I have some chopped up MP3 files for an audio book. I would like to drop all of the audio MP3’s together, putting them in order, and then generate one long MP3 that plays them all straight through.
Is there a simple software that will do this? I was actually wondering if VLC could do it, but I don’t know how to queue them all up and produce the final long MP3.
Anyway, I’d appreciate help if anyone knows.
Audacity will do it. Just open (Import) File #1, open File #2 (will show both), copy and paste 2 to the end of 1, etc. At the end, Export the final product as an mp3.
I just joined two mp3 music files to make sure it works and it does.
Ninja’d by Jophiel. I’ve been using Audacity for years on my Windows PC. It’s relatively easy to do lots of interesting things with MP3 files. When you are done, just export your file to MP3 or WAV and you’re done.
Already double-ninja’d, but I’ll just add a third vote for Audacity. Very flexible audio editing and it’s free and open source.
Hehehe, ffmpeg is simple by Unix standards.
I’d give another vote for Audacity. It’s not the tool I’d use for the job, but it’s dead simple as a Windows app and perfect for this job.
I have done it once, but it is kind of a pain. I import all the mp3 files and after importing them, I have to manual drag each track/file to the end of the previous one.
I wish there was a simple way to drag all the tracks of a folder into one program and export a long file that automatically plays each one back-to-back.
The word you want is “merge”, or possibly “concatenate.”
When I checked Google, the top result was this online tool:
The other thing about Audacity is that it is a simple but powerful editor. If there is stuff you would like to remove from the beginning or end of a track, or you want to do a crossfade transition, or insert or overlap stuff, it is pretty straightforward.
Audacity is more of an audio editor.
IMO, I am with @Chingon on this: ffmpeg is a complicated Swiss army knife, true, but it will do what you want and more. Here is another possibility: http://mp3wrap.sourceforge.net/
It depends on how much work you want to put into making the large file. If you are putting together disparate mp3s, they might have unsettling differences in volume. With Audacity, you can place the individual parts into their own tracks, align them to each other and adjust the gain so that you are not jumping from a quiet song to a glaringly loud one. It takes a tiny bit more work, but the result will be easier to listen to
Audacity isn’t what I’d call a simple program. If I were in @Mahaloth’s position, I’d keep it in mind as a possibility in case I couldn’t find anything simpler, but what I’d really want is something like what @BigT came up with.
I’ve used the site https://audio-joiner.com with success before.
With VLC Player you have to create aplaylist.
Click on “View” from the options at top of Player window and select “Playlist” from the dropdown menu.
Copy your MP3 files into the Playlist window and start playing. Best to copy in case something goes wrong you still have your originals.
At the bottom of the Player window is small Icon, second from right, looks like a couple of arrows going round. Click on this for various playlist options.
Back in the Napster days, i would use Audacity to get music. Hooked up the computer to the output from the stereo with the TV tuned to a background music no talking channel. Record a series of songs into one big MP3. Use Audacity to snip out each particular song from the recording and save them separately. Then load each song and use audacity to provide a short but smooth fade in and fade out if necessary instead of an abrupt ending. (Actually, at first it was recording WAV because in those days, recording MP3 on the fly was compute intensive)
Twenty years later, it is still a useful program.