Audio books have been around since around the 1930’s You can be forgiven for thinking that they are a relatively new invention,what with the digital age and all.What is fairly new however is the ability to download an audiobook directly into your device i.e. PC,MP3 Player. Audiobooks are readily available on CD and cassette tapes, but the most recent development in audiobooks includes Audiobook Downloads . Downloading audio books is a simple process and is very convenient; you can even do it now.
Downloading the audio version of a novel is a great way to build a digital collection of your favourite authors be they novels or non fiction. There are all sorts of titles available, virtually everything you can get on CD can also be downloaded.
There are Lots of places online to Download audiobooks. They are not very expensive, usually less than the original book, and most often cheaper than the Cd versions.
It isn't difficult at all to find free audio books- Librivox Free Audiobooks is probably the largest source for free public domain audiobooks online. For books that have been published before 1923 and are in the public domain, project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page offers free downloads of etext books. Books in the public domain may be shared freely because royalties are no longer paid for them.
Audiobooks can easily be downloaded and listened to in an instant. It’s as simple as clicking your mouse to begin the download. You can very easily find online bookstores by doing a search for the same. There are also online stores where more modern titles are available,as Audiobook Downloads You may have to register to become a customer. After which you can browse their catalog and begin your own digital library.
Once you have made your choice or choices you can begin your downloads, you can listen to the audiobooks from your PC or burn them onto discs. You can also load the mp3 files into your mp3 player
Monday, 5 May 2008
Thursday, 1 May 2008
Free Audiobooks
Over 1400 Free downloadable audiobooks are available right now at http://librivox.org/
These are all public domain audiobooks,meaning there is no copyright attached to them.
LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Librivox' goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. They are a totally volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project.
Anyone can volunteer to read and record a whole book or even just one chapter.
My Tips: When browsing the Librivox catalogue,to download or listen to online,look for audiobooks with a single reader.This makes for a more pleasant listening experience.
When an audiobook is read by multiple readers,i.e. different readers for different chapters it can spoil the experience. e.g. the first three chapters may be read by a good reader followed by two or three not so good readers.
Download some mp3 enhancing software like mp3 gain(FREE SOFTWARE) available here: http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/download.php
This software is used to normalise all the tracks.This is what the people at mp3 gain have to say:
"Tired of reaching for your volume knob every time your mp3 player changes to a new song?MP3Gain analyzes and adjusts mp3 files so that they have the same volume.
MP3Gain does not just do peak normalization, as many normalizers do. Instead, it does some statistical analysis to determine how loud the file actually sounds to the human ear.Also, the changes MP3Gain makes are completely lossless. There is no quality lost in the change because the program adjusts the mp3 file directly, without decoding and re-encoding."
Librivox adds a short piece of dialogue stating that "this is a librivox recording..all librivox recordings are in the public domain.....etc,etc."this dialogue is on the beginning of every chapter of each audiobook and sometimes at the end of each chapter aswell. This can become quite monotonous and even annoying to say the least, especially if the audiobook you are listeng to is an epic and has 30 or 40 chapters. This can easily be remedied using mp3DirectCut(FREE SOFTWARE)available here: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/audio_software/mp3_tools/mp3directcut.cfm
mp3DirectCut v2.07
mp3DirectCut is a small tool for editing MP3 files directly, without any quality loss to the original file. You can remove parts, change the volume, split files or copy regions to several new files. All without the need to decompress your MP3 into a PCM format. This saves work, encoding time and disk space. And there is no quality loss through any re-compressions! Trim your CD grabbings or directly to MP3 recorded vinyls or tapes. Cut favourit songs from long MP3 radio or live recordings. Make multiple cuts and fades. mp3DirectCut is very fast and gives you extensive control over your MP3s. - Several prelisten functions - MP3 visualisation and VU meter - Easy navigation - Fading, volume setting and normalizing - Records MP3 direct to disk (ACM and Lame encoder supported) - Layer 2 support - ID3 Tag support (only v1 editable) - Supports Cue Sheets .
Librivox also has a growing collection of Free Cd labels & Jewel case covers for their Audiobooks.
Each audiobook download also has a link to an etext version so you can read it as well as listen.
There you go 1400 plus audiobooks without spending a penny!!
However many of these can be bought for a couple of Dollars with all this done for you if you look around.
These are all public domain audiobooks,meaning there is no copyright attached to them.
LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Librivox' goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. They are a totally volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project.
Anyone can volunteer to read and record a whole book or even just one chapter.
My Tips: When browsing the Librivox catalogue,to download or listen to online,look for audiobooks with a single reader.This makes for a more pleasant listening experience.
When an audiobook is read by multiple readers,i.e. different readers for different chapters it can spoil the experience. e.g. the first three chapters may be read by a good reader followed by two or three not so good readers.
Download some mp3 enhancing software like mp3 gain(FREE SOFTWARE) available here: http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/download.php
This software is used to normalise all the tracks.This is what the people at mp3 gain have to say:
"Tired of reaching for your volume knob every time your mp3 player changes to a new song?MP3Gain analyzes and adjusts mp3 files so that they have the same volume.
MP3Gain does not just do peak normalization, as many normalizers do. Instead, it does some statistical analysis to determine how loud the file actually sounds to the human ear.Also, the changes MP3Gain makes are completely lossless. There is no quality lost in the change because the program adjusts the mp3 file directly, without decoding and re-encoding."
Librivox adds a short piece of dialogue stating that "this is a librivox recording..all librivox recordings are in the public domain.....etc,etc."this dialogue is on the beginning of every chapter of each audiobook and sometimes at the end of each chapter aswell. This can become quite monotonous and even annoying to say the least, especially if the audiobook you are listeng to is an epic and has 30 or 40 chapters. This can easily be remedied using mp3DirectCut(FREE SOFTWARE)available here: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/audio_software/mp3_tools/mp3directcut.cfm
mp3DirectCut v2.07
mp3DirectCut is a small tool for editing MP3 files directly, without any quality loss to the original file. You can remove parts, change the volume, split files or copy regions to several new files. All without the need to decompress your MP3 into a PCM format. This saves work, encoding time and disk space. And there is no quality loss through any re-compressions! Trim your CD grabbings or directly to MP3 recorded vinyls or tapes. Cut favourit songs from long MP3 radio or live recordings. Make multiple cuts and fades. mp3DirectCut is very fast and gives you extensive control over your MP3s. - Several prelisten functions - MP3 visualisation and VU meter - Easy navigation - Fading, volume setting and normalizing - Records MP3 direct to disk (ACM and Lame encoder supported) - Layer 2 support - ID3 Tag support (only v1 editable) - Supports Cue Sheets .
Librivox also has a growing collection of Free Cd labels & Jewel case covers for their Audiobooks.
Each audiobook download also has a link to an etext version so you can read it as well as listen.
There you go 1400 plus audiobooks without spending a penny!!
However many of these can be bought for a couple of Dollars with all this done for you if you look around.
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