason.)
If you need to be doing work from CDs and the like as well I would suggest CDex, which has also already been mentioned 
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you can always use reaper (since it’s (really) free except banner on launch ). You can batch convert and many more useful stuff 
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FLICFLAC
https://sector-seven.com/software/flicflac
(Free & Portable)
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Lamedrop. Super straight forward to use:
https://rarewares.org/mp3-lamedrop.php
There also is a version which encodes FLACs:
https://rarewares.org/lossless.php#flacdrop-l3m
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Audacity will do it as well, and you can also set up a chain to process multiple files to export. Audacity
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FlicFlac is definitely my go-to encoder/converter these days. Does exactly what it needs to with no other bullshit. Gets a big +1 from me.
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use reaper to render mp3’s the installer is 11mb 
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I like X Lossless Decoder (XLD) for macos. It can do various things like encode/decode m4a, flac ,alac ,rip cds, import dsd, add cddb data, etc.
https://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html
I use ffmpeg/avconv on linux to do the job from terminal…
And for mp3 don’t forget to use a proper tag editor. I use “easytag” on linux.
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