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dreilly1 · Apr 28, 2003, 03:16 PM

One of the reasons that I haven't been using iTunes for MP3 encoding is that I listen to albums where the tracks flow into each other, and the iTunes encoder will put a little gap at the end of a track. When listening to singles, this isn't a problem, but if you want to hear one song flow into another the gap can get annoying.

Yes, I know I'm being silly, and the gap only lasts for a fraction of a second, but it really bugs me! I have a convoluted Linux script that will encode the tracks without the gap, and even then iTunes sometimes inserts a gap on playback if the system is loaded down. (I use the command-line mpg123 player on Linux and Solaris, which plays my MP3's without the gap.)

Does anyone know if AAC is better in this regard? Or where I can get other AAC encoders/decoders for OS X or other platforms? If it is better, then I might just re-rip my CD's....

typoon · Apr 28, 2003, 03:20 PM

You can combine the tracks so there is no gap. When you put a CD in You can join tracks so they are continuous. My brother does this all the time for his meadering House music and some of his Moby stuff that needs doesn't sound good with gaps.

dreilly1 · Apr 28, 2003, 03:29 PM

Originally posted by typoon:
You can combine the tracks so there is no gap. When you put a CD in You can join tracks so they are continuous. My brother does this all the time for his meadering House music and some of his Moby stuff that needs doesn't sound good with gaps.

Do you mean ripping all the tracks at once, so that you get one large file at the end of it all?

I'd rather not do that, since I will listen to some of the tracks individually as well...

tritonus · 03:54 PM

Originally posted by typoon:
You can combine the tracks so there is no gap.

nevermind

conny · Apr 28, 2003, 03:40 PM

Check out joining tracks on this page.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/encode.html

dreilly1 · Apr 28, 2003, 03:44 PM

Originally posted by conny:
Check out joining tracks on this page.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/encode.html

See my other post -- I'd rather not rip the entire album as one track if I can help it...

Mr Scruff · Apr 28, 2003, 05:11 PM

This is an important problem with computer based audio, especially if you listen to dance music (which is a lot of people in Europe).

Winamp nearly fixed it by detecting and skipping the gaps between mp3s. However it does this with any gap - even ones which are intended...

parsec · Apr 28, 2003, 05:20 PM

I've found that checking 'crossfade playback' under the effects preference in itunes with a value of 0 seconds kind of helps.

Also, I haven't tried it but would it help to alter the stop time of a track under the options tab when getting info on it? I guess maybe this would be pretty hard to get an exact value for even if it did work..

dreilly1 · Apr 29, 2003, 08:17 AM

Originally posted by Mr Scruff:
This is an important problem with computer based audio, especially if you listen to dance music (which is a lot of people in Europe).

Winamp nearly fixed it by detecting and skipping the gaps between mp3s. However it does this with any gap - even ones which are intended...

Exactly. It happens because the algorithm uses a fraction of a second before and after the current encoding point, so if you want the music to flow smoothly you need to look at the next track before you finish the one you're looking at.
It is possible to do, though: the LAME MP3 encoder has a -nogap option. The only problem with that is it wants all the WAV files at once, which means you need to rip the entire CD in raw audio format before encoding. This is what I use on Linux.

And then mpg123 can play these MP3's smoothly without inserting a gap on playback.

Since there are these tools (open-source, even!) that do this job nicely, we know its possible to tackle, and you would think that Apple would have fixed this already. The fact that they haven't means that they must think it's not a problem...