mp3tom4b

Convert mp3 files to an m4b audiobook, with metadata

This also includes a small CD ripper wrapper, rippet, to convert audiobook CDs to MP3 files.

Requires

The following are prerequisites:

• Python 3.6 or newer
• ffmpeg
• The Python 3 mutagen module
• MP4Box, from the 'gpac' package
• mp4chaps, from the mp4v2-utils package
• cdda2track, from the audiotools package

Install the last five with:

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg python3-mutagen gpac mp4v2-utils audiotools

Or just install the deb file:

sudo dpkg -i mp3tom4b*deb
sudo apt-get -f install

Using

rippet takes a single argument - the audio CD disk number. It creates MP3 files in the current directory.

The m4b conversion is a three-step process. First run the script using the component MP3 files as arguments. This will create a JSON file containing metadata for creating the audiobook file.

$ mp3tom4b *.mp3
metadata saved to "James Herriot's Animal Stories.json"
$

Second, edit the JSON file as necessary to add/modify the metadata. Specifically, review and update the following fields as required:

• Book "title".
• Book "year", the year of publication.
• Book "coverPath", the path to JPEG or PNG cover art. This can be left blank.
• Book "author".
• The "title" of each chapter. Leave this blank to omit a chapter title for a particular MP3 file.

Also, re-sort the chapters, if necessary. Note that JSON is a machine-readable format - be careful with the formatting.

Finally, run the script with the JSON file as the sole argument. This will create the audiobook.

$ mp3tom4b *json
audiobook saved to "James Herriot's Animal Stories.m4b"

Usage

$ mp3tom4b -h
usage: mp3tom4b [-h | <MP3 file> <MP3 file> [...] | <JSON file>]

Convert mp3 audio files to an m4b audiobook

optional arguments:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit

When called with an argument list of mp3 files, mp3tom4b will
create a JSON file containing metadata for the collection.

Edit the JSON file to refine meta information for the audiobook.

When called with a single argument, mp3tom4b will interpret the
argument as a JSON metadata file, and will use it to create an
m4b audio file containing the mp3 file and metadata information.


$ rippet -h
usage: rippet [-h] disk_number

Parse a CD to sortable tracks

positional arguments:
  disk_number  disk number

optional arguments:
  -h, --help   show this help message and exit