🔈 tomp3

A fast, beautiful terminal tool for converting audio to MP3 — written in Swift.

OVERVIEW: 🔈  Fast, beautiful audio-to-MP3 converter.

USAGE: tomp3 [<file> ...] [--preset <preset>] [--output <dir>] [--batch] [--open] [--quiet]

Features

• 🎚️ 5 quality presets — from ultra-compact voice (tiny) to full stereo (high)
• 📁 Batch conversion — convert entire folders in parallel
• ⚡ Non-interactive mode — fully scriptable with flags
• 🔍 Self-update checker — notifies you when a new version is available
• 📂 Open in Finder — reveal output folder after conversion
• 🔇 Quiet mode — pipe-safe output for scripting
• 🐚 Shell completions — bash, zsh, and fish supported

Install

Homebrew (recommended)

brew tap aramb-dev/tap
brew install tomp3

Build from source

Requires Swift 5.9+ and Xcode command-line tools.

git clone https://github.com/aramb-dev/tomp3
cd tomp3
swift build -c release
cp .build/release/tomp3 ~/.local/bin/

Dependencies

• ffmpeg — installed automatically via Homebrew if missing

Usage

Interactive mode

tomp3

Prompts you for a file path and quality preset.

Single file

tomp3 interview.wav
tomp3 lecture.m4a --preset small
tomp3 music.flac --preset high --output ~/Music/converted/

Batch convert a folder

tomp3 --batch ./recordings/ --preset tiny
tomp3 --batch ./recordings/ --preset medium --output ./out/ --open

Batch via glob

tomp3 *.wav --preset standard
tomp3 ~/Podcasts/*.m4a --preset small --output ~/Podcasts/mp3/

Scripting / piping

# Quiet mode: prints only the output path (or errors to stderr)
tomp3 input.wav --preset tiny --quiet
# → /path/to/input_tiny.mp3

# Use in a pipeline
tomp3 clip.m4a -p small -q | xargs afplay

Quality Presets

Preset	Bitrate	Sample Rate	Channels	Best for
tiny	~15 kbps	16 kHz	Mono	Ultra-compact voice
small	~27 kbps	16 kHz	Mono	Lectures, podcasts
medium	~43 kbps	22 kHz	Mono	Clear speech, balanced
standard	~130 kbps	44 kHz	Mono	Music, general use
high	~190 kbps	44 kHz	Stereo	Best quality

All Options

OPTIONS:
  -p, --preset <preset>   Quality preset: tiny | small | medium | standard | high
  -o, --output <dir>      Output directory (defaults to same folder as input)
  -j, --jobs <n>          Max parallel jobs for batch mode (default: CPU count)
  --batch                 Scan a directory for all audio files
  --open                  Open output folder in Finder when done
  -q, --quiet             Suppress output; print only output path (or errors to stderr)
  --no-update-check       Skip the update check
  --version               Show version
  -h, --help              Show help

Shell Completions

# zsh
tomp3 --generate-completion-script zsh > ~/.zsh/completions/_tomp3

# bash
tomp3 --generate-completion-script bash > /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/tomp3

# fish
tomp3 --generate-completion-script fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/tomp3.fish

Supported Input Formats

Any format ffmpeg supports, including: mp3 m4a wav aac flac ogg opus wma aiff webm mp4 mkv mov

License

MIT — see LICENSE