I thought I'd write a little tutorial of how I convert my .aa - audiobooks and hope it will be helpful.
I would have been pretty happy with the format but the MP3- player I had back then only accepted mp3s. The problem was that I wanted one particular audiobook and I only found it on Audible. So I had to find a way if I wanted to listen to it on the player. Another reason is: I want to keep my books even after I cancel my account.
First
I installed an older version of audible-manager which would allow me to convert the books with dbpoweramp Music Converter. you can get it here:
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Second
I got dbpoweramp
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and installed that too together with whichever codecs I liked/ needed
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For decoding .aa I needed DirectShow Decoder - got that one here:
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Third
Now I had to configure DirectShow Decoder (theres a help-file for that in Start - Programs - dbpoweramp - help - codecs) but in short: i selected Start >> Run (for Vista: Windows Key + R), type: "%appdata%\dbpoweramp" and opened the directshow textfile and added there ".aa" so the converter would recognise the files.
From there on I just had to rightclick the files to convert them. There was never the need to register the program because it works with the free version well.
In my humble opinion this is still the fastest and least complicated way to convert audio files.
Other useful tools I tried (because I like my audiobooks in 2 files- 4 files tops I often have to merge them):
mergemp3
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Its portable and need not to be installed. I don't know why but it doesn't work for all mp3s.
then I use this:
Shuangs Audio Joiner
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for adjusting the sound volume of mp3's I got this:
mp3gain
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After I bought my ipod I used this for a long while to create m4b's
mp3 to ipod converter
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1. Download and install one of the ISO virtual CD burners (search ISO on Astatalk's Applications board). Use this program to mount a virtual CD drive. Note the letter the program assigns to this drive. Also note where this program will store the mp3 files it creates from your Audible files. You are going to use this program to "burn" a "CD" of the book. Actually, it's just going to create and store mp3 files on your hard drive.
Step 2. Download your book from Audible using any version of Audible Manager. Note where your files will be stored. By default, Download Manager stores my content in: C:\Users\Public\Documents\Audible\Downloads
Step 3. Open iTunes. To burn your Audible content in iTunes, first you need to create a playlist. Select File and then select New Playlist.
Step 4. This will create a new untitled playlist Name the playlist (Example: Audiobook Playlist) and press Enter. The actual name you give the playlist doesn't matter
Step 5. Locate the folder where your Audible content is stored. Drag and drop the title you want to burn from the Books or Audiobooks section under Library to the playlist that you have created.
Step 6: With the created playlist highlighted, select the Burn Disc button
Step 7: In the Burn Settings window, choose the CD burner you created in your ISO program. Ensure that the Disc Format is set to Audio CD and select Burn. If MP3 CD or Data CD is selected, you will receive an error message when attempting to burn Audible content.
Step 8: If the book requires more space than is available on the CD-R (between 70-80 minutes for most CD-R discs), an alert will appear that says, The single song in this playlist will not fit, do you want to create multiple CDs?, select Audio CDs.
Step 9: iTunes will begin burning the title to CD. Once the first disc is burned, iTunes will eject it and ask you to insert another blank disc. Once you insert another blank disc the burn will continue. This process will continue until the recording is completed.
Now follow the directions from the author of the above post for merging the files and converting them to iPod format if desired.