The short answer
If you want to converte audio between Free Lossless Audio Codec and Apple Lossless Audio Codec it’s straightforward as
avconv -i audio.flac -acodec alac audio.m4a avconv -i audio.m4a -acodec flac audio.flac |
Where did this come from
This is the application from Libav which is a complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video. It includes libavcodec – the leading audio/video codec library.
So, you are in good hands!
How to install avconv in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
You already know how to do it right ? Just use apt-get install avconv
$ sudo apt-get install avconv [sudo] password for biafra: Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done E: Unable to locate package avconv $ |
What ? This can’t be true!
But it is because avconv is just the new name of… ffmpeg.
At this time you still have to install it using the ffmpeg name
$ sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
$ ffmpeg
ffmpeg version 0.8.1-4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the Libav developers
built on Mar 22 2012 05:09:06 with gcc 4.6.3
<span style="color: #ff6600;">This program is not developed anymore and is only provided for compatibility. Use avconv instead (see Changelog for the list of incompatible changes).</span>
Hyper fast Audio and Video encoder
usage: ffmpeg [options] [[infile options] -i infile]... {[outfile options] outfile}...
Use -h to get full help or, even better, run 'man ffmpeg'
The warning is just to tell you to start to use avconv |
$ avconv
avconv version 0.8.1-4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the Libav developers
built on Mar 22 2012 05:09:06 with gcc 4.6.3
Hyper fast Audio and Video encoder
usage: avconv [options] [[infile options] -i infile]... {[outfile options] outfile}...
Use -h to get full help or, even better, run 'man avconv' |
Update: In Ubuntu 14.04 LTS just sudo apt-get install libav-tools
Conclusion
The simplicity of avconv is a must. Just use it to convert FLAC, ALAC and other codecs. Just a warning: mp3 is not supported. Check the available codecs with avconv -codecs.
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