[akkeri]

quick question: can anyone recommend a burning tool for OSX that creates proper disc-at-once CDS? iTunes leaves a small gap between tracks, even when you choose "no gap" in the burning options. it's rather annoying when burning continuous DJ mixes or live classical recordings...

thx

[chabig]

First, there is nothing "improper" about iTunes' CDs, they just have gaps between the songs. Lots of "proper" commercial CDs have gaps too.

In Toast, the standard gap is also 2 seconds, but it can be reduced all the way to zero. I don't know how it sounds, though.

Chris

[akkeri]

Originally posted by chabig:
First, there is nothing "improper" about iTunes' CDs, they just have gaps between the songs. Lots of "proper" commercial CDs have gaps too.

You misunderstand me, Chris. If you buy, say, a live CD from a store, you'll usually be buying one continuous recording that has been split into tracks. If you listen to the disc through, you have no idea exactly when one track ends and the other begins, because there is no gap between tracks.

in iTunes, even with the gap set to zero, you get a click. you shouldn't. many CDs are manufactured to run on continuously, and the fact that iTunes can't replicate these CDs exactly sucks. a good burning program should be able to replicate something exactly.

surely there are some electronica fans out there who burn DJ CDs, who know what i'm talking about?

[chabig]

I see. I have a few live CDs and they are continuous as you say. I know this has been discussed before but I haven't searched the forums for older threads. I think there is something about the tracks being compressed that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to just get them to play without the click. You see, when burning a CD, the software is decompressing the data, so it can't get the waveform to line up perfectly from one track to the next--thus the click. Toast may have this figured out, I'm not sure.

Also note, that iTunes has a feature that lets you rip multiple tracks as one song. It's exactly for this purpose. Before you rip the CD, select the tracks that are continuous and choose "Join CD Tracks" from the Advanced menu.

Chris

[akkeri]

Originally posted by chabig:
Also note, that iTunes has a feature that lets you rip multiple tracks as one song. It's exactly for this purpose. Before you rip the CD, select the tracks that are continuous and choose "Join CD Tracks" from the Advanced menu.

Thanks for the iTunes tip, Chris. Should hold me over until I find a permanent solution

I know that EAC (the best ripper/burner for Windoze) can burn without the clicks. Technically, there's no reason why the tracks shouldn't all line up if you're burning uncompressed WAVs/AIFFs.

I've posted this query on a couple of bootlegging mailing lists, too -- someone on there must be a Mac user, and a cardinal rule of bootleg trading is no clicks, so I'm hopeful for a suggestion or two (which I will post here).

[chabig]

Yes. If you find a way to do it, please post!

Chris