[mattspink]

When I create an audio CD from my MP3 library, I always set the gap between tracks to 0 secs. I recently noticed when i burnt an audio CD containing tracks from a continuous mix, that when i play the CD on an audio device, or through my Mac, there is a slight pause between tracks. It is only very short, but is very noticable when two tracks are meant to run seamlessly together.

I have tried this out on a few friends Cd burners and they experience the same thing, regardless of what burning software they use. Any ideas why this happens, and how to burn a truly seamless CD from converted MP3s?

[mpbritt]

Many songs are recorded with a few seconds of silence at the end of them after they fade out. This is the reason the tracks don't run all together. To get a better mix sound use Toast+Jam.

[Taipan]

Hi!

Probably the CD is burned in TAO /Track at once) mode instead of DAO (Disc at once), which results in a 2 second gap between tracks. In Toast DAO mode can be enabled in the preferences.

[MrBS]

Originally posted by mattspink:
When I create an audio CD from my MP3 library, I always set the gap between tracks to 0 secs. I recently noticed when i burnt an audio CD containing tracks from a continuous mix, that when i play the CD on an audio device, or through my Mac, there is a slight pause between tracks. It is only very short, but is very noticable when two tracks are meant to run seamlessly together.

I have tried this out on a few friends Cd burners and they experience the same thing, regardless of what burning software they use. Any ideas why this happens, and how to burn a truly seamless CD from converted MP3s?

There could be a problem if you're not burning disc-at-once, but if your source is mp3s you'll always have a little break in between songs. Just a problem with the format.

~BS

[mikemako]

I haven't tried this is the most recent version of iTunes, but it worked in previous versions so it should still work: If you import the music (that needs to have no gap between songs like the album "Kid A" or "Dark Side of the Moon") as WAV instead of mp3 or AAC and set the time between tracks to "0", that'll do it.

[CarpetFluff]

Originally posted by MrBS:
There could be a problem if you're not burning disc-at-once, but if your source is mp3s you'll always have a little break in between songs. Just a problem with the format.

~BS

Really? you can't burn a seamless audio CD from MP3 on any platform? that's a major bummer.

[tooki]

Nonsense. It has nothing to do with the MP3 format.

MP3 data is decoded to raw PCM audio before being burned as an audio CD. From there, whether there's a gap is up to three factors:

- some CD drives are bad at ripping audio accurately, so they will create blank space at the beginning and end of the audio data, which the MP3 encoder dutifully saves in the MP3 file

- disc-at-once vs. track-at-once burning: only disc-at-once allows for seamless track playback. track-at-once will have a gap.

- the CD burning program being used. If it adds a gap, well, there's nothing you can do about it other than changing program.

If you want good control over audio burning, get Roxio Jam. You can control pauses, and create crossfaded tracks that play seamlessly. (I have done this, using MP3 files, so I know it works. Jam uses Toast to burn the disc in disc-at-once mode.)

There is an even more comprehensive program from emagic called WaveBurner, but it has yet to be ported to Mac OS X -- it's Mac OS 9-only at the time.

tooki