The tools I am talking about are mpg123 and mpg321. Although mpg321 claims to be a drop-in replacement for mpg123, I still prefer to use both tools (the former for converting .mp3 to .wav and the latter for converting .mp3 to .ogg). And in this article you will see how simple it is (using the command line) to convert these file types.

Installation

Since we will be using the command line for the conversion, we’ll install the tools from the command line. The distribution I am using for example is based on the recent, stable Debian. You will not need to add any repositories to your /etc/apt/sources.list file, because all of the tools are found on the standard repositories. To install these tools, follow these steps:

1. Open up a terminal window.
2. If needed, su to root (if you use sudo in place of root, just add sudo to the beginning of the installation commands below).
3. Issue the command apt-get install mpg123 mpg321 vorbis-tools

That’s it. Now let’s take a look at how the tools are used.

Convert .mp3 to .wav

The first conversion is to .wav. Why use .wav? First and foremost, the .wav file is not compressed and is lossless, so the sound is better. The only downfall is that the files are much bigger. So, if you have a particular file and you want to retain as much quality as you can, .wav is the format to use. Of course, in this instance we are converting a lossy file type (.mp3) so there is already diminished sound quality. But why diminish it further? To make this conversion, the command looks like this:

mpg123 -w output_file.wav input_file.mp3

Where output_file is the name of the .wav file that will be converted from the mp3 file named input_file. So let’s say you want to convert the file Rush_Tom_Sawyer.mp3 to .wav. That command would look like:

mpg123 -w Rush_Tom_Sawyer.wav Rush_Tom_Sawyer.mp3

Convert .mp3 to .ogg

The .ogg format is the open source equivalent to .mp3 and is supported by many players. The .ogg format is a good format to use when creating “mix cd’s” (I’m old, I still want to say “mix tapes”), because you can fit more files per CD than if you were using the .wav format. But to convert the .mp3 to .ogg the command looks like:

mpg321 Input_File.mp3 -w raw && oggenc raw -o Output_file.ogg

Let’s examine the same file we converted to .wav above. The command to convert to .ogg from .mp3 would look like:

mpg321 Rush_Tom_Sawyer.mp3 -w raw && oggenc raw -o Rush_Tom_Sawyer.ogg

Easy right?

Final thoughts

Now you can get crafty and create batch scripts that will allow you to do batch conversions. Naturally many will think “Why would I go through that, when I can just download a handy GUI tool like Soundconverter to do the job? Why? Because it’s always smart to have the command line option around. One day you might need it.

Now the problem lies in the fact that I have a fairly large collection of music files that are all in mp3 format. Having to convert 5,000+ files, one by one, via command line would cause even me to pull out my hair. So I decided it was time to search for a tool that would handle the conversion for me. The criteria for this conversion was that the tool had to be easily installed and easily used. My goal is to try to convince new users to shy away from either DRM formats or closed formats. And we all know, when dealing with new users, the easier the better. And so with that in mind, my hunt for the perfect tool landed me with Sound Converter.

Sound Converter is a GNOME-based conversion tool that can read anything the GStreamer library can read, which includes:

• Ogg Vorbis
• AAC
• MP3
• FLAC
• WAV
• AVI
• MPEG
• MOV
• M4A
• AC3
• DTS
• ALAC
• MPC

Once read, Sound Converter can then convert the file into:

• WAV
• FLAC
• MP3
• AAC
• Ogg Vorbis

The best feature of Sound Converter is that it can convert a single file or a directory of files. Add to that the usaual simplicty of most GNOME applications and you have the ingredients for a perfect solution. With that said, let’s get to it.

Installing Sound Converter

You will be glad to know Sound Converter is located in the Ubuntu repositories (as well as in the repos for most distributions).  So all you need to do is fire up your Add/Remove Software utility and do the following:

1. Search for “converter” (no quotes).
2. Select (or mark) the Sound Converter entry for installation.
3. Click Apply to install.

That’s it. After a brief moment Sound Converter will be installed.

Running Sound Converter

Figure 1

You will find the Sound Converter application in the Sound and Video sub-menu of the Applications menu of the GNOME desktop. When you open up Sound Converter you will be greeted by a very simple main window (see Figure 1). It should be obvious, from the looks of the main window, the developer had simplicity in mind when creating the interface for this tool.

Figure 2

Pretty much all you do is add files/folders to the list and click convert. Of course you first will need to configure Sound converter to meet your needs. Before you add a single file or folder to the list click on the Edit menu and select Preferences. When the preferences window opens (see Figure 2) you will want to take care of the following options:

• Location: Where you want the converted files to be placed (if it is to be different that where the input files are located.)
• Create Subfolders: Do you want Sound Converter to create subfolders for you? This is used only if you configure Sound Converter to store the output folders in a non-default location.
• Format: What format do you want the output files to be in?

The most important option is the Format. For my needs the format will be Ogg Vorbis. Once that is complete click Close and you are ready to convert.

Converting

There are two ways to add files/folders to the Sound Converter list. The most obvious way is to click either  the Add File or Add Folder buttons and navigate to the file/folder you want to add. Another method is to open the Nautilus file browser and drag and drop the files/folders into the Sound Converter window.

Once you have all of the files/folders listed in the main windows click the Convert button and Sound Converter will do its thing. In the end what you will have is solid quality converted files in the format of your desire. No command line necessary!

Final thoughts

Thank goodness for simple GUI tools that would have previously required creating bash scripts to handle batch conversion. Most users do not have the time or inclination to research creating such scripts. It’s a good thing Sound Converter is there to handle the job.

The tool I eventually settled upon is Elltube. Of  all the available tools this was the easiest to install, get working, and the most reliable. With this tool you will find download and converting Youtube videos a nobrainer. There is only one small hitch. If you want to add mp3 support you will have to do some extra installation (In this case it means installing unsupported files). The distribution I will use for this tutorial is Ubuntu 9.04. I will illustrate converting videos into audio-only mp3 format. This is the format that causes issues with most users due to the necessary installation of mp3-supporting libraries.

Preparing for the installation of Elltube

The good news is that everything you need, outside of Elltube itself, will be located in the default repositories. The bad news? You will have to install restricted applications. What this means is that Canonical is not responsible for the updating of these files. With that said you will need to fire up Synaptic. I do not suggest you just open up the Add/Remove Software utility from the menu. Instead open up a terminal window and issue the command:

sudo synaptic

The above command will open up the full-blown Synaptic tool where you will need to do the following:

1. Search for “lame” (no quotes).
2. Scroll down until you see the “ubuntu-restricted-extras”.
3. Mark “ubuntu-restricted-extras” for installation.
4. Search for “ffmpeg” (no quotes).
5. Mark “ffmpeg” for installation.
6. Click Apply to install.

Once all of this has installed download the Elltube .deb file and save it to your ~/ directory. After this file download has completed open up a terminal window and issue the following command to install:

sudo dpkg -i ~/elltube_0.3-1_all.deb

which will install Elltube. You are ready to convert.

Converting a video to mp3 format

Figure 1

You will find Elltube in your Internet sub-menu of either your Main or Applications menu. When the Elltube application opens you will see the Main window (see Figure1). There isn’t much to this application from the GUI perspective – but it serves the purpose well.

The first thing you need to do is find a video you want to convert on Youtube. Let’s convert a live version of Rush’s La Villa Strangiato. Find the URl and then copy and paste into the

Figure 2

Youtube URL area. When you do this the details of the file will appear in the main window (see Figure 2). Now what you have to do is to select MP3 (audio only) from the Format drop-down and select a Save to location for the download and conversion. When the details are done, click the Download button and the process will begin.

When the conversion process is complete the “Video found!” message will change to let you know it is finished. When it has completed you will have your mp3 file in the Save to folder. You are ready to rock!

Final thoughts

Elltube makes the downloading and conversion of Youtube videos as simple as it gets. The ease at which this process is done makes the installation well worth it.