The gaps between songs

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When you download albums track by tack to burn to CD, the mp3s don't contain the silence before & after the songs, do they? I usually put a standard 2 second gap between the tracks. But is much being lost by listening to records in this way? How much attention do artists give to track spacing? What are good examples of effective use of unusually long or short gaps?

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Thursday, 9 October 2003 10:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I've only downloaded a couple of albums but this bugs the shit out of me -- esp. something like M83 where the tracks flow into each other & my MP3s don't like up right. Good short gap: Rolling Stones "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" --> "It's Only Rock'n'Roll"

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 9 October 2003 10:37 (twenty-one years ago)

don't "line up" right, that is.

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 9 October 2003 10:38 (twenty-one years ago)

When Wire had that Wire tribute band the Ex-Lion Tamers open for them, the Ex-Lion Tamers allegedly played Pink Flag precisely, right down to the length of the gaps between songs. I can't think of any examples at the moment, but some albums tend to isolate the big closing statement - all the other tracks on a given album might be separated by one-second gaps, but there will be, say, a five-second gap between the end of the penultimate song and the last one itself.

― Damian (Damian), Thursday, 9 October 2003 11:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Spacing is part of pacing... now I'm reminded of old Pink Floyd albums that have big five-second gaps between tracks (Meddle, to be precise), and how it used to really annoy me.

― Damian (Damian), Thursday, 9 October 2003 11:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember reading something about the Strokes discussing the gap between 2 numbers while finalising their new cd. Must have been in NME.

I also remember thinking: 'duh'.

― daarkbee, Thursday, 9 October 2003 11:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought that given gaps were a part of the CD tracks that you'd have the gap at the end of the track on an MP3 ripped from a CD!!!!! Unless of course someone put it through "MP3Trim" or such like!!!!
You can get decent gapless players nowadays for "mix" CDs (eg the Pyramid MP3-splice plugin for Winamp 2.) as well!!!! Mind you, that also depends on the quality of the MP3s, but I've got been listening to some "mix" CDs sans annoying gaps for a few weeks now!!!!

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Thursday, 9 October 2003 13:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I know nothing about the ways CD data is organised, but I thought the gaps were seperate objects, or at least they were part of the song before 00.00 (so the CD player displays minus time for the couple of seconds before a track starts).

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Thursday, 9 October 2003 14:04 (twenty-one years ago)

the only examples i can think of right now of "interesting" uses of gaps are the silences at the beginning and end of the mark hollis lp (i think the music starts about 30 seconds in) which gives you a nice time to settle into the listening experience combined with the fact that the music itself actually starting seems like a nice surprise even though you know it is coming. I can't understand why this technique has not been more widely used.

also the new robert wyatt cd includes a gap in the middle in order for the listener "to go and make a cup of tea" hehe

― jed (jed_e_3), Thursday, 9 October 2003 14:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, that is how cd data is stored. Some cds have no gaps as seperate objects, but gaps in the sound. Others have specific pretrack gaps.

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 9 October 2003 14:18 (twenty-one years ago)

This means mp3s could have the gap includede in them, or not. I think most mp3 rippers ignore the pretrack gap.
It's a pain when you have a album of mp3s where each track flows into the next, but the player puts little gaps between songs.

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 9 October 2003 14:21 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah i downloaded immer by michael mayer and burned it to cd,only to find that the cd writing program had inserted little gaps between tracks
its particularly annoying with mixes...

― robin (robin), Thursday, 9 October 2003 14:47 (twenty-one years ago)

the gap between
'the girls want to be with the girls' -> 'found a job' tracks
on the t.heads LP 'more songs about buildings & food' is music in itself - the timing is perfect
(i have never heard the CD - i hope they maintained it)

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Thursday, 9 October 2003 15:17 (twenty-one years ago)

So is a copy of an album with false gaps between songs more or less defective than copies with other flaws (e.g. 80s tape-to-tape duplicates with their hiss)?

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Friday, 10 October 2003 23:49 (twenty-one years ago)

is there a way to make iTunes actually play _zero_ silence between mp3's, or are you stuck with that ludicrous crossfading feature that actually loses music when crossfading them by a number of seconds?

if not, any CD with music that flows between tracks is very annoying to listen to on iTunes. It really is a pop-specific medium isn't it?

― (Jon L), Saturday, 11 October 2003 00:52 (twenty-one years ago)

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