One used by several LibriVox volunteers is MP3Splt, which splits Ogg Vorbis files, too There are a number of programs designed to split audio files into shorter pieces.
Many commercially-produced audio books on CD have average track lengths about about four minutes. This is true for both MP3 disks and standard audio CDs. If your CD or DVD player does not remember where you left off listening, you can make it easier to get back to where you were - or near it - by splitting the MP3 files into short segments before burning them to disk. Splitting the MP3 Files to Make Short Tracks
This Beginner's Guide to Cutting Audio explains how to do it using free software.
You may wish to cut some elements of the recording, such as the LibriVox disclaimer at the beginning, or the silence at the end of the file. Sometimes a file almost, but not quite, fits on to a CD.
Consult your owner's manual for details.Īdvanced Topics Making the files shorter so they fit on a CD (cutting audio) If your player has this feature, it will pick up playing where you Press "Stop" on the player, merely turn it off. Where you were listening if you simply turn off the player (such as Some CD players, both in your home and in your car, will remember Tip: some CD players remember your position
In this case, you will need to use another program to convert the MP3 files to Wave format (or AIFF if you use a Mac) see Software We Use. If your software is older, it may not be able to convert automatically from MP3 to the format needed for audio CDs. Be careful to make certain the files are in filename order, since some programs don't do this automatically. Most programs will let you drag and drop the MP3 files to the track list window. Here you want to choose "Audio CD" (or something similar it may be listed under "Music"). When using your burning software, one of the first steps is to choose the type of disk. Fortunately, this is straightforward to do with recent versions of most CD burning (i.e., writing) software, such as Nero, Easy CD Creator, iTunes, or Winamp. In this case, if you want to listen on CD (for instance, in your car), you'll have to make standard audio CDs from the MP3 files. Unfortunately, a lot of CD players (especially older ones) don't play MP3 disks. This will list "MP3" if your player can play MP3 disks.
Most owner's manuals have a page which lists all the disk types and formats the player can handle. Again, the player may have "MP3" written on it. Many DVD players will play MP3 disks in addition to standard audio CDs. Most programs will let you drag and drop the MP3 files to the file list window. Here you want to choose "MP3 disk" (or something similar it may be listed under "Music") if that option is available, or simply choose "Data disk". When using your burning software (such as Nero, Easy CD Creator, iTunes, or Winamp), one of the first steps is to choose the type of disk. A standard audio CD is limited to 80 minutes. One nice thing about this is that MP3 files are much smaller than regular CD audio, so you can fit at least 10 times the length of audio on an MP3 disk, meaning you can fit at least 10 hours of audio on one MP3 disk (i.e., CD-R). This means that you can just copy !LibriVox MP3 files straight to a CD, burn the CD, and your CD player will play this MP3 disk. Some CD players can play MP3 disks (often the player has a little "MP3" written somewhere on it).