Convert audio with one single Alfed call

[Florian]

Hey guys,

 

I made an audio converter that works very simply with Alfred, works with single file or multiple files. It can basically be any format to any format, but I made it anything to high quality mp3. Changing that or making it customizable should be straightforward.

 

Though installing the whole thing is somewhat complicated since I'm too lazy to make a pkg. 

 

Is anyone interested? 

[Florian]

Really, no one ? I thought it was cool 

[CarlosNZ]

Really, no one ? I thought it was cool 

Heh. It probably is quite cool, but I already have plenty of tools to do that kind of thing, and I always want to fiddle round with settings too much for it to be much use as in an Alfred interface. But that's just me.

 

What are you using as the backend processor for the conversion?

[Florian]

I just use sox coupled with lame. Since I only ever convert to high quality MP3 (I mean as high as mp3 quality goes   ) when I want to send a file or something, it's easy to have a simple command. But sox does many formats and qualities.  

[mralexhay]

If you've got a version that can convert mp3s to wav/aiffs then that would be a massive help for video editors - save using compressor droplets or taking audio into itunes.

 

Thanks!

[Florian]

So I never shared this one yet, so it might be a little tricky.

 

If you don't have a C compiler, follow these instructions (if you don't know what it is, chances are you should follow these instructions too).

http://blog.salientdigital.com/2012/05/16/how-to-fix-no-acceptable-c-compiler-found-in-path-on-mac-os-x-lion/

 

Then, follow these ones

http://ggkarman.de/tech/building-sox-with-mp3-support-on-osx/

 

I have installed Flac support on my computer too but I don't remember how. It was a real pain though... Fell free to look around if you need that ability.

 

Now you can install the workflow:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14050630/Sox%20convert.alfredworkflow

 

Add all the filetypes you'll need in the first part of the workflow (file action):

 

 

In the second part of the workflow (Run Script), change 

output=$output".mp3";

to 

output=$output".aiff"; 

 

 

There you go, it should now work like a charm. Just select one or multiple audio files (it won't go into folders though) and use the file action on them. (You might want to change the name of the file action too because right now it's "convert to mp3").

 

 

If you want total control of the quality (I have set it up to be the best quality possible, theoretically), to find the exact command your script should execute, read this:

http://linux.die.net/man/1/sox

and then, change this line to whatever your readings tell you:

/usr/local/bin/sox "$input" -C -0.2 "$output"

[mralexhay]

Thanks Florian, that looks really useful - will try it out!

 

Cheers