Table of Contents

Ubuntu - Sound - Bitrate - Change Bitrate

Convert MP3 files in all sub-directories to a different bitrate

find . -type f -name "*.mp3" -print0 | while IFS= read -r -d '' file; do echo "$file"; lame -b 192 "$file" "${file%.*}".192.mp3; done

NOTE: The bitrate is set to 192 kbps.

Convert MP3 files in all sub-directories to a different bitrate, but only if they have bitrates above a specific value

Using only built in Bash functions

find . -type f -name "*.mp3" -print0 | while IFS= read -r -d '' file; do echo "$file"; [[ $(file "$file" | sed 's/.*, \(.*\)kbps.*/\1/' | tr -d " ") -gt 192 ]] && lame -b 192 "$file" "${file%.*}".192.mp3 && mv "${file%.*}".192.mp3 "$file"; done

WARNING: This uses the file command to determine the bitrate.

  • Unfortunately, sometimes the file command does not return the bitrate and returns something like Audio file with ID3 version 2.3.0.
  • For these files, the $(file “$file” | sed 's/.*, \(.*\)kbps.*/\1/' | tr -d “ ”) part will not work.
  • The bitrate is set to 192 kbps for any file that has a bitrate above 192 kbps.

Using mp3info

find . -type f -name "*.mp3" -print0 | while IFS= read -r -d '' file; do echo "$file"; [[ $(mp3info -r m -p "%r" "$file") -gt 192 ]] && lame -b 192 "$file" "${file%.*}".192.mp3 && mv "${file%.*}".192.mp3 "$file"; done

NOTE: This uses the mp3info command to determine the bitrate.

  • This mp3info command needs to be installed with sudo apt install mp3info.