I had success with Goldwave. Reading some of the previous post I downloaded and installed Goldwave 5.20 Lame Encoder Audible Media Player Filter (I needed to download 2 missing DLL's for it) I open up Goldwave Open new file drop Show All for file types select the AA files. Once Goldwave is done processing it I select Save All and select the type of file output I want. Very simple.
Wow my head hurts after working on this for a couple days. What is the easiest way to convert aa to mp3 as of right now? Would love to be able to listen to my books at work on my player. -olyteddy: Which flavor of totalrecorder do you use for this conversion? (Pro, Standard or Dev?)
I use the Standard. Go to 'Recording Source and Parameters -> Advanced -> Accelerate recording (silent mode)' and you will basically re-record your book as fast as your computer can encode to MP3. I use Sample rate 22050 Mono CBR 80 Very high quality because that most closely matches the Audible File's parameters.
hm i'll have to try that at 22050 and mono and see how it goes. I've been doing it at the same quality as standard music mp3s so far, just because my player can have issues with lower quality files sometimes.
Hey guys and gals, Well I'm a new audible.com subscriber due to listening to Leo and the gang on the TWiT podcast. Of course, I want my files to be DRM-less also so a little googling brought me to this incredibly long thread! I've just successfully converted 2 audiobooks to mp3 format using my own method - I got tired of reading these posts. Here are the quick notes on how I did it. This requires software that is not free but there are trial versions. It does not require the burning/wasting of CD's though. You need to of course have a legitimate audible.com account to download your content in the first place. My method is NOT intended for sharing your content...just freeing it from the constrains of useless DRM. If anyone is interested in seeing this done, then I will be glad to create a video tutorial and post a link showing you how. Audible may get pissed and cancel my account, but oh well. ========== My Method ========== *Use Nero 7 to open AA file from iTunes library - authenticate with audible login/pass *Convert it to audiobook CD image in Nero *Open .nrg (Nero image) in UltraISO - convert to Alchohol image format since the audio wont extract from the .nrg image (not sure why and didn't feel like figuring it out) *Open alchohol image format in UltraISO - extract to wav or mp3 *Import to iTunes and tag - copy artwork from protected AA format to mp3's also!
What is Twit? This week in what? For those that don't have Itunes you can also use Nero to burn Audiblemanager files to .nrg format but I'm not sure how to copy the artwork without using Itunes You can open the .nrg file with Isobuster just go to file then open image then find the file you want. I'm not sure if the free version of Isobuster does it though.
Okay. After several hours, i've gotten it to work. Since I know how difficult it to find everything to make an Audible (.aa) file into an MP3 or any other format, I've created a kit which contains everything you'll need. It doesn't matter if you have any version of Audible Manager installed, and the version of Windows Media Player that you have foesn't matter either (I used WMP 11). Here's how to do it: 1. Download the kit here. 2. Extract the files, then install Goldwave (gwave522.exe). Once installed, copy the LAME MP3 Encoder (lame_enc.dll) to "C:\Program Files\GoldWave". 3. Install the audible media player filter (AudibleMediaPlayerFilter.exe). If a message pops up saying that you are missing a dll, do a search for that missing dll and download it, moving it to "Windows\System". (When I installed it, I needed a file called "msvci70.dll", so I've included it in the kit assuming that you will need it too.) 4. Test the media player filter by opening your Audible (.aa) files using Windows Media Player. 5. Open Goldwave and open your Audible (.aa) file. Goldwave will take a few minutes or so to read the file, depending on the size. Once Goldwave has read the file, go to "File > Save As", and pick the format you want to convert to in the drop-down menu. Click Save. 6. Let your .aa file bake at 350 degrees for awhile. Once its finished converting, transfer to your MP3 player (or cd, media player, or whatever) and enjoy your new MP3 (or other format) audiobook!
Nicely done. And he is right this will work. And it does not matter what version of Audible manager you have. But if/when you upgrade it (and probably when/if you upgrade WMP) you will probably need to reinstall the audible filter after the upgrade to make it keep working.
Thanks for the kit! I had trouble getting stuff to work after getting Vista, and this brought me back on track. I was missing a different dll though and downloaded it from
Does tunecab take a long time? Say to convert a 1 hour .aa file. Also, what size are the resultant files compared to the original .aa files?
knipknup, tonight I've tried 3-hours file from audible.com, it was converting about an hour But i think it depends on you PC system. Try to find info on their site or mail to their support.
I downloaded and even paid for Tunecab, and yes it works, it's just very slow. I have a pretty fast PC and it took well over an hour maybe even longer to convert a 5 hour audible file. It comes out small or large depending on the bit rate you choose. 5hrs 42mins at 24kbps is 58 megs. 24kbps sounds just fine for audiobooks. Using the complicated Goldwave/WMP/old audible filter/etc. method only takes minutes to convert.
I use soundtaxi (which I purchased for around $15 or so), it takes an hour to convert an 8 hour audible file. I guess this is slow, except that I tell it to watch a directory, and I also have my audible files podcasting, so the daily stuff that downloads automatically also converts automatically while I sleep. The WSJ daily doesn't download in time to convert before I leave for work, so it isn't perfect. The file sizes are also quite a bit larger. A typical WSJ daily runs about an hour and the .aa file is around 6MB. After conversion, the .mp3 file from soundtaxi is 20MB large, almost 4x (with conversion sampling set at 96kbs and it goes only as low as 32). It may get closer setting the conversion sampling rate to 32, but I use soundtaxi primarily for music, so I don't. This is around the same size results as tunebite, however, that takes forever and ever to convert. The whole goal in life is to eliminate the manual work and do it fast right?
Linkvoid, Thank you! I registered just so I could tell you that. It worked. For me there was a step missing, but I figured it out. During the install of Gold Wave it told me I needed to turn the DirectX filter on for WMP once the install was complete. Did that inside of Goldwave and all worked. Also, the first time it only converted the first 10 seconds.. .don't know why. I retried again and on the second attempt it worked well. I did a 5 1/2 hour book in 10 minutes, that is way fast enough for my needs. I have over 100 books to convert so you can imagine how it important to was get this issue resolved so I could play them on my Zune. I've paid various prices for those books but even at an average of $10 each we are talking a minimum 1K I had invested in expanding my literary knowledge being flushed down the drain. Some I had only listened to partially when my old mp3 player broke, so you have made me a VERY HAPPY person that is for sure! Few other items for future readers: You won't see .aa in the save as file list, select see all files to find and select them. If you own a Zune and want to do bookmarking, after you convert the file, open it in Goldwave, go to file, information (this allows you to edit the tag and title, artist, etc) in the genre field put podcast then save the file and close the file. Copy the file to your zune, podcast folder (the only place that has a bookmark feature on the zune at this time). I created a folder with the book name inside the podcast folder and placed it in that so things will stay organized on the zune. Works like a charm, you will be able to pause your book, turn off your zune, come back later and pick up where you left off. I recorded at the 16 bit 22050 HZ stereo rate since it said that is what the original was. It left a slight echo, nothing unbearable but definitely noticeable. I suggest playing around with the various rate options until you find one of your liking. Final word, good fixes like these tend to get deleted or crushed sooner or later, so don't hesitate, download (always scan files with your antivirus software first of course) and use before they disappear. At least I will get my inital investment with Audible converted and will play it by ear on buying more from them until I see if they will get Zune on their device list. Again, Linkvoid I owe you a solid, thanks! I'm off to the Goldwave site to send these folks some cash, LOL. They should give you a commission!
I did everything suggested to the "T". When i try to open a .aa file the audible section navigation widow opens and the file never loads. Anyone know what I am doing wrong?? I am using vista!! Help please!!! Viper
