Gapless Playback?

I believe the ND5 plays music from iPod and other sources?

If the music you are playing is "ripped" using iTunes, there is a setting in iTunes for "gapless playing".

I think you have to select the whole album in iTunes, right click and "get info" and the setting is in there.

I'm using the HDX which rips & stores the CD's. All albums, including classical & live shows, play back without gaps.

 The only time I've ever suffered from gaps in any music is with iTunes which is why I thought you might have been using it. Very annoying as you mentioned, particularwith hen they shouldn't be there!

iTunes, (certainly some of the older versions) had an option to insert the two seconds gap between tracks. There is also an option to make it a "gapless" album. Perhaps there is a similar setting in your software somewhere?

I am not familiar with your ripping method but feel sure there must be a setting somewhere to cure the problem.

I've been doing a little research and found this article which may help. It refers to a setting where XLD inserts a pre-gap to all tracks. Obviously you need to tell it not to insert the pre-gap in each track, If you haven't already tried that.

http://gigaom.com/2011/02/04/h...collection-on-a-mac/

Hi Blythe 

many thanks for your efforts. it's something I've not really payed attention to before. I have a large batch of classical cd's on the way so will practice with the 1st one to see if I can get it to work.

Thanks, Anton 

Hi Anton, I do find the NDX and NDS offer gap free playback on upnp when used with Asset.

I suspect this is in part because the Naim network player pulling the files back from the upnp server, and so the player can spool up the files .

Simon

That setting in XLD is nothing to do with gapless playback.

If an album is gapless than XLD should rip it as such.  Try ripping one of the albums that is causing you a problem to FLAC instead of AIFF.  Does that make any difference?  I have found that in the past albums I ripped to AIFF would not play gaplessly but ripped to FLAC they would (using both dbpoweramp and XLD).

What does the pre-gap actually do then?

There is a good wikipedia entry on this if interested.  XLD in default settings does not insert a pre-gap between tracks, it rips the tracks as they are on the disc.

If you change the setting you talked about to "Exclude pre-gap" then the ripping process is no longer compatible with AccurateRip and will take at least twice as long (because it does a test rip first).  If the cd is gapless it still makes a gapless copy.

Just tried an experiment by ripping the first two tracks of a known gapless cd to FLAC.  With XLD set to "Include pre-gap for all tracks" or "Exclude pre-gap" the resultant rips were perfectly gap-less. 

Hi Rich

I will try this thanks.

maybe I also misunderstand what gapless is. If there are gaps on the native cd between tracks, e.g. 3 seconds, then does this mean that these 3 second gaps will always be present no matter what output version is chosen for the rip?

If this is the case then I'm a little confused because I'm yet to hear a cd without gaps between tracks.

appreciate some feedback as this is bugging me cheers, Anton

Just tried the exact same process using AIFF and the tracks play back gap-lessly again.

I don't think that XLD is the problem here but can the OP post some screenshots of his XLD settings ?

Gap-less is exactly what it says on the tin, the cd plays with no gap between tracks.  The tracks merge seamlessly into each other.  The cd I used for the test above was "A State of Trance 2010" typical gap-less cd with all tracks mixed together.

If there are gaps on the cd there will be gaps between the rips!

Many thanks Rich

I feel a little stupid now. I think all is well at my end and its my misunderstanding.

good example re the trance cd. I have similar ripped so will listen to see if its gapless. 

Thanks for your help with this.

you looking forward to the new season? I think Chesterfield will have a good chance to go up,this season. Made some good signings and it will be the managers 1st full season. Here's  hoping, Anton

Was looking forward to the new season until we decided to sell our best player to Wolves!  A Championship team I could have just about lived with but to sell to one of your potential rivals in getting promoted is unforgivable.

A good friend of mine is a blade's fan and he's pissed to say the least! Strange sometimes the decisions clubs make?!

blythe,

After a discussion with a mastering engineer, my understanding is this (and please, more knowledgeable persons are very welcome to chime in to correct me if necessary).

As per the Red Book specification, a CD track comprises indexes. Most tracks in pop/rock/jazz etc. do usually have only one index with music, which normally is index 01 (they can go up to 99). At the beginning of the CD era, it was not uncommon to have classical music CDs which tracks had several indexes (for the different movements of a piece, for instance). I don't know if it's still the case as my Naim CD player doesn't display indexes anyway.

A track can also have an index 00, which is played before index 01. This is called the pre-gap index.

Now if, as a mastering engineer, you need to have a few seconds of silence between tracks, you have too choices:

• add a few seconds of silence at the end of the previous track;
• populate index 00 with these few seconds of silence.

When ripping with XLD, my understanding of the aforementioned parameters is that you can include or exclude index 00 (pre-gap). In the 2 cases above, neither value would affect the first example (as the silence is actually inside index 01), but "exclude" would get rid of the silence in the second example as it is in index 00 (the result would probably not be good, as the silence was intended in the first place).

In a CD that has no silence added at the end of the tracks or has empty indexes 00, a rip will be gapless, whatever value of this parameter you choose in XLD, as Rich correctly points out.

So I think what most people would prefer is to include pre-gap information, to retain the intended silence between tracks (and sometimes other linking information, like background sound). And if the CD is actually gapless, it will play as such once ripped.

HTH

Maurice

PS: Indexes can have funny uses: a typical one is the -- incorrectly named -- hidden track, which usually is another index (02, or more). There can sometimes even be hidden tracks in index 00 of the first track, that a regular CD player never plays. To hear it you need to "rewind" before the beginning of the first track. Wikipedia has a list of albums with such an index 00 hidden track if interested.

Thanks for the info 

Whatever is happening, any "gapless" album, such as a live recording, or many classical pieces or "mixed" dance albums, should play straight through, with no gaps.
Hopefully AntonD will sort out his issue and post his resolution findings or confirm if he has in fact been otherwise confused