QDDBCONV(1)

📦 version 1.3.1, in arch rolling

🌸 QDDBCONV(1) 🌸

qddbconv — that's a User Commands manual page, bestie, and we're about to read it together 💖

✨ NAME ✨

qddbconv — a standalone Qt6 audio converter in DeaDBeeF style, made for KDE Plasma 🎀

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

qddbconv [FILES | DIRECTORIES | CUE_SHEETS ...]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

Okay so qddbconv is a fast, standalone C++17/Qt6 graphical audio converter designed for KDE Plasma, and it literally ate. 💯 It reproduces the two-pane layout, the workflow, the encoder preset architecture, and the Title Formatting syntax of DeaDBeeF's converter plugin — but it runs as a completely independent desktop application. Main character energy, no cap. 👑

Under the hood (iykyk 🔥), qddbconv uses ffmpeg(1) and ffprobe(1) for universal audio decoding, resampling, sample format conversion, channel mixing, and metadata/cover-art muxing. Then it stacks that with native C++17 parsers for multi-track .cue sheets, Standard MIDI (.mid/.midi/.kar/.rmi), and Yamaha SMAF (.mmf) mobile ringtones — including hybrid MIDI + 4-bit Yamaha MA ADPCM / PCM voice streams. Like… the range? Unmatched. 🌈

🍓 ARGUMENTS 🍓

  • FILES — one or more audio, MIDI, or Yamaha SMAF files to load into the conversion queue on startup ✨
  • DIRECTORIES — one or more directories to scan recursively for supported audio files 🧚
  • CUE_SHEETS — one or more .cue sheet files to parse and split into individual virtual tracks with per-track start/duration offsets and metadata 🎀

🔥 SUPPORTED FORMATS 🔥

💜 Input Formats

Lossless & Uncompressed Audio

FLAC (.flac), Apple Lossless (.m4a, .alac), Monkey's Audio (.ape), WavPack (.wv), TTA (.tta), TAK (.tak), Shorten (.shn), WAV (.wav), AIFF (.aif, .aiff), AU/SND (.au, .snd), Wave64 (.w64), CAF (.caf). Lossless girlies stay winning 🫶

Lossy Audio

MP3 (.mp3), Ogg Vorbis (.ogg, .oga), Opus (.opus), AAC / M4A (.aac, .m4a, .mp4), Musepack (.mpc, .mp+, .mpp), Windows Media Audio (.wma), AC-3 / E-AC-3 (.ac3, .eac3), DTS (.dts), Speex (.spx), AMR (.amr, .3gp). A whole buffet, honestly 😭

Chiptune, Tracker, MIDI & Mobile Formats

  • Yamaha SMAF (.mmf — FM/WaveTable MIDI scores, pure PCM/ADPCM streams, and hybrid MIDI + voice sample tracks) 🎮
  • Standard MIDI (.mid, .midi, .kar, .rmi via timidity or fluidsynth)
  • MOD/XM/IT/S3M (.mod, .xm, .it, .s3m)
  • SID, NSF, SPC, VGM/VGZ

The nostalgia is highkey off the charts. 👾

Video Containers (Audio Track Extraction)

Matroska (.mkv), WebM (.webm), MP4 (.mp4, .m4v), AVI (.avi), MOV (.mov), FLV (.flv), MPEG-TS (.ts). Yes bestie, we're stealing the audio out of your videos, it's giving resourceful 💅

🌈 Output Formats (36 Built-in Presets + User Presets)

MP3 (LAME & FFmpeg libmp3lame CBR 320/256/192/128 kbps, VBR V0, VBR V2), Ogg Vorbis (oggenc / FFmpeg libvorbis), Opus (opusenc 96–320 kbps / FFmpeg libopus), FLAC (flac levels 5 and 8 / FFmpeg), AAC / M4A (FFmpeg native AAC 192/256 kbps, faac, fdkaac), Apple Lossless (ALAC .m4a), WavPack (wavpack / FFmpeg), Musepack (mpcenc), Monkey's Audio (mac), TTA (ttaenc), Uncompressed WAV (16-bit PCM, 32-bit float), AIFF (16-bit big-endian), AC-3, WMA v2, and Standard MIDI (.mid extracted from Yamaha SMAF .mmf). Thirty-six presets plus yours — the menu is stacked ⭐

🧚 AUTOMATIC ENCODER & DECODER FALLBACK 🧚

Not every OS and not every FFmpeg build ships with the same external CLI tools and compile-time library wrappers — and qddbconv is unbothered, because it automatically inspects and adapts to the available tools at runtime. Adaptive queen. 👑

Encoder Fallback Chain (CLI binary → FFmpeg library encoder → FFmpeg built-in encoder)

When a preset specifies a standalone CLI encoder binary (lame, oggenc, opusenc, flac, wavpack, faac, fdkaac, neroaacenc, ttaenc, twolame, aften) that is not installed in PATH, qddbconv automatically falls back to ffmpeg with equivalent bitrate/quality parameters. 💫

First it prefers an external FFmpeg library encoder (libmp3lame, libvorbis, libopus, libfdk_aac, libtwolame, libwavpack); if the active ffmpeg build lacks that library, it falls back to FFmpeg's built-in native encoder (aac, opus, vorbis, flac, wavpack, tta, mp2, ac3).

Pro move: hovering over any preset in the Encoder: dropdown shows you exactly how that preset will execute on your current system — direct CLI binary, FFmpeg library encoder, FFmpeg built-in encoder, or fallback. Transparency! We love to see it 🔍

Demoscene & Chiptune Decoder Fallback

When the active ffmpeg binary was compiled without --enable-libopenmpt or --enable-libgme, qddbconv automatically falls back to openmpt123/xmp for tracker modules (.mod, .xm, .it, .s3m, .mptm, etc.) and to gme2wav for console chiptunes (.spc, .vgm, .vgz, .nsf, .gbs, .hes, .ay, .sap, .kss). It's giving prepared. 🎧

MIDI & Yamaha SMAF Synthesis Engines & SoundFont Selection

For Yamaha SMAF (.mmf) files, qddbconv gives you three selectable synthesis engines (plus an Auto mode), configurable in Settings → Configure qddbconv... 🌸

  1. The Built-in Hybrid Engine (builtin) — synthesizes 2-op and 4-op FM voices, custom Mtsu/Mtsq/EXVO SysEx FM patches, and direct 43 02|03 90 hardware register notes natively in C++ (that's YamahaMaFmSynth, with 29 waveforms and embedded 2-op/4-op GM FM preset banks). It also synthesizes MA-3/MA-5 WaveTable tracks via fluidsynth or timidity, and mixes embedded 4-bit Yamaha ADPCM / PCM (Mwa*/Awa*) streams into 44.1 kHz stereo PCM. Show-off behavior, honestly 💅
  2. MIDI Synth + ADPCM (midisynth) — renders all score tracks via fluidsynth or timidity and mixes embedded 4-bit Yamaha ADPCM / PCM (Mwa*/Awa*) streams on top.
  3. An optional Native 32-bit DLL Loader (dll, qddbconv-smaf32) — loads 32-bit M5_EmuSmw5.dll and M5_EmuHw.dll directly into a 32-bit helper process (natively on Linux x86_64 without Wine, and on 64-bit Windows) whenever a directory containing those DLLs is configured. Niche and thriving. 🧙

For Standard MIDI (.mid, .kar, .rmi) and SMAF WaveTable tracks, Auto mode tries fluidsynth first (requiring a valid .sf2/.sf3 SoundFont) and falls back to timidity.

You can configure the preferred MIDI synthesizer, custom fluidsynth and timidity binary paths, and an optional custom .sf2 SoundFont file — passed to fluidsynth and loaded into timidity -c with prior bank/drumset mappings cleared. Fully customizable, as you deserve. ✨

🎀 TITLE FORMATTING 🎀

The Output file name field supports DeaDBeeF-compatible Title Formatting placeholders and conditional brackets. This is where you get to be creative, bestie 💖

  • %a, %artist% — track artist 🎤
  • %t, %title% — track title
  • %b, %album% — album title 💿
  • %B, %band%, %album artist% — album artist
  • %n, %tracknumber% — zero-padded 2-digit track number (e.g. 01) 🔢
  • %N, %totaltracks% — total track count
  • %y, %year%, %date% — release year / date 📅
  • %g, %genre% — genre
  • %c, %comment% — comment tag
  • %f, %filename% — original file base name without extension
  • [ ... ] — conditional block: evaluated and included in the output filename only if at least one placeholder inside the brackets resolves to a non-empty string (for example, [%tracknumber%. ]%title%) 🪄

⌨️ KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS ⌨️

  • Ctrl+O — add audio files 📂
  • Ctrl+Shift+O — add folder recursively
  • Ctrl+U — add CUE sheet (.cue)
  • Ctrl+E / Double-click — open the Track Metadata & Properties dialog (tags, technical info, cover art preview/override) 🖼️
  • F2 — edit a cell inline in the track table (Track#, Title, Artist, Album, Year)
  • Delete / Backspace — remove selected tracks from the queue 🗑️
  • Ctrl+Shift+Delete — clear the entire track queue (careful, bestie 😭)
  • Ctrl+P — open the Encoder Presets manager
  • Ctrl+M — toggle the top menubar on/off (it collapses into a Dolphin-style hamburger menu button ~ on the toolbar) 🍔
  • Ctrl+Return / Ctrl+Enter — start conversion 🚀
  • Escape — cancel active conversion
  • Ctrl+, — open the Preferences dialog
  • Ctrl+Q — quit the application 👋

💾 FILES 💾

🎀 Configuration & Preset Files 🎀

  • ~/.config/qddbconv/qddbconv.conf — the main character of config files, bestie 💅. It's the app's big config file, in standard INI format (handled through Qt QSettings). This is where all the receipts live: your output directory paths, your Title Formatting pattern, which encoder preset is currently active, the DSP resampling and bit-depth settings, how many worker threads you want, your overwrite policy, cover art embedding and resizing preferences, the default CUE sheet fallback encoding, a custom temporary directory path, any extra FFmpeg arguments, your toolbar button style, whether the menubar is visible, and the window geometry. Basically everything except your astrological sign ✨
  • $XDG_DATA_HOME/qddbconv/presets/*.txt and ~/.local/share/qddbconv/presets/*.txt — your encoder preset files, both the ones you made and the ones you customized 🫶. They're stored in plain-text key-value format and are 100% compatible with DeaDBeeF's converter preset files over in ~/.config/deadbeef/presets/encoders/*.txt — yes, fr fr, cross-compatible, we love to see it. On Windows the default directory is %LOCALAPPDATA%\qddbconv\presets (or a portable presets subfolder inside the qddbconv application folder). You can also point it at a custom preset directory in Settings → Configure qddbconv.... The 28 built-in presets are compiled straight into the qddbconv binary as read-only defaults, so if you edit or copy one of them, it writes a brand-new .txt file into your user presets directory — no built-ins were harmed in the making of your custom preset 🌸

🧚 Temporary & Service Files Created at Runtime 🧚

So here's the tea: every temporary file gets created in /tmp (or in your custom Temporary WAV Directory, set under Settings → Preferences...), and they all get auto-deleted the literal second each track finishes processing ✨ Nothing hanging around, no clutter, iconic behavior honestly.

  • /tmp/qddbconv_XXXXXX.wav — the intermediate decoded PCM WAV file, generated by ffmpeg (with CUE track slicing, resampling, bit-depth conversion, and channel mixing all applied) or synthesized from .mid/.mmf inputs. This is the file that gets fed to the external CLI encoders, and it's deleted immediately after encoding completes 💀 gone. poof.
  • /tmp/qddbconv_smaf_XXXXXX.mid — a temporary Standard MIDI file pulled out of a Yamaha SMAF (.mmf) score track, so timidity can render the instrumental backing track before qddbconv mixes in the embedded Mwa/Awa ADPCM/PCM voice samples 🎹. Deleted immediately after rendering, obviously.
  • /tmp/qddbconv_cover_XXXXXX.jpg — a temporary JPEG cover art image, because the art deserves its moment 👑. It comes from source tags, from album folder files like cover.jpg/folder.jpg/front.png, or from your own manual selection, with optional downscaling applied. It gets passed to ffmpeg when muxing cover art into MP3, FLAC, M4A/MP4, or WMA. Deleted immediately after tag muxing.
  • /tmp/qddbconv_meta_XXXXXX.txt — a temporary ffmetadata file containing a base64-encoded RFC 7845 METADATA_BLOCK_PICTURE structure, used when embedding cover art into Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) and Opus (.opus) containers. Why, you ask? To dodge OS command-line length limits on large images, that's why 😭. Deleted immediately after muxing.
  • <output_file>.tagged.<ext> — the temporary atomic remux file, created right alongside the destination file while ffmpeg writes out output metadata tags and cover art. When it's done it gets atomically renamed over <output_file>, so an interrupted operation can never leave you with a corrupted file 🫶 no cap, that's the whole point.

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

ffmpeg(1), ffprobe(1), timidity(1), lame(1), flac(1), opusenc(1), oggenc(1)

👑 AUTHORS 👑

goberghen & Arena.ai Agent.

Copyright © 2026 goberghen & Arena.ai Agent.

License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html>.

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 source qddbconv, version date October 2026, manual page QDDBCONV(1) — go forth and convert some audio, you absolute icon 🦋✨💅
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