Ripping/playing mp3 tracks without gap's between them

Software & Apps
#1

Hi folks,

Hi everyone,

ever noticed how ripping some music tracks to MP3 format creates a small gap between songs that interrupts the flow of the music?

This is one of the key problems for me.

Ever listened to Beethoven’ 9th divided into 6 parts and after each part this nice little break, only why a new mp3 file has to play?
That sucks.
BUT the quality of the lame encoder is marveless anyways.
So, what is it? Is it a rip problem or a play problem.
Whatever it is, I hardly need a solution.

What can we (I) do?

Any suggestions?

Thanx in forward

Ian

#2

Originally posted by iangillan

So, what is it? Is it a rip problem or a play problem.
Whatever it is, I hardly need a solution.

There’s no solution.
That’s how MP3 format works.
It leaves a small silence at the beginning/end of tracks. Solution: make a big MP3 with the whole disc.

Blade encoder supports “nogap”, but the quality of Blade is not as good as LAME.

LAME has an experimental “-nogap” option, that it doesn’t work as it should yet.

Some of the latest versions of LAME can store the correct length of the original file, and if you decode/play them with Foobar2k, you will have gapless output. But of course, it won’t work with MP3 files made before.

#3

Originally posted by iangillan

Any suggestions?

Yes. One such is right near your thread > A long .mp3 w/o pauses between tracks

/rogerglover :smiley:

#4

Hi minix,

thanx a bunch for your suggestions.

One thing I found really interesting was the foobar tool.
It shows that it’s possible to play mp3 without gap’s.

Well, my problem is the following:

I use CDDA Extractor to rip audio cd’s into mp3. It’s a good tool with a useful GUI and i works fine with cdtext,cddb and my Plextor 40x cd burner which I also use as cdrom for ripping.

My goal is to store all of my mp3 files on a special computer working as a music server. This server will be connected via wireless lan with my network. Then I will connect a music box which is capable to connect wireless to my network AND via SPDIF output to my a/v receiver to play my whole collection whereever I’m in my flat.

Recently I’ve bought a nice little box in the USA called cd3o (www.cd3o.com). Has good quality, wireless LAN and an interesting remote control with voice output to control all of the albums, tracks an so on.

BUT it cannot play without gaps… :-((
I thought that’s a rip problem. The gap is in the mp3 file.
But the I’ve listented the files with foobar. And there were no gaps zu hear.

So, it is possible to hear mp3 music without gaps.
Most of the guys I asked always answer my problem with :“This is a mp3 feature”.
Maybe it is, but there (must) be a way to avoid it while playing the music.

Is there any mp3 rip tool which can rip without gap’s on the market today?

Thanx

Ian

#5

Originally posted by iangillan

BUT it cannot play without gaps… :-((

Remark: MP3-files without pause

You want Feurio! to burn the mp3-files: — and — without a pause between them.
However, if these two files are part of a live recording or another sort of continuous data in two parts, you will most probably here a short pause or some “disturbance” nevertheless.

This is caused by the MP3-format:
The mp3-format is a kind of compression with some loss of data, i.e. not the whole samples are stored, but - expressed in a simple way - some kind of “frequency curves”, i.e. the mp3-encoder analyses a certain range of data and then stores the “frequency curves” for this range.

If now e.g. a live recording is stored in parts - one part in the first file, the following part in the second file - and compressed to the mp3-format, the encoding process is resetted for the second file - so the frequence curves (the end of the first file and the beginning of the second) don’t match exactly.
In addition most mp3-files are “frame orientated”, i.e. the encoder sometimes adds empty samples to the end of a file to get a whole frame at the end.

To put it together: Unfortunately it is not possible to always reconstruct the original data 100%-ly out of two mp3-files, that contain parts of continuous data.

If you want to work with continouos data,
you must save all tracks into ONE mp3-file or use the wave-format.

Doesn’t the last sentence remind you of something ? :smiley:

#6

Hi BoSkin,

year, but why is foobar ba able to play mp3 files without gaps???

And the Blade Encoder also has tried to aviod it during the ripping process.

And Lame also have started to implement a -nogap feature?

Also, I don’t want to burn anything. Even if it’s really nessecary.
The suggestion to put the whole album into one mp3 is nice but how to skip tracks then??? With a cue list? Only a few tools replay such lists, especially hardware tools which I use.

I just want to replay mp3 files in a huge amount (800-1200 albums) direct from Harddisk.
So, I wanna get out of the cd buisiness as much as possible.
Surely except the cd’s from Deep Purple… :-)))

I’ll keep on track looking for a solution.

Ian

#7

Originally posted by iangillan

And Lame also have started to implement a -nogap feature?

So, I wanna get out of the cd buisiness as much as possible.
Surely except the cd’s from Deep Purple… :-)))

Okay, we’ll keep an eye on the LAME stuff.

Why is that ? Too much trouble ?
Btw, just yesterday I lended from my friend a DVD -
“Deep Purple - Machine Head Live 1972”. Live in Denmark 1972.1.3
Have you seen this one ? :wink:

#8

Originally posted by iangillan

year, but why is foobar ba able to play mp3 files without gaps???

Because Foobar knows that there are silences at start/end of file, and does some tricks to avoid them.

But regular players like yours, won’t do that.

The olny valid options for you, are a long MP3 file, and MP3 files encoded with that special option in Blade. You can also try the same option in LAME, but it’s not officially supported.

#9

Hi minix,

hmm, if foobar knows the problem why other player do not know it?

I have a 250€ wireless LAN box here with high end quality audio playback. And the software is not be able to play it gapless…

The way putting all tracks in one mp3 isn’t useful because how to skip tracks then!

I’ve tried you suggested blade encoder. In result even foobar was not be able to replay those files gapless.
I got better results with lame and the option ‘delete’ silence in the CDDA Extractor. But only with foobar.

God, what a shit.
Imagine, the box I have (it worth to take a look www.cd3o.com) is not be able to rewind/forward within a track…
Sure I had have could prooven this before. But if you’re enter a super modern skyscraper would you even think about that there are no toilet’s in there… :-(((

Skip/rewind/foward and gapless replay are really basic requirements and needs. Am I wrong?

But most of the freaks are more happy to have another exciting software paramenter, right?

Looking forward… …and keeping cool…

Ian

#10

Have you tried downloading Rockbox.? It may work on your MP3. Had it when I owned an Iriver H120.

#11

Good tip trevandjan! You do realize you’re responding to a six year old thread? Welcome to the forums.

#12

Yes I realised after I sent it. However Rockbox is the answer if you have the right player. Unfortunatel for me my little Sansa
San Disk is yet to be on the list.

#13

It’s still good info. The best way to get gapless MP3 is to use a gapless player.

#14

Thank you for your appreciation and thanks for the info of a gapless player.