[SOLVED] Soundconverter issue: 'lame' element not found, disabling MP3

[ivotkl]

Hello everyone, I'm trying to lower the bitrate of some MP3s files I've ripped before. The thing is that I don't have a ODD to rip the songs again to a lower bitrate.

I'm using Sound Converter with lame and ffmpeg codecs related to gstreamer. I get the following error when opening the program from terminal:

SoundConverter 1.4.4
  using Gstreamer version: 0.10.30, Python binding version: 0.10.19
  using gio
  'lame' element not found, disabling MP3.
  'faac' element not found, disabling AAC.
  using 1 thread(s)

Any help would be highly appreciated. I've searched online, this forum and other forums and had no luck. Everything I've tried pointed to installing codecs I already have installed.

Running Debian, Kernel Version 2.6.32-5-486 (Mon Feb 25 00:22:26 UTC 2013), i686.

[rokytnji]

First check if lame is installed I guess.

apt-cache policy lame
lame:
  Installed: 3.99.5+repack1-3
  Candidate: 3.99.5+repack1-3
  Version table:
 *** 3.99.5+repack1-3 0
        500 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

I use ffmpeg for sound conversion through command line instead of sound converter.

[ivotkl]

rokytnji: Thank you very much for the prompt response. I've seen some users that use ffmpeg (and commands or scripts suggestions as well), so I'll definitely read its manual and check it out later on.

[rokytnji]

I am on another distro (mint 14) right now. You might also want to check if faac is installed also with apt-cache policy command.

$ apt-cache policy faac
faac:
  Installed: 1.28-0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 1.28-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 1.28-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/multiverse amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

It won't hurt to run

apt-cache depends soundconverter

also and make sure all the dependencies are installed also I guess.

[ivotkl]

Ok, so as requested by you:

apt-cache depends soundconverter
soundconverter
  Depends: python
  Depends: python-gnome2
  Depends: python-glade2
  Depends: python-gst0.10
  Depends: gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
  Depends: gstreamer0.10-plugins-base
  Suggests: gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
  Suggests: gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
root@ivan-deb:/home/ivann# sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg python python-gnome2 python-glade2 python-gst0.10
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
python-gnome2 is already the newest version.
python-gnome2 set to manually installed.
gstreamer0.10-plugins-base is already the newest version.
gstreamer0.10-plugins-base set to manually installed.
gstreamer0.10-plugins-good is already the newest version.
gstreamer0.10-plugins-good set to manually installed.
gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly is already the newest version.
python-gst0.10 is already the newest version.
python-gst0.10 set to manually installed.
gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg is already the newest version.
gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg set to manually installed.
python-glade2 is already the newest version.
python-glade2 set to manually installed.
python is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

[ivotkl]

Ok, so as requested by you:

apt-cache depends soundconverter
soundconverter
  Depends: python
  Depends: python-gnome2
  Depends: python-glade2
  Depends: python-gst0.10
  Depends: gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
  Depends: gstreamer0.10-plugins-base
  Suggests: gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
  Suggests: gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
root@ivan-deb:/home/ivann# sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg python python-gnome2 python-glade2 python-gst0.10
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
python-gnome2 is already the newest version.
python-gnome2 set to manually installed.
gstreamer0.10-plugins-base is already the newest version.
gstreamer0.10-plugins-base set to manually installed.
gstreamer0.10-plugins-good is already the newest version.
gstreamer0.10-plugins-good set to manually installed.
gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly is already the newest version.
python-gst0.10 is already the newest version.
python-gst0.10 set to manually installed.
gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg is already the newest version.
gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg set to manually installed.
python-glade2 is already the newest version.
python-glade2 set to manually installed.
python is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

[rokytnji]

Well, if it was me. First I would remove Soundconverter completely.

sudo apt-get --purge remove soundconverter

After uninstalling it. Then I would run a

sudo apt-get clean

Let it finish. Then do a

sudo apt-get update

to update libraries and applications list in apt first. Then try a reinstall of soundconverter.

sudo apt-get install soundconverter

I would make a new text file also and copy in the recommends and suggested stuff also for reference later on whether I need those for soundconverter to work properly.

I am kinda outa ideas. Maybe this and this
will get you outa the woods so to speak. winff is a good option I would think to soundconverter.

(edit: I have no experience using winff so I might be mistaken on what it is capable of).

[ivotkl]

Ok, so I've tried doing the above and worked. Thanks a lot. Marking as solved. =)