Audio Book Horrors...
I downloaded a free audio book a few days ago. I was really annoyed when I found that the audio book was broken into over 1500 mp3 files, each less than two minutes long. I have no clue why it was broken up to such a degree. All the files showed up as "Book, 0001 of 1500.mp3" "Book, 0002 of 1500.mp3" etc.
After pondering for a while, and debating about just buying the book from Audible, I decided that I should see what I can do to rectify the problem. "It'll be a 'learning experience'" I thought to myself.
Four hours later...
I had transfered all the files from my Linux workstation to my MacBook laptop. I had found that I could use AppleScript to remove the ".mp3" portion of the file name, this left me with "Book, 0001 of 1500"
After using AppleScript, I could then use Automator to rename the files and add a sequential file extension, "Eyre, part 1.mp3.001" up to "Eyre, part 1.mp3.900"
From there, I could use AJoiner to join the MP3s together and make one large MP3 that I then could configure and send over to my iPod.
It was going to be pretty awesome.
But, something failed. I think there was a problem with Automator... When I told it to just can the entire file name and rename the files from "Book, 0001 of 1500.mp3" to "Eyre, part 1.mp3.001" it seems to have not gone in order, from file "Book, 0001 of 1500" to "Book, 0002 of 1500" but randomly. When I played the file in iTunes, it started at potions "327 of 1500" (since AJoiner will retain the meta info of the first file (which would be listed as "Eyre part 1.mp3.001")
I guess the next step today will be to verify the appropriate file name by not renaming the file to "Eyre, part 1.mp3.001" but retaining the original titles, "Book, 0001 of 1500" until I get the file extensions set correctly. The only major setback with this is that I'll still have to remove the "0001" part of the file name, since having a number in the file name will break AJoiner's ability to join the MP3 files together... It'll detect them as separate files.
After pondering for a while, and debating about just buying the book from Audible, I decided that I should see what I can do to rectify the problem. "It'll be a 'learning experience'" I thought to myself.
Four hours later...
I had transfered all the files from my Linux workstation to my MacBook laptop. I had found that I could use AppleScript to remove the ".mp3" portion of the file name, this left me with "Book, 0001 of 1500"
After using AppleScript, I could then use Automator to rename the files and add a sequential file extension, "Eyre, part 1.mp3.001" up to "Eyre, part 1.mp3.900"
From there, I could use AJoiner to join the MP3s together and make one large MP3 that I then could configure and send over to my iPod.
It was going to be pretty awesome.
But, something failed. I think there was a problem with Automator... When I told it to just can the entire file name and rename the files from "Book, 0001 of 1500.mp3" to "Eyre, part 1.mp3.001" it seems to have not gone in order, from file "Book, 0001 of 1500" to "Book, 0002 of 1500" but randomly. When I played the file in iTunes, it started at potions "327 of 1500" (since AJoiner will retain the meta info of the first file (which would be listed as "Eyre part 1.mp3.001")
I guess the next step today will be to verify the appropriate file name by not renaming the file to "Eyre, part 1.mp3.001" but retaining the original titles, "Book, 0001 of 1500" until I get the file extensions set correctly. The only major setback with this is that I'll still have to remove the "0001" part of the file name, since having a number in the file name will break AJoiner's ability to join the MP3 files together... It'll detect them as separate files.