I have not yet given it a try, but a new application for Mac OS X looks like it may be even better than Join Together 5, which I recommended back in July. Audiobook Builder appears to go quite a bit beyond what Join Together is able to do, including the ability merge individual CD tracks into chapters before merging the chapters into a chapter marked whole-book track, add artwork to each chapter, etc.
My initial suspicion, based solely on looking at the screenshots, is that it may be a little complicated if your needs are simple. For myself, I usually only want to merge entire CDs into chapters, which iTunes does if you use the %(itunes)Advanced > Join Tracks% command, and then join those into a whole book, with chapter marks and full audiobook format and metadata, which Join Together does quite ably, and very simply.
In any event, I’ll be giving Audiobook Builder a try in the near future, and I’ll post a full review then, but in the meantime, I wanted to point to it, and see what other people think.
I have read some of your articles dealing with the problems of consolidating the many CD tracks into one.
There is one thing that baffles me. Technology is supposed to make things progressively easier with each new product, etc.
I recall I started collecting the CDs of The Goon Shows as put out by the BBC. These discs consisted of two 30 minute programme, each split into three ‘chapters’ by two musical interludes, one each for Max Geldray and Ray Ellington.
I was then running the lesser technologies: Windows 98/XP Pro SP3, and possibly iTunes 7 – 9.
Upon receipt of each CD it was immediately entered into iTunes and it always went into the music area and there were only two lines of entry on the iTunes interface (One CD = 2 Programmes).
With the much vaunted advances in technology we now fiddle around to enter each CD into iTunes, where it displays ten lines per programme, ie 30 CD cases = 60 CDs = 120 programmes. This equals 1200 lines of tracks in iTunes, where once there would have been only 120.
However, I have eight CDs (four cases) that have yet to be put onto iTunes 11/Windows 8. These are waiting entry simply because all at once each programme was now showing ten tracks.
Change is not always progress, I fear
Thanks Michael. Because of you I can now jump with hope.
We, who are about to die, salute you.
Well. Maybe just one more read through.
Learned the hard way that ripping CDs for iphone listening isn’t as easy as it should be. So, I bought and have been using Audiobook Builder for several days now. This is beautiful software! It is simple, intuitive, stable and does its ONE job with amazing elegance. And at $10 it’s a no-brainer.
I really found your blog entries on audiobooks useful, thanks! I have one remaining question…in Windows, is it possible to join together multiple audiobook tracks into one track AND put a chapter mark between each track (i.e., preserve the multiple-CD structure in the file that’s created). Thanks! Mark
I checked Audiobook Builder out and it’s among the best tools I have ever used. It’s beautiful, sleek and works perfectly without any Quicktime windows popping up and freezing it so you cannot do anything else while converting.
I converted quite a couple of my Audiobooks this way. I like especially the way how tracks from different CDs can be joined into one chapter. Of course it’s shareware but for 10 bucks, it’s a steal.
I love it. I think every audiobook fan should give it a try. The demo is limited to 20 minutes of audio material though but it took me only two spins and 10 minutes to get my PayPal account ready.