Convert WAV files to MP3 in Ubuntu

I had old music files in WAV format that I wanted to convert to MP3 and then upload to my RockBox-ed Sansa e260. This is quite a simple task if you have the right set of tools with you. Here's how I did it on Ubuntu 9.04.

Here are the steps to get this done:

1. Install SoundConverter
2. Install MP3 Encoder
3. Setup Sound Converter to convert to MP3
4. Convert the required files

Install SoundConverter
You need to install soundconverter application from the Synaptic package manager. This program does the work of converting between formats and supports WAV, FLAC and OGG Vorbis natively. So for converting to MP3 and other formats, it requires the appropriate encoders.

Install MP3 Encoder
You need to install GStreamer MP3 Encoder (gstreamer-0.10-plugins-ugly) from Multi-Verse link apt:gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse?section=multiverse as mentioned on the SoundConverter website since it is not directly supported by Ubuntu and so may not available from the Synaptic package manager.

Setup SoundConverter to convert to MP3
Now that our installation is complete, fire-up the Sound Converter application and go to Edit > Preferences menu. Change the Type of result? > Format to ".MP3"; Bitrate Mode to "Variable (VBR) - Best Quality; and Quality to High.

Convert the required files
This completes our setup and now we are ready to convert files. Just add the files you want to convert and press the Convert button!

Note: that you will need to copy files from the Audio CD onto your HDD before starting the conversion otherwise SoundConverter complains and does not do anything.

Note: If you sinply want to rip an Audio CD, then follow the steps to rip an Audio CD to MP3 in my post here