# Gapless MP3 playback over USB



## S-Fitz (Jul 16, 2012)

Hear ye! Serious first world problem in need of a solution!!!
Does anyone know if it is possible to get MP3 formatted music to playback without gaps between tracks? I've tried ripping CD's with several programs but I get the same outcome. Certain genres tend to have albums that play continuously without gaps. One album in particular, Ayreon's The Theory of Everything, is 4 songs segmented into 42 short tracks, _but_ there are only 3 breaks in the actual music. Having 1 second or longer breaks every 1-3 minutes in the middle of playback in a very instrumental album is very annoying!

If the stereo cannot do continuous playback, a method of joining multiple tracks into one would probably give me the gapless playback I want. I lack the knowledge to do this and cannot find recent, relevant info in my google searches. I'm aware this is probably a hardware/software limitation of the car stereo, so no need to discuss that. _Just looking for *on topic* solutions for continuous playback in MP3 over the USB port._


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

When you say over USB, I assume you're talking about via a thumb drive and not a iPod?

I'd imagine you can make a single MP3 using Audacity. Here is a video on how to merge MP3 files.

A quick Google for "merge mp3 files" turns up a number of options. One suggests that you can do it with just the copy command.


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## Jim Frye (Mar 16, 2011)

Windows Media Player can do gapless CD burns, so a crude way would be to burn a CD and then rip it back to the computer in a different folder. Copy that gapless folder to the flash drive. Windows copy command has a binary mode that concatenates files, but I have never tried it on music.


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## LiveTrash (May 24, 2015)

A lot of song files continue on for a few seconds or more after the music has ended with just nothing audible. The car doesn't register this and plays it anyway. This is there the gap you're referring to comes from. You'd have to go and edit every song file that has those blank few seconds at the end (or beginning) and erase them. I suggest a program like GoldWave.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

LiveTrash said:


> A lot of song files continue on for a few seconds or more after the music has ended with just nothing audible. The car doesn't register this and plays it anyway. This is there the gap you're referring to comes from. You'd have to go and edit every song file that has those blank few seconds at the end (or beginning) and erase them. I suggest a program like GoldWave.


I assumed that this wasn't the problem - that somehow the car needed time to switch from one MP3 to another and that was creating the gaps. But it would be worth checking to make sure the MP3 files in question are really gapless. Whatever software was used might have added some dead space.


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## S-Fitz (Jul 16, 2012)

ChevyGuy said:


> I assumed that this wasn't the problem - that somehow the car needed time to switch from one MP3 to another and that was creating the gaps. But it would be worth checking to make sure the MP3 files in question are really gapless. Whatever software was used might have added some dead space.


Your understanding of my issue is correct. On my MP3 player and PC these same files playback without pause between tracks but the car stereo takes time between tracks. I'm assuming the MP3 player and PC use software to pre-load the next track before the current track ends, vs loading the next track after the previous one. On most albums this is fine, as songs tend to start and finish. Unfortunately the album I listed plays continuously and without fade-outs or quiet interludes. The breaks are literally in the middle of the music, and as the album is 42 short track the breaks are frequent.

I'll take up your suggestion and try Audacity with the help of the video you posted, cheers!


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

I've noticed that MyLink can take considerable time to update the display after starting a new track. So a pause between tracks wouldn't surprise me at all.


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## Jim Frye (Mar 16, 2011)

ChevyGuy said:


> I've noticed that MyLink can take considerable time to update the display after starting a new track. So a pause between tracks wouldn't surprise me at all.


When I was car shopping, I noticed the time it took for the system in the Cruze to index or switch tracks was rather long compared to other systems. There have been posts here in the past about that time.


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