TAudioConverter : Converting audio formats under WINE...

How to do things, solutions, recipes, tutorials
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

TAudioConverter : Converting audio formats under WINE...

#1 Post by Mike Walsh »

Afternoon, all.

I make no apologies for mentioning this here. I've never had any shame in using whatever app/program will do the job I want, regardless of its origin, or the method of its application.

Following my try-out of the Museeks AppImage, after looking at labbe5's post on it, here:-

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=112882

.....I quickly discovered the majority of my music was incompatible with it. Reason being that it had all been ripped, years ago, in Windows XP using the Windows Media Player.....the default output of which is .wma. And a lot of Linux audio apps don't like .wma.

I know there's ffmpeg, but the multitude of command-line options I find totally bewildering. And although fredx181 has done a .pet for WinFF (which is based on it), it seems to be set up for doing videos. Not audio.

----------------------------------------------

I run a lot of Windoze PortableApps under WINE. I know, from frequent browsing & experimentation, that many PortableApps seem to run far better under WINE than their 'standard' counterparts. I also know that there was an audio converter I'd 'bookmarked' for further investigation.

It's called TAudioConverter.....and it does the job quickly, easily, and with minimum fuss. You can find it here:-

https://portableapps.com/apps/music_vid ... r-portable

I run the same version of WINE in all Pups, and run these PortableApps from a remote partition, symlinked into every Pup's /root directory, along with MenuEntries I've cobbled together for each one.

All you need to do is to run the .exe installer file, and choose the location you want to 'install' it to. Don't install it to the WINE directory in /root; these PortableApps will run better if you don't.

Once you've done that, just click on the .exe file inside the directory just created. It takes a wee while to start-up, but when it does, you'll see the following:-

Image


Add single files (or drag'n'drop a whole folder into the workspace). Down the bottom in the Output section, select the destination, the format you want to convert to, and hit the 'Start' button. That's all there is to it.

You'll see step-by-step out put on the conversion process as it works. I suspect it probably uses ffmpeg under the hood anyway.....but this is done in such a way that a dunderhead like me can understand what's going on..!

I'm slowly converting the entire library to the .ogg format, which seems to be accepted by absolutely everything. It'll transcode an average album of around 20 songs in about 15-18 minutes. So far, so good.....

I'm not a true Linux 'geek'.....and I rather doubt I ever shall be..!!

Enjoy. :D


Mike. :wink:

musher0
Posts: 14629
Joined: Mon 05 Jan 2009, 00:54
Location: Gatineau (Qc), Canada

#2 Post by musher0 »

A little curiosity will go a long way!

https://www.ask.com/web?qsrc=1&o=0&l=di ... archTopBox

There are a couple of scripts that will do it with the help of mplayer:

bash script here (at # 13) :
https://askubuntu.com/questions/55352/c ... ks-to-mp3s

perl script here (bottom of page):
https://www.linuxquestions.org/question ... mp3-77093/

Have fun!
musher0
~~~~~~~~~~
"You want it darker? We kill the flame." (L. Cohen)

musher0
Posts: 14629
Joined: Mon 05 Jan 2009, 00:54
Location: Gatineau (Qc), Canada

#3 Post by musher0 »

Just tested: mpv plays wma music files OOTB, no need for any conversion.
musher0
~~~~~~~~~~
"You want it darker? We kill the flame." (L. Cohen)

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#4 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hi, musher0.

Oh aye, I know; several Linux music players are happy with .wma, but not all are. I think I'm going to convert the entire library to .ogg anyway, since it seems to be accepted by absolutely everything.....even the quintessential Windows media player, WinAmp!

(Just a wee project that will keep me occupied for a while...)

Like I said, I have no shame when it comes to using whatever app does the job for me. I'm not a 'terminal jockey' (never will be).....got too many years of Windoze use in my blood to ever want to give up on my GUIs. I gave this thing a try, and it seems to work quickly and effectively under WINE. I thought perhaps some other Puppians might be interested in trying it too...

I'm not trying to seduce the membership over to the 'dark side', honest! :lol:


Mike. :wink:

musher0
Posts: 14629
Joined: Mon 05 Jan 2009, 00:54
Location: Gatineau (Qc), Canada

#5 Post by musher0 »

Oh, it's not a criticism. I was just sort of riding on your wave.

Until recently I was using an old music player called "Music_Cube_One"
(by a Dane developer, I think) under wine to play my music. I loved its
simple design.

Ogg is a very fine format. At 192 kbit/s it delivers better quality of sound
than mp3 at 256 kbit/s. Plus it's an open format.

BFN.
musher0
~~~~~~~~~~
"You want it darker? We kill the flame." (L. Cohen)

Post Reply