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[bvm]

I've been away from the Forum and MC developments for a while, and wanted to check in to see if MC 11 by any chance has done anything for my age-old wish to rip multiple CD tracks into one file, something iTunes has done for ages.  I see that MC 11 has "CUE file support", and I've seen reference to a "Rip CD into single file" or some such command.  The forum has lots of esoteric discussion about how cue files behave, but it's hard for me to tell whether the functionality somehow includes my wish.  I'd rather not download and install the backwards-incompatible version 11 just to find that it doesn't do anything for me, so I was hoping someone could answer a couple simple questions...

o It sounds like I can rip the whole CD into one file.  Can I just do selected tracks?

o What does the result of this operation look like to MC?  Is it a bunch of tracks that "point to" offsets in one audio file (wav, mp3, whatever)?

o If so, is there any way to treat it as one coherent track with subparts (for playing it, adding to playlists, etc)?  In particular, what happens when I want to transfer it to my iPod?  What I'd want is the whole mp3 file as one track on the iPod (but how would it be tagged?), but I'm afraid MC might instead want to on the fly convert the tracks separately if it doesn't think the cue file is a coherent entity.

I know I can do the basic thing I want with EAC (though without the benefit of a playback mechanism knowing what source track it's currently on), but it would certainly be nice if could do it with the one master media program :-).

[hit_ny]

I see that MC 11 has "CUE file support", and I've seen reference to a "Rip CD into single file" or some such command. 

This means if you have a big mp3 or whatever and a CUE file MC 11 can play it.

o It sounds like I can rip the whole CD into one file.  Can I just do selected tracks?

Why would would you want CUE for separate tracks, rip the whole CD with CUE and then use what tracks you want in a playlist.

o What does the result of this operation look like to MC?  Is it a bunch of tracks that "point to" offsets in one audio file (wav, mp3, whatever)?

This is what a CUE file is, a list of offsets to the big mp3.

o If so, is there any way to treat it as one coherent track with subparts (for playing it, adding to playlists, etc)?  In particular, what happens when I want to transfer it to my iPod?  What I'd want is the whole mp3 file as one track on the iPod (but how would it be tagged?), but I'm afraid MC might instead want to on the fly convert the tracks separately if it doesn't think the cue file is a coherent entity.

iPod as far as i know does not understand CUE tracks. So you would have one big file with no way to get track information. But it would be gapless

My observations about CUE in MC 11 is that its ok if you want to play albums with CUE tracks. But if you import into the library, and do audio analysis etc. You cant move the dirs. as the cue tracks will be lost. Well you can move them, but it requires using Find & Replace as opposed to just drag n drop in the MC tree and then only one move works, subsequent moves result in lost cue tracks.

I expect they will finish this up in v12. But the implementation in v11 is to used strictly for playing only.  JRiver knows about this and many people have told them but for reasons best know to them they have deferred completion on CUE handling.

For the record im still on v10, the one improvement i was hoping for, will have to wait till v12.

[Alex B]

The forum has lots of esoteric discussion about how cue files behave...

But did you read this fundamental thread? I think it covers pretty well what you can do with CUE: CUE file support in MC11


I would like to add this to hit_ny's answer:

... It sounds like I can rip the whole CD into one file. Can I just do selected tracks?...

It is an option. MC can rip into single disc image file instead of regular ripping. MC makes a basic CUE file and you can select the file format for the main file.

[bvm]

Yes, I read that thread, and it didn't answer my questions, so I thought I'd ask them directly.  That long thread seems to be largely a discussion among people who have cue files from elsewhere about how they'd like MC to behave with them.  Maybe I should say more about what I'd like the behavior to be, and ask whether MC can come at all close to doing it.

I'd like when ripping a CD to be able to rip multiple tracks into one mp3 file.  I'd like the result of that rip to (usually) be a single entity in MC -- I'd generally not be interested in playing its components separately, so I'd want it to be a single entry in playlists.  Since the iPod has no clue about cues, I'd want it to be a single file there, too, so it plays gaplessly, and doesn't get broken up by running in shuffle mode. The sole advantage to me of having MC in possession of a cue file for the entity is if it could display which component of it is currently playing when I play the whole thing, and if it gave me any mechanism for jumping directly to the start of a component.

All except for the knowing what the components are I understand I can do, perhaps a little tediously, by ripping in EAC and importing the result.  But MC's ripper is otherwise so much nicer, I'd love to be able to use it.  So far as I've seen, this is the only capability whose existence in MC 11 would compel me to upgrade.

By the way, I'm talking about a classical music collection, in case this gives you any better ideas of my desires.

[Alex B]

Ripping to single big file and using an edited cue sheet is the answer.

At first the CD is ripped with MC11 to a single lossless file with a cue sheet. Monkey's Audio (APE) at normal quality is a good format choice.

Here is an example cue sheet from my archive:

PERFORMER "Heifetz/Rubinstein/Toscanini"
TITLE "Beethoven - Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61 & Piano Concerto no.3 in C minor, op. 37"
FILE "Beethoven - Violin & Piano Concerto (Toscanini-Heifetz-Rubinstein, 1940).ape" WAVE
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    TITLE "Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61 - Allegro, ma non troppo"
    PERFORMER "Heifetz/Toscanini"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    TITLE "Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61 - Larghetto"
    PERFORMER "Heifetz/Toscanini"
    INDEX 01 21:18:60
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    TITLE "Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61 - Rondo: Allebro"
    PERFORMER "Heifetz/Toscanini"
    INDEX 01 30:01:20
  TRACK 04 AUDIO
    TITLE "Piano Concerto no.3 in C minor, op. 37 - Allegro con brio"
    PERFORMER "Rubinstein/Toscanini"
    INDEX 01 38:46:15
  TRACK 05 AUDIO
    TITLE "Piano Concerto no.3 in C minor, op. 37 - Largo"
    PERFORMER "Rubinstein/Toscanini"
    INDEX 01 54:14:45
  TRACK 06 AUDIO
    TITLE "Piano Concerto no.3 in C minor, op. 37 - Rondo: Allegro"
    PERFORMER "Rubinstein/Toscanini"
    INDEX 01 62:30:73

The cue sheet can be edited like this and imported to the library:

PERFORMER "Heifetz/Rubinstein/Toscanini"
TITLE "Beethoven - Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61 & Piano Concerto no.3 in C minor, op. 37 (parts combined)"
FILE "Beethoven - Violin & Piano Concerto (Toscanini-Heifetz-Rubinstein, 1940).ape" WAVE
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    TITLE "Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61 (1. Allegro, ma non troppo, 2. Larghetto, 3. Rondo: Allebro)"
    PERFORMER "Heifetz/Toscanini"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    TITLE "Piano Concerto no.3 in C minor, op. 37 (1. Allegro con brio, 2. Largo, 3. Rondo: Allegro)"
    PERFORMER "Rubinstein/Toscanini"
    INDEX 01 38:46:15

The virtual tracks from both cue sheets can co-exist in the MC library. You could use the tracks from the first sheet when you listen to the album with the PC and convert the two tracks in the second cue sheet to two separate MP3 files for your portable player. You can also delete the tracks you don't need or keep only the converted MP3 files in your library. However, I would recommend keeping the original lossless file because it works also as a bit-perfect backup copy of the CD.