Hi Kimberly,
Robert's correct that if you're having difficulty getting your mp3
files to play in order, it's probably because of missing tags.
iTunes uses as a minimal set of tags the song name, artist, and
album. If you have no tag information in your tracks, it will make
the song name from the file name. For example, let's say you imported
files from five audiobook CDS with no tag information onto your PC,
and these are now in folders named "My Audiobook" with subfolders
named "Disc 1", "Disc 2", up through "Disc 5", and the individual
tracks in each folder have names like file001.mp3, file002.mp3, etc.
You add these files to iTunes. Because there is no album tag name,
all these tracks get added to an album titled "Unknown Album" under a
folder for "Unknown Artist". If you select "Unknown Album" and the
tracks are sorted they'll be ordered by name, with each of the
"file001" tracks from Discs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 appearing first, then
the "file002" tracks from these 5 discs, etc.
If you add the tracks a folder at a time, starting from disc 1 and
proceeding in order through discs 2, 3, etc., then then if you check
the smart playlist named "Recently Added", which lists all files that
were added to your iTunes library within the last two weeks (excluding
subscribed podcasts), in the order in which they were added, then you
might find that these tracks play in the correct order if you play
from the smart playlist. (By that I mean, select "Recently Added" in
the sources table of iTunes, then use VO-Command-T to jump to the
songs table if you have the latest iTunes. Navigate with your arrow
keys to the first track from your audiobook and press return to start
playing. If you then Command-Right arrow to move through the tracks in
sequence, are they playing in the correct order? Press space bar to
stop playing. If so, you can fix the tagging from the "Recently
Added" playlist. In the case I described, you should have a bunch of
tracks named "file001" through some number (e.g., "file025") appearing
in succession for each disc (corresponding to "Disc 1", "Disc 2", up
through "Disc 5"). You want to select these blocks of tracks in order
and edit their tag information with "Get Info" (Command-I). This is
actually easier to do as you add tracks a folder at a time, instead of
after the fact, but it's doable if you "Recently Added" tracks play in
the correct order. You want to start positioned at the first track of
Disc 5, for example, then hold down your shift key and press the down
arrow key until you've selected all the tracks of Disc 5. Then,
release the shift key and press Command-I to edit the tracks. You'll
be asked whether you want to edit multiple tracks. You do, so
proceed. Select the Info Tab (with VO-Space), if it isn't already
selected by default. Now fill in the Artist (Author's) name in the
first text box. Then VO-Right arrow to the text box for Album and
type in the title of the Audiobook. VO-Right arrow again on the same
line to where you'll hear VoiceOver say "Disc Number, edit text" and
type in "5" or whatever the disc number is. Then VO-Right arrow again
to the text box for "Disc Count, edit text" and type in "5" for the
total number of discs (or if you have 6 or 7 discs in the audiobook,
use the appropriate number). Then VO-Right arrow to the end of the
"OK" button and press it with VO-Space.
Filling in the Album name and Disc number (1 of 5, 2 of 5, etc.)
should fix your ordering problem if your individual track file names
for that disc are otherwise in order (e.g. file001, file002, file003,
etc.). If the audiobook is sorted in album order, iTunes will know
that the tracks for disc 1 should come before the tracks for disc 2 in
the same album, even if your track names are all the same. You only
need to fill in the text boxes for names and numbers in the Get Info
dialog window. The entries before them are check boxes, which will
automatically get filled in if you type anything in the text boxes.
Artist name is not strictly necessary to sort your ordering problem,
but is good practice for helping you search iTunes later.
Please note that I'm making assumptions about how your audiobook files
are named (or not named). Since I don't use untagged files myself, I'm
just guessing about this, and you might want to proceed with caution
and experiment.
I'd also recommend that you might want to get a software program like
Splasm Software's Audiobook Builder, on sale for half price today
(next 7.5 hours) at $4.99 at the MacUpdate Promo site:
http://www.mupromo.com/
(This requires negotiating a CAPTCHA to create your account the first
time. You can use the services of Solona at:
http://www.solona.net/
to handle this one-time need.)
If you still have a Windows machine, you can use Chapter and Verse:
http://lodensoftware.com/chapter-and-verse/
The Blind Side has a podcast on how to use Chapter and Verse:
http://blind-side.net/node/10
These programs combined multiple audiobook parts into a single file.
However, even the Chapter and Verse Windows program uses iTunes to
convert and join, so you still have to sort out your tags.
HTH. Cheers,
Esther
On Oct 27, 2010, Robert Hooper wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Courtney Curran
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 7:37 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: MP3 Books on the iPod Touch and iTunes
Hi,
While we're on this topic, can you play audiobooks at double speed
on the Ipod Touch, if so, how?
Courtney
Listen to The Wonderful World of Doo-wop with me, Moopie Curran on
Fridays at 08:00 UTC on http://www.theglobalvoice.info
On Oct 27, 2010, at 7:33 PM, Kimberly thurman wrote:
And just how should I edit the tag information? I changed the genre
to
audiobook in two different places under get info. Why do the files
then end up out of order even when they are numbered files and the
numbers are in the file names.
On Oct 27, 2010, at 4:12 PM, Joshua Loya wrote:
It doesn't have anything to do with the new version of iTunes. Make
sure
that you have correctly edited the tag information of the files.
Sometimes it can be a bit tedious, but if you're not going to
convert the files to .m4b, double checking the tag information is
your best bet.
Hope that helps,
Joshua
On Oct 27, 2010, at 9:21 AM, Kimberly thurman wrote:
HI Folks:
We have discussed this here before, but I'm having some issues
with it.
I want to play a folder of MP3 files, which are ripped from CD
audiobooks on my iPod. I know that I must add the files to my
iTunes library. I thin find them in iTunes, select them all, and do
VO/shift/M and chose get info.
In there I change the genre to audiobook and then go to the
options
tab and change it to audiobook there as well. I choose not to
include while shuffling. The book then shows up in the books
portion of iTunes, but the title became Unknown and the MP3 files
were all in the wrong order.
What am I doing wrong here? Does it have something to do with the
new
version of iTunes? What are the check boxes for that are now
present just before the track titles?
TIA for any help here. I really want to play these books on my
Touch,
but it is a pain when they are out of order. Audible books work
just fine, however.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"MacVisionaries" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
