Hello,
I purchased ABB to join a bunch of audio books that are already encoded, based on pass-through (the first "key feature" on your overview page). I played around with several audiobooks and could not get pass-through to work. When re-encoding the books (MP3s recorded at 56kbps 32kHz) at the same bitrate or lower I get a tinny echo or warble in the resulting book. I can't re-encode at higher rates because of the lengh of the audiobooks (I really don't want to have to break them up into multiple files, which is why I bought ABB). I also do not have access to the original CDs any more to re-rip them as they have been passed around my family, and subsequently destroyed by careless users
While digging around the forums I found several posts relating to pass-though with iTunes audio:
From
http://www.splasm.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3515&p=6250&hilit=pass+through#p6250Quote:
Audiobook Builder can pass through AAC files, if all of your files in your project are the same bit rate, for instance 256 kbps AAC.
From
http://www.splasm.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2939&p=5273&hilit=pass+through#p5273Quote:
I would choose a quality equal to or greater than what you have set in Audiobook Builder. Audiobook Builder used to be able to pass through AAC audio from iTunes, but Apple changed the way iTunes AAC is encoded and the bitrate varies just enough to throw it off. iTunes audio will have to be re-encoded.
From
http://www.splasm.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3487&p=6147&hilit=pass+through#p6147Quote:
This used to work, until Apple made some changes in how imported files from CDs were encoded using iTunes. They now use a default 'Average Bitrate' instead of a constant bitrate, which kills the ability to pass through these types of files using Audiobook Builder. If you do need to use iTunes, I would recommend importing using a slightly higher bitrate than what you plan to use for your final book, and Audiobook Builder will have a cleaner file to work with when it needs to compress it again.
The first post above from June 9th of this year seems to indicate that it does. If so, my questions are under what circumstances can I get pass-though to work?
- What encoding software/codecs does ABB use? When I convert the files to AAC in iTunes 10 I don't get any of the artifacts (or they are at least much less noticable) than the output I get using ABB at the same settings. Re-encoding the files in iTunes and building the book in ABB would be an option, if ABB would support iTunes audio.
- What version of iTunes did Apple change the behavior in that now forces iTunes audio to be re-encoded no matter what? If I use an older version of iTunes can I re-encode my MP3's as AAC audio and then join them with ABB?
- What other encoding software can you reccomend for me to be able to do this?
- Do you have any other suggestions on how I can convert the files withouth any of the audio artifacts I'm getting now with ABB, knowing that I'm starting from MP3 files at 56 kbps / 32kHz?
Thanks for any guidance you can provide.
Also, I would ask that you update your product information page and FAQ to more accurately reflect under what circumstances pass-through actually works, especially since you have it listed as the first "Key Feature" of the product.
Quote:
Audio File Joining: Already ripped your CDs to MP3 or M4A? Don't suffer through it again - drag your audio tracks straight to Audiobook Builder. There's no need to re-encode M4A or M4B files when they're in the same format and have a constant bit rate - Audiobook Builder can quickly join them together.
I purcased the product and spent most of my weekend trying to convert files based on that feature. From postings in the forum it looks like pass-through never worked with MP3s and no longer works with iTunes. Since this is Mac-based software this feature statement seems very mis-representative of the product to me.
thanks,
porpoisehork