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[bvm]

I have quite a few CDs on which I want to rip multiple adjacent tracks into one file.  For example, organ discs often helpfully put a prelude and fugue on two distinct tracks, but I want them to be one file in my collection (lousy shuffling otherwise).

I recall reading a post a long time ago (which I can't find now, given how horrible the search function is in this forum), which suggested ripping the entire CD to one lossless file (.wav or .ape), then editing the cue file to combine the tracks as desired.  At this point, I have virtual tracks, which I can then do a Library Tools > Convert Format on to get the desired mp3 files.

This procedure works, and yet it doesn't.  It does produce the desired mp3 files.  I can play them in winamp and they seem fine.  But MC won't play them, or rather, won't play more than the first track.  The Playing Now view shows the correct mp3 files and their correct duration.  But if I try to play any of them other than the first track (which plays correctly), MC zips right thru the remaining files as if their length were zero.  One other error: if I hover over them, the tool tip shows the correct duration, but a very large file size, presumably proportional to the original .wav file I originally ripped to.  Indeed, if I select all the files, MC's status line shows the collective file size to be the same as the .wav file.

I tried removing the resulting mp3 files from the library, and importing them again.  The import succeeds, though it curiously tells me, e.g., "Imported 7 new files. / Updated 7 files that had external changes."  The "in-depth details" list the 7 files as imported, and the same 7 files as updated.  The newly imported files show the same behavior as the freshly converted ones did.  So apparently MC remembered something about the tracks despite their being deleted from the library, or it's hidden something in the tags that's allowing it to remain confused.

What am I doing wrong?  Is there a better way of getting what I want?

I'm using MC 12.0.534.

[Alex B]

If you converted separate files from cue tracks and had the "update database" option enabled the library files have incorrect seek points because MC does not clear them. There is no fix to this. You can disable that setting, convert the cue tracks (use a new, different destination folder) and import the converted files as new library entries.

I'd suggest to use an alternative method:

- Rip the disk as separate wave files (or use one of the lossless encoding options)
- Load the files you want to combine to Playing Now (one set at a time)
- Set MC's output mode to Disk Writer. In the output mode specific settings set it to not split the tracks and set the output file path.
- Set MC to use plain gapless playback. Disable all track transition (in Playback Options) and other DSP (in DSP Studio) features and set the volume level to the max.
- Play the tracks. This will quickly create a single wave file of the played tracks. After creating the wave file you can import, convert and tag it like any other standard audio file.

[bvm]

the library files have incorrect seek points because MC does not clear them. There is no fix to this.

Does this mean my library is permanently polluted with information about files I've removed from it?

Anyway, thanks for the explanation.  I wasn't even aware of the "disk writer" technique, but I think I like your correction to my original technique better -- don't update the library during the conversion step, and then import the resulting files from a different directory.  This technique is much better suited to batch processing -- rip some CDs, edit their cue files, do a single convert step -- and it lets me take advantage of the tagging supplied by the database and a nice editor* in which to clean up at least the basic tags.  The only remaining glitch is the file names generated in the convert step -- they're of the form "album (track# - name).mp3", and I don't see any options where I can change that.

With your technique, I have to (a) muck with the playback options, and remember to put them back when I'm done; (b) create additional .wav files one set of tracks at a time (at least the playback is faster than real-time, but it's certainly not instantaneous); and (c) tag the resulting files completely from scratch, which not only is more typing, but is more error-prone, since I need to keep good track of which files resulted from which concatenation of tracks.

* I still wish MC had a "batch tag editing" mode, where I could select a set of files, export their tags to a text file in some re-readable format, edit the tags in an external editor of sufficient power (I have in mind emacs, with its vast regex and other capabilities), and then import the text file to update the tags.