Create Gapless Music with iTunes 4.9
I hate it when I buy albums off the iTMS, and the songs overlap, so that there is a slight gap where there would have been a smooth transition had I gone down to the local store and bought the same album on CD, cassette, LP record, or 8-track. That's why I think it's really cool that wanderingFocus has gone to the trouble to create a complete-with-pictures tutorial to Create Gapless CD's and AAC Files with iTunes 4.9. Nice.
Is it obscene that this makes me want to create one long gapless mix track comprised of thousands of individual songs that will be the only song that plays on my 60GB iPod?
Imagined scenario:
ME: I filled up my 60GB iPod today.
RANDOM OTHER PERSON (R.O.P.): Whoa, dude! I haven't even managed to fill up my iPod shuffle yet! How many songs do you have on that thing?
ME: One.
R.O.P.: *head explodes*
ME: Crap.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Robert Knight said 2:40PM on 7-26-2005
Dude, exploding head...huh huh
huh huh huh
Dude, that's awesome.
(my best Keanu Reeves impression, circa 'Point Break')
Seriously though, gapless audio would be nice...dude.
Reply
narco said 3:41PM on 7-26-2005
I'm all for gapless playback, but it doesn't bother me that much. I can somewhat create the effect in iTunes, but if I really want the experience I'll just listen to the actual CD or even the *gasp* record. If I'm in my car or walking with my iPod, It's really not going to bother me, but it would be a nice touch.
And I filled my 60GB last month. I sold it in favor of a 6GB mini until the 80, or even 100GB iPod comes out. And yes, I DO listen to all that music.
Fishes,
narco.
Reply
for[e]sight said 4:08PM on 7-26-2005
there is an Apple Script that can combine tracks together as well. i havent tried it yet, but you can take a look-see here:
http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts07.php?page=1#jointogether
Reply
Sonburn said 4:50PM on 7-26-2005
I own many DJ compilations which are of course continuously mixed... and even when make MP3 copies of said CDs there is a very slight pause when transitioning from one song to another. I read somewhere that this is has something to do with how MP3s are created, that the music is encoded in blocks and that music may end before the completion of a block, thus giving you a gap until the next block/song starts.
Reply
gap ninja said 1:19PM on 9-10-2005
Technically, the gap is part of MP3 encoding, but it has long since been overcome by the newest versions of the LAME encoder. Unfortunately, iTunes does not use LAME out of the box, so you get very poor mp3s if you encode with iTunes.
you CAN encode gapless mp3 files with LAME.
M4A/AAC is purported to be encoded gaplessly by default, but since neither the iPod nor iTunes can pull off proper playback, it can't really be proven that readily. Actually,t here is an AAC plugin for Nero, so I was thinking I'd try burning a gapless CD from .m4a files as soon as I get my Windows machine up and running again.
Reply