I needed a software program to merge mp3 to be able to have enough music for all the photos that would be displayed in the DVD slideshow.

Merge Mp3 is a free and portable software program for the Windows operating system that can do exactly that. Mp3 can be dragged and dropped into the application’s interface or selected through the file browser. It is also possible to specify folders or playlists to add and merge their mp3.

The order of the mp3 can be changed in the interface in case it needs to be. Basic controls for playing the added mp3 files are available. As are options to add ID3 tags for the new merged mp3. The biggest benefit of Merge Mp3 is its simplicity. It takes less than a minute to select the mp3 and join them. There are additional options where merging mp3 might make sense. This includes merging all chapters of an audiobook or the tracks of a ripped CD.

Merge Mp3 is compatible with Windows and available from the developer’s website.

Related posts

• Trout Is A Lightweight Free Music Player (2)
• Mp3 Packer (10)
• Join Mp3 From The Command Line (17)
• ID3 Mass Tagger (0)
• Advanced MP3 Tag Remover (0)

Only one line of code is needed to join multiple mp3 files: copy /b *.mp3 c:\new.mp3. That’s all there is needed. The /b parameter ensures that the files are copied in binary format. *.mp3 defines the source directory of the files. You can easily add a drive and folder structure in front. The wildcard * defines that all mp3 will be joined alphanumerically by the command. It is possible to limit the files by adding letters or numbers to the command, e.g. m*.mp3 to join all mp3 starting with the letter m.

The last part c:\mp3 defines the target directory for the newly created file as well as its name. A possibility to join files with different filenames is also available. Simply use the command copy /b file1.mp3 + aaa.mp3 + r3f.mp3 c:\new.mp3 for this. You may use wildcards as well for the process.

Several applications like Audacity can also be used to merge music files. Mp3 Direct Cut is another one for the purpose.

Related posts

• Merge Mp3 (5)
• Command Line Directory Switcher (6)
• Run Vista’s Windows System Assessment Tool In Windows XP (0)
• Prepare your Audiobooks for a Roadtrip (1)
• ID3 Mass Tagger (0)

The problem that I was facing now was that my mp3 player has a limited storage capacity of four Gigabytes. With audiobooks growing in size all the time it is not that unusual to encounter some that would use up to 500 Megabytes and more of space on that mp3 player.

I therefor came to the conclusion that the best way to prepare my audiobooks was to reduce their quality. While it naturally reduces the quality of the recording it does not reduce it that much in my opinion that you would stop enjoying the audiobook. The benefit of course is a reduced file size.

A normal audio CD encoded with 128 Kbps uses about 50-70 Megabytes of space on the hard drive with a playtime between 50 and 70 minutes. An audiobook encoded with 32 Kbps has a size of a little bit more than 20 Megabytes with a playtime of nearly 90 minutes. If you encode it with 64 Kbps instead it uses the same 20 Megabytes for a playtime that is halved.

I won’t be telling you which quality level you should choose because frankly taste is different. If you prefer a better quality encode them that way, if you can live with 32 Kbps do that and save lots of space.

The software that I’m using for this type of conversions is called MP3 Reduce II but you can use almost any audio software out there. MP3 Reduce II has the advantage that you simply select the source file, the encoding quality and the destination file. The only problem that I have with it is that you can only select one file at a time.

Another way would be to merge all mp3 files and save them as one big file at the end. Audacity can do that for instance, just copy paste all files next to each other and save the selection as a new mp3 file.

If you prefer the command line you can use the command copy /b audio1.mp3 + audio2.mp3 result.mp3. It won’t be perfect but it could be enough for the next roadtrip.

I was able to reduce the size of an audiobook with a playing time of 670 minutes from 600 Megabyte to 150 Megabyte this way.

Related posts

• Mp3 to iPod Audio Book Converter (1)
• Merge Mp3 (5)
• Join Mp3 From The Command Line (17)
• Winamp Auto Tagger (8)
• Winamp 5.5 lite vs. XMPlay Memory Management (13)