BUG? no gapless FLAC / ALAC playback in winamp?

[MrSinatra]

my understanding is that both FLAC and ALAC support gapless playback, (which LAME does too).

winamp plays my newer LAME files back with gapless playback fine.

however, I just noticed it does NOT do so (using the newest beta) with my FLAC files.

they were made by me with EAC and FLAC 1.2.1

I tested with RG set to album RG.

(I should clarify that gapless works on LAME files made with newer LAME vers, some older LAME rips have the hesitation in them, similar to what I can also hear/see in the FLACs)

a quick look on google suggests that it may be the fault of the playback software/device.

thoughts?

[DJ Egg]

I just converted a gapless mix mp3 album to FLAC with Winamp 5.7 Beta 3376, using enc_flac w/ FLAC 1.3
and the resulting FLAC album still played back gaplessly.

Maybe the problem is with EAC? (sorry, I don't use it)


As for ALAC... the mp4 container depends on there being an iTunes gapless atom...
Again, maybe an EAC issue?

[MrSinatra]

I just converted a gapless mix mp3 album to FLAC with Winamp 5.7 Beta 3376, using enc_flac w/ FLAC 1.3
and the resulting FLAC album still played back gaplessly.

Maybe the problem is with EAC? (sorry, I don't use it)

hmm, well, EAC can rip to mp3 with newer LAMEs and do so gaplessly. I would be shocked if it really could not rip to FLAC gaplessly, but I can't say for sure it does/doesn't.

my FLACs were made with FLAC 1.2.1 and EAC; can u try ripping with winamp 5.63 and see if it plays those FLACs gaplessly? (as they should be 1.2.1 types)

I was testing the second side of abbey road btw.

As for ALAC... the mp4 container depends on there being an iTunes gapless atom...
Again, maybe an EAC issue?

I haven't yet fully tested this, i'll get back to you on it. thx for the info!

[siavash119]

In EAC Make sure you have checked Action > Append gaps on previous track (standard practice) and done Action > detect gaps before ripping.

I don't know if the above solves your problem, but I have had no problems with gapless playback for both my rips and others'.

[MrSinatra]

In EAC Make sure you have checked Action > Append gaps on previous track (standard practice) and done Action > detect gaps before ripping.

I don't know if the above solves your problem, but I have had no problems with gapless playback for both my rips and others'.

thanks... i'm beginning to think its something either I, or EAC did wrong.

I found a thread about compression offset re: the drive, (and using cuetools to fix) and also a mention of prefs > EAC options > extraction and the first checkbox, "Fill up missing samples with silence"

should that be checked or not? do you know the default setting for it?

i'm thinking that might be my culprit. (I am still interested for someone to test 5.63 though, just to rule it out)

I would just rerip/test myself, but I don't have the CDs here, (they're at my house, not my apt)

PS. I found these links mentioning ALAC/mp4/m4a gapless:

http://code.google.com/p/mp4v2/wiki/iTunesMetadata

http://atomicparsley.sourceforge.net/mpeg-4files.html

so when I actually setup EAC to rip to ALAC, i'll need to configure mp3tag to find the %pgap% atom and make sure its all kosher.

[lostinsound]

The FLACs I've ripped with EAC all seem to be playing fine with gapless playback on the latest beta.

I do have the "Fill up missing samples with silence" option checked although I'm not sure what the default was.

[MrSinatra]

damn. the Beatle FLACs I made were back in 09 or 10 and I have no idea what settings I had EAC set to then, or what exactly is wrong with the FLACs I made, since it seems to be my files and not winamp.

[Batter Pudding]

I've left EAC basically on defaults. Not tweaked much. That seems to be playing back my FLACs without gaps in Winamp Beta as normal.

I'll go re-rip Dark Side Of The Moon and see what happens. Will also test rip via Winamp. Back Soon...

[Batter Pudding]

Not a hiccup. Perfect gapless playback from an EAC rip in Winamp Beta 5.7. Ripped an SACD of DSOM using EAC to FLAC (using CMP button). Winamp is playing this back flawlessly.

I have specifically gone to the end of a few tracks and started playing from there to see how it picks up the next track. All perfect.

Must be something in your settings for EAC. A tweak too far? EAC is generally set on defaults for me without any real changes. I notice that EAC has an option to Save Profile. If this will save all the relevant settings I can upload my current profile for comparison.

[MrSinatra]

thx for the testing and all the replies from everyone.

BP, was EAC using FLAC 1.2.1? was the fill missing samples with silence checked by default?

yeah, I am thinking its something I or EAC did wrong. it would seem whatever is going on is not a winamp issue. I have read other threads which suggest I might have some silence appended into the end of my tracks, and that cuetools might be able to fix them properly, but I don't use cue tools and i'm def in new terroritory now.

yes, the profiles are very cool. their main use is to allow a user to have differing settings for differing codecs. I suggested winamp could do profiles, and DrO said it was a bad idea, so bad, I convinced him not to do it (just by suggesting it apparently). having used profiles in EAC, I think otherwise.

[Batter Pudding]

BP, was EAC using FLAC 1.2.1? was the fill missing samples with silence checked by default?

How do I check for the answers of this? Which menus?

I only picked up on the profiles as a suggestion for you to be able to compare to my setup. For now I just need the one profile as I only rip to FLAC as this is what all of my digital devices play back.

[MrSinatra]

you could look at your FLACs to see what ver flac they encoded at, or look at what ver FLAC.exe you have eac pointing at.

the pref I mention is here:

and also a mention of prefs > EAC options > extraction and the first checkbox, "Fill up missing samples with silence"

profiles can also be useful for differing configs for the same codec. imagine one profile to rip things to one location, and another profile to rip things somewhere else. or one for folder art vs one for embedding. differing filename construction, bitrates, etc... its very flexible, any combo of prefs you want, as many profiles as you want.

[Batter Pudding]

Ripped with libFLAC 1.2.1 and the "Fill up missing offset samples with silence" is ticked.


And yes, I am aware what profiles can be used for. But I do so little changing of things that nipping into a setting and changing it is enough for me. The audio side I leave well alone and am currently experimenting with if I want the art embedded or not. Generally I FLAC my tunes into one library. Most of my devices play back FLAC without troubles. And those rare situations I need some MP3s I'll let Winamp Pro buzz through the conversion with the Format Converter

[MrSinatra]

Ripped with libFLAC 1.2.1 and the "Fill up missing offset samples with silence" is ticked.

thx, and I have since figured out that should be ticked, and was at the time of my rips, so that's not it. it might be a drive offset issue, but idk. this is def a PITA issue. I might be stuck with bum FLACs until I can rerip, which sucks. it also delays my FLAC to ALAC project, for the Beatles anyway.

so now you have tried EAC, how do u like it for ripping FLACs? the way it gets art and does accuraterip alone are reason enough for me to use it over winamp (for rips). I also like the way you configure it, (outside of profiles btw), to rip one way for normal cds, another for comps.

[Batter Pudding]

Try loading your bad FLACs up in Audacity and see if you can see the gap at the end of them.

As to EAC - still trialling it in some ways. I like the fact it can stubbornly get round scratches on CDs. I have a very rotted Hendrix disk that it took 48 hours over and got a better result out of it that I can get when just listening to it.

Not too sure about the method of tagging. Prefer Winamp there. Always having to remember to fill in the album artist is a pain. The artwork search seems okay, but could be better. Had a couple of albums I've had to go back to the old web search on. Still not really sold on embedding art - so I think that is coming back out again. And already reported a bug to the developer as that art finder also locates bitmaps without telling you - until you then get a weird error message pop-up when the conversion to FLAC occurs as the FLAC tool needs JPEG not BITMAP. (And no, the "convert JPEG to BITMAP" flag in the options does not make any difference)


So - ripping good. Tagging and artwork - I am going back to Winamp as it is better implemented. Far more flexible and easier to check.