I've been using the default Gnome sound converter known as Sound Converter for a long time. It's great for short audio files like songs, but when it comes to longer files, such as audiobooks, it really struggles. The audio lengths get messed up, leading to problems with playback on various software, and the time displayed gets all inaccurate. Plus, transcoding takes quite a bit of time. I'm currently on version 4.0.6 on Debian, but I've faced these issues for years, even on Ubuntu. I can use ffmpeg, but I always forget the command line options for batch processing. Is there another audio converter that's easy to use and doesn't have these playback problems? Or does anyone have a workaround?
4 Answers
Though it's not exactly an audio converter, you might want to try Audacity! It's a robust audio editing tool that'll let you convert files among other features.
I've been using fre:ac for ages, and I'm really happy with it! Installing it via Flatpak is the easiest way to get it set up. It's pretty straightforward and might solve your issues.
You could check out Sox. It's a powerful command line tool, but it might have a learning curve. Not sure if you'd face similar issues as with ffmpeg, though.
You should look into the Debian Multimedia Repository. They've got a great selection, and there may be some converters there that can work better for you! Here’s their task list for more info.
I appreciate that suggestion! But I worry it might have the same problems as ffmpeg since it's also quite command-line focused.