Convert ape to mp3

[Robbyx]

Pending your reply I have converted the ape files to wav and the result was very satisfactory. I have then gone to another folder with more ape files and this time it will not work.

rob@rob-desktop:/media/video/Music/VA - Ultimate Liszt/CD 01$ for f in *.ape; do ffmpeg -i "$f" "${f%.ape}.wav"; done
FFmpeg version r11872+debian_3:0.svn20080206-12ubuntu3, Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-swscaler --enable-x11grab --prefix=/usr --enable-libgsm --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --disable-strip --enable-libfaad --enable-libfaadbin --enable-liba52 --enable-liba52bin --enable-libdc1394 --disable-armv5te --disable-armv6 --disable-altivec --disable-vis --enable-shared --disable-static
  libavutil version: 49.6.0
  libavcodec version: 51.50.0
  libavformat version: 52.7.0
  libavdevice version: 52.0.0
  built on Oct  3 2008 22:40:31, gcc: 4.3.2
[mp3 @ 0xb7ec1388]Could not find codec parameters (Audio: mp3, 8 kb/s)

I do not understand why it is referring to mp3 when I am trying to convert to wav. Can anyone spot why this time it will not convert?

Robin

[mc4man]

Can anyone spot why this time it will not convert?

Not really, are you sure they're ape files.

Anyway I'd just use mac to decompress the .ape's to .wav instead of ffmpeg and then encode to what you wish, or burn to cd

If you tried neroAacEnc and didn't like then try faac either from cli or with any number of apps. I'm not aware of any aac (m4a) parameters other using -br or -q (i think -q is superior

I was just looking thru the source of soundkonverter and noticed it will convert ape (which it did in a quick test though it named everything 'unknown', so your better off just decompressing to .wav yourself, ect., ect.

if you have cue files
then ck. out that that script I linked to (ape to flac), or post there and see if he's got one for ape to mp3 (tagging from cue?)

Otherwise maybe go (if you have cues) ape to flac, then flac to mp3 (tagging from flac metadata

Any app like soundkonverter would do that or if you want more control of lame parameters here's a script to convert flac to mp3 with tags

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...29#post6827629

[Robbyx]

Although they had an extension of ape I think they were actually apeless because I was able to convert some other ape files with no problems. I would like to put your script into a file so that I can run it when needed. Can you please suggest the way to do this.

Robin

[Robbyx]

for f in *.ape; do ffmpeg -i "$f" "${f%.ape}.wav"; done

This piece of code has worked wonderfully. Changes in inputs have enable it to work with flac as well.

How do I attach it to an icon so I can click on the icon to run the code rather than having to hunt for the code when I need it?

Robin

[mc4man]

you could make a simple little script, then at the dir. prompt just call the script with path to script/scriptname

I still think it may be better to use mac to decompress to wav than ffmpeg, though maybe no difference.
I linked to the source but meanwhile found a .deb (made for jaunty, doesn't matter, I just installed on hardy.

https://launchpad.net/~quintasan/+archive/ppa/
Don't add his repo, just expand the mac listing and scroll down to the "package files" listing and d. click to dl and install

so a simple script (using mac) would be this, added a basic way to separate .wav's from .ape's. You can modify in several ways. Notice the path to save .wav's, ./temp/ is directly in front of "${f%.ape}.wav"
you could path to anywhere in same manner

#!/bin/bash
mkdir temp
for f in *.ape; do mac "$f" ./temp/"${f%.ape}.wav" -d; done

To use create a text file, name it something, ape2wav is what I'd use and paste in code.
Put it either loose in home dir. or make a folder named scripts, then right click on the script -> properties -> permissions and mark as executable.

Then at the dir. prompt for the folder with the .ape's go
~/scripts/ape2wav

---------------------------------------------------------------------
maybe of no use to you but ....

I was just making myself a little interactive script to convert .m4a (encoded w/ neroAacEnc) to mp3's with tags so I can add to an ipod.
If you still wanted to go from .ape to .mp3 w/ tags give it a try, below I changed it to ape2mp3

You'll need to install id3v2 and if you want to use genre with #'s id3 to get list.

sudo apt-get install id3 id3v2

to see the number list for genre open a separate terminal and go

id3 -L

If you want to you can remove the genre and year echo's and line below them if not wanted (if you remove an echo remove the read line below, you must Keep at a min the artist and album

You can enter any number of valid lame commands as shown

I have a line rm *.wav, you could change to rm *.ape or remove the line

Your .apes should have a 'track' number, preferably like either (for tracks 1-9
01- name of track
02 - name of track
( otherwise if the folder is loaded into a player and you have 1-trackname, 2-trackname then 10 - 19 will be loaded above 2 - 9, 20 - 29 above 3-9, ect.


ape2mp3

#!/bin/bash
echo "Artist name?"
a= read a
echo "Name of album?"
A= read A
echo "genre?"
g= read g
echo "year?"
y= read y
for f in *.ape; do mac "$f" "${f%.ape}.wav" -d; done
mkdir "$a"'-'"$A"
for f in *.wav; do lame --vbr-new -V2 --replaygain-accurate -q 2 "$f" ./"$a"'-'"$A"/"${f%.wav}.mp3"; done
rm *.wav
cd ./"$a"'-'"$A"
for f in *.mp3; do id3v2 "$f" -t "${f%.mp3}" -a "$a" -A "$A" -y "$y" -g "$g"; done 

Example of terminal entries

doug@doug-desktop:~/Music/Jackson Browne/Late For The Sky$ ~/ape2mp3
Artist name?
Jackson Browne
Name of album?
Late for The Sky
genre?
81
year?
1974
--- Monkey's Audio Console Front End (v 3.99) (c) Matthew T. Ashland ---
Decompressing...
Progress: 100.0% (0.0 seconds remaining, 14.5 seconds total) ...... ect, ect..................
LAME 3.98 32bits (http://www.mp3dev.org/)
CPU features: MMX (ASM used), SSE (ASM used), SSE2
Using polyphase lowpass filter, transition band: 18671 Hz - 19205 Hz
Encoding 01 - Late For The Sky.wav
to ./Jackson Browne-Late for The Sky/ 01 - Late For The Sky.mp3
Encoding as 44.1 kHz j-stereo MPEG-1 Layer III VBR(q=2)....ect.

screen shows resulting tag info, loads fine into the ipod

[Robbyx]

Thank you for that very helpful and comprehensive reply.

Robin