Converting WAV to MP3 using LAME and Automator

Question

I'd like to convert many WAV files to MP3 files using LAME and Automator. I need a script that I could right click a folder and convert all the WAV files inside the folder to MP3 files. I've been able to find a script to convert single file but I don't know how to modify it so I could convert many files with a single click.

I've been using script which I found here for single files. Here is a similar question but instead of using "Run Applescript" it uses "Run Shell Script". I've tried to replace LAME parameters between "do" and "done" but haven't succeeded to convert anything.

So, how could I convert folder full of WAV files to MP3 files? For me it doesn't matter is it done by using Applescript or Shell Script in Automator if both ways are possible.

Answer 1

Automator 'hangs' when attempting to use LAME encoder unfortunately. It's also not efficient or advisable to try and use a multi-threaded process as an Automator Service. For tasks such as this it's best to either run a simple script or use an alternate method.

The script below will encode a 20Mb .wav to .mp3 in 3 seconds! (at the highest quality settings)

file="$1"

find . -name '*.wav' -maxdepth 1 -exec /usr/local/bin/lame -V 0 -q 0 '{}' \;

for file in *.mp3
do
  mv "$file" "${file/wav./}"
done

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To install, download, then open terminal:

sudo install encode-mp3 /usr/local/bin

To use, navigate into a desired conversion folder and type:

encode-mp3

This will encode your .wav files to .mp3

Convert .wav to .mp3 | LAME Encoder Shell Script [md5: 72d4e24f14ea9139136900f2c4281a7f]

---

[original]

I just wrote a one-liner that will do this for you in Terminal, just cd to the directory of files you want to convert and enter:

find ./ -name "*.wav" -execdir lame -V 3 -q 0 {} \;

Answer 2

You can use the following in Automator's "Run Shell Script" action (make sure to change "Pass input" to "as arguments"):

find "$1" -name "*.wav" -execdir /usr/local/bin/lame -V 0 -q 0 {} \;

This will find all .wav files in the selected folder, including sub-folders (and skip over any non-wav files). If you don't want it to look into sub-folders, you can change it to this:

find "$1" -name "*.wav" -maxdepth 1 -execdir /usr/local/bin/lame -V 0 -q 0 {} \;

Of course, you would change -V 0 -q 0 to whatever lame options you prefer.

If you want to be notified when it's done, you can add a say command, use a "Show Growl Notification" action (if you have Growl installed), or use a beep command in a "Run AppleScript" action.

Below is a screenshot of what my workflow looks like with the extra say command and the Growl notification. Also notice I changed the "Service receives selected" option at the top to "folders" (it will be "text" by default).

Answer 3

The thread is a bit updated, but for those who may find it useful,

I used Automator setup described here, and was able to avoid getting it stuck with -S option of lame, so my "Run Shell Script" command looks like:

    find "$1" -name "*.wav" -maxdepth 1 -execdir /usr/bin/lame -b 160 -q 0 -S {} \;

(besides, my lame exec is in another place)

The -S option turns off Lames progress report