FLAC: Audio from WAV, metadata from MP3

Datum 20.12.25

Problem

WAV files deliver excellent sound pressure and dynamics, but they are poorly suited for metadata handling. Album titles, track numbers or cover art cannot be stored reliably.

Solution

FLAC combines lossless audio quality with fully integrated metadata. It unites the sonic advantages of WAV with the organisational strengths of MP3.

Easy way (Windows & macOS)

For Windows users, MusicBrainz Picard is the easiest solution. It is free, graphical, and automatically writes metadata, including cover art.

On macOS, Picard works just as well. On macOS, you can alternatively work directly in the Terminal – the default zsh (successor of the Korn shell) is fully sufficient. To open the Terminal using Spotlight:

⌘ Command + Space
Type Terminal and press Enter

Alternatively, go via Finder → Applications → Utilities → Terminal.

Step 1: Convert WAV to FLAC (lossless)

flac *.wav

Converts all WAV files in the current folder to FLAC without quality loss. The original WAV files remain untouched.

Step 2: Audio from WAV, metadata from MP3

ffmpeg \
  -i Your_Track_Title.mp3 \
  -i Your_Track_Title.wav \
  -map 1:a \
  -map_metadata 0 \
  -c:a flac \
  Your_Track_Title.flac

Legend:
– audio stream is taken from the WAV file
– metadata and cover art are taken from the MP3 file
– output format is FLAC (lossless)

Step 3: Fully automated (album-wide)

MP3 and WAV files are located in the same folder and share the same filename (for example 01 Title.mp3 and 01 Title.wav).

for f in *.wav; do
  base="${f%.wav}"
  ffmpeg \
    -i "$base.mp3" \
    -i "$base.wav" \
    -map 1:a \
    -map_metadata 0 \
    -c:a flac \
    "$base.flac"
done