Home » Windows » Audio » Audio Conversion

Create audiobooks with chapter marks in M4B format with ‘Chapter and Verse’

October 3, 2011 By 5 Comments

Do you listen to audiobooks on iTunes, iPhone or iPad? If so, check to see whether your audiobooks are in m4b format, and whether each audiobook is contained within a single file or spanned across multiple audio files. The reason for this is that an audiobook in a single M4B file can provide you with a number of extremely convenient features on iTunes and iOS devices: the ability to pause and resume later from the exact same spot, and the ability to set bookmarks and chapter markers within your audiobook.

Chapter and Verse is a convenient, free tool that can process audio files of all types into m4b audiobooks. It can re-encode multiple MP3s or other audio formats into a single M4B audiobook, and will let you create chapter markers and edit metadata. Users can also associate different images with different chapters that will be shown during playback on iTunes, and iOS devices.

Usage: the interface is divided into 3 tabs; “Input files”, “Chapters”, and “Metadata”; load up your audio file(s) in the first tab. In the “Chapters” tab you can designate the chapters and any chapter specific cover art or images to associate with each, while the “Metadata” tab allows you to edit your audiobook’s metadata and add cover art (it does not auto-fetch metadata off the internet though).

What you can do with it: mix and match the following

  • Many files to one: convert multiple mp3 (or other) audiobooks into a single .M4B audiobook file
  • Chapterize by file: each input file can be set as a single chapter
  • Chapterize by interval: you can decide to use a regular time intervals as ad-hoc chapter markers; alternately, you could determine chapter intervals manually or import them from a .CSV file.
  • Edit metadata: for the audiobook file as a whole. You can use the metadata from the source file itself or edit it manually import from an XML or media file.
  • Edit chapter names and images: optionally enter a title for each chapter (see screenshot above), and optionally associate an image or cover art that would be displayed on iTunes or your iOS device when the chapter is being played.
  • You can add resulting audiobook to the iTunes library: optional.

The verdict: if you listen to audiobooks on iTunes or own an iOS device, and if your audiobook library is collected from various places and not just the iTunes store, then this is a must have piece of software.

Of course, you could create your .MB4 audiobooks without installing a software such as this one, by merging your audiobook MP3’s, converting to AAC, and renaming to .M4B, but Chapter and Verse makes it all so much easier and streamlined, not to mention lets you designate chapters, add cover-art by chapter, and edit metadata.

The only thing I could wish for is searching/fetching metadata automatically from the internet

Version Tested: 1.0

Compatibility: Windows. Requires iTunes.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 9.1 megs).


 
 
 
Samer Kurdi

Samer Kurdi

Has been reviewing software since 2006 when he started Freewaregenius.com
Samer Kurdi

@freewaregenius

We've just launched a new site design for Freewaregenius http://t.co/xaq1ZzmLlW -- tell us what you think - 34 days ago
October 3, 2011
Samer Kurdi
5
  • theusualuser

    Do you know of any freeware that can easily convert m4b files to mp3? I’d be particularly interested if this program could do both.

  • Samer

    @ theusualuser: that’s easy enough to achieve; first rename the .m4b extension to .aac, then convert the file to MP3 using any of a number of freeware audio converters, such as Freemake audio converter or Freac.

  • pjcamp

    “the ability to pause and resume later from the exact same spot, and the ability to set bookmarks and chapter markers within your audiobook.”

    That’s lovely, but several other audiobook players will do the same thing with any format of file. No need to transcode from mp3. The outstanding MortPlayer, on Android, is a good example a totally spanks the iWhatever. You can use most any audio format; you’re not forcible enslaved to playlists but can, if you wish, simply tell it to play everything in a specific folder.

    And in any case, the last time I used an iPod (before throwing it in the trash), m4b format files only functioned the way they were supposed to about half the time. The rest of the time, the bookmark was not set automatically, there was no way to manually set one, and then I had to thumbwheel through 20 hours of audio searching for my place. Pretty shoddy programming. Just say no.

  • Ravi

    I already have several mp3 files such that each file is its own chapter and i want to merge them as an m4b file with each chapter mark at the beginning of each file. Is it possible to do this without downloading and installing something?

    I already have AVS video and audio converter if that helps

  • perdue

    I have a kindle. It does not play mb4 format. I need to convert mp3 to aa in order to make an audio book with bookmarks for kindle. How do I do that?