INTERACT FORUM

Not at this time.  I doubt if Apple will do this.

I wonder, why bother?

For me, there are a few reasons.  First, the unamplified line output quality of the iPod is probably not all that bad -- particularly if you use the direct line output of the main connector rather than the headphone output.

The second reason is future use.  I don't want to have to re-rip everything when lossless formats eventually become the standard.  I realize that I could rip as a lossless format that the iPod did not support and convert whey synching, but this adds too much time to synchs.  Once the songs are saved in a lossless format, converting to a NEW lossless format should also be lossless, so as long as conversion is an option at this point, songs never need to be lossy ever again regardless of whether not the format standards change.

The last reason is that mp3's (and aac's) add that incredibly annoying gap in between songs (I am still amazed that this isn't a bigger issue for most people.)  I assume that lossless formats will not do this.

Larry

The last reason is that mp3's (and aac's) add that incredibly annoying gap in between songs (I am still amazed that this isn't a bigger issue for most people.)  I assume that lossless formats will not do this.

its an issue for me. So i have to rip mix CDs as one big mp3 +cue.

... but the choice is gapless play and no track info or skips and track info (on a portable player). I'm still trying to get JRiver to do cue in MC, maybe in 11.

lossless formats like APE do not have this problem (so i'm told)

You can import and listen to Apple lossless in MC, but that is about all you can do with it. You cannot save tags to file or convert it to another format. I don't know if you can send Apple lossless to iPod from MC.

I ripped some files with iTunes to Apple lossless format and imported them to MC. Apple codecs must be installed, e.g. that iTunes software.

I don't have problems with ripping to wave (MC 10.0.149).

its an issue for me. So i have to rip mix CDs as one big mp3 +cue.
... but the choice is gapless play and no track info or skips and track info (on a portable player). I'm still trying to get JRiver to do cue in MC, maybe in 11.

lossless formats like APE do not have this problem (so i'm told)

Here is one possible workflow for gapless (in MC):

Rip your separate tracks albums to APE with MC.

Rip your mix/DJ/Live/etc albums to single-track APEs and CUEs using EAC and Monkey's Audio. Use MakeAPL tool (included with Monkey's Audio) to make APL link files. You can use APL files in MC as ordinary separate audio files.

You can convert your separate tracks (including APLs) to compressed format. You can also convert your single-track APE album files to compressed format for mobile use (print a track list if needed).

I too hope that JRiver adds support for single track albums and cue sheets. APL works only for APE. I made a proposition for a possible solution here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=22715

I'm sorry to report that wave files still have a small gap between them when played on the iPod.  If anyone can confirm any format that gives truly gapless playback on the iPod, please let me know.

I find this curious. Can you verify that using MC with those same WAV files also produces a perceptible gap. Try with winamp too (if possible). Wav files are usually gapless if ripped correctly as that is the format they are present on a CD and the gap isn't perceptible.

I too hope that JRiver adds support for single track albums and cue sheets. APL works only for APE. I made a proposition for a possible solution here:

Ripping to APE is not an option as i have ripped to cue with VBR sometime back now and mp3 offers the most flexibility (no conversion hassles) with portable media players, is a third to a quarter the size of APE and sounds good enough to my ears at 192+kbs.

I noted the mcl idea. It will work for formats that are seek-friendly.  The problem with mp3 is that it does not allow seeks to be made given a seek position. And a cue file is just that, a list of tracks with seek positions.

Now other players (winamp+mp3 cue) and FB2K get around this by actually parsing the file from the beginning as its not possible with mp3 to directly jump to the point stated in the cue. FB2K is sample accurate, wimamp cheats/guesses so it appears faster at seeking but in reality it does not get it exactly right.

I would prefer that MC (if they decide to implement CUE) be sample exact. This brings a slight hit in seek performance (can be a fraction of a second to a whole second) but it would allow accurate Audio analysis and can take advantage of the ever powerful library.

I use FB2K for albums with cues currently, it works pretty well and has a light Album list function and makes direct edits the cue files. But i would prefer to do this in MC as FB2K is not as easy to mass tag (especially tracks in a cue)

Another idea i have heard to get around the mp3 seek problem is to wrap an mp3 in a mp4. mp4 supposedly has seek tables that will allow sample exact seeking. I tried this out in FB2k but found the performance only slightly better to the actual mp3 itself. So am not sure whether its worth doing.

I'm guessing that the gap is due to the specific way the iPod handles files.  I'm wondering if ANY format is actually gapless on the iPod.  If anybody knows of a format that is truly gapless on the iPod, please let me know.

Thanks,

Larry