SoundConverter

SoundConverter is an open source, free, fast and multi-threaded audio file conversion utility that features support for popular file formats, as well as powerful automated renaming functionality. It is a graphical application that runs on any Linux kernel-based operating system.

Features at a glance

Key features include an easy-to-use and clean graphical user interface (GUI) that complies to GNOME HIG (Human Interface Guidelines) and helps you get the job done with minimum effort, super-fast and multi-threaded conversion engine that can process a large number of audio files simultaneously, as well as smart renaming functionality that allows you to change filenames and create directories according to the file’s metadata.

Supports a wide range of audio file formats

The application has been designed from the ground up to support a wide range of audio file formats, anything that GStreamer can read, including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, WAV, M4A, ALAC, MOD, S3M, SID, AC3, MPC, DTS, APE, XM, AVI, MOV, MPEG and Shorten. It encodes these files to the MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, WAV and Opus formats.

It’s easy to use

Thanks to its easy-to-use graphical user interface, the software allows you to convert a bunch of audio files from one format to another in a shortest time as possible. All you have to do is to open the folder where the files you want to convert are stored, select the directory where to place the results, choose a desired renaming scheme, the encoder and the quality.

Requirements and availability

The program only supports GNU/Linux operating systems and runs on top of the GNOME desktop environment. It requires the Python, PyGTK, GStreamer, Gnome-python, GStreamer-python and GStreamer-lame packages to work properly. It is available for download from the project’s homepage (see link above) only as a source archive, but it can be easily installed from the default software repositories of many Linux distributions.

What is new in this release:

• Don't write xing header if target MP3 is in CBR mode. Closes lp:1399276, thanks Chuck.
• Fix problem when dropping files with special chars. Thanks Fonfon.
• Update translations. Thanks Alain-Olivier.

What is new in version 2.1.4:

• Fix Ubuntu automatic plugin installation forever-loop by ignoring video codecs.
• (Closes lp:1308187, thanks Thibaut and others)
• Fix converting multiple folders containing the same filenames, as the same temporary files were created.
• (Closes lp:1357597, thanks Evert)
• Make sure all file/folder choosers are forced to local file-systems.
• (Closes lp:1339836, thanks Francois)

What is new in version 2.1.2:

• Fix original files deleted when encoding failed.
• "Same folder as the input file" fix when "Create folders" is active.
• Reset plugin install cancellation after conversion batch.
• "Replace all messy characters" based on a black list instead of a white list. This means that only really problematic characters are replaced now.
• Added appdata for gnome-software.
• Translation updates.

What is new in version 2.0.4:

• Add support for Opus codec.
• Fix command line arguments parsing.
• (Closes lp:995862, thanks Michael)
• Fix problem with AAC settings.
• (Closes lp:954555, thanks Patrick and zebul666)
• Fix crash in FolderChooser. 836338
• (Closes redhat:836338)
• Fix yet another problem with filenames handling.
• (Closes lp:998371, thanks Bastian)
• Update Translations.

What is new in version 1.5.3:

• Fix crash in TaskQueue
• Fix progress bar oddities.

What is new in version 1.4.4:

• Force vbr-max-bitrate to 320 when using mp3+vbr, since gstreamer now defaults to 160. (thanks psychoman, fix #15950)
• Activate GVfs authentication so we can log to remote shares. (thanks ikus060, fix lp:386849)
• Fix crash in query_duration. (fix lp:333024) Change deprecated Tooltip code, SoundConverter now requires GTK 2.12+! (thanks Matt)
• Reset status after clearing file list. (Thanks Sean)
• Fix unhandled exception when removing original files went bad. (thanks surreal, fix lp:278782)
• Allow loading glade file from source folder so you can run soundconverter without installing. (Thanks Geoff)
• Rosetta sync, Update all translations.
• Add Bulgarian, Danish, English (Australia), Estonian, Japanese and Vietnamese translations.
• A some minor cosmetic changes. (Thanks Uwe)

What is new in version 1.4.3:

• Fix freezing when adding encrypted mp4 files. (lp:263889)
• Display notification at the end of conversion.
• Display error dialog when something bad happened.
• And minor corrections, like Preference Dialog fixes,
• spellings fixes, a better URI handling and minor glitches fixed.

What is new in version 1.4.2:

• Translations update.
• Add a checkbox to optionally choose .oga extension for vorbis files.
• Minor bugfixes (python 2.5 problem, and some interface stalling fixes).

What is new in version 1.4.0:

• An AAC quality setting.
• A higher quality level for Vorbis and MP3.
• An old problem with unquoted folders has been fixed.
• FLAC files will be smaller. Optional resampling has been added.
• A {Timestamp} filename template has been added.
• The Polish translation has been updated.

Requirements:

• GNOME 2.x
• Python
• PyGTK
• GStreamer
• GStreamer-python
• GStreamer-lame