How to change the bit rate of audio while converting from midi file to mp3 using ffmpeg/fluidsynth

Question

I am trying to convert midi file to mp3 using fluidsynth and ffmpeg on Windows 10 OS.

fluidsynth -a alsa -T raw -F - "FluidR3Mono_GM.sf3" simple.mid |  ffmpeg -ab 192k -f s32le -i  simple.mp3

The audio bit rate specification : -ab 192k or -b:a 192k are creating an error:

You are applying an input option to an output file or viceversa.

Is there an option to specify bit rate in the above command.

Taken from Convert midi to mp3

Answer 1

Option placement matters with ffmpeg. You're attempting to apply an output option to the input.

ffmpeg [input options] input [output options] output

Corrected command:

fluidsynth -T raw -F - sound_font_file.sf3 input.mid | ffmpeg -y -f s32le -i - -b:a 192k output.mp3

Fore more info about MP3 encoding with ffmpeg see FFmpeg Wiki: MP3.

Answer 2

Use timidity and ffmpeg

sudo apt-get install timidity

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

If I have the file honorthyfather.mid you can choice

For midi to mp3

timidity honorthyfather.mid -Ow -o - | ffmpeg -i - -acodec libmp3lame -ab 320k honorthyfather.mp3

For more quality use WAV

timidity honorthyfather.mid -Ow -o - | ffmpeg -i - -acodec pcm_s16le honorthyfather.wav

For quality same WAV but low size use FLAC

timidity honorthyfather.mid -Ow -o - | ffmpeg -i - -acodec flac honorthyfather.flac