Audiobook Wizard is intended to create audiobooks you can listen to on your computer, iPhone or iPad. The application supports importing various audio formats, including MP3, M4A and WAV. Likewise, it can extract audio from MP4 and 3GP video clips. It is very easy to use; still, it is good to know that there is a user guide online with answers for some of your questions.
The tool supports importing source audio by both browsing for them in Finder or dragging and dropping them onto its window. At this point, you can also rearrange them and even preview their contents with the built-in audio player. Next, you can add tags, which will help you identify the new audiobook. These include titles, authors, comments and artwork and can be taken automatically from the source files’ metadata. Finally, you can pick the desired encoding quality from a list of three: CD Quality (128 kbps stereo), Enhanced (64k kbps mono) and Standard (48 kbps mono). It is good that it automatically marks chapters, splits files to the optimum size and adds them to your library.
To conclude, Audiobook Wizard does a wonderful job in creating audiobooks that play seamlessly on your computer as well as portable devices. Luckily, you do not need to worry about such things as input formats and bitrates, as the tool can manage different types of source files without difficulty. Likewise, it is good that it integrates with Books on Catalina. Unfortunately, the app crashed once during the trial. The product is available from the Mac Store.
v3.0 [Jun 22, 2013]
1. Version 3.0 implements several often asked for features and improvements.
2. First visible change is users are no longer asked to choose a file location for the completed audiobooks. Instead, all audiobooks will be save in the user's Music folder under the "Audiobook Wizard" subfolder. This folder will also be revealed to user automatically upon completion of conversion process.
3. Second visible change is the option to add audiobooks to iTunes automatically. If iTunes wasn't running before, adding an audiobook does not necessarily also open the iTunes window. Not to worry, the book was added just the same even if you don't see any visible activities. Click on iTunes icon to inspect addition to book library. If you choose to add books to iTunes automatically and iTunes is configured to manage its own library, then you may choose to delete all audiobooks stored in the user's "Music\Audiobook Wizard" as there is a duplicate copy in the iTunes library.
4. Not so visible is vast improvement in drag and drop capability of the app.
- Previously, when a file is drag drop into the app, it will be added to the end of the file list. Now files can be inserted anywhere within the list by targeting with the mouse pointer.
- Adding a new file to an existing list causes the list to be resorted. Which is not always intended by the user. This behavior has been changed. However, as a result, files are no longer automatically sorted when added to the app. Please click on sort button to make sure the order is correct.
5. You can now drag and drop files directly from iTunes. To do so, click on the playlist and select all the files you want and drag/drop these into the app. As a bonus, files are ordered in Audiobook Wizard exactly as they appear on iTunes itself. This is great if you have been using iTunes to maintain your audio files. Even if you don't, you may want to use iTunes's powerful file management tools to sort files into proper order first before dropping them into the app.
6. Lastly, there is also an option to begin playback immediately upon completion of an audiobook. If this is a multi part audiobook then playback begins when the first part is completed.
7. Other bug fixes and improvements.
It converts video formats into FLV, AVI, MP3, and YouTube-compatible file types.
App that lets you control your Input Volume from the status bar or with keyboard shortcuts.
