Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[truenorth]

Dunno the exact terminologies, but I enjoy the overlap of songs in MC. Is there a way to get that effect when burning CDs, while still having track indexing, i.e., I can still go from track to track? I thought I set this feature on in DSP settings, but when I checked the burnt CD, the tracks are still completely separate. Thanks in advance.

[truenorth]

I just noticed...I set it to gapless. What does that mean? I just saw the other options...should I have set it to Cross-fade instead of Gapless?

[JohnT]

Yes, in the "CD Writer Settings" dialog you need to enable the "Apply crossfeed..." option and then click "Settings" and set "transition between tracks" to crossfeed. If you like the default settings for playback, I believe the default there is "crossfeed aggressive" and a crossfeed time of 4 seconds.

[truenorth]

Tried this suggestion but the transition is not very good. There is a still a silent gap between songs. Worse, the last song cuts abruptly then its fadeout is included in the next song. Anyone else notice this and have found a solution? Do I need a high-end mixing software?

[Alex B]

The "Smooth" option should be able to fade one song out as the next fades in. You may need to enable the "Omit silence sections" option too because many tracks start and/or end with long silent passages.

Another way is to use MC's Disk Writer output mode with your favorite playback DSP settings. The Disk Writer output mode writes the output to wave files instead of playing it through the soundcard. After the files are on the HD you can burn them separately in gapless mode.

Options > Playback > Audio > Output Mode: Disk Writer
Options > Playback > Audio > Output Mode Settings > Options > enable "Brake output to individual tracks"

You may want to use a rewritable disc for avoiding coasters when testing the options.

[Alex B]

Actually, I think the system may contain a bug.

Here is an example:



I made the highlighted wave files with the Disk Writer output. I used the "cross-fade smooth 4s" option. The "Do not play silence" option was unticked (this album is a DJ mix and there is no silence between the tracks anyway.)

The total playback time of the wave files is 35 s shorter (1:12:08 vs 1:12:43). As far as I understand the cross-fade system should not cut anything away from the files. Instead it should just apply the selected cross-fade. The start and the end of the track should contain the same amount of the cross-faded passage (2+2 s in this case). Also, the individual track start points and durations should not be altered.

[truenorth]

I'm just about to give up. I've tried different settings from all the suggestions here with no luck. And I was starting to like MC! Can anyone suggest another comparable software that would do the crossfade effect like they do on radio stations?

[Alex B]

I'm just about to give up. I've tried different settings from all the suggestions here with no luck. And I was starting to like MC! Can anyone suggest another comparable software that would do the crossfade effect like they do on radio stations?

Don't give up yet. Usually JRiver fixes bugs quickly.

[JohnT]

The total playback time of the wave files is 35 s shorter (1:12:08 vs 1:12:43)...

This is correct. Since the end of the current track is overlapped with the beginning of the next track, you will end up with less total duration using crossfade. The formula would be:
Time difference = ((number of tracks - 1) X crossfade length)

so in your case it would work out to:
Time difference = ((10 - 1) X 4)
= 36 seconds

This assumes you don't have the "remove silence" option checked.

[JohnT]

Tried this suggestion but the transition is not very good. There is a still a silent gap between songs. Worse, the last song cuts abruptly then its fadeout is included in the next song. Anyone else notice this and have found a solution? Do I need a high-end mixing software?

It definitely sounds like you don't have the option "Omit silent sections" enabled. Just enable that option and you might want to lengthen the crossfade a little depending on preference (maybe 6 or 8 seconds).

Another important note: To test if it worked to your liking, play it in the device it's intended for (car or portable CD player or whatever).
If you test playing back the CD in MC, make sure you switch MC's playback to gapless or you will be doing crossfading of already crossfaded tracks which will sound pretty weird. (player/playback options/playback options.../settings/switch tracks/Gapless

[Alex B]

This is correct. Since the end of the current track is overlapped with the beginning of the next track, you will end up with less total duration using crossfade. The formula would be:
Time difference = ((number of tracks - 1) X crossfade length)

so in your case it would work out to:
Time difference = ((10 - 1) X 4)
= 36 seconds

This assumes you don't have the "remove silence" option checked.

Your explanation makes sense. However, I think the cut point is incorrect. It seems to be in the start of the cross-fade passage. That makes the individual tracks end before the cross-fade effects starts like trunorth said. With a 4s smooth cross-fade the track boundary should be be adjusted in the middle of the 4s crossfade section.

[JohnT]

Well, track start points on a cross-faded CD are really not very useful. A cross-faded CD is best listened to from beginning to end since there's no great place to put the boundaries, you'll always either cut off the beginning of a track or the end. MC places the track start point at the beginning of the actual music for a particular track so you will start listening at the beginning of the song. Of course it sounds a little strange because you hear the fading out of the previous track and the fading in of the current track.

I don't know how truenorth is doing test listening of the crossfaded CD, but if he's playing it in a regular CD player, it should sound fine as long as he is listening from beginning to end and he enabled the "omit silence" option when burning.

[Alex B]

You are correct again. I was not thinking about regular CD players. If I would like to skip a track I would probably like to hear the next track from the beginning. On a regular CD player the tracks never end abruptly because the next cross-faded track follows without a gap.