Convert .mp3 / .wma / .wav / format : Ubuntu (6.06.1 / 6.10)
I was spending some time in the Ubuntu Forums this evening and thought I would share a few questions that I ran into. For those of you looking for a high-level tutorial this isn’t it, but its a good tip for anyone.
If you need to convert audio formats there are a few options for you. I have long used soundconverter to go between just about any format out there. I recently even converted a very large .mp3 collection to .ogg.
To install soundconverter simply use:
Applications > Add/Remove > Search:"soundconverter"
sudo aptitude install soundconverter
I hope this helps. Now that you’ve got a converter why not switch your .mp3 over to the FOSS .ogg format? 
Note: you may need the appropriate codecs to read / convert these audio formats. You might want to check out my previous post How to install multimedia codecs.
Really usefull program! nice one
How do I add the option to convert to .wma? It does not give me that option when I installed like you said..
Thanks for the info. I had a .wav form of my late mother I converted to .mp3. Then I combined it with her eulogy using Audacity and burnt it to CD. Works better than trying to find the correct settings in Amarok.
I too am having a problem using the SoundConverter command line to comvert .mp3 to .wma.
The command line:
soundconverter -b -m “audio/x-ms-wma” -s .wma STE-001.mp3
Produced the error:
SoundConverter 0.9.4
using Gstreamer version: 0.10.12, Python binding version: 0.10.6
using gnomevfssrc
xingmux element not found.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/bin/soundconverter”, line 2429, in
main()
File “/usr/bin/soundconverter”, line 2425, in main
cli_convert_main(args)
File “/usr/bin/soundconverter”, line 2315, in cli_convert_main
c.init()
File “/usr/bin/soundconverter”, line 996, in init
encoder = self.encoders[self.output_type]()
KeyError: ‘audio/x-ms-wma’
Any ideas anyone?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks, this was extremely helpful to me!!! I had downloaded some mp3’s, but when I played them on my mp3 player they had a strong echo. Strangely enough, I converted my mp3 downloads to mp3’s using the converter and it cleaned them up. I copied them over onto a CD and now they are fine on my mp3 player. As a footnote, I am running Kubuntu Hardy. THANKS!!!
Agree with Fragwolf, thank you!
Thanks! Very usefull program!!! Long live to Linux!
my sound converter required me to install gstreamer in order for conversion from wav to mp3 to take place. But when I try to convert wav to mp3, a blank mp3 file is produced. when I try to play the mp3 file with mplayer I get an error saying 'file contains no data'. can anyone help?
thanks it works wonderful
100%
Sound Converter works great through the GUI in Ubuntu, with only one downfall – it doesn't keep the ID3 tags. I have since looked around and found the app 'SoundKonverter' which ticked all the boxes for me. Sure it's a KDE app and requires the extra packages but it's well worth doing if you've already tagged all your files! SoundKonverter is available through Add/Remove or through terminal:
#> sudo apt-get install soundkonverter.
thx, that is what i was looking 4
soundconverter can be found in applications -> add remove search for soundconverter, it works like a charm and you avoid console