Ubuntu
rhythmbox package

How can I rip to mp3 VBR?

Asked by Caleb

I'd like to rip CDs to mp3 using Rhythmbox. In the Music tab of Preferences, there's a "Preferred Format" dropdown. However, this does not contain MP3. If I click the Edit button next to the dropdown list, one of the profiles is CD Quality, MP3, and that appears to do what I want. However, I can't seem to get that onto the dropdown list to let me use it.

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ex-xp64 (ex-xp64) said : 		#1

Add the Medibuntu repo to your sw sources:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

Then

sudo apt-get install w32codecs ubuntu-restricted-extras

(or w64codecs if on AMD64 ubuntu)

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Caleb (caleb-marcus) said : 		#2

I don't need mp3 codecs... gstreamer supports mp3 through LAME on my system, it's just that the Rhythmbox GUI isn't letting me choose mp3 when I want to rip, so I have to first rip the CD to WAV, and then encode it with LAME. I suppose that if there's no way to get this to work, I should file a bug, rather than ask a question.

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ex-xp64 (ex-xp64) said : 		#3

check the gnome settings

Alt + F2

gconf-editor

>apps>Rhythmbox

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ex-xp64 (ex-xp64) said : 		#4

can you rip to mp3 with sound-juicer? I think they may use the same config files (personally I use amarok)

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mcarson (m-launchpad-mike-carson-com) said : 		#5

Are you sure the codecs are in and working properly? (ie, can you encode TO mp3 in some other circumstance?) I was able to listen to mp3s and the encode to mp3 profile existed when I went to edit preferred music type profiles, using lame, but it wouldn't appear in the dropdown for Rhythmbox. I installed "Ubuntu Restricted extras" in Synaptic and it's working perfectly now.

"Ubuntu Restricted extras" installed a bunch of codecs, stuff for DVD playback, MS core fonts, etc. You may or may not want it all, but you could check that package for the parts you do want & only install those.

tl;dr version: Just because lame is listed doesn't always mean it's working. Installing "Ubuntu Restricted extras" makes a lot of this sort of problem go away.

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Jon Ward (jrw107) said : 		#6

Following ex-xp64's original answer:

- Add the Medibuntu repo to your sw sources:
- https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
-
- Then
-
- sudo apt-get install w32codecs ubuntu-restricted-extras-
-
- (or w64codecs if on AMD64 ubuntu)

Worked for me in, my problem was exactly the same as Caleb originally described although I didn't bother to try and encoded to WAVs then to MP3s via the console as Caleb did so I can't confirm I was able to.

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growingneeds (growingneeds) said : 		#7

Hi. From Synaptic, simply install the meta-package "gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse". This will enable the selection of mp3 from the preferred format list in RhythmBox. Remember it has to be the multiverse variant.

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