August 6 '08 - 10:03 am
Thanks to Chris Breen at Macworld for bestowing Mac Gem-ness on Join Together.
posted in Join Together, Macworld, Mentions
July 25 '08 - 9:11 am
I’ve just released Join Together v5.3. This AppleScript Studio application automates the process of joining the files of selected iTunes tracks together with QuickTime and exporting them as a single AAC Music or Audiobook file/track. Optionally, you can create a “chapterized” audio file of the exported AAC file with pointers to the individually joined tracks.
Join Together comes in two flavors:
The basic version of Join Together is free and always will be. It has the same or better features–and performs as well or better–as it ever has without restrictions. Most users will find the free basic version of Join Together satisfactory for their track-joining needs.
Join Together Plus is an optional shareware upgrade that provides additional pre-flight and post-op features that have been requested by power-users. You can upgrade to Join Together Plus from the free basic version for US$7. This is to cover development and support expenses, which, in turn, helps make Join Together work better for everybody. See Join Together’s Help pages for more information on its Plus features.
Updated in v5.3:
- Added disc number and disc count tags for final track
- Added “Track Names to Chapter Names” menu item [Plus version]
- Fixed error in “Finished!” dialog [Plus version]
- Updated GUI
- Updated Help pages
- Performance enhancements
Visit the Join Together information and download page.
posted in Join Together, QuickTime, Updates, iTunes
July 7 '08 - 2:02 pm
My wife and daughter and I have just finished moving all our stuff from our place in Providence, Rhode Island to a new place in Newton, Massachusetts. Now that about ninety-percent of the move is finished we can proceed with the remaining ninety-percent: un-packing (can’t wait to recoup that extra twenty-percent that must be floating around somewhere). I have yet to set up my studio/work area properly, so it will still be a day or two or three before all those emails I said I would reply to actually get thoroughly replied to.
On another note, a concern that some Correspondents have reported is that Apple’s ChapterTool UNIX application that is required for some tasks with Join Together is no longer downloadable from the original Apple coordinates. I am working on getting more information about this and developing a suitable workaround. Just so you know.
posted in Join Together
March 22 '08 - 12:02 pm
Join Together has been updated to version 5.2.
This AppleScript Studio application automates the process of joining the files of selected iTunes tracks together with QuickTime and exporting them as a single AAC Music or Audiobook file/track. Optionally, with Apple’s ChapterTool application installed, you can create a “chapterized” audio file of the exported AAC file with pointers to the individually joined tracks.
As of version 5.2, Join Together comes in two flavors:
The basic version of Join Together is free and always will be. It has the same or better features–and performs as well or better–as it ever has without restrictions. Most users will find the free basic version of Join Together satisfactory for their track-joining needs.
Join Together Plus is an optional shareware upgrade that provides additional pre-flight and post-op features that have been requested by power-users. You can upgrade to Join Together Plus from the free basic version for US$7. This is to cover development and support expenses, which, in turn, helps make Join Together work better for everybody. See Join Together’s Help pages for more information on its Plus features.
Updated in v5.2
- Added “enabled” checkbox for the final track
- Added “Rating” options for the final track
- Added “Part of a gapless album” and “Skip when shuffling” options for the final track
- Can cancel operation from QuickTime
- Updated the interface
- Updated Help pages
- Fixed unusual issue with filename replacing track name
- Addressed QuickTime invalid track error while using pass through
- Performance enhancements
- Combine contiguous tracks as chapters [Plus version]
- Chapter name editing; auto-increment chapter numbers [Plus version]
- Use grouping tags as chapter names [Plus version]
- Contextual info windows for tracks/chapters [Plus version]
- Save options for saving final file to playlist, as a Podcast, and copy to iPod [Plus version]
- Preferences for various options [Plus version]
- Dock menu reduces application switching [Plus version]
More information and download.
posted in Join Together, QuickTime, Updates, iTunes
November 21 '07 - 12:07 pm
I mentioned yesterday about the High ASCII bug in iTunes that prevents Chapter titles containing High ASCII characters from displaying in the Chapters menu of iTunes 7.5 (note that I still have yet to get a real confirmation on this). As far as Join Together is concerned, you can avoid the error caused by High ASCII in track titles by eliminating those kinds of characters in the track names in the Join Together Track List. As I mentioned yesterday, I have a fix for the error in Join Together, but because of the alleged iTunes bug, you won’t have access to those titles in iTunes 7.5.
posted in Bugs, Join Together
November 20 '07 - 10:14 pm
I have gotten a couple of reports from users of Join Together regarding an error that occurs right when chapterizing begins. Turns out that ChapterTool was choking on High ASCII characters in the track names (?, ?, ?, ?, and so on). This error only occurs in Leopard, and I have fixed the problem. But I am hesitant to release an update just yet because it turns out that iTunes 7.5 willl not display titles containing High ASCII in the Chapters menu. At least not at my house. QuickTime will display the chapter titles, and iTunes 7.4.1 in Tiger will, but not iTunes 7.5 in Leopard.
I’d like to try to nail this down. Unfortunately, I don’t have any joined files created in Tiger that have High ASCII characters in the chapter titles. What I need to know is if joined files created in Tiger display their titles correctly in iTunes in Leopard. If you can be of assistance, please email me.
posted in Bugs, Join Together
November 11 '07 - 1:39 pm
This thread and this thread at Apple Support Discussions describes a bug in QuickTime 7.3 which ignores your iTunes VBR (variable bit rate) settings for importing or converting AAC tracks. As a result, you always get VBR. (Thanks to Correspondent Christian who pointed this out to me when describing a problem with the “Pass-Through” setting of Join Together. This option will only be available if your selected tracks all have the same bit and sample rate. Of course, if they are VBR, they won’t all have the same bit rate and Pass-Through won’t be available.)
I smell iTunes 7.5.1 and/or QuickTime 7.3.1 coming soon. At least, I hope that’s what I smell.
posted in Apple, Bugs, Join Together, QuickTime, iTunes