Using Join Together - Quick Start
Launch Join Together by double-clicking its icon.
In the Music app (or iTunes), select some unprotected audio tracks and drag them to Join Together's window to add them to its Track List.
Alternatively:
• Selected a playlist containing suitable tracks and drag it to Join Together
• Select and drag CD tracks
• Drag audio files (or folders containing them) from the Finder
You can drag separate batches of tracks to the same session. It also may be helpful to assemble the tracks in a new playlist first, then drag the playlist to the Track List.
The Track List will populate with the selected tracks names and any common tags will be pre-entered in the Tags for Joined Track panel:
Track List
The Track List on the left side of Join Together's main window will display the selected tracks in the order you dragged them.
• Track order can be re-arranged by selecting and dragging a track (or tracks) to a new location within the Track List.
• Selected tracks can be deleted from the Track List by pressing the Command-Delete keys
• The Track List and Tags section can be cleared and reset by pressing the Command-R keys
• See Delete Tracks.
Duration and Start and Stop Times
• Join Together will honor the user-set Start Time and Stop Time of tracks set in a track's Get Info > Options panel. (These settings are ignored for CD tracks and files dragged from the Finder.) If these settings are used, Join Together will compute the duration of a track based on these track times. (The full duration of a track's file can be honored by over-riding all user-set Start and Stop Times in Advanced Session Options.)
NOTE: there is no guarantee that using a track's Start Time and/or Stop Time will render completely seamless joins. Using the full duration of a file will always produce seamless joins
The View Menu
• The height of the rows in the Track List can be toggled large or small by clicking "Toggle List Size" in the View menu.
• Initially, the Track List will display the calculated start time for each track as it will occur in the final joined file (the shaded time entries) and the duration time for each track. These two columns can be toggled visible or hidden by clicking "Show Start Time Column" or "Show Track Time Column" in the View menu.
Track information and QuickLook Auditioning
To see information about a track Right-Click on it in the Track List.
A track can be played in a QuickLook window by selecting the track and pressing Space Bar. Press Space Bar again to dismiss the QuickLook window.
See Get Info and QuickLook Audition.
Tags for Joined Track
Enter the Name, Artist, Album, Composer, Grouping, Comments, Genre, Rating, Year, Track Number/Count and Disc Number/Count tags for the final joined file.
All tags except the Name tag are optional.
Audiobook tags are labeled and used differently from Music tags.
• An audiobook's Title is the Album tag
• An audiobook's Chapter is the Name tag
• An audiobook's Author is the Artist tag
• An audiobook's Category is the Genre tag
• Additionally, the lyrics tag is not available for audiobooks. "Remember playback position" and "Skip when shuffling" settings are default settings for audiobook tracks.
Set whether or not the joined track will be enabled (checkmarked) by clicking the check box next to the Name field.
For music tracks only, checkmark the TOC (table-of-contents) to Lyrics checkbox to generate a list of the track names and their start times that will be copied to the final track's lyrics tag.
Remember playback position and Skip when shuffling settings for the final joined file can be set for music tracks only. These settings are on by default for audiobook tracks.
Artwork
You can apply an image to be used as the "Album Artwork" of the final joined file. This image data will be written to the final file's metadata such that it "travels" with the file.
The main window's Artwork well can accept a dragged image file or a copy-and-pasted image. When an image is selected in the Artwork well it can be deleted, copied, or cut.
Alternatively, the artwork from a specific track can be used by clicking "Use This Artwork for Final File" from a track's Get Info Panel (see Get Info and QuickLook Audition).
File Output Settings
Join Together's File Output Settings are similar to the Import Settings you would fin in the Music app or iTunes.
Select to encode the file as AAC or ALAC (Apple Lossless).
If AAC, the preferred Bit Rate, Channels, and Sample Rate can be selected with the popup boxes. As you do so, the approximate size of the final joined file will be updated in the track information at the bottom of the main screen.
If ALAC, the Bit Depth and Sample Rate parameters can be set.
Media Kind
• You can select to save the final file with a Media Kind of "Music" (.m4a) or "Audiobook" (.m4b) and it will be appropriately added to the "Music" or "Audiobooks/Books" library.
The File Output Settings will be saved to be used for the next session.
Proceed to Join
When all settings are satisfactory click the "Export" button. (For additional output options see Advanced Session Options and Preferences.)
Join Together will create a new AAC or ALAC file using the audio data from the files in the Track List. The original tracks and files are left intact and unaltered.
• If in unregistered [Demo Mode], the volume-level of the exported file will be sharply reduced at the halfway mark—or the 10 minute mark if the file is longer than 20 minutes. Note that registration does not "restore" the volume of audio files created during Demo Mode, so save your source files to re-create them after registering. See how to Register.
The final joined file will be added to the Music or Books app depending on its Media Kind. If you're using iTunes, files will be added to either the "Music" or "Audiobooks" library accordingly.
Additional Session Options
To save the file to a different location, copy the track to a particular playlist, and to set other output options see Advanced Session Options.
