Hi … totally confused! I just installed Audacity 2.0.5 and Lame MP3 encoder on Windows 8.1. I was unable to get the FFmpeg library to .exe though. I’m trying to convert an M4B audio file (book) to MP3, but the file, when played back is just one long “hiss”. I am only able to import the file as raw data. The lines the show wave forms of the sound are blue with no spikes. Any help is totally appreciated.
Nick
Does FFMpeg support M4B?
https://www.ffmpeg.org/general.html
Audiobooks are normally protected, subscriber/server-based documents. It’s possible you’re trying to convert the subscription stub, not the sound. If you can play the document, you can use Audacity to record it in real time.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_recording_audio_playing_on_the_computer.html
Koz
Please try following these instructions http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#ffdown .
Yes in terms of the audio encoding - it’s just AAC.
The bookmarks and chapter marks may not survive if you were re-encoding in Audacity to another M4B file, but that doesn’t matter if you are converting to MP3.
But you can simply convert the M4B file to MP3 in iTunes: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Exporting_your_Audacity_Project_into_iTunes_and_iPod#convert .
Gale
Thanks to everyone for the help …
How do you rename a file … I’ve tried just changing the name and extension ie. filename.jpg to filename.xxx but in the Properties window it still comes up as jpg with filename.xxx showing
thanks,
Nick
As a general rule you should not change the filename extension manually. If you want to rename a file called “filename.jpg” you should only change the part before the dot (“somethingelse.jpg”). Windows, and many Windows applications frequently rely on the file extension to determine how to handle the file.
Note that “JPG” is the file extension for a type of image file (nothing to do with and not supported by Audacity).
Except for a few rare cases, you can’t convert one file type to another just by changing the file extension. If you attempt to do so, you may confuse a program into thinking that the file is of the type specified by the extension, but the file will not work correctly. Typically, different file types arrange their data in different ways. The “filename extension” serves as a humanly readable “hint” to what sort of file it is. By default, Windows hides the filename extension so as to discourage users from messing with it (though hiding the extension creates its own problems).
To change the file type, you need an application that is able to convert the file format. Such applications will usually change the filename extension automatically.