Tuesday 29 September 2015

How to Convert WAV 16 Bit PCM Sound Files into MP3 192 kbps for Audio Books

ACX, a platform where narrators, authors and audio book producers can collaborate and make audio books requires sound files to be MP3 192kpbs before inclusion within Audible, Amazon and Itunes. Here’s a simple guide on how to convert sound files to MP3.

Free Sound Editing Software

Where to find Audacity
Firstly, download Audacity, a free sound editing program. It’s brilliant and I use it myself.

You cannot convert sound files to MP3 on Audacity alone due to copyright issues. You have to go to LAME download page. You can download both Audacity and LAME on Sourceforge.net. Install the plugin that is appropriate to the system you are using. I installed Lame v3.99.3 for Windows and Audacity for Windows 2.1.0.

Go through the wizard which is pretty self-explanatory. You may need to restart your computer once installed.

Now pen Audacity and import your WAV file 16 bit. This is the standard file format of Windows. Your sound file will comprise blue peaks and troughs. Wait a moment for the entire file to load. On conversion, the system will retain the original WAV version, so two files will be created, both with different extensions.

How to Convert to MP3

Exporting Audio for Conversion to MP3
Once your sound file has been imported into Audacity, click on ‘export file’, which will open another window with an array of sound formats to choose from. Be sure to select’ MP3’.

Before doing anything else, click ‘options’, which will enable you to select 192kbs, vital for Audible books.

Now save and another dialogue box will come up, that will enable you to input your metadata, which are: the author name, title of book and chapter number, whatever you want. This ensures your information will be encoded in your sound file. I will also name the file with this information, so that it can easily be seen.

Where to Upload your Audio Book

Uploading to ACX
Recording an audio book takes lots of storage space, so I will save my audio book on an extension storage drive (I use two for backup) but you can also use a Cloud Drive. Anything between 500 Gigabytes and 1 terabyte should be enough to contain 5 to 10 novels of average length. I managed to store 32 hours of recording on my terabyte drive without leaving much of a dent.

When your sound files are ready for upload, simply browse to ACX, add your cover art, import your description and you should be able to upload your MP3 files without any problems.

2 comments:

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