Hi folks.
(First off: This seems like a long post, but it's not. So please don't stop reading until you see the CODE blocks - those only concern Case. )
Since I'm starting a newly layed out collection, I'm trying to decide on the type of CUE sheet to use, and would appreciate some advice. There are 3 options:
1) EAC's "noncompliant" CUE sheets, which match the separate MPC or WAV files (i.e., the gap mode is correct, the CUE sheet specifies gaps at the end of files, which is where they are).
This is a problem because I'm reluctant to use EAC's burning function (it constantly produces coasters even with my drive which has a buffer underrun protection), and Burrrn doesn't work either. So while this option may be the only one that matches the files, the CUE sheets wouldn't be of much use to me and I'd end up burning CDs without using them anyway.
2) "Multiple WAV files with corrected gaps". This is actually incompatible with the files (since it specifies that the gaps be at the beginning of the files, when in fact they're not), but since mppdec can comfortably decode all files referenced in an .m3u playlist into a single large WAV file (by using mppdec playlist.m3u range.wav) and the CUE sheet can be converted to match this big image file using cuefix, this is not too big a problem. At least I could use the CUE sheet at all.
But apart from the fact that using cuefix is an unnecessary step (I could just use option 3), I have concerns about this method which I will explain further below.
3) CUE sheet for a single wave file. This sounds like the best option so far - just decode the MPC album using mppdec playlist.m3u range.wav and use the CUE sheet. This should work, shouldn't it? The track indexes should still be correct even after decoding the MPC files, since MPC doesn't alter the length of files (?).
Now, about my concerns for cuefix (this mainly concerns Case, if you're reading it ). In theory, a CUE sheet generated by cuefix should be identical with a CUE sheet for one large image file, right?
It's not. Take a look at this:
This is what the single file CUE sheet created by EAC looks like:
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
TITLE "Love Over Gold"
FILE "Range.wav" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Telegraph Road"
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:00:32
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "Private Investigations"
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
INDEX 00 14:18:25
INDEX 01 14:18:72
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Industrial Disease"
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
INDEX 00 21:04:35
INDEX 01 21:05:62
TRACK 04 AUDIO
TITLE "Love Over Gold"
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
INDEX 00 26:53:65
INDEX 01 26:56:15
TRACK 05 AUDIO
TITLE "It Never Rains"
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
INDEX 00 33:10:55
INDEX 01 33:13:17
cuefix created this CUE sheet:
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
TITLE "Love Over Gold"
FILE "Range.wav" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Telegraph Road"
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
PREGAP 00:00:32
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "Private Investigations"
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
INDEX 00 14:17:68
INDEX 01 14:18:40
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Industrial Disease"
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
INDEX 00 21:04:03
INDEX 01 21:05:30
TRACK 04 AUDIO
TITLE "Love Over Gold"
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
INDEX 00 26:53:33
INDEX 01 26:55:58
TRACK 05 AUDIO
TITLE "It Never Rains"
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
INDEX 00 33:10:23
INDEX 01 33:12:60
If you paste both of those into separate text editor windows and switch between the two with [ALT]+[TAB], you will see the differences. Where does the PREGAP flag on track 1 come from, and why are the times slightly off?
I'm totally baffled at this. Since cuefix gets the exact track lengths from the MPC files, this leads me to assume that they're somehow different than on the original CD - which, I was thinking, shouldn't happen with MPC.
Now, where is the problem? Is it really that the track lengths are different (in that case, option 2) would be preferable, i.e., the CUE sheet created by cuefix would be more exact), or is cuefix doing something wrong (which would make option 3) the better solution)? I really don't know.
I'd be grateful for some insight here.
In case this might be of need, here is the original "Multiple WAV files with corrected gaps" CUE sheet:
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
TITLE "Love Over Gold"
FILE "01 - Telegraph Road.wav" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Telegraph Road"
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:00:32
FILE "02 - Private Investigations.wav" WAVE
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "Private Investigations"
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:00:47
FILE "03 - Industrial Disease.wav" WAVE
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Industrial Disease"
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:01:27
FILE "04 - Love Over Gold.wav" WAVE
TRACK 04 AUDIO
TITLE "Love Over Gold"
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:02:25
FILE "05 - It Never Rains.wav" WAVE
TRACK 05 AUDIO
TITLE "It Never Rains"
PERFORMER "Dire Straits"
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:02:37
CU
Dominic