MACOSX - Wav + Aiff To MP3 Without itunes - the solution!

berndkiltz · Post by **berndkiltz** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:21 am

Been looking all over the web for a quick solution to convert Wav to Mp3 in osx (...as live doesnt do direct mp3 rendering). Here it is:
ffmpegX - it universal binary and for free.
original a Movie Converter, but converts mp3's just perfect.
url: http://ffmpegx.com
one drop on the programm, click "encode" - DONE !!!
have fun without itunes...
Anybody has a better solution, PLEASE POST IT !!!

xrayfish · Post by **xrayfish** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:43 am

er... why is it a problem using itunes - is it too slow or something?

mechcon · Post by **mechcon** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:44 am

i thought that one's shareware? well whilst we're onto mac apps (till someone mentions pc)

you could use Audacity, an the Lame plugin,

as for shareware, I use http://www.dekorte.com/projects/sharewa ... Converter/

US$10, and can convert any audio to any audio with a simple drag/drop interface

eddit · Post by **eddit** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 1:33 pm

xrayfish wrote:er... why is it a problem using itunes - is it too slow or something?

It's a problem if you don't use it for your music library

Rogue Scrunt · Post by **Rogue Scrunt** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 1:46 pm

eddit wrote:
xrayfish wrote:er... why is it a problem using itunes - is it too slow or something?
It's a problem if you don't use it for your music library

even if you don't use it for your muusic library, you could still use it to convert formats. That is just silly. I-tunes is free and works great.

good luck with everything.

berndkiltz · Post by **berndkiltz** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 6:38 am

...why i dont use itunes?
Ok, converting in itunes:
put the wav file in the library (step1)
right click and say "save as mp3" (step2)
Drag the file to wherever you want it (step3)
Delete File from Library (step4)
Besides that, itunes takes sometime to start.
Get the picture...

With FFmpeg X:
Drag the file to the programm windwow
click the convert button
Done...
For reference - I'm doing this stuff when teaching on my laptop - and I Save about 15 Seconds each using ffmpeg. Its a lot more easy than itunes - why dont use it.

jeskola · Post by **jeskola** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:07 pm

berndkiltz wrote:...why i dont use itunes?
Ok, converting in itunes:
put the wav file in the library (step1)
right click and say "save as mp3" (step2)
Drag the file to wherever you want it (step3)
Delete File from Library (step4)
Besides that, itunes takes sometime to start.
Get the picture...

With FFmpeg X:
Drag the file to the programm windwow
click the convert button
Done...
For reference - I'm doing this stuff when teaching on my laptop - and I Save about 15 Seconds each using ffmpeg. Its a lot more easy than itunes - why dont use it.

Well step 1 is done by simply clicking on the wav on your desktop - step 2 seems to be the same in both...i then have a smart folder in my dock so i can locate freshly made mp3s without fannying aorund with spotlight - the time taken is a few fractions of a second on top of the convertion time.
Try looking in the automator to - im pretty sure you could shave the time even further.

sähkö · Post by **sähkö** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 5:41 pm

If you need tagged files, iTunes is a good way to go. As far as MP3 encoding goes, you'd have to use LAME and iTunesLAME (see sourceforge.net for first, macupdate.com for the latter) to access premium quality and full control over all encoding options. Wisely used, it's hardly paralleled by any other app (I'm talking Mac here).

To those wanting to rave on qualities of different MP3 encoders, read all about it on hydrogenaudio.com forums.

Rogue Scrunt · Post by **Rogue Scrunt** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 6:05 pm

I don't even use codec anymore.

My whole library is wav files.

files from cd = 16 bit
files recorded from records = 24 bit

hard drives are massive and cheap.

cheers

berndkiltz · Post by **berndkiltz** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:42 am

To jeskola:
I tried the thing with automator, and yes you are right:
its faster.
I made an Atomator plugin witch imports the dragged wav to itunes using mp3 converter, and even tags it automatically. Then I can drag that file from an intelligent folder in itunes dirctly to the mail programm. this is even much better than with ff mpeg...
Thank you for your hint.

...I wouldn be using codecs either, but for sending a playalong to a student, even with DSL... no.

Lord Kahn · Post by **Lord Kahn** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:14 pm

If you're doing a batch of them, Lame on the command line is probably the quickest way.

Install Lame http://spaghetticode.org/lame/

Open command terminal (I forget exactly what it's called on Mac OSX)

At the prompt type the following (it's five lines):

cd [the directory you saved the wavs to]
for i in *
do
lame $i $i.mp3
done

stale bread · Post by **stale bread** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 1:29 am

on a pc if i'm not mistaken all you have to do is grab a bunch of audio files and drop them in itunes and it converts them automaticly to what ever you have selected in the preffs.