I used to be intimidated by it and am now relatively comfortable with it. I'm sure some others have better advice, BUT, I use Audacity and cdwav so I'll give you my abbreviated work flow: (You need TLH also)
Audacity: edit, fades, levels, EQ I end up with a file titled bandnameyyymmdd-bitmicinfo_finaledit My mentor says name it bandnameyyymmdd-bitmicinfodxt
in cdwav: I cut it into tracks, save them into a folder titled bandnameyyymmdd-bitmicinfo wavs I also save the cue sheet (typically my filesets are 24/48)
Using Traders Little Helper: convert the 24 bit wavs to 24 bit flacs level 8; creating an ffp file saved into a folder named bandnameyyymmdd-bitmicinfo flacs ( I then do the same for 24 bit mp3-but NOT required for LMA uploads)
Then I go back to the final edit in Audacity; convert that to 44100, save as 16 bit signed wav titled bandnameyyymmdd-16micinfo_finaledit into a folder titled bandnameyyymmdd-16 wavs
then load that up into cdwav editor; load the previously saved cue sheet, say NO to "do you wish to open the file associated with"
Save into the folder titled bandnameyyymmdd-16 wavs
Using Traders Little Helper I then convert the 16 bit wavs to 16 bit flacs level 8; creating an ffp file saved into a folder named bandnameyyymmdd-16 flacs
Now you have four folders (five if you do 24 bit mp3's). the flac folders should have the .ffp files and a .txt file all with the same nomenclature (i.e. bandnameyyymmdd-bitmicinfo.txt; bandnameyyymmdd-bitmicinfo.ffp)
For upload to LMA, you follow these instructions:
https://ia802709.us.archive.org/10/items/lmaupload/lmaupload.htmluploading your 24 bit files, following through to completion, adding in all the metadata and then do the same for the 16 bit filesets
One optional aspect I like to be as detailed as possible with the LMA sequence is the "Topics" section. this is like a hashtag indentifier for searching. I typically put in:
band name; individual artists; my TS upload account handle; bit depth; city; venue as one example, her is a topics entry of mine:
Drive-By Truckers; The Egg; Hart Theatre; Albany NY; Rocksuitcase ( I omitted the band member names but do use them for some LMA uploads)