HYGEN Blog

Use Perl Audio Converter (pacpl) To Convert Audio Files On Ubuntu Linux

March 14th, 2010 | by admin |

Running the pacpl program without options

Download and install the Debian package (works for Ubuntu) for the Perl Audio Converter – http://pacpl.sourceforge.net/downloads.html

Then use dpkg -i command to install the package.

From the Perl Audio Converter website:

“Perl Audio Converter is a tool for converting multiple audio types from one format to another. It supports AAC, AC3, AIFF, APE, AU, AVR, BONK, CAF, CDR, FAP, FLA, FLAC, IRCAM, LA, LPAC, M4A, MAT, MAT4, MAT5, MMF, MP2, MP3, MP4, MPC, MPP, NIST, OFR, OFS, OGG, PAC, PAF, PVF, RA, RAM, RAW, SD2, SF, SHN, SMP, SND, SPX, TTA, VOC, W64, WAV, WMA, and WV. It can also convert audio from the following video formats: RM, RV, ASF, DivX, MPG, MKV, MPEG, AVI, MOV, OGM, QT, VCD, SVCD, M4V, NSV, NUV, PSP, SMK, VOB, FLV, and WMV. A CD ripping function with CDDB support, batch conversion, tag preservation for most supported formats, independent tag reading/writing, and extensions for Amarok, Dolphin, and Konqueror are also provided. “

Perl Audio Converter - 4.0.5
 
-t, --to             destination format
-r, --recursive      recursively convert directory(s)
-p, --preserve       preserve directory structure
-f, --formats        list supported encode/decode formats
-o, --only           only convert files matching extension
-k, --keep           keep files matching destination format
-h, --help           this help menu
-l, --longhelp       complete list of options
-v, --verbose        show detailed information
 
usage: pacpl --to <format> <options> [file(s)/directory(s)]

Example: Simple command for converting a wave format audio file to MP3…

pacpl -t mp3 'Trance Intro-23880-Free-Loops.com.wav

Man pages info on pacpl usage:

File: *manpages*, Node: pacpl, Up: (dir)

PACPL(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation PACPL(1)

NAME
pacpl – Perl Audio Converter, a multi purpose converter/ripper/tagger

SYNOPSIS
pacpl –to
[file(s)/directory(s)]

DESCRIPTION
Perl Audio Converter is a tool for converting multiple audio types from
one format to another. It supports AAC, AC3, AIFF, APE, AU, AVR, BONK,
CAF, CDR, FAP, FLA, FLAC, IRCAM, LA, LPAC, MAT, MAT4, MAT5, M4A, MMF,
MP2, MP3, MP4, MPC, MPP, NIST, OFR, OFS, OGG, PAC, PAF, PVF, RA, RAM,
RAW, SD2, SF, SHN, SMP, SND, SPX, TTA, VOC, W64, WAV, WMA, and WV. It
can also convert audio from the following video extensions: RM, RV,
ASF, DivX, MPG, MKV, MPEG, AVI, MOV, OGM, QT, VCD, SVCD, M4V, NSV, NUV,
PSP, SMK, VOB, FLV, and WMV. A CD ripping function with CDDB support,
batch conversion, tag preservation for most supported formats,
independent tag reading/writing, and extensions for Amarok, Dolphin,
and Konqueror are also provided.

OPTIONS
-t, –to format

set encode format for the input file(s) or directory(s). you can see a
complete list of supported encode formats by using the –formats
option.

-r, –recursive

recursively scan and convert input folder(s) to desination format.

-p, –preserve

when recursively converting a directory, preserve the input folders
directory structure in the specified output directory. such as:

pacpl –to ogg -r -p /home/mp3s –outdir /home/oggs

in the example above, let’s assume the directory structure was:

/home/mp3s/Alternative
/home/mp3s/Alternative/New
/home/mp3s/Rap
/home/mp3s/Country
/home/mp3s/Techno/

the output directory will now contain:

/home/oggs/Alternative
/home/oggs/Alternative/New
/home/oggs/Rap
/home/oggs/Country
/home/oggs/Techno

with all files in each sub-folder converted to ogg.

-o, –only format

only convert files matching extenstion. this option is useful when you
have a directory or batch of files with mixed audio types and only need
to convert one specific type.

-k, –keep

do not re-encode files with extensions matching the destination
extension. instead…copy them to the output folder, or skip to the
next file.

-f, –formats show a list of supported encode/decode formats.
-h, –help show the short help menu.
-l, –longhelp display the complete list of options.
–version show version and licensing information.

USER OPTIONS
–defopts 1/0

to turn off default encoder options use –defopts 0. this option gives
you more control when using the –eopts command.

defopts is set to 1 by default. you can also toggle this option in
/etc/pacpl/pacpl.conf.

–eopts options

this option allows you to use encoder options not implemented by pacpl.
an example would be:

pacpl –to mp4 –eopts=”-c 44100 -I 1,2″ YourFile.mp3

–dopts options

this option allows you to use decoder options not implemented by pacpl.
an example would be:

pacpl –to mpc –dopts=”–start 60″ YourFile.ogg

–outfile name

set the output file name to name.

–outdir directory

place all encoded files in directory.

–dryrun

show what would be done without actually converting anything. this is
a good way to trouble shoot, or to see what would be done without
actually touching your files.

–overwrite

replace the output file if it already exists.

–normalize

adjusts volume levels of audio files.

–nopts options

this allows you to specify normalize options not implemented by pacpl

–delete

remove source/input file after the conversion process has finished.

–encoder encoder

specify an alternate encoder for the selected output file(s)

you can see a list of supported encoders by using the following:

pacpl –encoder format

–decoder decoder

specify an alternate decoder for the selected input file(s)

you can see a list of supported decoders by using the following:

pacpl –decoder format

-v, –verbose

show detailed information about the encoding process and what’s
actually being done.

ENCODER OPTIONS
–bitrate num

set the bitrate to num. default is 128. this option does not apply to
all formats.

–freq num

set the frequency to num. default is 44100. this option does not
apply to all formats.

–channels num

set the number of audio channels in the output file to num. this
option does not apply to all formats.

–effect str

see sox(1). this option only applies to the following:

AIFF, AU, SND, RAW, VOC, SMP, AVR, and CDR

–fcomp num

set flac compression level to num. fastest -0, highest -8, default -2

–pcomp num

set lpac/pac compression level to num.

1 = fast
2 = simple
3 = medium (default)
4 = high
5 = extra high,

–acomp num

set ape compression level to num.

1000 = fast
2000 = normal
3000 = high (default)
4000 = extra high
5000 = insane

–oggqual num

set ogg quality level to num. -1, very low and 10 very high, default 3

–spxqual num

set speex quality level to num. 0-10, default 8

–aacqual num

set aac, mp4, m4a, or m4b quality level to num. default 300

–mpcqual str

set mpc/mpp quality level to str.

thumb low quality/internet, (typ. 58… 86 kbps)
radio medium (MP3) quality, (typ. 112…152 kbps – default)
standard high quality (dflt), (typ. 142…184 kbps)
xtreme extreme high quality, (typ. 168…212 kbps)

–ofmode str

set ofr/ofs compression mode to str. normal, extra, and extranew modes
are recommended for general use. available options are:

fast
normal (default)
high
extra
best
highnew
extranew
bestnew

–ofopt str

set ofr/ofs optimization level to str.

specify the optimization level in the engine. In order to achieve
optimal compression at all sample types, sample rates, and audio
content, the core compression engine has the possibility to find the
optimal values for its parameters, at the cost of slightly increased
compression time only. The default recommended value is fast. do not
use normal (or even high or best) for this parameter unless encoding
time does not matter and you want to obtain the smallest possible file
for a given compression mode. The difference between the optimize
levels fast and best (which is up to three times slower than fast) is
very small, generally under 0.05%, but may be also larger in some rare
cases. Note that the none optimize level is forced by the encoder to
fast optimize level for the extra, best, highnew, extranew, and bestnew
modes.

available options are:

none
fast (default)
normal
high
best

–bratio num

set bonk down sampling ratio. default 2

–bquanl num

set bonk quantanization level. default 1.0

–bpsize num

set bonk predictor size. default 128

TAGGING OPTIONS
note:

tagging outside of the encoding process can only be performed on the
following audio types:

MP3
OGG
FLA
FLAC

–artist str

set artist information to str.

–title str

set title information to str.

–track num

set track information to num.

–year num

set year/date information to num.

–album str

set album information to str.

–genre str

set genre information to str.

–comment str

set comment information to str.

–taginfo file

show tagging information for file. multiple files can be specified at
once.

RIPPING OPTIONS
–rip num/all

rip selected tracks separated by comma or all from current disc.

pacpl –rip all –to flac
pacpl –rip 1,3,9,15 –to flac

–nocddb

disable cddb. use this option if you do not want tagging based on
cddb.

–noinput

disable cddb interactivity. this is enabled by default.

–nscheme str

set naming scheme to str. default is %ar – %ti

available options are:

%ar = artist
%ti = song title
%tr = track
%yr = year
%ab = album

eg: –nscheme=”(%tr)-%ti”

–device str

set device to str. default is /dev/cdrom

–cdinfo

show cddb information for current disc.

SEE ALSO
sox(1) ffmpeg(1) lame(1) oggenc(1) oggdec(1)
flac(1) shorten(1) faac(1) faad(1) mppenc(1)
mppdec(1) mplayer(1) speexenc(1) speexdec(1)
sndfile-convert(1) normalize(1) cdparanoia(1)

BUGS
Report all bugs to Philip Lyons (viiron@gmail.com).

LICENSING
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program. If not, see .

AUTHOR
Copyright (C) 2005-2009 Philip Lyons (viiron@gmail.com)

perl v5.10.1 2009-11-26 PACPL(1)