Looking for simple conversion to Mp3

[rkovideo]

I've tried at least a dozen different solutions and none seem to fit my needs:
1) can handle "Latin" characters in tags (e.g., inverted question marks, ellipses)
2) doesn't lose or truncate tags (e.g., podcast URL, podcast description, podcast category)
3) can convert to a constant bit rate of 32kbps @ 44.1K Hz.

conversions I need are from .wav, .mp4 and .m4a to .mp3 (simple huh?)

drag and drop gui would be nice but not necessary

Please limit responses to recommendations on software packages.

Thx

ps I currently use dBpoweramp, but it fails on item #2 and doesn't not have drag & drop

[El Heggunte]

Have you already tried Foobar2000

1) can handle "Latin" characters in tags (e.g., inverted question marks, ellipses)

fb2k handles Unicode fine.

2) doesn't lose or truncate tags (e.g., podcast URL, podcast description, podcast category)

I haven't checked that yet

3) can convert to a constant bit rate of 32kbps @ 44.1K Hz.

You meant 320kbps, I presume Foobar2000 can be configured to use external encoders (in this case, LAME) with the required command-line switches.

[Bernix]

Or you can try LameXP but I am not sure about point 2 too.

Bernix

[pandy]

ffmpeg should be able to do this things correctly however 32kbps looks like too low bitrate for mp3 (maybe mono and reduced bandwidth can be ok) - bellow example script - not tested but it should work

@setlocal
@set OUTDIR="out"
@if not exist %cd%\%OUTDIR% (mkdir %cd%\%OUTDIR%)
@ffmpeg -i %1 -vn -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 32k -ac 1 -af "aformat=sample_fmts=flt,highpass=f=20,aresample=resampler=soxr:osr=44100:dither_method=0,lowpass=f=6000" "%OUTDIR%\%~n1.mp3"

[Hoser Rob]

I also hope you meant 320K instead of 32K ... not only do I not know of any that go that low it'd be only suitable for speech recorded with lousy microphones.

[rkovideo]

none of the above suggestions meet all the requirements (foobar, lamexp, ffmpg<-fails 2nd & 3rd criteria). I don't recall the specifics on foobar & lamexp, but they too failed.

i do mean 32, thirty two, trenta y dos kbps ... i listen to podcasts (10 years now) and that level of quality is just fine. constant bit rate is an artifact of the ipod software i use (rockbox) which didn't like vbr for a couple of its functions.

[pandy]

none of the above suggestions meet all the requirements (foobar, lamexp, ffmpg<-fails 2nd & 3rd criteria). I don't recall the specifics on foobar & lamexp, but they too failed.

i do mean 32, thirty two, trenta y dos kbps ... i listen to podcasts (10 years now) and that level of quality is just fine. constant bit rate is an artifact of the ipod software i use (rockbox) which didn't like vbr for a couple of its functions.

ffmpeg not failing on 32kbps CBR - i've tested my script with various inputs (even multichannel 88kHz, True HD etc)...
about metadata - from my perspective all metadata are copied correctly if container can carry tag - tested on large set of files with some strange meta and IMHO it works quite well.

Quality from my perspective is OK for speech but for music is less than acceptable - plenty issues with smearing even with usable bandwidth reduced to 150 - 5500Hz...

[Cornucopia]

32kbps is too low a bitrate for decent quality music, whether mp3, mp4/aac, ogg, even opus. 32kbps should be doable with Mpeg 2-Layer 3 (vs. Mpeg 1-Layer 3), but you should expect shitty quality unless encoding speech.

Scott

[rkovideo]

ffmpeg encodes 32kbps @ 44.1K Hz?

i tried various times from mp4 to mp3 and always had to crank down the -ar to 11025, otherwise -ab 32k was overridden ... please let me know the release of ffmpeg you used to successfully convert mp4 to 32kbps @ 44.1K Hz (hopefully you're using a windows version).

for example, i used your script above and the result came out as 56kbps CBR

[pandy]

ffmpeg encodes 32kbps @ 44.1K Hz?

i tried various times from mp4 to mp3 and always had to crank down the -ar to 11025, otherwise -ab 32k was overridden ... please let me know the release of ffmpeg you used to successfully convert mp4 to 32kbps @ 44.1K Hz (hopefully you're using a windows version).

for example, i used your script above and the result came out as 56kbps CBR

Well this is strange as i use script with various audio files and i have reproducible CBR 32kbps mp3 as a result - this is exactly script i use:

@setlocal
@set OUTDIR="out"
@if not exist %cd%\%OUTDIR% (mkdir %cd%\%OUTDIR%)
@ffmpeg -y -hide_banner -fflags genpts -err_detect aggressive -i %1 -vn -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 32k -ac 1 -af "aformat=sample_fmts=flt,aresample=resampler=soxr:osr=44100:dither_method=0,dynaudnorm=p=1/sqrt(2):m=100,firequalizer=gain='if(gte(f,154),0,-INF)+if(lte(f,7501),0,-INF)':accuracy=1:fixed=on" "%OUTDIR%\%~n1.mp3"

btw -ab means average bitrate not audio bitrate - for fixed bitrate you need to use -b:a

[rkovideo]

thanks. i hadn't noticed the ab vs.b:a difference. it didn't work when i tried your original script, but when i used an older version of ffmpeg (20150615) it worked. i ended up with a CBR of 32kbps.

but it automatically takes the sample rate down to 11K Hz.

also, wipes out the tags %unsyncedlyrics%, %subtitle%, %podcastdesc%, %podcastcategory% and %podcasturl%.

so ffmpeg still fails requirements 2 & 3.

[pandy]

thanks. i hadn't noticed the ab vs.b:a difference. it didn't work when i tried your original script, but when i used an older version of ffmpeg (20150615) it worked. i ended up with a CBR of 32kbps.

https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mplayer-win32/files/FFmpeg/

7.1 audio file converted with script gives something like this:

{
    "streams": [
        {
            "index": 0,
            "codec_name": "mp3",
            "codec_long_name": "MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3)",
            "codec_type": "audio",
            "codec_time_base": "1/44100",
            "codec_tag_string": "[0][0][0][0]",
            "codec_tag": "0x0000",
            "sample_fmt": "s16p",
            "sample_rate": "44.100000 KHz",
            "channels": 1,
            "channel_layout": "mono",
            "bits_per_sample": 0,
            "r_frame_rate": "0/0",
            "avg_frame_rate": "0/0",
            "time_base": "1/14112000",
            "start_pts": 353600,
            "start_time": "0:00:00.025057",
            "duration_ts": 156303360,
            "duration": "0:00:11.075918",
            "bit_rate": "32 Kbit/s",
            "disposition": {
                "default": 0,
                "dub": 0,
                "original": 0,
                "comment": 0,
                "lyrics": 0,
                "karaoke": 0,
                "forced": 0,
                "hearing_impaired": 0,
                "visual_impaired": 0,
                "clean_effects": 0,
                "attached_pic": 0
            }
        }
    ],
    "format": {
        "filename": "hd_dthd_7.1.mp3",
        "nb_streams": 1,
        "nb_programs": 0,
        "format_name": "mp3",
        "format_long_name": "MP2/3 (MPEG audio layer 2/3)",
        "start_time": "0:00:00.025057",
        "duration": "0:00:11.075918",
        "size": "43.517578 Kibyte",
        "bit_rate": "32.186000 Kbit/s",
        "probe_score": 51,
        "tags": {
            "title": "HD Dolby TrueHD 7.1",
            "encoder": "Lavf57.37.101"
        }
    }
}

So you must do something wrong.

[ConverterCrazy]

ffmpeg encodes 32kbps @ 44.1K Hz?

i tried various times from mp4 to mp3 and always had to crank down the -ar to 11025, otherwise -ab 32k was overridden ... please let me know the release of ffmpeg you used to successfully convert mp4 to 32kbps @ 44.1K Hz (hopefully you're using a windows version).

for example, i used your script above and the result came out as 56kbps CBR

Well this is strange as i use script with various audio files and i have reproducible CBR 32kbps mp3 as a result - this is exactly script i use:

@setlocal
@set OUTDIR="out"
@if not exist %cd%\%OUTDIR% (mkdir %cd%\%OUTDIR%)
@ffmpeg -y -hide_banner -fflags genpts -err_detect aggressive -i %1 -vn -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 32k -ac 1 -af "aformat=sample_fmts=flt,aresample=resampler=soxr:osr=44100:dither_method=0,dynaudnorm=p=1/sqrt(2):m=100,firequalizer=gain='if(gte(f,154),0,-INF)+if(lte(f,7501),0,-INF)':accuracy=1:fixed=on" "%OUTDIR%\%~n1.mp3"

btw -ab means average bitrate not audio bitrate - for fixed bitrate you need to use -b:a

@pandy I want to change bitrate of MP3 files in a folder to 192k CBR and keep metadata intact using a batch file.
Can you please give the right code?
Thanks.

[ConverterCrazy]

@pandy

Not possible using ffmpeg?

[pandy]

@pandy

Not possible using ffmpeg?

Definitely it is possible... try this one - didn't tested but it should work fine.

@setlocal
@set OUTDIR="out"
@if not exist %cd%\%OUTDIR% (mkdir %cd%\%OUTDIR%)
@ffmpeg -y -hide_banner -i %1 -vn -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 192k "%OUTDIR%\%~n1.mp3"
@endlocal

[ConverterCrazy]

@pandy

Not possible using ffmpeg?

Definitely it is possible... try this one - didn't tested but it should work fine.

@setlocal
@set OUTDIR="out"
@if not exist %cd%\%OUTDIR% (mkdir %cd%\%OUTDIR%)
@ffmpeg -y -hide_banner -i %1 -vn -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 192k "%OUTDIR%\%~n1.mp3"


@endlocal

Thanks
Ran the script.
FFMPEG says in red "-vn: no such file or directory" and exits

[transporterfan]

Not used before, no need for it, but came across this:

http://www.inspire-soft.net/software/mp3-quality-modifier

If it's any good Baldrick might add it to the software downloads.

[pandy]

Ran the script.
FFMPEG says in red "-vn: no such file or directory" and exits

You must provide source file for this script - simplest way is drag & drop ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_and_drop ) your files on this batch.

[videobruger]

And maybe change -i %1 to -i "%1" including quotation marks in the batch.

[ConverterCrazy]

Not used before, no need for it, but came across this:

http://www.inspire-soft.net/software/mp3-quality-modifier

If it's any good Baldrick might add it to the software downloads.

Thanks a ton!

Yes, @Baldrick might – its so simple to use.

[transporterfan]

You're welcome.
Good to know it works.

[ConverterCrazy]

And maybe change -i %1 to -i "%1" including quotation marks in the batch.

Thanks.

Doesn't work. Same error reported.

[ConverterCrazy]

Ran the script.
FFMPEG says in red "-vn: no such file or directory" and exits

You must provide source file for this script - simplest way is drag & drop ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_and_drop ) your files on this batch.

Thanks. Works for a single file – not for batch conversion.

There are 323 files.

[pandy]

Well... conversion is quite simple as you can do something like:

for /R %%a in (*.mp4, *.aac, *.mp3, *.m4a, *.flac) do (@ffmpeg -y -v quiet -stats -i "%%a" -vn -sn -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 192k "%%~na.192k.mp3")

But if you trying to perform such operation with replicated directory structure then it can be a serious issue for simple batch.
You can try something like:https://mostlybuggy.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/windows-batch-file-how-to-copy-and-conver...y-with-ffmpeg/ - there are some limitations but it should work.

[videobruger]

I think pandy's code is missing end parentheses ).

"%%~na.192k.mp3")

[pandy]

I think pandy's code is missing end parentheses ).

"%%~na.192k.mp3")

True, my mistake, Thx!

[ConverterCrazy]

Thanks.
After modification, this code works, but metadata is not saved in new files (Title tag is blanked out):

@setlocal
@set /a cput=(%NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS%*3)/2
@if not exist %cd%\out (mkdir %cd%\out)

for %%a in (*.mp4, *.aac, *.mp3, *.m4a, *.flac) do (@ffmpeg -y -v quiet -stats -i "%%a" -vn -sn -c:a 

libmp3lame -b:a 192k "%cd%\out\%%~na.192k.mp3")

@Echo Done!
@pause

Perhaps, it might help.

[transporterfan]

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26109837/convert-flac-to-mp3-with-ffmpeg-keeping-all-metadata

[ConverterCrazy]

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26109837/convert-flac-to-mp3-with-ffmpeg-keeping-all-metadata

Thanks.

This is the final script for the batch conversion:

@setlocal
@set /a cput=(%NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS%*3)/2
@if not exist %cd%\out (mkdir %cd%\out)

for %%a in (*.mp4, *.aac, *.mp3, *.m4a, *.flac) do (@ffmpeg -y -v quiet 

-stats -i "%%a" -vn -sn -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 192k -map_metadata 0 -

id3v2_version 3 "%cd%\out\%%~na.192k.mp3")

@Echo Done!
@pause

[transporterfan]

Nice work.