[Tfug] CD Ripping

[Bexley Hall]

Hi, Nate,

--- On Mon, 8/25/08, Nate <nate at torzo.com> wrote:

> CDs actually started the whole 2 second gap thing.  By
> default, they will have a 2 second gap.  It's considered part of the
> tracks meta data I think.  You can burn discs with no gaps, though,
> which is quite common now a days for albums that blend one song
> into the next. 

Exactly.  Many of my CD's are like this.  As well as much of my
vinyl and *all* of my live recordings (tape).  Obviously, I
don't want to spend a lot of time digitizing stuff only to discover
I've *ruined* the presentation!

> Any sane ripper that I've ever worked with just rips the audio track 
> itself, and doesn't insert any kind of gap in the audio file itself, 
> regardless of whether there's a 2 second gap prescribed in the meta
> data  of the track on the CD.

So, I should try playing the ripped tracks via another player
to see if the "fault" is in the player or the encoder...

> What you are no doubt dealing with is the poor iPod
> implementation of playing MP3s.

No, its not an iPod.  And, technically, the files aren't
MP3's in this case (though I could just as easily have specified
the MP3 format for the ripper... I'm trying to figure out where
the problem is likely to lie *before* running around trying things)

> I have had a theory that Apple did it on purpose to make 
> MP3 seem like a lesser format their their own AAC.  This
> has been  "fixed" on newer ipods.  So it's just an
> artifact of your "rescued MP3 
> player."  If it's not an iPod, then it's
> probably just a similar flaw.
> 
> So for solutions, you can either:
> 
> 1. Live with it. (this is what I do on my old iPod in my car)

This wouldn't be an option.  Many of the albums *really* lose
their effect when cut up into discrete songs like this (e.g.,
I was listening to Dark Side of Moon on yesterday;s outing and
it was **really** annoying to break the flow like that!  :<

> 2. Get a newer iPod.  A quick google search says: iPods
> that support 
> gapless playback: iPod nano (2nd Generation), 5th
> Generation iPod (Late 
> 2006) and I'm sure anything newer.
> 3. Rip CDs as one track.  I actually do this with most of
> my electronica 
> CDs, for different reasons.  I put my iPod on shuffle most
> of the time, 
> and I don't like it coming up with a song in the middle
> of a mixed CD. 
> It will start in the middle of the music, and end in the
> middle of the 
> music.  CDs mixed by a DJ are meant to be played all the
> way through in 

Yes -- as are my concert recordings  :>

> order.  So I rip them that way.  However, for other kinds
> of music, this 
> would invariable be horrible, because if you wanted to
> listen to Track 7 
> of your favorite CD, you'd have to fast forward through
> tracks 1-6 to 

Ah, that was my next question!  I.e., it seems to me that
the "media" in the player should just be one "file" with
*pointers* to where each portion (song) starts.  A particular
song would be the region bounded by the start pointer and the
next sequential start pointer.

But, then that begs the question of how to tell the player
to treat this region as a "discrete song" (i.e., insert a
pause) vs. a continuous bit of music.

> get to it.  You might as well use a cassette walkman at
> that point =).