Ubuntu – Sound converter on Ubuntu Gnome offers no option for converting audios to mp3

I tested soundconverter 1.4.4-2 using maverick and a sample Apple lossless in the .m4a container from here: http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/A-codecs/lossless/, the metadata is preserved after conversion to .mp3, I verified this with the Banshee media player,Totem and Rhythmbox, I even made copies of the file and tried a batch conversion and all files converted to .mp3 has the original metadata, I converted a .flac lossless to .mp4 also and again the metadata in the .flac was carried over to the .mp4 file, even the cover art from the flac file was there, I then converted the .mp4 audio file to .mp3 and the metadata was still there, I also used Easytag-aac to embed a cover art in the .m4a file and after conversion I was able to see the cover art in the .mp3 file when playing with Banshee.

From my experience here I would say that the loss of metadata after conversion with soundconverter should not be the expected outcome. Even this dated thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=138419&page=3 from the Ubuntu forum shows that soundconverter is supposed to retain the tags in the output format.

The same problem here, couldn't find any solution. I suggest subscribing to the bug at Launchpad - https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/889624