Burning FLAC files to Audio CD using Nero 8

By default Nero 8 does not include a decoder for FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files. This should also work in prior versions of Nero as well.

This is tested and working in Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Edit: From the comments, it appears that this only works when opening Nero through Nero Express or Nero Burning Rom. If you go through StartSmart, it may not work. I can’t test this because I don’t use StartSmart, it is bloated crap for the less IT inclined people to use.

  1. First of course you will need Nero installed.
  2. Open Nero Burning Rom.
  3. Cancel the first window, then go to File > Options
  4. Select the Audio tab.
  5. Make note of the Plug-in directory.
  6. Close Nero.
  7. Then make your way to bitburners.com and download the plugins you wish. If you are just doing FLAC files then all you need is the FLAC plug-in, not FAAC.
  8. Save the zip file to your desktop.
  9. Using your zip extration program of your choice, get the DLL file out of the zip.
  10. Copy the DLL to your Plug-in directory that you found out in Nero.
  11. Now restart Nero Burning Rom.
  12. Go to File > Options and press the Audio tab.
  13. This time press the Options button.
  14. You will see a list of all the plugins installed in Nero.
    image
  15. Now when you try and burn a file using Nero you will be able to add FLAC files to your CD.

68 Comments to “Burning FLAC files to Audio CD using Nero 8”

  1. Jan 15 February 2008 at 7:17 pm #

    In Nero I see the list with plugins (with flac) but when I try to
    burn a flac file the only result is the message “unexpected file
    format” What can I do? thanks Jan

  2. admin 27 February 2008 at 11:45 pm #

    @jan, Make sure Nero is not running. Copy the plugins back over overwriting the old ones. Then open Nero again.

  3. dave hilts 28 February 2008 at 4:39 am #

    I’ve done the required steps but still nero will not convert flac
    files for burning. i’ve installed the flac plugin several times but
    still no go. flac shows up in the options option on the audio tab
    but nero will not allow burning of flac audio files. any help would
    be great. i upgraded from Nero 7 and nero 7 did the flac conversion
    with out problem.

  4. admin 28 February 2008 at 7:12 pm #

    This was done using Nero 8 fresh install. I will try and find my Nero 7 CD and do an upgrade and see if it works.

    If possible, uninstall Nero and reinstall with just 8.

  5. dave hilts 29 February 2008 at 5:21 pm #

    I did uninstall 7 and did a fresh install of 8 but no go. This is a
    bummer because the flac plugin saved so much time and effort.

  6. admin 29 February 2008 at 6:20 pm #

    I tried an upgrade from 7 to 8 and it worked fine.

    There must be another underlying problem. It may be worth contacting Nero, although if you got Nero with a DVD writer then I am not sure they will give you support.

    Otherwise you will have to convert to WAV then burn the WAVs to CD. For that I prefer to use Foobar.

  7. dave hilts 29 February 2008 at 8:55 pm #

    okay, thanks for the heip

  8. bristolmar 2 March 2008 at 11:50 am #

    Exactly same problems as dave upgrade 7 to 8 lost ability to burn flac-istalled plugin several times no go deleted nero reinstalled 8 from scratch ditto plugin shows but when adding files flac is not in list of supported formats what a pile of junk whilst i now i can recode to wave it defeats what i do in filesharing which is download flac and share elsewhere in flac you would think nero would get such a basic right SPOOKIly the problem is on my desktop running xp.. having upgraded 7 to 8 on laptop running vista (supposedly the OS WWHICH MAY CAUSE PROBS HERE) ALL IS FINE ??????? THANKS TO ALL HERE FOR INPUT ANY OTHER IDEDAS? MARTIN

  9. ramona 8 March 2008 at 5:21 pm #

    for me, with vista an nero 8: have flac plugin installed like
    above. it works when i start with burning rom (essentials)and nero
    express (essentials). it didn´t work with nero start smart
    (essentials)! Shorten (shn) plugin didn´t work at all!

  10. clover 11 March 2008 at 7:42 am #

    crap, doesnt work, waste of bandwidth. tried all directions above,
    nero 8 still wont recognise FLAC files

  11. wicek 19 March 2008 at 11:37 am #

    For me works perfect. nERO 8.2.8.0 – VISTA 32 THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

  12. KANALGRILLEN 25 March 2008 at 2:02 am #

    thanks! works just fine with nero 7 and XP here. JUST ADDED THE
    PLUGIN, DIDNT RESTART NERO OR ANYTHING.

  13. supraTTman 22 April 2008 at 8:59 pm #

    Got Nero 8. Same problem as Jan – unexpected file format when
    loading flac files. Done same as Dave H – without success. Agree
    with bristolmar – sack of wa*k. Downgrading to Ver. 7

  14. supraTTman 22 April 2008 at 9:29 pm #

    Got pi*#ed off with Nero. This freeby – Burrn – worked first time :
    http://www.burrrn.net/?page_id=6

  15. lostcause 18 May 2008 at 2:15 pm #

    worked fine for me nero 8 with vista

  16. Abraxas1 20 May 2008 at 4:25 pm #

    Works fine no problems

  17. Alejandro Dintrans 22 May 2008 at 4:21 pm #

    thanx!! works in nero 8

  18. Funny Honey 24 May 2008 at 2:51 pm #

    I tried this and also here big shit does not work who can help me

  19. Funny Honey 24 May 2008 at 2:53 pm #

    I tried exactly as described but does not work I really find this
    apain in the ass and do not undertsand why NERO does not have APE
    and flac on board whn you buy it. this is an outrage to drop 2 of
    the most popular features in music files somebody any idea

  20. Big Tex 24 May 2008 at 3:27 pm #

    I had the same experience as Ramona with Nero 8. The FLAC plug-in
    works in Nero Burning ROM and Express, but it does not work in the
    Nero Start Smart burning program. In my opinion it is very
    short-sighted of Nero to not provide native FLAC support. In my
    experience most digital music sites that offer a lossless file
    download option do so in FLAC. Sure, I can convert FLAC to WAV with
    FLAC Frontend and then burn WAV to CD with Nero, but that is a
    convoluted path.

  21. hoover 25 May 2008 at 11:07 pm #

    I used this and it worked perfectly first time. It was the first
    time I had used Nero (demo version) or had anything to do with flac
    files.

  22. jon 27 May 2008 at 4:17 pm #

    worked fine with me on nero 8, all as described, the only thing i
    can think that different is that i went into task manager to ensure
    all of nero was closed down in step 6. Thankyou very much.

  23. Mike 27 June 2008 at 4:08 pm #

    Thank You So much for this post!!! It works so great for me. Kisses
    from this part of the Earth!

  24. PaulH 28 June 2008 at 2:26 pm #

    Superb, Thanks for the info. Worked perfectly, even though you lose
    the Track info. Just deciding if to re-rip all my cd’s that i have
    ripped to my Request in 320mp3 !!! BTW – ramona & KANALGRILLEN
    - Don’t blame the process ‘cos it does work.

  25. Joe 3 July 2008 at 3:15 pm #

    Didn’t work for me in Nero Start Smart but DID work if I went
    straight to Burning ROM.

  26. admin 3 July 2008 at 10:13 pm #

    In that case appears StartSmart won’t work.

    I can’t test it because I don’t install it.

  27. Riddick 9 July 2008 at 12:26 pm #

    Works like a charm, thank you :) It DOES NOT matter which way you
    use Nero (Start Smart or Burning Room) if you put the plug-in in
    right place ;)

  28. Tom 11 July 2008 at 12:45 pm #

    Shorten plugin worked fine for me, XP, Nero Micro 8… Many thanx
    :)

  29. Patrick 13 July 2008 at 4:56 am #

    Worked like a charm for me – Vista x86 – Thanks

  30. name 19 July 2008 at 12:31 pm #

    best of the best it is,

  31. Pirata 22 July 2008 at 5:32 am #

    NO NEED TO UNINSTALL NERO OR INSTALL WHATEVER PLUGIN!! To make FLAC
    work with nero 8: – download nxMyFLA.DLL (pls. google it!) Copy to
    C:\Program Files\Common Files\Nero\AudioPlugin To verify your Audio
    plugin directory: Open your Nero Burning ROM goto
    Files\Options\Audio Enjoy burning!

  32. Matt 12 August 2008 at 1:58 pm #

    awesome thanks

  33. me 22 August 2008 at 7:01 am #

    brilliant works a treat thanks for the info

  34. fineasski 10 September 2008 at 4:57 pm #

    Worked 100% fine for me, thanks!

  35. Galron 21 September 2008 at 10:07 am #

    Thanks Pirata,
    Your solustion works “flawlessly”

  36. Goe 25 September 2008 at 11:15 pm #

    Past audio plugins in this directory: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Nero\AudioPlugins.

    I’am using Windows Vista and Nero 8+

  37. motley 26 September 2008 at 4:43 am #

    You da man! tried everywhere and every thing. this worked thanx

  38. topcow 12 October 2008 at 3:26 am #

    Thank you for this, very big help!

  39. you_are_a_noise 19 October 2008 at 5:26 am #

    you saved me tonight!!

    peace-peace,
    steve

  40. skelter 26 October 2008 at 11:25 pm #

    Very useful … I’d been looking for this advice for quite sometime. Thank you very much!

  41. ramona 4 November 2008 at 11:42 pm #

    PaulH,
    my contribution month ago was a serios statement, i didn´t blame anybody!
    I´m able to put plugins in the rigth direction, but shorten (shn) is still not working here. Maybe this is because of my “Essentials”-Version of Nero 8. Same with the bug in Nero StartSmart; didn´t recognise flac or shn as audio-files.
    Burning flac with Express or Burning ROM works, as i said before,absolutely perfect. Thanks to James!
    Curios, CD burning plugin for foobar uses Nero. With Foobar´s Nero component, í´m able to burn shn´s, but not with Nero…

    PaulH Says: (June 28th, 2008 at 2:26 pm)
    ramona & KANALGRILLEN
    - Don’t blame the process ‘cos it does work.

  42. Sunil 20 November 2008 at 11:14 am #

    Thank you it worked like a charm for me.

  43. Cristiano mesquita 25 November 2008 at 1:23 am #

    I am Brazilian and for here there is not anything and I thank this plug-in
    wonderful, thank you, thank you very much even

  44. Vladimir 2 December 2008 at 6:10 pm #

    Many thanks!!!

  45. Ben 21 December 2008 at 2:22 pm #

    Hi
    I spent quite a while trying to find a solution to this problem and after trying various other options I came across your article. It worked perfectly. Thanks very much.

  46. Sheri 21 December 2008 at 5:29 pm #

    Pirata is da bomb! THANKS SO MUCH for this perfect solution to burning .flac files in Nero Express!

  47. S 22 January 2009 at 4:41 am #

    If you are dragging and dropping the file from Zip file to the folder, it doesn’t work. I did it that way first time.. it didn’t work. I extracted the files to the plugins folder it worked. Incase if burning ROM doesn’t work, try nero express… NERO burning ROM did not work for me but express did……. THANKS!!!

  48. grateful 24 January 2009 at 6:20 am #

    After months of trying , this last post gave the solution. EXTRACT THE nxMYFLA zip directly into the audio plugin folder.
    does not work with nero smart , worked with ROM and EXpress.

    thanks to S…….

  49. Tavi 9 March 2009 at 9:25 pm #

    Thank’s a million. Own u some beers..:D
    It works.
    Do not open Nero Start Smart but NERO Burning ROM and then file,options…
    VISTA owner
    ty again

  50. PluToN1uM 24 March 2009 at 3:27 am #

    Works fine!

    *lotofbeer*

    Thank You!

  51. mark 26 April 2009 at 9:55 am #

    Worked perfectly for me with Nero 8114. Thank you.

  52. Geo 1 May 2009 at 9:16 pm #

    Works like a charm.
    Thanks for the tip!

  53. Mariano 5 May 2009 at 9:56 pm #

    Funciona a la perfección.

  54. cybrcamper 20 May 2009 at 4:46 pm #

    Works in Win7, build 7100, Nero 8 Express. Didn’t have to do anything in “options”, I don’t think there is anything in Express to set. Note; the plugins in 8 don’t seem to have an “nx” prefix; don’t rename the plugin regardless. Just leave it as is, and it will work just fine.

  55. Keith from NY 21 May 2009 at 2:15 am #

    Just downloaded and installed the plugin and it seems to be working perfectly in Nero Burning ROM. Running Nero 8 on Vista 64.

    Thank you!!

  56. Cal68 24 May 2009 at 3:09 am #

    it works fine you dildos. you just have to burn the express way

  57. mcfat 27 May 2009 at 6:43 am #

    worked great. win xp, nero 8.3.6.0

  58. Tony 29 May 2009 at 11:14 am #

    Cheers! this worked a treat! Just remember its ‘Program files – Common files’ and then when you restart Nero, use burning rom to create your audio cd.

  59. Thomas 4 June 2009 at 7:53 pm #

    Thanks a lot! It works with NERO Burning Essentials 8 and VISTA64

  60. Petros 23 June 2009 at 3:48 pm #

    I was getting in a mess, then I searched google and came across this advice page
    Admin and Pirala thank you very much,
    I will add this site to Favs
    Great job, I am so happy

  61. Peter 12 July 2009 at 12:22 pm #

    Thanks alot, man! Works like a charm :)

  62. the_swarm 15 July 2009 at 8:53 am #

    i just tried this and it worked perfectly. thank you for the plug-in. you’re a life saver!

  63. Wuxter 24 August 2009 at 4:32 pm #

    Works fine for me, (just follow the directions as the post says) thanks for your help !

  64. Marie 7 September 2009 at 4:40 am #

    Great! Works perfectly! :) Thank you!

  65. Ludmata 2 October 2009 at 10:07 pm #

    YEEEE, Thank you for this info! Helped me very much! Wish you luck

  66. Madazz 7 December 2009 at 5:00 am #

    Thanks man you rock works Mint I love no muck around help w0000p w0000p THANKS

  67. shahira 8 March 2010 at 12:51 am #

    WORKS! thanks. I used Burning Rom, 8

  68. Careless 13 March 2010 at 9:35 am #

    works for –many thanks
    Have nero seven


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