Comments on: What is Gapless Playback on the iPod and in iTunes? (Update) http://www.mcelhearn.com/2006/09/16/what-is-gapless-playback-on-the-ipod-and-in-itunes-update/ Writings about more than just Macs, by Kirk McElhearn Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:45:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: AlistairLW http://www.mcelhearn.com/2006/09/16/what-is-gapless-playback-on-the-ipod-and-in-itunes-update/#comment-519 AlistairLW Fri, 13 Oct 2006 17:36:59 +0000 http://www.mcelhearn.com/wordpress/?p=229#comment-519 According to Apple, this is not correct. Their web site explicitly states the flag is required by iTunes, but is only used when Crossfade is switched on. They say that in iTunes 7.x, gapless playback is always on, and the flag simply tells iTunes to override the Crossfade setting for tracks where the gapless flag has been manually set to "yes". That is, if you use Crossfade, gapless tracks will also crossfade unless this setting has been manually switched to "yes". (It also clarifies the two different settings. The album setting, "Gapless album", is just a shortcut to mark all its tracks as gapless, so you don't have to set each track one by one. Meaning: it is the individual track setting that really matters.) And re the iPod, the web site also explicitly states "iPod does not support crossfade playback and only some iPod models support gapless playback. For those models that do, all files that support gapless playback are played gaplessly whether or not the "Part of a gapless album" option is checked." Cheers! According to Apple, this is not correct. Their web site explicitly states the flag is required by iTunes, but is only used when Crossfade is switched on. They say that in iTunes 7.x, gapless playback is always on, and the flag simply tells iTunes to override the Crossfade setting for tracks where the gapless flag has been manually set to "yes". That is, if you use Crossfade, gapless tracks will also crossfade unless this setting has been manually switched to "yes". (It also clarifies the two different settings. The album setting, "Gapless album", is just a shortcut to mark all its tracks as gapless, so you don’t have to set each track one by one. Meaning: it is the individual track setting that really matters.) And re the iPod, the web site also explicitly states "iPod does not support crossfade playback and only some iPod models support gapless playback. For those models that do, all files that support gapless playback are played gaplessly whether or not the "Part of a gapless album" option is checked." Cheers!

]]> By: AlistairLW http://www.mcelhearn.com/2006/09/16/what-is-gapless-playback-on-the-ipod-and-in-itunes-update/#comment-518 AlistairLW Fri, 13 Oct 2006 17:21:58 +0000 http://www.mcelhearn.com/wordpress/?p=229#comment-518 I just got the new iTunes and iPod versions installed last night (I have a 60GB video iPod). The gapless feature certainly works, though it is not perfect. I have a ton of albums that need this and it really used to bug me. These albums include more than 40 Frank Zappa albums (many of them 2 or 3 CDs) and on most of these, the tracks segue (even the studio albums). I also have a huge collection of various live albums, plus other studio albums from artists who like to segue tracks (like Pink Floyd). So this is terrific. Unexpected bonus: fans of ZZ Top will know about the famous pairing of "Waitin' For The Bus" and "Jesus Just Left Chicago" on the Tres Hombres album. These songs don't actually segue, but the second sort of comes in a little too early. It was actually a mistake during mastering, but they liked it, kept it that way, and now these two songs are forever joined at the hip, even being played that way live. Previously, I had to join them into a single track, because the artificial gap imposed by iTunes was really jarring, but I've resplit them now and it works fine. Bad point: I can still detect minute gaps in Pink Floyd's The Wall, not every track but definitely a few. Sounds like a minuscule dot of static. And one comment on the main article: Jethro Tull's 'Thich as a Brick" is hardly a standard example of albums that need gapless playback. The album consists of one song but it has always been split into two distinct halves: this goes right back to the original recording on LP, which had one-half on each side, so the song is not only recorded that way, it's actually written to account for that. There are no breaks within each half (and never have been, even before gapless playback on the iPod), and now adding gapless playback between the halves would make no sense (haven't tested this yet to see iPod treats it, will do so later). And finally, Apple's explanation of the manual "gapless" settings doesn't really make sense. They say the setting is only there to force gapless tracks to be honored when you are using cross-fades. In this case, why not have a global preference ("Honor gapless tracks when using cross-fade")? In fact, if this is the intent, the wording of the setting should be changed, because now it is clearly misleading, as evidenced by lots of posts I've seen from people who wonder why gapless albums play properly even though this flag is NOT set. The cross-fade setting is global, so it would make sense to add an option under that preference. I don't understand why, when using cross-fade, someone would want to preserve gapless playback for some albums but not others! Now, the settings are called "Gapless album? Yes | No" (for albums) and "Part of a gapless album? Yes | No" (for individual tracks); these default to No even when iTunes/iPod know the albums/songs are gapless; but despite the No setting, gapless is in fact honored! Sorry for the long reply! Cheers! I just got the new iTunes and iPod versions installed last night (I have a 60GB video iPod). The gapless feature certainly works, though it is not perfect. I have a ton of albums that need this and it really used to bug me. These albums include more than 40 Frank Zappa albums (many of them 2 or 3 CDs) and on most of these, the tracks segue (even the studio albums). I also have a huge collection of various live albums, plus other studio albums from artists who like to segue tracks (like Pink Floyd). So this is terrific. Unexpected bonus: fans of ZZ Top will know about the famous pairing of "Waitin’ For The Bus" and "Jesus Just Left Chicago" on the Tres Hombres album. These songs don’t actually segue, but the second sort of comes in a little too early. It was actually a mistake during mastering, but they liked it, kept it that way, and now these two songs are forever joined at the hip, even being played that way live. Previously, I had to join them into a single track, because the artificial gap imposed by iTunes was really jarring, but I’ve resplit them now and it works fine. Bad point: I can still detect minute gaps in Pink Floyd’s The Wall, not every track but definitely a few. Sounds like a minuscule dot of static. And one comment on the main article: Jethro Tull’s ‘Thich as a Brick" is hardly a standard example of albums that need gapless playback. The album consists of one song but it has always been split into two distinct halves: this goes right back to the original recording on LP, which had one-half on each side, so the song is not only recorded that way, it’s actually written to account for that. There are no breaks within each half (and never have been, even before gapless playback on the iPod), and now adding gapless playback between the halves would make no sense (haven’t tested this yet to see iPod treats it, will do so later). And finally, Apple’s explanation of the manual "gapless" settings doesn’t really make sense. They say the setting is only there to force gapless tracks to be honored when you are using cross-fades. In this case, why not have a global preference ("Honor gapless tracks when using cross-fade")? In fact, if this is the intent, the wording of the setting should be changed, because now it is clearly misleading, as evidenced by lots of posts I’ve seen from people who wonder why gapless albums play properly even though this flag is NOT set. The cross-fade setting is global, so it would make sense to add an option under that preference. I don’t understand why, when using cross-fade, someone would want to preserve gapless playback for some albums but not others! Now, the settings are called "Gapless album? Yes | No" (for albums) and "Part of a gapless album? Yes | No" (for individual tracks); these default to No even when iTunes/iPod know the albums/songs are gapless; but despite the No setting, gapless is in fact honored! Sorry for the long reply! Cheers!

]]> By: ginster http://www.mcelhearn.com/2006/09/16/what-is-gapless-playback-on-the-ipod-and-in-itunes-update/#comment-503 ginster Fri, 15 Sep 2006 12:11:36 +0000 http://www.mcelhearn.com/wordpress/?p=229#comment-503 This is great news for me. I have a 4G (pre-photo) iPod and each new firmware or iPod release I check for this feature. This time I forgot so this is a great surprise for me. Enough to have me thinking of replacing my 4G. I'm definitely interested in the results of your test on the "gapless" attribute. I'm sure it won't do this, but something I think they should add is the ability to tie tracks together. I listen mostly in random order and when I get to the occasional song which is actually split across two tracks on the CD it's a bit unnerving when it ends abruptly. So I'd like a way (without manually ripping them) to "tie" the first to the second so the second always follows the first no matter if the first was played via randomization, playlist, whatever. This is great news for me. I have a 4G (pre-photo) iPod and each new firmware or iPod release I check for this feature. This time I forgot so this is a great surprise for me. Enough to have me thinking of replacing my 4G.

I’m definitely interested in the results of your test on the "gapless" attribute. I’m sure it won’t do this, but something I think they should add is the ability to tie tracks together. I listen mostly in random order and when I get to the occasional song which is actually split across two tracks on the CD it’s a bit unnerving when it ends abruptly. So I’d like a way (without manually ripping them) to "tie" the first to the second so the second always follows the first no matter if the first was played via randomization, playlist, whatever.

]]> By: ebernet http://www.mcelhearn.com/2006/09/16/what-is-gapless-playback-on-the-ipod-and-in-itunes-update/#comment-501 ebernet Thu, 14 Sep 2006 23:42:50 +0000 http://www.mcelhearn.com/wordpress/?p=229#comment-501 I was under the impression the feature worked on the Nanos As for the flag - it is not needed in iTunes. It is needed on the iPod to flag the iPod to know to start loading the next song before the current one ends. If the flag is not there, it will not pre-load the next song. I was under the impression the feature worked on the Nanos
As for the flag – it is not needed in iTunes. It is needed on the iPod to flag the
iPod to know to start loading the next song before the current one ends. If the
flag is not there, it will not pre-load the next song.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.mcelhearn.com/2006/09/16/what-is-gapless-playback-on-the-ipod-and-in-itunes-update/#comment-500 Anonymous Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:13:36 +0000 http://www.mcelhearn.com/wordpress/?p=229#comment-500 I was really happy to see gapless playback implemented so well. It works wonderfully on my iBook, but had not yet experienced it on my 4G iPod. I'm disappointed that it doesn't work on any iPod that is not currently offered---my iPod is not quite one year old! But I'll take what I can get---at least it sounds great on my computer... I was really happy to see gapless playback implemented so well. It works
wonderfully on my iBook, but had not yet experienced it on my 4G iPod. I’m
disappointed that it doesn’t work on any iPod that is not currently offered—my
iPod is not quite one year old! But I’ll take what I can get—at least it sounds
great on my computer…

]]>