Well I originally used dbPoweramp to convert FLAC to mp3 but the subscription ran out so what other programs are there that do these type of things?

You could use the diskwriter (CLI) in foobar2000. That's what I do. And there's no subscription involved

Or write a batch script to do the same : pipe the flac output to lame standard input, and output to an mp3 file based on original filename.

I tried using Foobar but had NO idea had to do that. Could you explain how?

http://foobar2000.free.fr/encodage/cliencoder.html here's a link, in french.

anyone got more links to guides?

I believe there is one on the forum... Did you try a google or forum search? They should both yield something (I'm too tired to do so -- I might publish a guide eventually if you say none exists, though...)

I have read people explaining how to do this many many times on the forums...just gotta look a little harder. I gave a brief explanation earlier today. Didn't really put alot of effort in it, but it's better than nothing
J