RIPPING A GAPLESS MIX CD WITH EAC

[Steve]

If you rip a mix CD to mp3 as separate tracks, when you attempt to burn a disc using these files you'll end up with very slight clicks/gaps in between each track. You can use the no-gap option with the LAME encoder to get round this (details HERE), but even that isn't always successful. Here's a better option that always works. It might seem lengthy and complex, but it's really not. Once it's set up, just half a dozen mouse clicks later you'll have the mp3 and cue file that you need.

 

First off, you'll need EAC. You'll also need a version of the LAME mp3 encoder. Here are three versions: -

 

LAME_Encoders.rar

 

Download that file, and unrar it to your Program Files directory.

 

Next, start EAC and click on EAC - Compression Options. A new window will open. Click the External Compression tab, then click Browse and select the version of LAME you wish to use (from the folders you downloaded earlier). 3.90.3 is considered to be the best, but you might like to try one of the more recent versions and compare results. The screen should look something like this: -

 

 

To get accurate results, you are better off using CBR than VBR with cue files. I use 192 CBR which is perfectly acceptable and gives a good combination of reasonable file size and good sound.

 

OK, now you're all setup and you're ready to rip your CD. Insert the disc into the drive and start EAC. The list of tracks will appear in the main EAC window. Click on Action - Copy Image & Create CUE Sheet - Compressed. Choose a name and a directory and hit Save. All you need to do now is let EAC do it's thing. It'll detect where each track in the CD is, rip the disc to a wav file and create a cue sheet, then encode the wav to an mp3. The wav file will then automatically be deleted. This might sound complex, but it's an automated process and is a lot simpler in practice.

 

You should now have two files - a big mp3 file and a cue sheet. It is important that these two files have the EXACT same name, apart from the extension on the end. Here's an example: -

 

 

Now, open up the cue file with Notepad. You can edit the information here if you like, but obviously only edit the title and performer details. The one thing you must check is the third line down. It must match up with the name of the mp3, for example: -

 

FILE "Primecuts - Hip Hop Don't Stop - The Greatest - CD1.mp3" WAVE

 

As you can see, the section in quotes matches up with the name of the mp3 in the picture above. If it doesn't, edit it so that it does. You can go down the list of tracks where it says TITLE and PERFORMER and edit the information so it matches the track listing of the CD. Once you're finished, save the changes. EAC can be setup to read the track information automatically via the Internet, but in practice I find this doesn't work with more obscure mixes so I do it manually. Here's an example of how a cue file should look. Unrar it and open it with Notepad: -

 

Primecuts___Hip_Hop_Don__t_Stop___The_Greatest___CD1.rar

 

To play the mp3, you should use either foobar2000 or Winamp. I'm no expert on foobar, but it does read cue sheet information. If you use Winamp, you'll need a plugin. Details of that and how it works can be found in THIS thread. You can play the mp3 without using the cue file, but if you do it's just one long track.

 

To burn a CD, you're better off using Nero. Start the full version of Nero and cancel out of the wizard that pops up. Click Recorder then Burn Image. Browse to the cue file (NOT the mp3 itself) and select it. Nero will look like it's frozen for a while, but bear with it. After a few seconds, the burn dialog will appear. Simply select the speed, insert a blank disc and hit burn. The resulting disc will be almost identical to the original and most importantly you can skip between all the tracks without hearing any clicks or gaps.

 

If you've got any questions just ask. I find this method so much better because not only does it give great results, you don't have folders with say 30 mp3s in them. Instead you have 1 mp3 and a matching cue sheet.

[Guest Deeswift]

It's a nice guide, but I have a question:

 

You mentioned that CBR gives a more accurate result over VBR. I'm wondering what the reason for this is, as I can't work out why.

[Steve]

When you load the mp3 into a program and it reads the cue sheet, it examines the audio looking for the points where the tracks markers are. Play a VBR file in foobar with a cue sheet and it will almost certainly play fine, but burn the same file with Nero and you may find some of the track markers are slightly out of place. Use CBR and it's totally accurate every time.

 

From what I was reading on a couple of sites earlier, it seems that not many people have problems with using VBR, but if you are ripping a mix for others to download I think it's better to use CBR to be on the safe side and guarantee that it will play and burn OK. Obviously for regular albums and stuff, VBR is the way to go.

[Steve]

If any of you use Winamp, here's how it looks: -

 

Expanded: -

 

 

Compact: -

 

 

As you can see in the expanded view, you can see all the separate tracks and artist and title information even though it's one big mp3. You can use the , and . keys to skip back and forth between tracks too.

[Phology]

maybe a stupid question..

but will this still work gapless, once burned to CD again and played on a system?

[Steve]

It will. Rather than having say 20 separate mp3s and trying to burn them with no gap (which doesn't work most of the time) you are burning one long mp3. Nero will read the cue sheet and see track 1 starts at 00:00, track 2 starts at 02:38, track 3 at 05:32 etc. and insert the markers without actually splitting the sound. When you put the disc into a normal CD player, it will show as having 20 tracks but it'll be totally gapless when you play it.

 

Also, if you have a player that supports CD text and you put all the artist and track title information into the cue sheet, this will be displayed on the player when you're listening to the disc you burned which is pretty cool.

[Phology]

awsome!

[Steve]

Out of the three LAME encoders, you should use 3.90.3 as your first preference unless you have experimented and got better results with one of the others. The alpha version of the codec has a few issues with VBR encoding. I ripped a few single tracks using 3.96.1 and I thought they sounded better than 3.90.3, but like I say, see what works best for you.

[Frost]

great post steve. i have a question though, could i make a cue sheet in EAC using one big mp3 file. ive recording a mix on cubase and have it on my desktop as one big mp3 file. is there a way i could browse to it in EAC and make a cue sheet for it, and then burn it.?

 

 

thanks in advance. pz

[Steve]

is there a way i could browse to it in EAC and make a cue sheet for it, and then burn it.?

No, but a CUE sheet is just a text file. You can easily write one yourself using Notepad. If you've already got a CUE sheet on your PC for another mix, open it up and take a look. There's nothing to it. If you need any help, let me know.

[Frost]

ive never done anything with cue sheets before. could you send me one? so's i can copy it. thanks.

[Steve]

There's one attached to the first post in this thread. Here's a section of it: -

 

PERFORMER "Primecuts"
TITLE "Hip Hop Don't Stop - The Greatest - CD1"
FILE "Primecuts - Hip Hop Don't Stop - The Greatest - CD1.mp3" MP3
 TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Party Groove"
PERFORMER "Showbiz & A.G."
INDEX 01 00:00:00
 TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "King Of The Beats"
PERFORMER "Mantronix"
INDEX 01 02:50:57
 TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Jayou"
PERFORMER "Jurassic 5"
INDEX 01 07:30:22
 TRACK 04 AUDIO
TITLE "Straight Out The Jungle"
PERFORMER "Jungle Brothers"
INDEX 01 10:54:32

So for example, let's say your mix is called: -

 

DJ Frost - Frosty Mix.mp3

 

Your CUE sheet may go something like this: -

 

PERFORMER "DJ Frost"
TITLE "Frosty Mix"
FILE "DJ Frost - Frosty Mix.mp3" MP3
 TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Hit Me Baby One More Time"
PERFORMER "Britney Spears"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
 TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "Genie In A Bottle"
PERFORMER "Christina Aguilera"
INDEX 01 03:12:31
 TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "We Are The Cheeky Girls"
PERFORMER "The Cheeky Girls"
INDEX 01 05:32:41

All the performer and title info is optional, but you can see how it works. You've got the top three lines (artist, title, filename), then each track has 4 lines - track number, title, artist, and where that track starts in the mix. Create a block of 4 lines for each track, then save the file as DJ Frost - Frosty Mix.txt, then rename the .txt part to .cue and you're done.

[Frost]

lolol, thanks very much. one last question (hopefully) when im burning onto CD do i just select the mp3 file and the cue sheet file. im using B's Recorder Gold 5 that i got with my CD drive. its like drag n drop style.

[Steve]

You need to use burning software that supports CUE sheets. I like CDRWin, cos it works great and is dead simple to use. If you need it, I can hook you up with it. It also works with Nero, but it seemed a bit hit and miss when I tried it.

 

If your software has the option to burn a disc image, you could give it a try. You have to select the CUE sheet rather than the MP3. Make sure that both have the same name other than the file extension, and that they're both in the same folder and you should be OK.

[Frost]

ill have a look on my software and get back to you later if i need to. you've been of great help, thanks a bunch Steve.

[Steve]

No worries. The setup file for CDRWin is only 1MB, so fire me a PM if you need it.