How to Make Audiobooks From Audio CD’s for Mac Users

I chose Audiobook builder for the Mac for a couple reasons. The most important is they offer a free trial which is important when buying software. It is a limited trial and only does 20 minutes which sucks, but it is enough to get the idea. Next the price was only $9.95 which is fair, rmember if you pay  you also get support, which I find important when suggesting software to friends. There are also free options out there, if you care to look around. So to get started download a copy of Audiobook Builder, it is only a 2.1 MB download.

I purchased a copy because I wanted to not only rip the entire book but also test the process end-to-end. And this means I did rip all 15 disks, which took about 2-3 minutes per disk. This may sound like a long time, but to put it in perspective, I wrote this entire article while the book was ripping.

The eval is to show that the product works vs. ripping a free book. Personally, I would rather see the eval copy rip up to x hrs or MB of content. Most audiobooks are about 5+ hours so ripping 6hrs may give you a free book, but it also gives you an understanding of the entire process. That said, I do understand why they have such a limitation.

I like to keep my computer organized so I created a folder called Audiobooks, under that folder I created another folder called Angels and Demons. All my files associated with this book will be located in this folder

I named the project after the book I was ripping. I used this name so that in the event it was moved, I could locate the file(s) via the name of the book.

You can get the art work for your audiobook from a variety of sources, I just dragged and dropped the image from Amazon onto this window. I also added the Author and left the Genre at ‘audiobook’. I suspect this will be used by iTunes in later steps. Click the arrow or chapters to advance the the next step

When you have a 50/50 chance to make the right decision, that also means you have a 50/50 chance to make the wrong one. I moved from the default of individual files to a single file. In retrospect I know this was not a wise option. I contacted the experts to confirm, but after ripping 10 discs, I will call this a lesson learned. Why? How large of a file is too large for a portable device to efficiently manage? We shall see.

Individual Files

This option allows you to split the CD to have each track represent a chapter, and for this book that is about 15 – 20 chapters per CD.

Single File

The single file option merges all tracks for a disc into a single chapter and single file. The obvious downside is that a single CD is then a track, and my CD’s are about 1 hr 15 min per disc. The advantage here is that the delays inserted between tracks are removed. This works well for continuously flowing music or speaker sessions like a lecture, where a pause would break the flow.

My suggestion would be to select individual files unless your content meets the description for single file. I did not choose wisely, but it will still get the job done.

** Alternate suggestion: You may want to consider having even larger files to model what audiobook provider Audible.com does: At an average rate of 15 MB per hour of audio, they break their books into approximately 100 MB chunks, or about 6.5 hours per file. In a large, unabridged audiobook of 20 hours of playing time, this will give you 3 or 4 files to manage, rather than dozens.  There is an build option at the last step of the process that lets you control this.  I will touch on this later.

The iTunes import is not impossible to deal with on a book like Angels & Demons. In this case, it was easy to determine the play order but some audiobooks are not named in such a friendly fashion, so be careful. I also want to avoid having 255 files for an individual book.

I almost feel guilty because the process is honestly brain dead easy. After entering all the details earlier I just kept inserting disc’s each time it ejected the disc and asked for another one.

At some point, you will have ripped every disc. For me, this was after disc 15, and at that point you can click No More CDs. Click on the next arrow of ‘Finish’ to build your book.

There are some build options. After my mistake in changing the defaults I did not even give them a look. Honestly I did not notice them until I was done and my book turned out fine. Play with the settings if desired but for me the defaults worked fine.

Advanced Build Options

There is nothing to do here, but wait. Depending on the size of the book, it might take an hour or more. Hey, it’s just once, right?

All I did was click ‘Go to iTunes’ and my book was sitting there ready to rock and roll. Ok, not exactly my book,but I had one happy friend ready for his audiobook.

You can see the first file contains more of the book but who cares. All you want to do is click play and listen.

You can see the files differ in size but for the most part everything is done and I am ready to listen.

Please, pay close attention to the discs you’re ripping and their order. I got to disc 15 and realized I only have ripped 13 CD’s. This meant having to go back and listen to each disc and each recording to validate. I had paused ripping on disc 10 and when I started up again, I just flipped the page and started at disc 12. I can say I was very concerned at how to get the missing files back in order, but it was a simple drag and drop process. I did contact support and got one great tip about reordering files if necessary.

Audiobook Builder just puts the discs in the order they were ripped and does not automatically re-sort. The best way to re-sort is to save your project first in case things get messed up, then drag your discs to the right location. Keep in mind, you want your mouse to be on the left edge of the little chapter icons, so the little circle indicator pops up on the left side of the chapter icon and not on the right. You will also want to make sure that a chapter name above your drop point is not highlighted. If it is highlighted, it will drop within that chapter and not underneath it. If you see the circle with the line leading to the right with no chapter highlighted, then you are in good shape to drop your selection where you want it. If you dropped it within another chapter or made a mess of things, just revert back to your last save by closing the project without saving, and try again. After you’ve done it once or twice, you will get the hang of it.

Listening on Other devices

Much like the iPod family of devices WIndows Mobile 6.1 and above natively support audiobooks (.m4b).  If you are running android check the Android Market for and application called Astro Player this plays non-DRM m4B files.  I am on the hunt for a player for BlackBerry devies but have not found one yet. If you have not already increased the size of your micro SD card in your phone I suggest you consider a 16 GB micro SD to hold all the audiobooks you either rip or download from Audible.

Summary

Overall, this application was great. Documentation could have been somewhat better, but who reads the docs anyway, plus it is almost impossible to screw up, unless you really, really try. It was well worth the $9.95 for the software and if you have books on CD this is a good way to protect your investment. In fact, there are a LOT of ways to purchase audiobook content on the web, with direct download. Most, if not all of them will come as multiple (dozens) MP3 files. At that point, you don’t have to rip, just add your files and move ahead.