How can I make mp3s meant to lead into each other actually lead into each other without pausing first?

June 26, 2004 5:06 PM

Ripping a CD that has tracks that lead into each other and then converting to MP3 has presented me with a problem. When I try to play the MP3s back in order there's a slight stagger when the next track starts (not a crossfade or optional pause), where on the audio CD the transition would not be noticeable. I'd like to either eliminate this error and keep the individual MP3s or rip the CD as one big audio file and convert that to one big MP3. Advice? [specs inside]

Ripper tried: CDex
Players tried: QCD and Winamp5
WinXP home, Athlon XP 2400+

posted by PinkStainlessTail to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

The only player I've found that will play audio without adding unwanted gaps between tracks is Windows Media Player. Players I've tried include Media Jukebox and multiple versions of Winamp.
posted by cbrody at 5:47 PM on June 26, 2004

MP3 is a data stream of highly-compressed audio, and not a highly-editable format. Some programs will help you clip or join them, but you'll have better luck editing the native CD audio format: AIFF. It's not compressed, which makes it easier for your garden-variety sound editor to make two tracks into one, etc. Output to MP3s once you have it the way you want it.

Alternatively, does anyone know if you can simply set the pauses between certain tracks to zero in an M3U playlist? If so, it's just a matter of making a playlist file for the album.
posted by scarabic at 5:52 PM on June 26, 2004

I haven't actually worked on this problem, but I know the search term you want is "gapless."
posted by monju_bosatsu at 5:57 PM on June 26, 2004

Best answer: It's been a while since I've used CDex, but I'm fairly sure that it's possible to rip the entire album as one large MP3 in CDex.
posted by alidarbac at 6:20 PM on June 26, 2004

This crossfading plugin for Winamp works for me.
posted by RGD at 7:10 PM on June 26, 2004

Ahem. And I should read the post more closely.
posted by RGD at 7:12 PM on June 26, 2004

iTunes has a setting that will let you join tracks together when you rip them. Though, in my experience iTunes is better at ripping to its own AAC format than to MP3.
posted by dnash at 7:53 PM on June 26, 2004

Response by poster: It's been a while since I've used CDex, but I'm fairly sure that it's possible to rip the entire album as one large MP3 in CDex.

I went back and checked after this comment, and sure enough the "Record a Section of a CD" option defaults to the whole darn thing as one file. Thanks!
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 8:17 PM on June 26, 2004

Do you need to use the mp3 format? If not, look into Ogg Vorbis. It's free, features gapless playback and is supported by Winamp and a number of other players.
posted by mrbula at 10:29 PM on June 26, 2004

Response by poster: Do you need to use the mp3 format? If not, look into Ogg Vorbis.

I have done some stuff in Ogg on my PC, but currently my only portability option is MP3. Ogg capability is one of the things I'm looking for when I upgrade, most likely to one of these as I like the other iRiver stuff I've had in the past.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 6:37 AM on June 27, 2004