Greetings, I am new to this forum, so if I’m posting this in the wrong area, please be patient with me. I will move it if informed I did this incorrectly.
I am using Windows 7 and the latest version of Audacity (Just installed last week).
I used some flac files I ripped from a brand new CD, and overlayed some tracks so that some songs would end before others begin. After doing this and exporting a single audio file, I used CUETools to make a cue file with audio positions to use for cutting the file into multiple tracks. Using this method, I was able to burn multiple gapless copies of this CD with multiple computers with Winamp as the burning software.
After finding out that the audio positions weren’t as exact as I wanted, I used the section and label tools in Audacity to create exact timestamps for where each track should start. After using the “Mix and Render” option to merge all the flac files into one, I did an “export multiple” to create multiple flac files.
Using this method allows me to listen to the files gapless on my computer or phone, but when playing the CD in my car, there’s a small click and silence between each track. I have reripped the files as WAV files and tried using other burning software to resolve the issue, but there’s still a gap on each track.
After doing some more reading, I saw a suggestion that my audio positions are too precise for the time increments which an audio CD frame can be cut into. With this knowledge, I’m hoping to find a way to change the audio time format of Audacity so that the frames match an audio CD. Any help would be awesome!
TL;DR Audacity audio frames are smaller than AUDIO CD’s and my tracks aren’t gapless. Need to adjust frame size to match an Audio CD.
Before you go further, I’d suggest that you test your CDs in another CD player just in case it’s the CD player that won’t play a gapless CDR smoothly.
If it’s not that, my recommendation would be to use a better CD burning program. Most modern CD burners can make gapless CDs without the need to match frame boundaries.
I don’t use Windows these days, but when I did I used CDBurnerXP. It’s free, but I think that the default installer version may bundle additional junk, so probably best to go for the ZIP version. Some alternative CD burning applications are suggested in the Audacity manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/burning_music_files_to_a_cd.html
In this situation (or with “live” recordings) I use one long file, then make a [u]Cue Sheet[/u] to set the track markers. Then, I open the cue sheet in [u]ImgBurn[/u] to burn the CD.
You can make a cue sheet with Windows Notepad (just re-name it .CUE) and I usually start with a known-good cue sheet and edit the file name and the track marker times.
Since there are no gaps in the original file and the cue sheet is only setting the track markers (not actually splitting the file) the CD will play without gaps.
Thank you. I have tested the files in other CD players, and get the same result.
I was able to resolve the issue by using a cue sheet, but I was hoping there was a way to resolve this problem in-program with Audacity. It’s a bit disappointing that I have to cut the tracks with another program when Audacity allows me to make the positions so exact.
I’m still hopeful that there’s a solution in the application.
It’s a bit disappointing that I have to cut the tracks with another program when Audacity allows me to make the positions so exact.
There is no need to cut the tracks if you are just going to re-connect them. A single “long” file" with a cue sheet sets the track markers without cutting the audio.
Of course, you still need an audio editor to create the one-long-file with the crossfades. And, an audio editor is handy when deciding exactly-where to put the track markers. There’s no real need to put markers or labels in Audacity, unless you find that useful… Just type the track-times into a cue sheet.