Hello.

I was looking for a program that can batch convert audio files into mp3 files and I found that k3b could do that.

when I try to convert to mp3 it just fails.
I have lame installed.

Slackware 12.2 KDE 3.5

What kind of files are these audio files that you want to convert to mp3? I wasn't aware that k3b did that kind of thing. What menu item did you use to attempt the conversion and what version of k3b are you running. You might want to try audioconvert:
cheers,
jdk

Thank you for the replay.

I tried to convert from ogg and even from mp3 to mp3.

I'm using k3b 1.0.5 .
to convert with it you select "new audio CD project" and right next to the burn button you should have "convert audio tracks to other audio formats" .

as to audioconvert, I prefer something with a GUI since I will be using it for batch conversions and I am generally too lazy to type in all the names or play with wild cards.

For batch operations is precisely when the command line shines. GUIs are just inconvenient and painful to work with, but hey, it's just my opinion. I'd just do a simple loop in bash to decode them using whatever tool applies and using lame to encode it. But well...

I know that k3b uses libvorbis for ogg stuff, so you need to have that installed as well if you want to decode ogg vorbis files. In which regards mp3, I know that it uses lame and libmad, maybe it uses libmad for decoding and lame for encoding, not sure, so you also need that if you want to convert from mp3 to mp3 as you tried.

I checked and I have libvorbis, libmad and Lame.
I'll be using the command line than :P

thank you all for the help.
if anyone knows how to solve the k3b problem I'd love to hear it.

So you want to use K3b to rip/convert audio files to mp3?

Here's how to do it with K3b:

Go into K3b's menu.
Select settings.
Configure K3b.
Select plugins.
Click on external audio encoder,then click configure.
If mp3 is listed you need to click edit,if not click add.
In the dialogue box top left add Mp3(Lame) and in the right add mp3
Next you need to add the lame parameter here's what i use:
lame -V1 --tt %t --ta %a --tl %m --ty %y --tc %c - %f
Next check the two options boxes,swap byte order and write wave header.
Press ok to save.
Then click apply and ok at the previous dialogue box.
Then apply and ok again,and you should be back to the main screen.

Now try to rip a cd again to mp3.
Sorry for the long winded explanation.

Thank you.
Checking the two option boxes did the trick.

Cool.Glad to hear it worked.
Can you use the thread tools and mark it solved.

Slipped my mind to do that.
Thanks again.