helloooo... running Ubuntu Dapper 6.06. Installed SoundConverter and the package gstreamer0.8-lame to enable .mp3 encoding. I can select an .m4a file and tell soundconverter to change it to .mp3, and it waits a few seconds and tells me it's done. But every time I check, there is no file made! I tried changing output folders and quality, as well as to formats like .ogg and .wav. Nothing. Nadda. Zip. But soundconverter keeps telling me "conversion done". What the f***?

Do you have the faad decoder (aac/mp4) installed? According to description given by apt, you may need the gstreamer0.10-plugins-really-bad module for mp4 support in gstreamer as well, or perhaps gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg.

hmmm...

gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 30 not upgraded.
:~$ sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-really-bad module
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package gstreamer0.10-plugins-really-bad

Originally I used Synaptic Package Manager to install SoundConverter. Don't know if that makes a difference. Thanks for helping.

Sorry, the "plugins-really-bad" is the Debian package name. Package names are usually the same in Ubuntu, but probably not always. Take a look at all the gstreamer plugins and install whichever one has faad support. And don't forget to install faad as well, if you don't have it, since that's the key to decoding mp4. ffmpeg also uses faad, so it might work through gstreamer anyway even without a direct faad plugin.

Of course, I'm assuming that your problem is with decoding the mp4 files. It could be something else entirely. Can you play the m4a files on your system, say in mplayer or whatever audio player you use?

OK! FYI- I was able to play .m4a files with totem even though I could not convert them.

So I installed gstreamer0.8-ffmpeg, gstreamer0.8-faad, and gstreamer0.8-plugins-multiver for good measure. Lo and behold, it works!

Thanxabunch!