TRACK2TRACK(1)

🌸 TRACK2TRACK — the audio track glow-up tool 🌸

okay bestie, so this is track2track(1), a manual page from the Audio File Converter lineup. sit down, grab a strawberry drink 🍓, and let me tell you about the little command that takes your audio tracks and ✨ transforms ✨ them.

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💖 NAME 💖

track2track — convert audio tracks. that's it. that's the whole vibe. it converts audio tracks. slay.

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

track2track [OPTIONS] <track 1> [track 2] ...

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

track2track converts audio tracks from one format to another. like, you have a track, it's in this format, and you want it in that format instead. that's the entire plot of the movie. no notes. 💅

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

the general-purpose options, the ones that aren't about the conversion itself but about how you're talking to the program:

• -h, --help — shows you a list of options and then exits. your little guide bestie 🫶
• -I, --interactive — lets you edit metadata and encoding options in interactive mode before the tracks get converted. very hands-on, very main character.
• -V, --verbose=VERBOSITY — how much output you wanna see. your choices are 'normal', 'quiet' and 'debug'. pick your energy level 💫

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🔥 CONVERSION OPTIONS 🔥

this is where the actual converting happens. the good stuff.

• -t, --type=TYPE — the audio format you're converting the given tracks to. wanna see what's available? try -t help.
• -q, --quality=QUALITY — the desired quality of the converted tracks. wanna know what quality modes a given format supports? try -q help
• -d, --dir=DIRECTORY — where the converted tracks should land. if you don't give one, the current working directory is used. if the target directory doesn't exist, it gets created automatically — it's very self-sufficient like that. not compatible with -o, so pick a lane bestie.
• --format=STRING — the format string used for new filenames. template fields get replaced with metadata values when new tracks are created, and all other text is left exactly as-is. if you omit this option, a default format string is used.
• -o, --output=FILENAME — an explicit output filename for the converted track. with this one, only a single input track is allowed, periodt. it overrides the -d option and the default output filename.
• -j, --joint=PROCESSES — the maximum number of tracks to convert at one time. if you've got multiple CPUs or CPU cores, letting track2track(1) use all of them simultaneously can greatly increase encoding speed. multitasking icon behaviour 👑

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🌈 FORMAT OPTIONS 🌈

these ones change what the output files actually look like on the inside:

• --sample-rate=RATE — convert all output files to the given sample rate, in Hz
• --channels=CHANNELS — convert all output files to the given number of channels
• --bits-per-sample=BITS — convert all output files to the given number of bits-per-sample

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💿 CD LOOKUP OPTIONS 💿

for when you want the program to go out into the world and fetch metadata for you:

• -M, --metadata-lookup — perform metadata lookup for converted tracks
• --musicbrainz-server=HOSTNAME — the MusicBrainz server name to query for metadata
• --musicbrainz-port=PORT — the MusicBrainz port to query for metadata
• --no-musicbrainz — don't query MusicBrainz for metadata
• --freedb-server=HOSTNAME — the FreeDB server name to query for metadata
• --freedb-port=PORT — the FreeDB port to query for metadata
• --no-freedb — don't query FreeDB for metadata
• -D, --default — when multiple metadata choices are available, select the first one automatically. heads up: this option has no effect when used with -I

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💜 METADATA OPTIONS 💜

• --replay-gain — add ReplayGain metadata to newly created tracks
• --no-replay-gain — do not add ReplayGain metadata to newly created tracks

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🌟 EXAMPLES 🌟

here's the tea, in actual command form:

convert all the WAVE files in the current working directory to MP3s at the default quality:

track2track -t mp3 *.wav

convert all of the FLAC files in sourcedir to Ogg Vorbis files and place them in targetdir:

track2track -t ogg -d targetdir sourcedir/*.flac

convert all of the WAVE files in sourcedir to FLAC files, 2 at a time and at the highest possible compression (quality 8):

track2track -t flac -j 2 -q 8 sourcedir/*.wav

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🧚 FORMAT STRING FIELDS 🧚

Template Fields

these are the little magic words you can drop into your --format string and they get swapped for real metadata values. learn them, love them, use them 💖

• %(track_number)2.2d — the track's number on the CD
• %(track_total)d — the total number of tracks on the CD
• %(album_number)d — the CD's album number
• %(album_total)d — the total number of CDs in the set
• %(album_track_number)s — combination of album and track number
• %(track_name)s — the track's name
• %(album_name)s — the album's name
• %(artist_name)s — the track's artist name
• %(performer_name)s — the track's performer name
• %(composer_name)s — the track's composer name
• %(conductor_name)s — the track's conductor name
• %(media)s — the track's source media
• %(ISRC)s — the track's ISRC
• %(catalog)s — the track's catalog number
• %(copyright)s — the track's copyright information
• %(publisher)s — the track's publisher
• %(year)s — the track's publication year
• %(date)s — the track's original recording date
• %(suffix)s — the track's suffix
• %(basename)s — the track's original name, without suffix

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

the whole friend group, go say hi:

audiotools-config(1), audiotools.cfg(5), cdda2track(1), cddainfo(1), cddaplay(1), coverdump(1), covertag(1), coverview(1), dvda2track(1), dvdainfo(1), track2cdda(1), trackcat(1), trackcmp(1), trackinfo(1), tracklength(1), tracklint(1), trackplay(1), trackrename(1), tracksplit(1), tracktag(1), trackverify(1)

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Brian Langenberger — thank you for your service, legend 🫡

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okay that's the whole page, you're officially a track2track girlie now. go convert something and make it iconic. no cap. 💅✨

this masterpiece was brought to you by the Audio File Converter era, version dated 2025-03-10, filed under TRACK2TRACK(1). byeee 🦋💖