{"id":4463,"date":"2016-08-26T21:58:03","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T20:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stevepedwards.today\/DebianAdmin\/?p=4463"},"modified":"2016-08-26T21:58:03","modified_gmt":"2016-08-26T20:58:03","slug":"converting-m4a-to-mp3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevepedwards.today\/DebianAdmin\/converting-m4a-to-mp3\/","title":{"rendered":"Converting m4a to mp3"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you own m4a music files you bought off Apple iStore\/other, and don't use iTunes now you have moved permanently away from Windoze (WHY NOT YET????!! Shame on you!!), you may know that m4a files don't play too well with mplayer on a remote server system if you are ssh'd into it they are broken up sounding and show garbage in the ssh terminal:<\/p>\n

\"m4a.png\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is not the case with remote mp3s or locally, and mplayer may even give you an album cover pic as it finds the copyright info in the m4a file:<\/p>\n

\".pngalbum\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But, for your remote music server or car mp3 player, you may want\/need to convert m4a files anyway.<\/p>\n

Convert One Track At A Time<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is an easy process with a one-liner for faad and lame if you cd into the Album folder:<\/p>\n

sudo apt-get install faad lame<\/span><\/p>\n

faad -o tmp.wav 01TalkingtotheSun.m4a && lame -b 192 tmp.wav 01TalkingtotheSun.mp3<\/span><\/p>\n

That's it! Just rsync or copy the files back to your remote server and you can run them via ssh and mplayer to play out of the remote servers speakers\u00a6<\/p>\n

BUT - it will fail with track names containing white space or special characters; \"(\" \")\" and \" ' \" for example. See below. For white space removal use ls to list the songs for rename to change:<\/p>\n

\u00a0 ls * | rename 's\/ \/\/g'<\/span><\/p>\n

The files with a \"(\" were renamed using:<\/p>\n

ls *\\(* | rename 's\/\\(\/_\/g'<\/span><\/p>\n

then the other bracket:<\/p>\n

ls *\\)* | rename 's\/\\)\/_\/g'<\/span><\/p>\n

For files with apostrophes try:<\/p>\n

for f in *; do mv \"$f\" `echo $f | sed 's\/\\x27<\/strong>\/\/g'`; done<\/span><\/p>\n

You can see this works with sed because the x27 is the hex value of the apostrophe key shown by:<\/p>\n

stevee@T3400 ~ $ ascii<\/span>
\nUsage: ascii [-dxohv] [-t] [char-alias...]
\n-t = one-line output -d = Decimal table -o = octal table -x = hex table
\n-h = This help screen -v = version information
\nPrints all aliases of an ASCII character. Args may be chars, C \\-escapes,
\nEnglish names, ^-escapes, ASCII mnemonics, or numerics in decimal\/octal\/hex.<\/p>\n

Dec Hex Dec Hex Dec Hex Dec Hex Dec Hex Dec Hex Dec Hex Dec Hex
\n0 00 NUL 16 10 DLE 32 20 48 30 0 64 40 @ 80 50 P 96 60 ` 112 70 p
\n1 01 SOH 17 11 DC1 33 21 ! 49 31 1 65 41 A 81 51 Q 97 61 a 113 71 q
\n2 02 STX 18 12 DC2 34 22 \" 50 32 2 66 42 B 82 52 R 98 62 b 114 72 r
\n3 03 ETX 19 13 DC3 35 23 # 51 33 3 67 43 C 83 53 S 99 63 c 115 73 s
\n4 04 EOT 20 14 DC4 36 24 $ 52 34 4 68 44 D 84 54 T 100 64 d 116 74 t
\n5 05 ENQ 21 15 NAK 37 25 % 53 35 5 69 45 E 85 55 U 101 65 e 117 75 u
\n6 06 ACK 22 16 SYN 38 26 & 54 36 6 70 46 F 86 56 V 102 66 f 118 76 v
\n7 07 BEL 23 17 ETB 39 27 '<\/strong><\/span> 55 37 7 71 47 G 87 57 W 103 67 g 119 77 w
\n8 08 BS 24 18 CAN 40 28 ( 56 38 8 72 48 H 88 58 X 104 68 h 120 78 x
\n9 09 HT 25 19 EM 41 29 ) 57 39 9 73 49 I 89 59 Y 105 69 i 121 79 y
\n10 0A LF 26 1A SUB 42 2A * 58 3A : 74 4A J 90 5A Z 106 6A j 122 7A z
\n11 0B VT 27 1B ESC 43 2B + 59 3B ; 75 4B K 91 5B [ 107 6B k 123 7B {
\n12 0C FF 28 1C FS 44 2C , 60 3C < 76 4C L 92 5C \\ 108 6C l 124 7C |
\n13 0D CR 29 1D GS 45 2D - 61 3D = 77 4D M 93 5D ] 109 6D m 125 7D }
\n14 0E SO 30 1E RS 46 2E . 62 3E > 78 4E N 94 5E ^ 110 6E n 126 7E ~
\n15 0F SI 31 1F US 47 2F \/ 63 3F ? 79 4F O 95 5F _ 111 6F o 127 7F DEL<\/p>\n

sed replaces the \" '<\/strong><\/span> \" , \u00a0with nothing between the \"\/\/\" slashes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You may want max bitrate, which will depend on the original m4a, probably 256 bit - research it - so you can set 192 to 256 as max quality for the mp3 file too.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, if you are playing a video with say, Videos, through your sound system, you can also play a music file with mplayer - they multiplex through the sound card equally - may be handy if you are testing\/editing a backing track to a home video etc...<\/p>\n

Now the cmd needs amending to do a whole album at a time...<\/p>\n

Convert Whole Album At Once In About 3 Minutes!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spent ages on this...on the web etc..I got the first part happening, but can't get lame to do the same on one line...as xargs\/faad converts all the m4a first, and drops the &&...<\/p>\n

ls *m4a | xargs -I {} faad {} > {}.wav<\/span><\/p>\n

ls -l Music\/SteveHillage\/Open\\(Remastered\\)\/<\/span>
\n-rw-r--r-- 1 stevee stevee 5497251<\/strong> Aug 2 20:19 021988Aktivator.m4a<\/span>
\n-rw-r--r-- 1 stevee stevee 26239020<\/strong> Aug 27 01:51 021988Aktivator.wav<\/span><\/p>\n

ls *m4a | xargs -I {} faad {} > {}.wav &&<\/strong> ls *wav | xargs -I {} lame -b 256 {}.wav {}.mp3 doesn't work<\/p>\n

Got this to work, but it still does the conversion to .wav for all files first, then converts wavs to mp3, but with a .wav.mp3 suffix, but I think thats the way faad and lame work so take control. It also stops at tracks 11-14 because of \"'\" and \"(\" in the names..<\/p>\n

ls *m4a | xargs -I {} faad {} > {}; ls *wav | xargs -I {} lame -b 256 {} {}.mp3<\/span><\/p>\n

ls -l<\/span>
\n-rw-r--r-- 1 stevee stevee 0 Aug 27 10:37 {}<\/span>
\n-rw-r--r-- 1 stevee stevee 12794171 Aug 2 20:19 01TalkingtotheSun.m4a<\/span>
\n-rw-r--r-- 1 stevee stevee 63524908 Aug 27 10:37 01TalkingtotheSun.wav<\/span>
\n-rw-r--r-- 1 stevee stevee 11525641 Aug 27 10:38 01TalkingtotheSun.wav.mp3<\/span><\/p>\n

I renamed tracks like:<\/p>\n

11Don'tDither,DoIt.m4a to\u00a011DontDitherDoIt.m4a<\/p>\n

and they all ran - lame doesn't like special chars...<\/p>\n

\"lame.png\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Also, I noticed during the conversion that these are 64 bits, so no point using -b 256 either - it just makes bigger files and takes longer...<\/p>\n

Yep, this final line does the lot when you cd into the Album directory.<\/p>\n

ls *m4a | xargs -I {} faad {} > {}; ls *wav | xargs -I {} lame -b 256 {} {}.mp3; ls *wav* | rename 's\/wav.mp3\/mp3\/g'<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

On my T3400 Quad server it's pretty quick!<\/p>\n