Even if you’ve got a good selection of audio software installed on your computer, you may find that it still lacks support for various audio formats. You may find for example that while ripping a CD using your favorite software media player, you are unable to convert to the MP3 format. Another scenario could involve the inability to use a streaming music service due to not having the right codec installed. The following list of free audio codecs will extend your computer’s audio format support and enable software such as CD rippers, CD burning software, and software media players to handle more formats.
1. Lame MP3 Encoder
Lame is a high quality open source MP3 encoder that you can use to encode to the MP3 format. It is a multi-platform project that can be used on Windows, MacOS X, Linux, and other operating systems. For your convenience, the above URL provides a list links to binary files that can be downloaded.
2. Orban AAC/aacPlus Plugin
This free audio plugin for Windows based systems can be used for the playback of AAC, AACPlus, HE-AAC, and eAAC+ audio files and streams. It is compatible with Microsoft Windows Media Player 6.4 and other Directshow compliant media players.
3. FLAC
FLAC which stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec is a format that is useful if you want high resolution sound without any loss of detail that you get using lossy formats such as MP3 . It’s another multi-platform open source project that supports Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and other operating systems.
