Sunday, July 6, 2008

How to rip audio books

So i listen to a lot of audio books, and here's how i create the mp3 of them.

Overview
we are going to create bite size files about 30 minutes each. then label them, and create the id tags. finally we'll attach a picture.

Make sure the book is UNABRIDGED

1) get a ipod - i prefer the nano. http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/

Ripping
2) download audiograbber & install. http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/
3) download lame encoder & install. http://jthz.com/~lame/
4) set your encoding bitrate to 64k & stereo, this is a very high quality audio book.
5) select the last track and copy the end location, paste this into the end location for the 2nd track. To do this double click a track. select the Sectors>Last. copy.
6) select and copy the end location for a middle track (usually around 150,000)
7) paste the middle as the end of track 1 and beginning of track 2
8) rip
tips) i like setting the auto query of FreeDB, setting the disk to eject when finished, and not auto selecting all the tracks by default

Naming & Labeling.
the file should look like:
Keith Ferrazzi - Never eat alone [02x20] Don't Keep Score.mp3

usually i don't know the chapter names so they are blank.
9) The total number of tracks is #cds X 2 (so this book is 10 cd's)
10) The labeling schema looks like this - *author - *title [*trackx*totaltracks]*chapter.mp3
11) after the files are named, you need to set the idtags, so download jj mp3 renamer http://software.jensjj.dk/uk/welcome.html
12) add files
13) select files
14) first i convert from filename to ID3 Tag (both) using the format
*Artist - *Album [*Trackx*Comment].mp3
15) then i convert from filename to ID3 Tag again, but using the format
*Artist - *Title.mp3
16) Last, to add the photo add these files to itunes (drag and drop), select them, right click and pick info, then drag a photo from your web browser, i usually do a image lookup on google to find it.

And there you go...

1 comment:

Trent said...

Thanks. I've owned audiograbber for years. I bought it when it was still shareware and I'd never known I could set the track start/end points.

Your method is much superior to ripping bazillion mp3s from a multi-cd book.