Thanks for having this forum. I am running Windows 7, Audacity 2.0.6. I have looked through the manuals.
I have two questions related to each other (I think).
The first is, let’s say I have a copy of Sgt. Peppers the album, there are separate files (flac) for each song. But, the initial song, Sgt. Peppers, ends, and there is a 2-second gap between it and With A Little Help From My Friends. Can audacity get rid of that gap, and others, and what procedure does one use to do so.
Thanks for replying. I am so much of a newbie. Because the songs are in different files, I am not sure how to pull them together in order to delete the gap. Or maybe I am not understanding.
Also, regarding the cue files, I am aware that one can create them with Notepad, but it is arduous. M3u files can be created with Notepad also, but there are many free generators available for M3Us also, so I thought there would be one for CUEs.
Depending on what CD burning software you are using, you may not need to make a Cue file. Most modern CD burning software can create the Cue file on the fly.
I am not burning CDs, but trying to perfect a system of playing directly from file folders and CUE files. Some of the files do not play gaplessly, some of the folders do not include CUE sheets.
Thanks for replying. I am so much of a newbie. Because the songs are in different files, I am not sure how to pull them together in order to delete the gap. Or maybe I am not understanding.
The silence must be at the beginning or end of the file (or both).
I Googled “Automatically create a cue sheet” and I got some hits.
I did not understand that the main purpose of Cue files is to burn CDs. My bad. I have burned a lot of CDs, but don’t understand the utility of a Cue file in doing so.
The reason using a Cue sheet is important to me is that I believe Cue sheets can control the size of the gap between each track. Please give me feedback on this, and on the other questions if you have any.
“The silence must be at the beginning or the end of the file or both.”
Yes. But I am too clumsy with Audacity to understand how to use it to eliminate that gap. Don’t the files need to be adjacent horizontally in order to do so?
Regarding googling ‘automatically generate a cue file’, yes I’ve gone through the first 15 or so – nothing was close to what I was looking for.
In the case of an m3u generator, I have such a generator whose size is 706 bytes. it is a batch file, and executing it will create an m3u file within the same folder of those files present in the folder, in about 1 second. M3U files are simpler than Cue files, but still, a program to compile a Cue file shouldn’t take a great deal more muscle, should it?
With most modern CD burning programs you don’t need cue sheets because the application does all of that for you.
Yes Cue sheets can control the size of the gap between tracks on an audio CD.
Playlists, are similar to Cue sheets but are for playing audio files in a media player (rather than for making CDs). I think this is what you want.
Playlists do not specify the gap between files, but do specify the order that tracks should be played, and may include additional information. There are several different playlist formats including M3U (M3U - Wikipedia) and PLS (PLS (file format) - Wikipedia). You will need to use a format that is supported by your media player.
To set how much silence there will be at the start / end of each file you can edit the file in Audacity, then export your edited file with a new file name (strongly recommended that you do not overwrite your original file in case you change something that you don’t want to change). There is a tutorial about basic editing here: Audacity Manual
My sole purpose is to eliminate gaps between certain songs.
I know of two ways of doing this – editing the songs, which seems like taking sledgehammer to a fly, and which I am woefully inept at.
Or compiling a Cue file with such instructions.
To me, the latter seems much easier, but I will do the former if the latter is impossible.
Sorry to burden the group with so much of my problem.
Do you use iTunes? You can right-click over a song > Get Info, then on the Options tab, specify the start time and stop time of the song, so exclude silence at the start of the song that way.
Thanks for your reply. I sometimes use iTunes, but in this case, the files (flacs) I am using won’t play on iTunes and there is a lot that is inferior about using iPods/iPhones when hooked up to a large stereo as the player anyway.
“The silence must be at the beginning or the end of the file or both.”
Yes. But I am too clumsy with Audacity to understand how to use it to eliminate that gap. Don’t the files need to be adjacent horizontally in order to do so?
Open one file at a time.
Click View → Zoom-In several times until a couple of seconds is represented by a couple of inches in the waveform display. If there’s silence at the beginning, you should see it. Highlight and delete it.
Then scroll to the end of the file, look for silence there and delete it if you see it.
Regarding googling ‘automatically generate a cue file’, yes I’ve gone through the first 15 or so – nothing was close to what I was looking for.
When I rip a CD, I use EAC and it can generate a cue sheet. If I’m burning a custom CD from files, I’ll use Notepad. And rather trhan typing everything into Notepad by hand, I’ll usually start with an existing cue sheet and edit it. I only use cue sheets for burning CDs.