MP3 Batch Encoder? Frontends for Lame?
 

Hi all,

Is there any GUI batch encoder for lame in Linux? I was thinking of something like WinFF for mp3s? For convienience I'd like to just drag a drop various wavs into an application and then set the encoding parameters and the output directory. Anything like this available? I can't find it anywhere. Thanks.

I have been looking for something like that myself. I have been using dBpoweramp under Wine, which is not exactly the most efficient method.

Hmm. I wonder, does something like Winlame work under Wine? I'd prefer not to use any Windows appz though.

sound converter for gnome uses lame and supports dnd:

hth,

K3b can do this: Proceed as you would create an Audio CD, but instead of burning choose the appropriate button. There you can select encoder and have a nice GUI for setting the options. You can also choose the output directory.

Hope this helps.

Thank you both very much! That sound converter app is really nice and compact. I tried the k3b converter but for some reason I don't have the option to converter to MP3. What libraries do I need to have installed?

Never mind, I installed K3B v1.0.2 and it's working now. Thanks again! Now I have 2 apps to choose from.

You need to have lame installed (valid for both applications). I suppose you found the blue arrow button that lets you convert? Otherwise you may need a newer version, it is present since at least version 1.0, but I think it was there before. When pressing it, you should find an entry "MPEG I Layer III" in filetype. Distributions often cripple software, so it might be that this entry is missing. If so, press the blue wheel and then add a converter. For the name you can specify anything (maybe Mp3), for the extension you put mp3 and for the command line you can past this:

If you want you can replace "extreme" by medium for smaller files. If you have special wishes check parameters in a command line with

This will list all avaible parameters for lame.

Ah, I did not know that about K3B. A little ungainly for just converting audio, but a neat trick.

What do you mean with "ungainy"? Except for the extra step of choosing "Audio CD" K3b is just as fast as other audio converters and is today one of the most complete Linux GUI's for setting encoder options. But I know, it is not intuitive ...

When all that is really necessary is a simple GTK front-end, loading up a massive application like K3B (plus it's KDE dependencies, which I do not normally have running since I don't use KDE) is not exactly ideal. Starting dbpoweramp in Wine is actually faster than waiting for K3B to spool up (I have not actually converted any audio to see how the speed compares there).

EDIT:

Just tried converting the same file to a 128 Kbps MP3 in both K3B and dBpowerAMP under Wine:

dBpowerAMP: 49 seconds
K3B: 1 minute 13 seconds

Well, so much for that.

Hehe, we always have the old KDE/GNOME division. If you run KDE, the dependencies are already loaded. I think I begin to see what you mean by "ungainly" (I don't understand that word).

hansalfredche,

Thanks for the command line tips.