Can't stop audio muting between tracks

[kevinmac]

I just mastered an album where I ran the songs in as one big file from PT/24. I set an Index 1 for the start of each song, no Index 0, as I didn't want any CD players to mute the audio inbetween songs at all-- I just want one continuous stream of audio. When I play it back, however, my CD players are all still muting the audio inbetween songs! Is there a way to guarantee no muting? I just want to hear song after song, with an ID at the beginning of each one--nothing else. I can't make the muting go away, which I thought only had to do with having an Index 0 before each Index 1. Help!

[Przemek]

I thought that setting item spacing=00 is enough... I have to try, but I did it and it worked...

[joules]

I belive this has nothing to do with the index number!

I have mastered many a CD with musical content in the index 0 - 1 gap and all CD players seem to play this part without muting, (the only time this doesnt happen is when you are playing back in programme mode). Evry CD player I've come accross continues to read audio between tracks in standard play mode.

It is most possible that you have some value entered in the item spacing preference, try setting Item spacing to zero BEFORE importing the audio files into MLCD

I always master CD's by creating one continuous file in pro tools then exporting the region definitions! this way proves more reliable and more accurate!

But I belive the problem here is in MLCD's configuration.

Hope this helps

Joules

[kevinmac]

Hmmm... well, I make one big file that I send from ProTools. Then I set item spacing to zero, I set my number of tracks, I edit the Index 1's of each track, setting the start time of each (There are no Index 0's with no zero item spacing). After setting the start time of each song, there SHOULD be audio playing through continuously--it's one large file! But, when played back on CD players, I still get a mute between tracks. Unless the songs are actually connected with continuing SOUND--then there is no mute. If there is blank audio--no sound, even though it's a continuous file playback, the CD players are muting the audio.

Is there some redbook code that sets a preset level cutoff for mutes that I'm not aware of? Are some CD players made to mute at a certain preset level that I'm not aware of? If so, why does every major label release that I've bought in the past month continue straight thru with no muting? Why can't I get my CD's like that???

[joules]

The item spacing settings in MLCD are duplicated, there is one in the menu and another in the preferences dilogue box. These two values are not connected,and you can have default item spacing set to zero whilst item spacing in preferences is set to 00:00:02:00
Check you have both set to zero

-jn-

[Marcus]

Which CD writer are you using? I believe there's a Ricoh that forces a fixed track space.

Marcus

[DigiTechSupt]

There are a couple of things that could be causing this...

1) Even though you set the default item spacing to "0", if a zero index exists for that track in the PQ subcode and you don't want any silence, you must manually delete it. Simply click on the zero index in the PQ subcode window and hit the delete key. If a zero index exists, there will be silence between tracks. It is NOT necessary to have a zero index on any track except track 1. This is must due to the Red Book standard.

2) If a single file is added to a masterlist that contains two or more songs and they are separated by silence, that silence will exist on the CD. The only way to remove the silence would be to capture each song as a region in either Pro Tools or Sound Designer and add each region individually without any spacing between them.

Any of the MLCD supported writers should allow you to create spacing or not as you choose.

Muting will only occur when the CD player is skipping tracks (for example, random or shuffle playback modes). If there is a zero index the CD player does not mute, there is simply no audio to playback at that time.

I hope this helps.

Jon C.

[Marcus]

It is possible to have index 0's in a list and still have constant audio - if for example you have a live album and want to cut out chit-chat between songs when the CD player is programmed.
The way I do it is to drop markers in SDII and then import the file into MLCD, then set the number of tracks and finally edit the index numbers by option-clicking over their time readouts in the PQ window. Once you are in the PQ window, any editing you do should not affect the audio timing in any way. The item spacing default should only affect the first zero index as there is only one item (several tracks but just one file).
Hope this helps

Marcus