decoding mp3 from cli

j1alu · 05-14-2009, 01:37 PM

i gotta few mp3-files i`d like to burn to cd.
how would i decode them to wav from the commandline.
i tried with mpg321: mpg321 --wav *.mp3
but that didn`t work.
thanks

David the H. · 05-14-2009, 02:43 PM

You need to look more closely at the documentation. The command format is "mpg321 --wav outputfile.wav inputfile.mp3"

So if you want to convert multiple files in a single directory at once, you need to run it in a loop.

Code:

for FILE in *.mp3; do mpg321 --wav "${FILE%.mp3}.wav" "$FILE" ; done

This should take each file and convert them, keeping the same filename, but changing the ending to .wav.

On another note though, what program do you plan to use to burn the files to disk? Some of them, like k3b, can handle mp3 as an input file, and will automatically convert them for you before burning.

j1alu · 05-14-2009, 03:08 PM

Quote:

You need to look more closely at the documentation.

Quote:

-w N, --wav N
Write to wav file N instead of using the audio device. This
option will be preferred if --cdr or --au are specified too.
Specifying ’-’ for N will cause the file to be written to
standard output.

that was the part i didn`t understand though i did read it quite often. "mpg321 --wav output.file input.file" would have been more easy for me. Anyway its much more comfortable with the loop you gave and that was what i wanted to be able to do. thanks
greetings

j1alu · 05-17-2009, 01:42 PM

Quote:

fubar$ pwd
/home/jalu/Music/music/jazz/The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (Disc 1)

fubar$ ls
1-01 Pharaoh's Dance.mp3 1-03 Spanish Key.mp3
1-02 Bitches Brew.mp3 1-04 John McLaughlin.mp3

fubar$ for FILE in *.mp3; do mpg321 --wav "${FILE%.mp3}.wav" "$FILE" ; done

i get the four wav files, but they only produce noice.
what am i doing wrong? decoding one by one does work.
thanks

post-edit:
the problem was that there has been empty spaces in the file-names. it works fine now. thanks again.