Automatically convert audio files in a certain folder

Question

Anyone know of an application that automatically* converts audio files in a certain folder from one format to another?

*By automatically, I mean that there is no user interaction besides initial setup and dropping files into a certain folder. So, basically, I could rip a CD to a certain directory in FLAC format, then this app would see that new files were added to the folder and convert them to MP3s (into another folder, preferably).

(It would also be great if the app integrated with MusicBrainz's Picard to rename and re-tag files that are incorrect before sending them to the converter, but that's just icing on the top.)

Answer 1

MP3FS is a FUSE filesystem for converting FLAC into MP3.

mkdir /path/to/mp3s
mp3fs /path/to/flacs,128 /path/to/mp3s

After running that command, for every .flac file under /path/to/flacs, there will be a corresponding .mp3 under /path/to/mp3s.

Performance note: the conversion is performed when you read the file, not when you drop the .flac file into place.

This requires an operating system that supports FUSE. That includes most unix variants, including Linux and Mac OS X, but not Windows.