Separate tracks in the mix?

[Horrorwitz]

Thanx for the tips guys! Unfortunately I don,t think that's the problem. I am saving them as wav files. The files play fine from Audacity, but when I save them either to a CD-R or to my hard drive and play them back either on my computer from the hard drive or CD-R, or on a CD player, there is a little tiny gap, more of a glitch really, that is being placed on there. I am sure this is happeneing when I "multiple export" the files from Audacity. I am sure it is not my Media Player, CD player or CD burning software. I have made many tests at this point, and it might just be that I am doing something wrong, or I might just be more particular then some people with the result, but I can't help but think it isn't supposed to glitch like that. A good way to test it is to take a solid tone, say 10 seconds or so, drop the label at the beginning and then mid way through, then multiple export them as 2 wav files. When you play the files back-to-back, whether on Media Player from a hard rive or burned CD-R, or on a CD player, it should play through both tracks seamlessly. Unfortunately that's not the case.

[steve]

Following on from your "solid tone" test.

If you import the sections back into Audacity and zoom in on the ends, is there any evidence of silence being added?

If the waveforms show that the wav's end dead on where you split them, then it must be something to do with your playback. If there's a portion of silence added, then that would suggest it's a setting in Audacity.

[alatham]

steve, the reason I suggest fading in/out is for people who might want to rip that CD to mp3 when they get it. The mp3 encoder will be happier.

horror,
If you can place those wav files back to back in Audacity (import both of them and copy/paste the second one to the end of the first track) and it sounds good when you do this then there is nothing wrong with the WAV files and your problem is during either CD burning or playback.

There is a big problem with this test:

A good way to test it is to take a solid tone, say 10 seconds or so, drop the label at the beginning and then mid way through, then multiple export them as 2 wav files. When you play the files back-to-back, whether on Media Player from a hard rive or burned CD-R, or on a CD player, it should play through both tracks seamlessly. Unfortunately that's not the case.

If you do that without cutting at the edge of a CDDA frame, or while exporting to a different sample rate then I would fully expect a blip between tracks while using a CD player. I would ALWAYS expect that behavior from Windows Media Player.

Audacity is not lying to you when it plays those WAV files perfectly, your problem lies elsewhere.

[Horrorwitz]

I tried bringing the split tone back into Audacity, re-joining them and it played fine. I always export in the same format that the file is originally, in this case wav. It doesn't just glitch on Media Player but also on a CD player. The CD player (and Media Player for that matter) usually play tracks like this, that is, tracks that overlap / crossfade, fine.

[alatham]

Media Player always seems to glitch if you put a bunch of wav files in it's playlist and play them one after the other. That's not the case if you're using WMP to play a CD. You're right that a CD player should seamlessly play tracks. When I use this method to export to multiple WAVs and burn them to a CD it plays just fine (this isn't the method I normally use to make a CD, but it does work).

Again, either you aren't splitting at a CDDA frame, or your CD burning software is not behaving well.

Personally, I export as one long wav file and then make a CUE sheet to burn the disc with. I use a freeware program called Exact Audio Copy to make the CUE sheet and to burn the CDs. They play just fine.

[Horrorwitz]

At this point I dunno what it could be! I did try the "snap-to" feature and the other suggestions but it didn't work. When I burned it to a CD-R and played it on the CD player, I wouldn't say it was a huge gap really, just a very tiny gap or glitch right where the label was inserted. Up until now every CD comp I did had the track mark right between each track so, even with a tight edit, it wasn't noticeable. I will try your idea of using this other program to insert the track marks. Thanks!

[steve]

I tried bringing the split tone back into Audacity, re-joining them and it played fine.

So the problem is with the CD burning software, not Audacity.
I use Nero, which puts a 2 second break between tracks by default, but if you set the gap to 0 seconds, it is seamless. If you're a Windows user, you can probably pick up a copy of Nero Express for nothing ( or Nero Essentials for about £5 ) and solve the problem instantly.

[Horrorwitz]

I've got Nero Express Essentials but your not gonna believe this: It doesn't have the crossfade function! But I guess your saying to mix everything and insert the labels with Audacity, save everything as multiple export wav files and then use Nero to burn it?

[steve]

Spot on Horrorwitz

[Horrorwitz]

I'll let you know how it goes. Thanx for your help!