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Topic: Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB? (Read 12102 times) previous topic - next topic
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Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

I am new here, and I realize that this topic has been discussed here and elsewhere. However, I haven't exactly found out if there is a solution to this.

Here is my issue. Three or four years ago, I got my 80GB iPod Classic. I ripped all my files using Audiograbber and Lame 3.97. I have a lot of progressive / psychedelic rock music not intended to be played with gaps. Everything worked great. If it hadn't worked great, I wouldn't have continued using this particular software.

Fast forward three years, and my iPod was having issues that a three year old iPod would have (freezes up, resets, etc.). For the first time ever, I upgraded the software and restored the iPod in an attempt to save it, but noticed that there were gaps between the songs. I didn't think much of it, knowing that this iPod was on its last legs.

Just a couple of days ago, I traded in my failing iPod Classic 80GB for a refurbished one at my local Apple Store (still iPod Classic 80GB), and the same thing happened. When I am playing albums that are supposed to flow together, like Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, I hear these brief gaps (not clicks, just very brief gaps). They're little irritating, but I guess that I could live with them if there is no solution. Interestingly enough, this does not happen in iTunes with the exact same files.

My question is:
I already have 50GB of ripped data and I am not about to redo it. Is there anything that I can do to eliminate the gaps between the songs on my iPod?

Thank you very much!

PS I read all about crossfading and checking "part of a gapless album", but that's not it...

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #1 –
Are you using a modern version of iTunes?  Gapless playback can only occur if iTunes scans the tracks for gappless playback.  It sounds like, somewhere down the line, that gapless playback information was lost.  I believe updating to a new version of iTunes will cause it to re-scan your tracks for gapless playback.  Also removing the tracks from your iTunes library and adding them back in will force iTunes to re-scan them.  The only negative aspect about that procedure is you would lose ratings, playlists, etc.  I don't think you can force iTunes to re-scan for gapless playback though.  Scanning can take a while depending on the specs of your system.

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #2 –
Thanks, I am using a new version of iTunes. It's 10.1.2, I believe (I am not home right now, but it's very new). I actually even tried iTunes 8.0.2 with same results.

See, what is weird to me is that iTunes does know what to do, but my iPod does not. In other words, if I am playing my iPod through iTunes, it all works fine in a gapless manner. Which is what leads me to believe that this has something to do with my iPod rather than iTunes, but I really don't know (I am neither a software nor hardware engineer). It's almost like the way that these LAME encrypted files are being read by the iPod (and not iTunes) has changed between the time that I got my first iPod and when I upgraded the software on it.

As far as the library comment, I don't actually have one. I typically just play my iPod through my computer. Given that I just transferred all my files onto the new (refurbished) iPod from my hard drive, something did get scanned. And I actually don't think that this has anything to do with this iPod being refurbished, as my old one was giving me the same difficulties when I updated the software.

Thanks for the advice!

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #3 –
Did you try removing one of the gapless albums on your iPod and replacing it with the album from iTunes making sure that iTunes scanned it for gapless playback?

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #4 –
Please pardon my ignorance, but what exactly do you mean by "replacing it with the album from iTunes"?

Do you mean that I should add my mp3 album to my iTunes library and then "drag it" from there onto my iPod, as opposed to dragging my windows explorer folders straight onto the iPod, which is what I have been doing?

Thanks for all the help!

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #5 –
Quote from: shared_gum on
Do you mean that I should add my mp3 album to my iTunes library and then "drag it" from there onto my iPod, as opposed to dragging my windows explorer folders straight onto the iPod, which is what I have been doing?

Yes, exactly!

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: shared_gum on
dragging my windows explorer folders straight onto the iPod

How can that even work?
"Not sure what the question is, but the answer is probably no."

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #7 –
Quote from: greynol on
Quote from: shared_gum on
Do you mean that I should add my mp3 album to my iTunes library and then "drag it" from there onto my iPod, as opposed to dragging my windows explorer folders straight onto the iPod, which is what I have been doing?

Yes, exactly!

Well, it worked, at least it did for Jimi Hendrix Woodstock. Thanks a million! I will need to test it some more tomorrow evening when I have some more time.

I wish that I could change the typo in the thread title so that others can find this...

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #8 –
Quote from: mixminus1 on
Quote from: shared_gum on
dragging my windows explorer folders straight onto the iPod

How can that even work?


Oh it does, try it. except for the gaps.

I manually manage all of my music, and this was listed as an option in the User's Manual, and that's what I've been doing. Maybe not the most efficient way, but that's how I've been doing it.

I promise you that it worked till I updated my software.

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #10 –
Well, another option would be to completely restore the iPod (which will erase absolutely everything on it) and re-sync the content back over.  This will get rid of any software/firmware issues on the iPod's end and should fix your gapless issue.  The only thing is that your files need to be stored on your computer in order for this to work.  It shouldn't be an issue as you should not be storing your files solely on your iPod, that is just asking for trouble.  The prices of external USB hard drives have come down so much that there is no excuse to not have your media stored on your computer.  So restore your iPod and sync the content back over.  That will force a new copy of the library file (where non-embedded album artwork, playlists, and various other information is stored) to be copied back over to the iPod and it should fix the gapless playback issue.

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #12 –
I never understood why people are reluctant to initialize their iTunes libraries. On request it works purely referential and existing folder structures can be kept.

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #13 –
Quote from: saratoga on
Quote from: mixminus1 on
Quote from: shared_gum on
dragging my windows explorer folders straight onto the iPod
How can that even work?
I assume he means he drags them onto the ipod icon in iTunes, not onto the ipod itself.
That’ll be it; that’s how the “Manually manage” option works. The iPod appears as a separate ‘library’ that can have files added to and deleted from it without affecting the local library and without any requirement to sync.

Watch out for auto-syncing, though! I had a few scares during my time as an iPod user; these weren’t due to manual management, but the risk might still apply.

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #14 –
Thanks, everyone, again. With all my searches, this is the first time that I have been able to link this issue to manual iPod update, but I still maintain that there must have been some change in software that began causing this to happen. Yes, by the way, I drag my Windows Explorer music folders onto the iPod icon in iTunes, not to the iPod drive in Explorer (sorry, I wasn't clear).

I have all my music in both wave and mp3 formats on two different hard drives (in case that one of them fails). I know that wave is not used as much anymore, but that's what was around way back in the day when I began the process.  I am very methodical in some ways, but sometimes, I just can't keep up with everything. Also, through my work and issues that others were having, I guess that I like everything automated to a degree, but ultimately, I trust myself more. Perhaps it's not the most efficient way, but I am comfortable with it. 

I think that greynol is correct - I will have to populate my iTunes library first. I never felt the need to do this in the past, because it was almost like an added step. Can I simply add my F:\mp3\ folder to the library, and iTunes will know what to do (I have artist and album subfolders in there)? It will probably take forever, but that's fine. I plan to continue manually syncing the iTunes library.

Thanks!

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #15 –
Yes, you need an iTunes library first.  iTunes has always operated optimally this way especially if you want to take advantage of things such as gapless playback, the ability to make playlists, have iTunes look up album art, etc.  There are a few things you need to check in iTunes before creating a library.  Click on Edit and then click on Preferences.  Change the iTunes library location to your mp3 directory folder.  Also make sure there isn't a check mark next to the option of "Keep iTunes folder organized" as that will make iTunes move your files around to fit its organizational setup (which is having one Music folder, a series of artist subfolders, and then album subfolders within each artist folder).  Click on OK and then click on File, Add Folder to Library, and point it to your mp3 folder.  iTunes is "smart" enough to scan for subfolders and add media in them.  All of your mp3 files should be added to your iTunes library.  The next step, which is the most important, is letting iTunes scan for gapless playback.  After adding the files to your library, iTunes will look up album artwork to any files that don't have it embedded.  At the same time, iTunes is going to scan each track for gapless playback information.  Just let the two processes go.  Don't click on the X in the greenish area of iTunes (where you normally see the Apple logo), don't close iTunes during the process, just let it go.  This is the process that could take a while depending on how large your library is.  It takes overnight for the process to finish on my 1.6GHz dual-core Atom nettop and my 300GB+ library on my 7200 RPM hard drive hooked up via eSATA.  I recently purchased a new MacBook Pro and the process only took a few hours.  That was with the same library hooked up to my MacBook Pro via Firewire 800 on the same hard drive.  The main difference was that my MBP has a dual-core Core i7 processor with 8GB of RAM.

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #16 –
Thanks, again, Kornchild2002! I will give this a try tonight. I have 50GB of data, so it will take a while, but I am not too concerned about that. You also mentioned album artwork. Is there a way to disable that option? I don't want pdf files taking up space on my iPod, since I either have cds or vinyl for 99% of the music that I own and thus own the artwork. Perhaps I can do that after iTunes does its scan?

Thanks!

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #17 –
iTunes does not download PDF files for the artwork.  Instead, it will download one 1-1.5 MB file and associate it with the appropriate songs in an album.  It does not embed the artwork into each file.  So a 10 song album isn't going to increase by 15MB in size, it is going to add 1.5MB as the artwork is embedded in a library file.  Again, this is only done for files that don't have embedded artwork and only for songs that iTunes can find from the iTunes Store.  You can stop iTunes from doing this by clicking on Edit, Preferences, Store, and then clear the box next to "Automatically download missing album art..."  I forgot to previously mention that and I don't know why.  Also, just a little amendment to my above post; you find all of those options by clicking on Edit, Preferences, and then Advanced.  I just told you to click on Edit and then Preferences, that is not going to show those options by default and you have to click on the Advanced button (it used to be a tab) to see the settings for your iTunes library location and physical management of the files.

On a side note, you will have to keep in mind that you should not change the location or file names of your music once it has been added to your iTunes library.  For example, I have Song A.mp3 in folder XY on my computer.  I can rename it to Song B.mp3 or move it to folder FG on my computer and iTunes is going to lose track of the file making me manually add it back to my library.  So, once files have been added to your library, you essentially have to leave them alone.  You can do some things with them (embed artwork, ReplayGain/MP3Gain, adjust track tag information) but you can't do anything that physically changes the files whether it is their location or names.

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #18 –
Thanks again. But, if I manually manage my music, this should not be too much of an issue, right?

In other words, once I do my initial transfer of all the "iTunes-scanned" songs onto my iPod, if I buy a cd, I will rip it, and then the iTunes library should find it right there. From the iTunes library, I will drag it onto the iPod manually. So what happens to that file in my iTunes library later does not really matter and it will not affect my iPod, right? I do not plan on syncing my iTunes library with my iPod.

Ideally, at this point, however, I would probably want to do what you're suggesting anyway, to make my life easier and for good bookkeeping, but I was just curious. Thanks for all the pointers!

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #19 –
Well, you are technically right in that you won't have to worry once tracks have been added to your iTunes library, scanned for gapless playback, and manually synced to your iPod.  That being said, iPods need to be restored quite a bit meaning that absolutely everything is erased on them.  This means that you would have to complete this process all over again if you ever had to restore your iPod just to you could sync content back to it.  It is better to just suck it up and have an iTunes library as that is how iPods have optimally operated even dating back to their introduction in 2001.  You have PC software, your media accessed by that software, and the physical hardware being synced with the PC software.  Removing one or more of those elements essentially modifies the whole iPod equation.

I suggest taking things further and not only have an iTunes library but use auto sync.  It is extremely painless, you can setup exactly what you want to sync without having to drag-and-drop files, it won't cause any confusion as to whether or not something has been synced to your iPod, and it is a whole lot easier to just initially set things up then all you have to do is plug your iPod in and iTunes will do the rest.  Either way, you should have at least an iTunes library as you don't want to have to go through all of this stuff again down the line when you have to restore your iPod.

Gaps between songs on iPod Classic 80GB?

Reply #20 –
Quote from: googlebot on
I never understood why people are reluctant to initialize their iTunes libraries. On request it works purely referential and existing folder structures can be kept.

[Side-topic, but I feel it deserves a reply. Feel free to split these posts if you think it necessary.]
Speaking only for myself, I don't use iTunes as my primary music manager -- I use a very specific directory structure on an external hard drive and foobar2000 to manage it. I prefer how that program works compared to iTunes and I also use several audio formats (FLAC, Vorbis, MPC, etc) that iTunes does not support by default.

If I need to transcode files to put on my iPod (mostly the case for my lossless files), I will use fb2k's converter interface with Nero's encoder to transcode to AAC, then load the files manually in conjunction with iTunes's "Manually manage my iPod" option. I find it works seamlessly and has served me quite well over the last few years. I will manually sync my iPod for things like podcasts, but I do not sync my music to a larger iTunes library for my general music.