Recommendations for converting WAV to MP3?

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Jun 28, 2008, at 04:27, Tabitha McNerney wrote:

> On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 11:12 PM, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>
>> On Jun 28, 2008, at 03:33, Tabitha McNerney wrote:
>>
>>> I noticed among MacPorts there is a collection of audio-related  
>>> tools -- many of them in fact. Can someone recommend a command- 
>>> line tool to convert (one or batch) WAV files to MP3 format?  
>>> Something simple would be great. I just have no idea where to  
>>> start (audio is not my forte).
>>
>> Honestly, I'd recommend Apple's iTunes. Drag all your WAV files  
>> into iTunes. Then go to iTunes - Preferences - Advanced -  
>> Importing and set your encoding settings the way you want them  
>> (MP3 or AAC (a.k.a. M4A), bitrate, mono/stereo, etc.). Then select  
>> all your imported WAV files in the library and choose "Convert  
>> Selection to MP3" (or "to AAC") from the Advanced menu. Then you  
>> can delete the WAV files from iTunes.
>
> Indeed a good idea. Though, is there a way to batch? I suppose one  
> could write an Apple Script to drive iTunes. It would be nice to  
> have a purely command-line option besides iTunes, if that's possible.

For just a single batch, as I say, you just drag all your WAVs into  
iTunes, set up your settings once, then select all your WAVs and tell  
iTunes to convert them. It will do them all at once.

But if you repeatedly want to convert batches of files, then you're  
right, a script is needed, and though AppleScript could work, a  
command-line utility might serve better. A popular mp3 encoder is  
"lame", for which a MacPorts port exists. I haven't used it myself,  
but maybe it will work for you. Looking through the output of "port  
search mp3" I also see "bladeenc" which might work too.