No gaps

March 23, 2005 2:44 PM

I need a way to make a CD from my iTunes library with no gaps between songs. Ideally it would fade one song out and fade another song in, just like it does when I use 'Party Shuffle.'

Oh yeah, it has to be free. Roxio Easy CD Creator will do it if I upgrade for $70 or so. There must be something out there, I just can't seem to find it. The gaps between the songs are ruining my spinning mixes, I want 45 minutes or more of seamless music.

posted by fixedgear to computers & internet (12 comments total)

I don't know if the following would work when burning but it does on playback:

iTunes > Preferences > Burning > Gap between songs > none
iTunes > Preferences > Audio > Crossfade playback
posted by carter at 3:03 PM on March 23, 2005

You can set the gap between songs to none, but I find it is less than useful. Sure, there's no longer the two second countdown, but it's not perfect like most regular audio CDs.

I know you demand freeness, but Jam which comes with Toast will let you do this and will also let you make far more complex mixups. I used it to make a great Beastie Boys mix :)
posted by wackybrit at 3:05 PM on March 23, 2005

Toast with Jam
posted by Mwongozi at 3:23 PM on March 23, 2005

Anything for Windows that does the same thing as Toast with Jam?
posted by matildaben at 3:47 PM on March 23, 2005

carter: I found out some time ago that this technique, sadly, does not work for burning.
posted by basicchannel at 3:51 PM on March 23, 2005

Basicchannel is correct (as a small pile of ruined CDs will attest to) it works real fine while listening but not while burning. Matlidiben, I'm pretty sure that Toast with Jam is just the Apple version of Roxio Easy CD Creator, which ain't free!
posted by fixedgear at 4:20 PM on March 23, 2005

It's probably more trouble than it's worth, but couldn't you mash everything together into a single extended track with appropriate fades in and out using a program like Acid Music Studio and then use shntool to make a cue sheet that subdivides the file into individual tracks?

I feel like I did this once ages ago on a mix disc for a friend. I remember that it took forever and that when I was done it hardly seemed worth the effort. But also that it worked.
posted by felix betachat at 5:06 PM on March 23, 2005

I remember that it took forever and that when I was done it hardly seemed worth the effort.

Sigh...C'mon, I know youse can do it!
posted by fixedgear at 5:16 PM on March 23, 2005

Sorry, you said free. I've never used it, but Audacity seems like an open source program that duplicates the relevant functions of Acid Music Studio.
posted by felix betachat at 5:17 PM on March 23, 2005

I don't know the answer, but I'd suggest asking the same question at Hydrogen Audio
posted by Good Brain at 8:23 PM on March 23, 2005

Nero can do what you want, and while it's not free, you can get it for next to nothing if you look around.
posted by ascullion at 3:03 AM on March 24, 2005

from extremeipod.com - You'll see a promising setting labeled "Gap Between Songs". The "Gap Between Songs" setting gives you some flexibility in burning audio CDs. You can use this setting to create CDs with no gaps between the tracks, but only in certain cases:

* You joined the tracks on the CD before importing them.
* You're burning a CD from an uncompressed format (AIFF or WAV) rather than compressed format (such as MP3 or AAC).

Unfortunately, if you create a CD from MP3, you will always get a gap between the songs.
posted by Lanark at 1:12 PM on March 24, 2005