iTunes and iPod -- gaps between songs?

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
I just downloaded the iPod updater and iTunes 4, encoded and uploaded my first disc (Pink Floyd - Animals) in AAC hoping the age old "gaps between songs" issue would be solved.



Apparently not.



Please, somebody tell me I'm f*#@ing up! Or tell me that an entire album in AAC can have "index points" for the songs. Or something!! I can't believe this is still an issue - this is the one thing that keeps the iPod from being PERFECT, but it's one thing that, to me anyway, is a HUGE deal. It's not only albums that flow together that are affected - it can throw the whole continuity of any album off.



Please. Please! PLEASE!! Tell me I'm wrong (and mean it!)



And please, no replys saying to "use cross fades", or "encode the whole album as one file", or "there's no such gap problem" - it's been well-established that this problem exists and there are no ideal solutions.



Sorry for my anger. But I'm angry.





fish

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    Changing thread to something more appropriate.

    (really, what were you thinking)
  • Reply 2 of 15
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Brad

    Changing thread to something more appropriate.

    (really, what were you thinking)




    Not that I really care, but I'm not sure I understand what the problem was with my original subject line (which from what I can tell, is all that changed). Really, what was it that you thought I was thinking? The gap issue has been an ongoing problem, there was an update today to the iPod including the ability to encode in a "new" format, which was hopefully going to fix it, and i posted in the Digital Hub forum. Was it really that hard to make the connection? If anyone who knew of the gap problem saw the subject line, they would have known exactly what I was alluding to. And for those that didn't understand, they probably couldn't help me anyway. I didn't use any foul language, did I? Is Argh!! dirty? I'm not as young as I used to be - maybe I'm just not hip to new lingo.



    I'm very confused...
  • Reply 3 of 15
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    I think it's because it's more clear, and it doesn't draw attention away from other posts.
  • Reply 4 of 15
    Quote:

    Originally posted by fishcarp

    I just downloaded the iPod updater and iTunes 4, encoded and uploaded my first disc (Pink Floyd - Animals) in AAC hoping the age old "gaps between songs" issue would be solved.



    Apparently not.



    fish




    this is bad news. i agree that this is a dent in an otherwise great product.



    guess we are waiting for firmware 1.4....
  • Reply 5 of 15
    When they did the "encode whole album as one track"-thingy I think it was a good indicator of how difficult it is to do what you ask.



    What was the originally title btw?
  • Reply 6 of 15
    costiquecostique Posts: 1,084member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Anders the White

    When they did the "encode whole album as one track"-thingy I think it was a good indicator of how difficult it is to do what you ask.



    It should not be that difficult from the tech standpoint. The stream is buffered anyway. The app should just begin reading the next track when the current one is at its end (i.e. completely read from a disk but still playing from the memory cache) and when one track is over, it should have already prepared first seconds of the next one.

    Is this a problem?
  • Reply 7 of 15
    Apparently.
  • Reply 8 of 15
    jobesjobes Posts: 106member
    i thought it was to do with PQ flags on the original audio cd you are ripping from.



    by ignoring all flags and simply encoding everything between lead-in and lead-out on the audio cd it is possible to offer the "Join CD tracks" option iTunes offers. At least this way you get to hear the mix without track gaps.



    Yeah its a pity but i have not seen any other solution (mac or PC) which elegantly allows sub-track flag embedding either ... so it's not like apple are lagging behind the competition. i am guessing there is some underlying technical problem which is too hard to deal with. I would be interested to see if it is an MP3/red book audio or LAME encoding problem.



    It will be interested to see how this impacts with AAC and the iTunes Music Store. If they offer mix cds by DJs/artists with continuously sequed content, will the download play continuously

    or will it have the gaps?



    After all this would be the real issue for Apple. Having a rip of a CD i own already means i can live without the inconvenience of having individual tracks on my ipod or itunes during a mix. I always have the original to go back to. If I BUY music from Apple which i reasonably expect to perform the same as a bought CD, and it does have the track-gap issue then yes, i would be pissed.



    and don't get so angry. get laid. especially with some sexy music on your ipod playlist you'll feel much less bothered
  • Reply 9 of 15
    gargoylegargoyle Posts: 660member
    I assume we are talking a mixed CD, that is separate tracks, but the songs have been mixed into one and other ?
  • Reply 10 of 15
    der kopfder kopf Posts: 2,275member
    I always use 'crossfade playback', set to 0 seconds in iTunes, which welds, for example, Pink Floyd together perfectly. I'm wondering why the iPod doesn't have this capacity.



    Anyhow, the iTunes trick, try it, you MIGHT be pleased.
  • Reply 11 of 15
    netromacnetromac Posts: 863member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by der Kopf

    I always use 'crossfade playback', set to 0 seconds in iTunes, which welds, for example, Pink Floyd together perfectly. I'm wondering why the iPod doesn't have this capacity.



    Anyhow, the iTunes trick, try it, you MIGHT be pleased.




    Thanks for the tip Kopf
  • Reply 12 of 15
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    If you look at the wave of the audio, the 'gap' would just be a flatline. Even in firmware they could easily cut out one tenth of a second of flatline at the end (or beginning) or a track.
  • Reply 13 of 15
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    hmm...i definatly didn'tknwo that was a problem with the iPod, that isn't cool



    i have my cross fade in itunes set to 4seconds or so for those sogns that get quite slowly..man are those annoying
  • Reply 14 of 15
    jobesjobes Posts: 106member
    weirdly, i have just tried to import a mix my mate did. red book audio, normal track markers for a mixed cd.



    i CANNOT even select 'join cd tracks', whether trying to rip to AAC or MP3. The option is greyed out, where in itunes 3 it worked fine for me ...



    I find this pretty weird. anyone else have this problem?



    Edit: some kind soul on the apple discussion boards mentioned a solution, which works for me.



    click on the 'sort by number' bar, the one on the far left next to Song Name, then 'Join CD tracks' will become un-grayed (so long as you've selected some consecutive tracks.



    yay!
  • Reply 15 of 15
    Thanks for the feedback - I'm less angry now...it's time to work on the "getting laid" part!



    I've tried in the past opening the MP3s with an editor (Peak) and removing the silence in the files and resaving, but it still doesn't alleviate the gap. I don't know if encoding as MP3 adds the space back in (you can't save directly to MP3 from Peak - I had to save as another format (.aif, .wav, etc) and then re-import it into iTunes). I didn't persue this method any further since it's really way too time consuming and didn't seem to work anyway.



    My understanding (and I could be wrong) was that there are programs on the PC side which allow you to encode the entire album as one file and then use what I believe are called "cue sheets" that essentially index the album by song so you can still skip through song by song. Anyone have any info on this?



    Sounds as though this might be an issue with the MP3 format, but I have a real hard time believing there's no workaround.



    fish



    Edit: I found this concerning cue sheets and gap detection/deletion - looks like I may have misunderstood - it seems to only apply to burning CDRs.



    http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
Sign In or Register to comment.