[Macworld]

Post your comments for Ripping and playing audiobooks here

[rutledgek]

This was helpful, but the best of both worlds can be had in relation to many files vs one file. you can usually tell chapter markings on most cd tracks. I join each set of chapter tacks together. I then end up with a file for each chapter. I then use the jointogether program to join all of the chapter files together. This creates one file, but each chapter is bookmarked. In any case, it isn't completely necessary to keep track of chapters if it is a m4b file since it is bookmarkable.

[Link33]

I've joined just tracks for each chapter as well. It's annoying when one track on the next disc is the end of the last chapter from the previous disc. But I prefer it to one large track. I believe there is a method to bookmark single audio files using some Apple Developer tools but I don't have the head for it. I think we are fortunate that Apple has included "Audiobook" as a media type in iTunes v8. Before that, Audible and iTunes audiobooks were the only tracks to show up as "Audiobooks" by category. Hopefully this is a sign of features to come for future iTunes versions.
Great article. This is something I think deserves more attention from Apple.

Side note on books: in an ideal world, when you buy an audiobook, you should get a print version (at least paperback) and an ebook version plus a digital download version as well like recent DVD movies. So many audiobooks are so expensive at least they could throw in some goodies for us. Protect it all with DRM for all I care*. But add some inexpensive value to it too.

Cheers

Link33



*with Mac and iPod compatibility of course for digital content. Palm reader format for ebooks? PDF? Whatever.
Message was edited by: Link33. Just added my disclaimer on what exactly I care about.

[DougAdams]

rutledgek said:

I then use the jointogether program to join all of the chapter files together. This creates one file, but each chapter is bookmarked.

Thanks for mentioning Join Together. (And fine article as usual, Kirk.)

[lairdo]

Thanks for the article. Very useful, as well as the posts about the doug script to make the chapters as I was just wondering about that.
One question - does anyone find when trying to import a whole CD that the last 5 minutes can sometimes skip when played? I've been thinking I need to import in 40 min chunks to prevent this.

[purpleshorts]

Apple's iPod software has two omissions that make audiobooks hard to handle.
1. Apple does not (yet) allow bookmarking within a playlist.
Why not be able to return to the track in a playlist where you left off? I often listen to a music playlist in mid-audiobook. An audiobook "bookmark" is logical, and it's omission seems odd.
Driving my kids to school, maybe Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories is the book. Then they are gone, but want to return to the story, where they left off, later when I pick them up. In the meantime, I want to listen to my music or another book.
And the techie in the back says "What about the m4b format?" Yes, the .m4b bookmarkable AAC format remembers your TRACK position, but most of my books are long, and made up of multiple tracks. (I have used Amadeus Pro to join the whole of a long book into a single track - my iPod chokes on this mammoth track.) In addition to the position within the track, an audio book requires that one remember the track within the playlist. That memory is what computers are great at doing, and should be done by one's iPod.
I can see this being useful for music playlists as well. You have an all-Beatles playlist, get a few albums in, and switch to your audiobook. At that moment, wouldn't you like to be able to return to the correct spot in your audiobook? (Let's see, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, uhmmm... track 18g? e?) And later, when you are done with your book, wouldn't you like to go back to the Beatles where you left off?
It would make a nice (and probably easy) addition to the iPod software.

2. The ability to join tracks AFTER they are imported.
You import The Count of Monte Cristo, and find it is hundreds of tracks long. The publisher split chapters between CDs because it was so long. Shouldn't you be able to combine them into chapters after import?
Current Workarount - Amadeus Pro.

[kirkmc]

"1. Apple does not (yet) allow bookmarking within a playlist."
Well, that's exactly the purpose of the smart playlist solution I propose in the article. It is a way of bookmarking, because as you have listened to files, their play counts increment and they are removed from the playlist. Hence, you can return to the exact place you were when you stopped listening.
Kirk

[lairdo]

I can confirm what Kirk says as I have done this for years as well. Since the file will bookmark if you check remember position, the playlist effectively knows the right file to play since completed ones are removed. Two caveats:
1. If your ipod is on shuffle, turn that off before playing the list so you don't get the book in a jumbled order.
2. Kirk recommends playcount as "0" as the way to determine if the track is played. You can also use "last play date" before the day you start the book. This way if you share your library with your family and they have already listened to the book, you can still use a smart playlist and just sent the condition that last play is before you started listening to the book. As you listen, the last play will update to a later date and the track will be pulled out of the list. (Or if the book has only been played once, you could use playcount is <2 or something like that.)
Laird

[sesweitzer]

Or just buy AudioBook Builder from Splasm for $9.95
http://www.splasm.co...diobookbuilder/
I use it with audio book CDs from the library. It's quite simple and works great.

[bortz62]

Kirk writes:
"To get the most out of your encoding, select the Optimize For Voice checkbox."
I stopped using the Optimze for Voice setting sometime around iTunes7.4. It seems to create a lot of static, pops, etc. I justed tried it again with 8.0.1 and it still causes the same problems. Is anyone else seeing this?

[Link33]

Quote

I stopped using the Optimze for Voice setting sometime around iTunes7.4. It seems to create a lot of static, pops, etc. I justed tried it again with 8.0.1 and it still causes the same problems. Is anyone else seeing this?

I haven't tried it in version 8. It did it for me on an Intel iMac (White) under Tiger. I ended up just going for Mono and left the rest as it was from the default settings.

[bortz62]

I'm unclear what the best setting is for ripping audiobook CDs.
- Years ago I read that you should always rip in 64k stereo.
- Kirk recommends 64k mono.
- My Audible.com downloads are 32k mono.
- The AudioBook Builder app suggests 32k mono.
- I ran a few tests at different bit rates and one thing I noticed is that the sample rate varies from 12 kHz on mono to 32 Khz on stereo - Audible is at 22 kHz.
Can anyone set me straight?

[Moosejaw]

I would also recommend importing in AAC, joining tracks, and then making the .m4b format as to speed up and slow down tracks on the iPod itself. I showed many people how to do this for school lecture mp3s and they loved it.

All you have to do is drag the AAC file to the desktop, delete the original from iTunes, then change the .m4a extension to .m4b. Then just recopy it back into iTunes, and it will be imported as an audiobook and you'll enjoy bookmarks and the ability to speed and slow the audio as you wish.

[kirkmc]

I don't recommend 64K mono; I recommend 64K stereo, set to mono, which means 32K. I know it's perhaps not very logical, but the iTunes settings say "Stereo bit rate"; when you set Channels to mono, it halves that.
Kirk