Amarok Variable Bit Rate (VBR) Track Time

I just recently installed Amarok on my Ubuntu desktop at home. It has been years since I have used anything other than XMMS to play my mp3 collection. Let me tell you…Amarok is probably the best mp3 player I have used including anything I have used on Windows. (I do not have a Mac, so I can’t vouch for any music players beyond iTunes.)

One of the issues I had after installing is that my variable bit rate (VBR) mp3 track lengths were all wrong. After reading a few HOWTO’s and forum posts, I collected enough information to fix the issue by writing the track length in the mp3 track tag.

1. Download and install vbrfix.
   sudo apt-get install vbrfix
2. Run vbrfix against all your mp3 files.
   find /myth/music -type f -name "*.mp3" -exec vbrfix {} {} \;
3. Start Amarok.
4. Rescan your music collection (assuming the songs had been added to the library).
   Tools > Rescan Collection
5. Restart Amarok.
6. The track times should be accurate.

I am still working out how to control my Alsa PCM channel via Amarok and LIRC. If I have time to find a solution, I will try to post it.