Help Ripping Music CDs

April 8, 2011 2:34 PM

Can anyone help me with a problem I have with Ripping music to my Ipod/Computer. I have several CDs that are meant to be gapless Album (IE a continous 80 minute mix) and when I try to rip them to my Ipod, it make a momentary gap appear. So how can I rip these CDs without the Gaps, or how can I rip them to my PC without track markers, so that they are one long mix Thanks for any advice/Help
posted by maxmix to computers & internet (4 answers total)

If you select them in itunes and pull up the info window (Cmd-I on mac, probably ctrl-I on windows), then choose "Options" from the tabs, there's a checkbox labeled "Part of a Gapless Album". Choose that.
posted by jeb at 2:40 PM on April 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

If you're using iTunes:

- Select all the songs in the album
- Open Get Info in the right-click dropdown (this is the command on the Mac, may be slightly different for Windows)
- Select the Options tab
- Select Yes on the Gapless album dropdown (this should result in a checkmark in the box next to Gapless album)
- Select OK to close the dialog and confirm your change.

Hope this helps! I'm on a Mac, but the Windows commands should be similar. Someone on Windows iTunes should come along to confirm.
posted by immlass at 2:40 PM on April 8, 2011 [4 favorites]

You can also rip several tracks as one MP3 file by selecting them, and then advanced / combine tracks in the iTunes menu. Better than the "gapless album" option, in my experience.
posted by nja at 3:05 PM on April 8, 2011

Combining tracks definitely erases the gaps, but it also prevents you from being able to jump from track to track. If skipping around in the mix is something you want to do with some accuracy, I'd choose a different approach.

I'm not sure if you're on a Mac or Windows machine. If a Mac, try ripping the disc with XLD. On the PC side, EAC is a winner (find a setup guide, since it's a little foreign), with dBpoweramp a close second (nicer interface but not free).

The better question may be, are you sure this is a ripping problem and not a playback problem? Do you hear a gap when you play the album on your computer and on your iPod? What version of iPod do you have? Many early versions got knocked for not supporting gapless playback. Rockbox might be worth checking out.
posted by fishpatrol at 7:52 AM on April 10, 2011