IPod sync on Ubuntu, bitrate down-conversion blues

Okay I'm not sure if my Thread Title was even slightly explanatory as to what I wanted to know. However, my problem is that I'm trying to move over full-time to Ubuntu, and I know there are several programs out there that will let me sync my iPod, I've been using them and Ubuntu on and off for years now, but as someone who has a lot of music they're trying to fit in one 8GB iPod Touch, I want to know if there is any iPod sync solution on Ubuntu that will do what iTunes on Windows and Mac does by converting all higher bit rate songs to 128-bit AAC on the fly during sync.
I've been looking forever, and I'm not ready to give up, is there any program or plug-in that can do the on the fly conversion for me?
I'm using Ubuntu 11.10 with Unity and a second generation iPod touch 8GB.

I'm not an apple owner myself but Amarok might well be what you're looking for. Last time I looked it had pretty good iPod functionality although I'm not sure about the conversion options. It's certainly one of the better music library managers / players that I've used.

You can find it in the repositories and give it a try.

Some of these will do iPod sync. Not sure, don't have an iPod.

http://alternativeto.net/software/ [...] sort=likes

The only dedicated MP3 player I have is an old-school Diamond RIO 500 with a massive 16mb smart-media card. (I use my Nokia N900 instead these days, 64gb of storage + Last.fm + pandora + grooveshark +normal shoutcast stations)