[Pythonmac-SIG] Converting audio files, AIFF, MP3, AAC

[Dinu Gherman]

Hi,

I'm trying to convert between AIFF and MP3 in order to edit MP3 audio
files in AIFF format and want to build some Pythonic glue around that...

AIFF to MP3 works great using the LAME plugin for iTunes [1]. This
bundle contains a compiled lame executable that one can also use nice-
ly from the command-line.

Now what I'm looking for is a way for automated decoding of MP3 to AIFF.
I've found MACAST MP3 Converter 1.0.1 [2], a Carbon GUI which decodes
MP3 very quickly, but it seems to be doing a lot of busy waiting and a
command-line tool is what I need, anyway.

BTW, I see the former (?) aiff module in the standard library (now
called aifc [3]) provides access to sound frames, etc (haven't really
used it, though). Is there anything similar for MP3 and/or even AAC
files?

Thanks for any ideas,

Dinu

   [1] http://www.blacktree.com/apps/iTunes-LAME/index.php
   [2] http://www.macast.com/download.shtml
   [3] http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/module-aifc.html