Entertainment For Lively Minds
Help!! Burning mp3 cds
Burning MP3 discs.
I don’t have much experience of using i-Tunes (only used it previously for downloading podcasts), but I don’t seem to be able to burn a CD of MP3 files in the format that I require. Let me explain….I would like to burn a CD for the car, containing several albums on the one disc. I have managed to do this, but I get all the tracks in one folder, so that there is just a single file containing all tracks; they are not split into separate albums, so that I could navigate between the albums, rather than having to scroll through the tracks and needing to know which track number is the first in the album (track titles etc don’t seem to hae been copied over, either). The second problem is in removing gaps between tracks. I thought that I would be able to use i-Tunes to do this, as there is an option in the info region of each track to indicate that the album is continuous (the option to burn with no gaps seems to only be present for audio CD burning). I absolutely hate gaps in live albums and concept albums where each track flows into the next. On placing the newly burned CD into the car this morning, I found that the gaps were even bigger than the ones I get on my Creative Zen player. I have previously burned MP3 CDs using Creative Mediasource, and the albums are in separate folders, but the gaps are still present. Does anyone know how I can get MP3 cds with no gaps, and each album in a separate folder? I’m sure that the fabled fount of wisdom that is the Word Massive can come to my aid.
Many thanks.
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Rip them as a single file
I used Express Rip to rip all my classical collection and several concept rock albums as single files. I would never want to listen to one movement of a symphony, even less if it came up on random play - so if there are two symphonies on a CD, that makes 2 MP3 files. No annoying gaps or blips. My longest MP3 file is Morton Feldman's String Quartet #2 - 4h 53m - I used some joining software (Visual Mp3 splitter and joiner) to join the separate CD rips.
Gaps
Whether or not you get gaps depends very much on the device you are playing from and the media that it is playing back off of.
Some mp3 playback tools (hardware or software) will, as they get to the end of one track, decide where they are going next and start to cache the data for that file so that the join between tracks is seamless. Other devices will wait for the track to finish and then think about what track they're going to play next. When this is the case the media that the next track is on will affect how long the gap is. Seek times on a hard disk are likely to be shorter that on a CD.
It is likely that your in car CD is only dealing with one track at a time and is not going to try to prefetch or cache the next track as one ends so no matter what you use to burn the files to CD it'll always insert a pause whilst it finds the next thing its going to play.
Try this...
As a default, iTunes burns a three second gap between tracks. You can change that default gap to any duration you like - including zero - then hey presto, a gapless CD-R where all the tracks flow seamlessly.
BUT, your car stereo may pause for a moment whilst it switches to the next track so you may hear a short gap even with a gapless CD-R.
Mind the gap
Not strictly related, but... strange how bands spend lots of money recording albums, stick some of the songs together without pause (which used to be known as the 'rill') – then make the split in an irksome place which cause offence to the ears in the aforementioned car-stereo-pause moment (or iPod shuffle where the first song loses its end, or the second song its beginning).
Examples in hand: Doves' Some Cities album opens with the title track, which ends in a fairly industrial grinding noise - then slams straight into Black & White Town. But iTunes splits the tracks just before the end of the grind, so choosing (or shuffling to) B&WT means the listener gets a rather unpleasant loud noise on the front of the lead single. (Same happens with tracks two and three on The Bluetones' Return to the Last Chance Saloon.)
It's not a major thing, but not excellent service for the End User.
Mp3 CD
If you want the albums as separate folders to play as an MP3 disc, then just write as a data disk - I.e. Just drag the album folders you want from your finder / explorer as is to a cd burning software (I use a Mac and it's just a matter of dragging to the 'burn' folder). If your car CD can play mp3 it should work.
For gapless, in iTunes go to the track info and there should be a checkbox for gapless playback.
Ahh...
..that makes sense. I'll have a go at this tonight.
I didn't realise that gaps could be caused by the player, but I'll look to see if I can select gapless when creating a data disc.
Thanks all - I knew I could rely on you!