MacFevre

How to Make an AudioBook, Part 1

by Wayne Lefevre

My wife purchased one of the Janet Evanovich books on CD the other day. She asked if I would put it on her iPod for her so she would have something to listen to in the garden. Turns out, this thing is on multiple CDÕs. Each CD contains 20 to 30 tracks of 3 to 4 minute parts of the story. I ripped the CDÕs to iTunes without difficulty.

http://www.simplyaudiobooks.com/audio-books-author/Janet+Evanovich/93/

IÕve come to firmly believe when technology and marriage come together, nothing can be without difficulty. The problem was, my wife also liked to listen to music on the iPod. She was constantly getting lost or forgetting where she was when returning to her audiobook. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audiobooks

I completely agreed that something had to be done. 160 somewhat odd files can get confusing.

Bookmarking is an option, but doesnÕt help much. It works fine, but whatÕs the point of bookmarking a minute and-a-half file, when you canÕt remember you are on file 78? Of course ripping a CD, whether to AAC or MP3, will not ÒclassifyÓ an audiobook as an iTunes Audiobook, so it will not put it under Audiobooks on the iPod. http://www.apple.com/itunes/audiobooks/

In order for the iPod to classify a file as an audiobook, it has to have an extension of .m4b. This is quite different for me, because IÕve got quite a few audiobooks ripped as MP3Õs. Now weÕll have to convert those.         

The first type of audiobook we will make is if you already have a large mp3 that you would like to convert. Say, youÕve already got a book split into chapters of 20 to 30 MBÕs, or you want to take all those old MP3Õs of Ricky Gervais and make them into an audiobook.

First, we will have to download a script file called Make Bookmarkable from DougÕ AppleScripts. http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts07.php?page=1#makebookmarkable

YouÕll take this script and place it into your home/iTunes/scripts folder, you may have to create this folder if you donÕt have one. The script download even has itÕs own Òopen iTunes script folderÓ script.

Next, if your files are MP3Õs, select them and open on the toolbar Advanced/Convert selection to AAC.

You can import at data rates down below what you would normally import a song CD. I personally import at 64 Kbits for audio. In iTunes this is set by Preferences/Advanced/Importing menu. You can check the Audio CDs error correction if youÕd like. It will slow down the import, but may reduce skips and pops in the audio. You could probably go down as far as 48 Kbits and mono if you want to save some space. Some audiobooks sound better in stereo, and some in mono. I would check both and see which one you prefer.

After your files are converted to AAC, assuming you have placed the script file in the appropriate folder and re-started iTunes, you will now see a script icon in your toolbar. Again, select the AAC files, select the script icon, than select Make Bookmarkable. This will automatically make your files into audiobooks and rename them with the appropriate .m4b. Now on your iPod, they will appear under audiobooks and be book-markable!

That concludes converting a large MP3 into an audiobook format. Now to create an audiobook from a CD.

CDing an MP3

There are 3 modes of thought that you can use, each progressively more difficult, or time consuming. Each of course, takes CDÕs and rips them to your hard drive, legalities aside. The first is just ripping the discs, selecting all the files, and running Make Bookmarkable. Does the job, and leaves you with hundreds of files to listen to.  

The second and third course require more work, and more scripts, but is much more satisfying to listen to and navigate.

Two scripts you will need from DougÕs AppelScripts is Track Splicer http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts07.php?page=3#tracksplicer

and Join Together. http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts07.php?page=1#jointogether

To create the chapters we will need Apple's "Chapter Tool" application installed. You can then create a "chapterized" audio file of the exported AAC file. "Chapter Tool" is a command-line application that assists with creating "chapterized" audio files, (a.k.a enhanced audio files). This script utilizes it to create such files from your joined tracks.

You can download the Chapter Tool application (currently Beta 2.0b8 as of this writing) by clicking on the

URL clip provided in the script's download package. The direct download URL is http://homepage.mac.com/applepodcast/podcasts/Resources/static/podcast_chapter_tool_beta.dmg

The "Chapter Tool" folder must be installed in your Username > Music folder, as its instructions also direct.

You should be familiar with how "Chapter Tool" works; however you needn't actually be proficient with it, since the "Join Together" applet handles all the required input and command-line operations.

Next month we will discuss how to turn a CD into one large MP4. Hope this helps you out, and if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at wlefevre@maccompanion.com/