Here we are going to use the Linux command line tool mp3wrap to combine our multiple MP3 tracks into one large MP3 track. To do this, still in the same directory, issue the command:
mp3wrap <output file.mp3> *.mp3
One very important thing to keep in mind is that the multiple tracks must be named sequentially. This should not be an issue if you used cdparanoia to rip your audiobook CD, however, if you already had the tracks ripped and they are not named sequentially be sure to rename them before trying to combine them. For example, track01.mp3, track02,.mp3, track03.mp3, and so on.
We now have the one large MP3 file that we want. Lets convert this file to PCM.
The next step will require a fair amount of space. Make sure you have roughly 7 times the disk space of the MP3 you created in the last section available to you. To convert our MP3 file to PCM we will use mplayer from the command line, issuing the following command:
mplayer -vc null -vo null -ao pcm:nowaveheader:fast:file=<output file.pcm> <input file_MP3WRAP.mp3>
This command will take a fair amount of time to complete so be patient. Once it completes we will have the PCM file we need and can move onto the last step, converting the PCM file to a iPod compatible M4B file.
The final step of this process is to convert our PCM file to an iPod compatible M4B file. To do this we will use the Linux command line tool faac:
faac -R 44100 -B 16 -C 2 -X -w -q 80 --artist "authorname" --album "audiobookname" --track "1" --genre "Audiobooks" --year "year" -o <output file.m4b> <input file.pcm>
That's it! This audiobook should show up in the Audiobooks section and be fully iPod compatible. Until next time, keep it Open Source!