Prepend title of mp3 file using `say`

Question

I have a bunch of .mp3 files that I would like to modify so that they start with a voice saying the file name. The easiest way to do this (or so I thought), would be something like the following:

for file in ./*.mp3; do
    BASE="$(basename "$file" .mp3)"
    mv $file $BASE-bak.mp3
    say "[[volm 0.4]] $BASE" -o $BASE-pre.aiff
    ffmpeg -i $BASE-pre.aiff -f mp3 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 192000 -ar 44100 $BASE-pre.mp3
    rm $BASE-pre.aiff
    mp3cat -o $file $BASE-pre.mp3 $BASE-bak.mp3
done

This almost works, but the resulting mp3 file is broken (it is the right length, but silent, and always stops playing after the length of time taken (I assume) to say the file name (roughly 2 seconds). Everything seems to break at the mp3cat step. However, using ffmpeg or mp3wrap or other things don't seem to work either, and my guess is that it's something to do with the file produced by say not having the right amount of streams (whatever that might mean).

Suggestions on how to fix this, or how to do this an entirely different way?

Answer 1

Modified your script to use ffmpeg. As always, backup your files before running the scripts to avoid losing data.

Option 1

Slower, will re-encode the files, but preserves metadata:

for file in ./*.mp3; do
    BASE="$(basename "$file" .mp3)"
    mv "${file}" "${BASE}-bak.mp3"
    say "[[volm 0.4]] ${BASE}" -o "${BASE}-pre.aiff"
    ffmpeg -i "${BASE}-pre.aiff" -f mp3 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 192000 -ar 44100 "${BASE}-pre.mp3"
    rm "${BASE}-pre.aiff"
    ffmpeg -i "${BASE}-pre.mp3" -i "${BASE}-bak.mp3" -filter_complex [0:a][1:a]concat=n=2:v=0:a=1 -map_metadata 1 "${file}"
    rm "${BASE}-pre.mp3"
done

Option 2:

Fast, no re-encoding, metadata will be lost:

for file in ./*.mp3; do
    BASE="$(basename "$file" .mp3)"
    mv "${file}" "${BASE}-bak.mp3"
    say "[[volm 0.4]] ${BASE}" -o "${BASE}-pre.aiff"
    ffmpeg -i "${BASE}-pre.aiff" -f mp3 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 192000 -ar 44100 "${BASE}-pre.mp3"
    rm "${BASE}-pre.aiff"
    echo "file '${BASE}-pre.mp3'" >temp
    echo "file '${BASE}-bak.mp3'" >>temp
    ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i temp "${file}"
    rm "${BASE}-pre.mp3"
    rm temp
done

Either way the resulting files seem to work fine using QuickTime, and it plays the entire file properly.

Answer 2

Try this: Convert the target .mp3 also into the same format you're converting. Rewriting your steps with a few modifications and be-careful's:

mkdir -p backup/
mkdir -p working/
for file in ./*.mp3; do
    BASE="$(basename "$file" .mp3)"
    say "[[volm 0.4]] $BASE" -o "${BASE}-pre.aiff"
    ffmpeg -i "${BASE}-pre.aiff" -f mp3 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 192000 -ar 44100 "${BASE}-pre.mp3"
    ffmpeg -i "$file" -f mp3 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 192000 -ar 44100 "${BASE}-bak.mp3"
    rm "${BASE}-pre.aiff"
    mv "$file" backup/
    mp3cat -o "$file" "${BASE}-pre.mp3" "${BASE}-bak.mp3"
    mv "${BASE}-pre.mp3" working/
    mv "${BASE}-bak.mp3" working/
done