Gapless/seamless Tracks?

[Artstar]

I'll have to try feeding something in realtime from my CD player to test this, but has anyone else noticed that in dumping CD's to HiMD (ATRAC3+ 64kbps), the once seamless track transitions on the original CD's suffer a 1/4 sec break in playback on the HiMD units?

Is this a known anomaly or am I just plain unlucky with my NH1? I used SonicStage 3.1 for the task of transferring my entire collection of Dream Theater CD's into one HiMD disc (good for those long plane flights!) and I've just been playing them back now as a muck-around only to find the transitions aren't seamless!

It's more of an annoyance rather than the end of the world but it would be nice to get smooth transitions back.

Other than that, I wish the damn thing didn't have such heavy compression on the output stage. I think this digital amplifier design is somewhat flawed (and annoying to listen to) at the higher volumes.

[Qwakrz]

I have seemless on my NH1 and RH10.

It could be that your CD drive you used for ripping the tracks is not to good at audio extraction.

If you transcode the files as well then this introduces gaps as it has to fill out the space of a non full frame with empty data.

Try going into the options menu and selecting the option to error correct the ripped audio off of the CD (think it says something like smoothing).

[petertkalec]

Yeah - I get gaps sometimes, too. I haven't taken the time yet to figure out exactly which conditions result in my gapped tracks, but I commonly transfer using simpleburner at hi-lp. I own an NH900 and I have SS 3.1 loaded.

[ROMBUSTERS]

maybe hi-lp uses some rediculously inefficient use of addressing space on the disc and requires a set amount of padding (like LP2 or LP4 or even SP).

On second thought the bit rate of hi-lp is 64kbps which is 8KB/s

HiMD uses FAT

If its FAT16 that means every 'block' of data is 16KB

If its FAT32 that means every 'block' of data is 32KB

if the audio stream ends midway through this block there may be a slight pause afterwards. However this doesn't explain the other encoders. Then again it might not be as obvious in a higher bitrate (because it takes up more of the block). anyone notice the same problem with 48kbps?

More than likely however it is a problem with the encoder or the source. Some CDs have a pause break (usually SS ignores this in my tests however). Or some CDs have fade outs and ins which may be a factor.

Here's what I suggest:

Try encoding the same CD in a higher bit rate (i.e. Atrac3 132kbps or even better Atract3+ 256kbps - that way they are both A3+)

See if you notice a change.

Try encoding the CD at 48kbps (JUST FOR TESTS, it sucks for music), and see if you can notice it there

Best of luck

[BigTony]

I'd check your settings or missout SS altogether, I transfered many lives shows via simple burner and I get no gaps on my NH1.

BT

[Artstar]

I have seemless on my NH1 and RH10.

It could be that your CD drive you used for ripping the tracks is not to good at audio extraction.

If you transcode the files as well then this introduces gaps as it has to fill out the space of a non full frame with empty data.

Try going into the options menu and selecting the option to error correct the ripped audio off of the CD (think it says something like smoothing).

←

You got it in one as it was because of the transcoding that I had that problem. Copying them from CD into ATRAC3 132kbps and then transferring them to the NH1 on an "as-is" basis was what fixed it right up. Perfectly seamless and a slightly better sound than ATRAC3+ 64kbps.

No more transcoding ... get it right the first time. Thanks dude!

Edited July 9, 2005 by Artstar

[gregtsai]

I've noticed ths problem,too.

but in my case the situation is somehow different,

when i use SS3.1 to transfer,there is always gap between tracks,

no matter i transfer mp3 320K or ATRAC3+ 256K files.

But if i use simple burnerto handle the job,

there's no gap at all.

It's really annoying especially when listening to classical music.

[MAVickers]

On second thought the bit rate of hi-lp is 64kbps which is 8KB/s

HiMD uses FAT

If its FAT16 that means every 'block' of data is 16KB

If its FAT32 that means every 'block' of data is 32KB

←

I doubt FAT is the reason as all the tracks seemed to be jammed into one file on the disc.

Michael

[ROMBUSTERS]

You got it in one as it was because of the transcoding that I had that problem. Copying them from CD into ATRAC3 132kbps and then transferring them to the NH1 on an "as-is" basis was what fixed it right up. Perfectly seamless and a slightly better sound than ATRAC3+ 64kbps.

No more transcoding ... get it right the first time. Thanks dude!

←

I agree with this line of thought

Anytime you transcode something you are changing its properties and thus the way it handles data. We have known for a long time that when you transcode WMA or MP3 to any Atrac it is not gapless. I guess the same applies for transcoding from one Atrac bitrate to another (i.e. 132kbps > 64kbps, etc or 256kbps > anyhthing)

This would also explain why Simple Burner doesnt introduce gaps, its just encoding the PCM source which is always gapless.