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Converting .aa files to mp3's
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tuckerg76
Newbie
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11. June 2005 @ 15:22 |
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ok, so like many of you i have been trying to convert .aa files to mp3 files. I've learned some interesting things that may make it easier for people to do the conversions and get it right. So i am going to start from the beginning
First of all, here's what you need.
- Audible windows Media Player Filter
- latest Version of Goldwave OR RiverPast Audio Converter 5.0.0
Before you convert anything:
- .aa files have a memory!! If you've been listening to them, they
will remember where you left off and start at that point. You'll
notice other people posting about how the files were only
partially converting. For some reason the conversion will pick
up where you leave off the last time you listened to it.
- To get around this:
* open the file in windows media player
* stop the file from playing by clicking stop button in
Windows Media Player.
* Use the section navigoter from the audible filter clicking
the rewind button until you think it has gone back to the
beginning of the file.
* Check to see if it is at the beginning by clicking play
(you should hear "This is Audible ...")
* Click rewind in the section navigator. This will bring the
file back to the beginning.
* Close Windows Media Player.
-Now your file is ready for conversion
Using riverpast:
- Trial version only allows 2 min at a time. You need to buy the
key( www.riverpast.com ) After you get the Key you must email
riverpast support to get a key that works for the old version.
- With this taken care of you can open RiverPast Converter,
Click "Add" and select your file. Goto Output settings and
select mp3 at setting sample rate 24khz and bitrate 56 kb/s
- It takes me about 2hrs to convert a 100, 000+ kb file
Using Goldwave:
- Newest Version is at www.goldwave.com You can use it for quite
a while in trial setting, after that you need the key. I
recommend getting the key, personnally i like the software
and think since i am using it i should pay for it. However this
is just personal preference, do as you like.
- click open in goldwave's control panel. Goto the directory
where you keep your audible files. There won't be anything
there, but don't panic.
- under "files of type" in the open window, select "all *.*"
- Now you should see your audible files, double click the one
you want. It will take goldwave some time to convert so be
patient. It usually takes my PC about 25 min to open the file.
- Click "save as" and select the mp3 settings you want. This
takes my pc about an hour for 17 hour aa file(using 80kb/s and
44.1khz). So again be patient.
- when it is finished you will have your mp3 file. Enjoy!
GoldWave Issue:
- Goldwave won't open the mp3 file i just made
* this is because Goldwave makes a .tmp file when opening your
mp3. This tmp file gets Huge!! the one i got was about
15GB!! So you need a LOT of space on your hard drive to
get that file to open. so do some house cleaning. Try to
have 20gb free space if you want that file to open.
* If you want to see your .tmp file. go to
options --> Storage. Under temporary storage you can pick
your directory for .tmp file and see the size for yourself.
* the .tmp file should delete once you are done your work, if
it doesn't, then goto the directory where you stored it
and delete it.
Well this covers it. Enjoy. If you want to split your file in goldwave then look at the following post in this thread:
rmgott (Newbie) 11. May 2005 @ 11:45
It's covered really well.
Cheers;
gt
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el_loco
Newbie
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13. June 2005 @ 18:33 |
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Or, convert in Goldwave, and let my program do the splitting for you, as has been posted.
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playlist
Newbie
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18. June 2005 @ 08:28 |
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An easy way to make Audible forget where it left off in all your aa files is to rename C:\Program Files\Audible\Admin\playlist.ap to playlist.ap.save. Later delete playlist.ap and rename the .save file back to it's original name.
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partyrock
Newbie
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18. June 2005 @ 21:16 |
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Goldwave seems to be working great! Thank you so much for the tip. I have begun converting my .aa files to save on my device. Don't worry about the legal stuff, its for my personal use. The help found here has been great.
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jordanpp
Newbie
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21. June 2005 @ 07:14 |
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jordan
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 21. June 2005 @ 07:47
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jordanpp
Newbie
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21. June 2005 @ 07:14 |
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Hi there,
I am a "serious" Audible listener.
thanks to all of you who shared your experience!!!
It's a really good help.
I have now both Past River 5.0.0 and Goldwave.
On my Destop Past River did not start (on my notebook there was no problem) so I tried Goldwave today and it works.
Its a bit strange with Past River, it seems that I have all the Bitrates available, but on the screen whatever Bitrate I choose for save, there is only 22K and 16 bit shown whitout any change according to the chosen Bitrate. The only thig that changes is the size of the file.
What you think? Is this a limitation or is it working?
With Goldwave ver. 5.10 everything seems to be ok. It seems a bit slower than Past River.
Do I need a version higher than ver. 5.0.0? Do I need to search for e.g. ver. 5.0.3? Does someone has one?
jordan
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 21. June 2005 @ 07:35
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jordanpp
Newbie
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21. June 2005 @ 07:19 |
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Sorry for sending my message twice. I am new here...
Hey Playlist,
Does that what you say, mean that you don't need to go into every .aa file and open it and bring back the "listen" status?
Does the AM program reset every file so you can convert them all at once in a batch?
Jordan
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jordanpp
Newbie
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21. June 2005 @ 14:55 |
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playlist,
just tried to delete the playlist.ap file in the admin folder.
Then openend AM ver. 4.0 Here is the result: Every book I tried to open started from the beginning. I was wondering how the AM managed to reset at once all the .aa files, so i tried to open some not from within the AM, but from the WIN XP Explorer. Amazingly it worked too! Now I try to open the file with Goldwave to see if it works as well.
....
it works!!!
I have 200+ audiobooks and this will definetly help with the batch processing with Goldwave.
As i understand the .aa file has some memory itself(thanks to the posted message earlier in the thread). But how starting the AM with no playlist.ap file is managing to reset all the audiboks just by opening?!
Has anyone some idea?
Thanks
Jordan
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 21. June 2005 @ 15:17
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jordanpp
Newbie
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22. June 2005 @ 14:29 |
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Hi there,
I just found the answer myself:)
If someone is curious about it (how the audible manager forgets about the listening status of all the files when the file "C:\Program Files\Audible\Admin\playlist.ap" is deleted), here it is:
Actually what playlist says is correct. I decided to prove it. First I looked if any .aa files were modified (after i renamed the playlist.ap and restarted the audible manager). The files were not changed.
Then I experimented with listening to a book to some stage later renaming the playlist file and checked again if the audible manager forgets the status. It worked. I wondered if it would work with goldwave as well. I checked it only once with a batch of two files and it turned out ok.
So here is what i found out:
There is no memory in the .aa file itself.
Rather the Audible Plug-in (the Audible Media player filter or the section navigation - I am speaking about the piece of software which allows the Media player to play the .aa file) goes everytime you open a file to that playlist.ap file and checks if your current file was opened before and for how long.
So by renaming the paylist.ap file there is no history of any opened files so far and every file you try to open is treated as hear it for a first time.
Jordan
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Zhivago
Newbie
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24. June 2005 @ 10:30 |
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I converted my .aa files( From Audible.com) to MP3 using GoldWave. I downloaded to my PC then transfered to my Zen Micro. The audio on the Zen Micro sounds awful. It play really S-L--O---W. Can someone tell me what I did wrong?
Thanks
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bratcher
Senior Member
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24. June 2005 @ 11:50 |
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I have a question.
Are the mp3 players everyone is using not Audible compatible? If they were you could just download portions of the book from AM.
As for me I just burn a set of CD's from AM & play them in my home, truck & portable CD players. That works just fine for me & I keep the CD's to play later as I wish.
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Imemine
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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26. June 2005 @ 11:55 |
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If you burn them to cd's via audible manager (the software audible uses) you can then burn them back as MP3 format. A little longer process, but it works.
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bratcher
Senior Member
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26. June 2005 @ 19:58 |
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You mean rip the CD's into MP3 files. Yes that is possible...
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Imemine
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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26. June 2005 @ 20:57 |
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Yes. that's all you do. its time consuming but it works.
Or you could just get a mp3 player that is audible compatable and they will play on that.
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bratcher
Senior Member
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26. June 2005 @ 21:31 |
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I prefer to burn CD's with AM & play them on several CD players I own. Works just fine for me!
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phenner
Newbie
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27. June 2005 @ 08:55 |
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My problem is, mostly because I have a "cheap" (non-audible compatable ... 128MB) MP3 player, when I restart my selection, it starts from the very beginning.
If it is a 3-7 audiobook, like most of mine are, this will not do ... unless I have a 3-7 hour stretch (and good batteries) to listen. This is why this thread started, I believe. There is a need to convert large Audiobook files into several segments of MP3 files ... mine are 15 minutes each. This way, I only have to re-listen to up to 15 minutes of previously heard material.
For me, this works out great because I am a bit of a "spiritual nut" and I am listening to 3+ hour seminars by Chopra & Tolle that take quite a few listenings to "get" anyway.
Thanks for all your help guys & gals ... especially you, Adam ... I am still using your first version of Quicksplit after downloading it from the server in Austin, Texas shortly after you wrote it in Nov. '03 at the University of Texas. Matter of fact ... it's still there:
http://home.austin.rr.com/unpocoloco/java/AudioBook/index.html
Later!
Mike
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 27. June 2005 @ 08:56
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drgthang
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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27. June 2005 @ 11:12 |
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I guess Im lucky enough to be using an older version of Itunes. I have the freeware program dbhymn, which converts itunes files to MP3..So it works with the .m4b file I got the latest audiobook in. Then I can use "Audacity" to edit the mp3's, cut them up etc. If you have MAC with OS X, then thats the way to go, if you havent upgraded to the latest Itunes..
Peace from the East!
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el_loco
Newbie
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27. June 2005 @ 17:05 |
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Thanks, Mike :) Yeah, I'm not sure why that page is still up, should've been erased a long time ago. Oh well.
The new version is at http://www.geocities.com/app_hq/AudioBook/
It allows you to place lame (mp3 converter) where ever you please, and also remembers how long you'd like the default split length to be. One day I might make it convert to mp3 in series, instead of in parallel...might be quicker. Not really a priority right now, though, since this works just fine.
For all the rest of you, the answer is right there on that page!
Happy listenin
- Adam
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hedger04
Newbie
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4. July 2005 @ 15:21 |
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I am trying to covert by audible books to mp3 or any other easy to use format. The problem is that I am no longer an audible member. I purchased these books then my computer crashed and then I reloaded my music back to my PC from my Ipod. The problem was that iTunes didnt reload my books because my audible id was no longer valid.
I tried using goldwave but it ask for my audible id.
Any suggestions.
Thank you much
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Imemine
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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4. July 2005 @ 17:40 |
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If you purchased the books via audible, they keep your library for you whether you still subscribe or not. Sort of like once a member always a member, even though you don't pay the monthly fee, those are the books you bought. If your login is gone, call audible and they will get you back up.
Use audible manager to burn the audible files to cd then you can convert them with something like music match back to mp3's.
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caewrzlra
Account closed as per user's own request
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6. July 2005 @ 11:07 |
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This may help those of you who want the resume feature, but not at the cost of the continued use of the .aa format. First, convert them to .mp3's using one of the afore-mentioned methods. I suggest archiving your property in this or .ogg format for future conversion as technology advances. Ogg is the best as it is free and open-source.
The next step can be done in several ways- at the time of this writing, iTunes is available for free for Win/Mac at apple.com/itunes, and is the quickest way. Import your .mp3 into iTunes, and right-click (ctrl-click on Mac) to convert to AAC. iTunes will drop a new copy of the audio file into your iTunes music folder. The AAC will have the extension of .m4a- simply edit this to .m4b and the file instantly has resume capability. If you own a portable device that will play AAC, you are in luck! Portability and resume withought DRM. Be sure to have your import settings on 'AAC' in iTunes- this should be the default.
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A comment on the conversion from .aa: Unlocking a previous 'trial' version of River Past or Goldwave might be as simple as finding any old 'key' (so I have been told!). You might try Google.com for this, as it worked for my...uh, friend.
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jack51002
Newbie
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9. July 2005 @ 15:40 |
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Hey all - I have read through all of these posts, and just want to say thanks for the information. I am an MIS person, and know just enough tech stuff to be dangerous!
Again, thanks!
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Imemine
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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9. July 2005 @ 19:00 |
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Yep, goldwave works. You just have to keep deleting that playlist.ap file. Keep a window open on the audible program and when it remakes that file, get rid of it. I wonder what happens when you don't have the audible program on your computer?
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bottles
Newbie
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14. July 2005 @ 11:37 |
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My apologies in advance if I've missed something basic but I've hit a wall with
(both real-time and batch) aa to mp3 conversion w/ GoldWave and I could use some help.
When I select a file, a dialog (which nobody else seems to have encountered) indicating "Cannot determine format of file"
and which prompts for format, attributes, and rate comes up.
What next?
P.S. I get the same result with both v4.26 and v5.10 eval copies
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nerys
Junior Member
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14. July 2005 @ 12:26 |
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i have had that happen before
it usually happens when I dont have audible installed
try uninstall audible reinstalling and reactivating it (must be active)
then try again
Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/
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