If you're new to FLAC, I hope this document will help you get your 
feet wet.

WHAT IS FLAC?  HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM SHN?

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Compression) is a lossless compression 
format like SHN, and it's as easy to use as SHN -- maybe even easier.  
There's one big difference between the two formats -- FLAC has no .md5 
files.  Instead, each .flac file has within it a "fingerprint" 
checksum.  Instead of "verifying" the .md5 file that comes with .shn 
files, you just "test" each .flac file, and FLAC will pull the 
fingerprint from within the .flac file and check it for you.  Pretty 
neat, huh?

HOW DOES FLAC WORK WITH ETREE?  CAN I VISUALLY COMPARE FLAC FILESETS 
WITHOUT .MD5 FILES?  

Fortunately, it's easy to extract all of the FLAC fingerprints to a 
text file that looks like an .md5 file, so that you can visually 
compare one .flac fileset to another .flac fileset -- just like 
comparing .md5s using etree.  These files have the extension ".ffp" or 
".ffp.txt".  Open them with any text editor, like Notepad, and you'll 
see the checksums listed inside.  Remember, though -- you don't use 
the .ffp files to verify the .flacs. Instead, you "test" each .flac 
directly.  More about this in a minute.

WHERE DO I GET FLAC?

If you're a Linux user, you'll need the command line verion of FLAC.  
Start here:  http://flac.sourceforge.net

If you're a Mac user, there's a nifty program called MacFLAC here:  
http://www.danrules.com/macflac/

If you're a PC user, you can download the FLAC Frontend here: 
http://sparkle.etree.org/flac
You'll find instructions for using the FLAC Frontend here:  
http://wiki.etree.org/index.php?page=FlacFrontend

Both of these programs make using FLAC a snap.

HOW DO I USE FLAC?

You can use FLAC from the command line, just like you might have used 
shorten.exe.  If you're a Linux user, you'll have to do that.  Use the 
command "flac -t *.flac" to test the files, and "flac -d *.flac" to 
decode them.  In fact, you can skip the "-t" part entirely and start 
right up with "-d", because FLAC will report any checksum errors on 
decoding.  A complete list of commands is available on the FLAC 
homepage (look below).  

How does FLAC work on a PC or MAC?  Basically, just like with SHN, you 
load .flac files into the center window of the FLAC software, and 
click on ""test" to check that they aren't corrupted.  Once everything 
checks out, click "decode" to convert the .flac files to .wav or 
.aiff.  It's that simple.  

For more information about using FLAC, here's a good place to get 
started, and the FLAC homepage for reference and if you decide to dig 
deeper:  

http://wiki.etree.org/index.php?page=FLAC  
http://flac.sourceforge.net

Happy listening.