How to Convert APE+CUE to MP3

There is no a single tool to convert a APE file to a number of mp3 tracks. We are going to convert ape file to wav first, than wav to mp3 (a single file) and finally cut a single mp3 file into several (per CUE file). We need several packages. Two of them (libmac2 monkey-audio) are from debian-multimedia, choose mirror from the following list. You need to install debian-multimedia-keyring package. In my case I have obtained it from here:

http://mirror.yandex.ru/debian-multimedia/pool/main/d/deb-multimedia-keyring/

Download debian-multimedia-keyring_2010.12.26_all.deb file (in your case the file can be newer) and install:

dpkg -i debian-multimedia-keyring_2010.12.26_all.deb

Once above is done we need to add debian-multimedia repository location to apt source list and update it:

echo "deb http://mirror.yandex.ru/debian-multimedia/ testing main non-free" \
    >> /etc/apt/sources.list
apt-get update

Install required packages:

apt-get -y install libmac2 monkeys-audio shntool \
    lame mp3splt

Here is a script that does the rest (file ape-mp3.sh):

#!/bin/sh

# Convert APE to WAV
shnconv -o wav CDImage.ape
# Convert WAV to MP3 VBR
lame -h -v --preset cd CDImage.wav CDImage.mp3
rm CDImage.wav
# Split file
mp3splt -a -d mp3 -c CDImage.ape.cue -o \
    @a/@b/@n-@a-@t CDImage.mp3
rm CDImage.mp3

Drop that file into a directory that has two files input CDImage.ape and CDImage.ape.cue. Run the script and in few minutes you will get a mp3 directory with your tracks.

Troubleshooting: mp3splt does not set ID3 tags

As of this writing Debian testing comes with mp3splt version 2.2.5-1. The problem has been fixed since version 2.3. So in order to install latest version you need to add the following to /etc/apt/sources.list:

echo "deb http://mp3splt.sourceforge.net/repository wheezy main" \
    >> /etc/apt/sources.list
apt-get update

Note that you need remove previously installed packages related to mp3splt:

apt-get remove libmp3splt-mp3 libmp3splt-ogg \
    libmp3splt0 mp3splt

Install latest:

apt-get install libmp3splt0-mp3 libmp3splt0-ogg \
    libmp3splt0 mp3splt