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.

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

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dougscripts.com

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.

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

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?

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?

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