Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Any automatic .CUE generator that detects tracks without a CUE sheet? (Read 14646 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Any automatic .CUE generator that detects tracks without a CUE sheet?

I have some albums that are all in just one file per album that don't have CUE sheets, and there are no CUE sheets available for them (such as rare bootlegs). It seems all the CUE splitters out there will only work if you have the CUE sheet, but sometimes you just can't find the CUE sheets, and manually scrubbing through the entire albums to write down the beginnings and endings of each track just takes too long. Are there any .CUE generators out there that can automatically detect the beginning and ending of each track and then create a CUE sheet based on the detection?

Any automatic .CUE generator that detects tracks without a CUE sheet?

Reply #1 –
Quote from: Lunatique on
I have some albums that are all in just one file per album that don't have CUE sheets, and there are no CUE sheets available for them (such as rare bootlegs). It seems all the CUE splitters out there will only work if you have the CUE sheet, but sometimes you just can't find the CUE sheets, and manually scrubbing through the entire albums to write down the beginnings and endings of each track just takes too long. Are there any .CUE generators out there that can automatically detect the beginning and ending of each track and then create a CUE sheet based on the detection?

You need to appreciate that any such program must use rules for detecting track boundaries. Typically they will look for a period of near-silence. Inevitably the track detection rules will go wrong sometimes: two tracks that segue won't have a suficient gap and the boundary will be missed; a very quiet section in the middle of a track will be incorrectly detected as a boundary. Therefore any program of this type must first detect the tracks, then allow you to correct any errors, before finally writing the cue sheet.

With these provisos in mind, the obvious choice is CD Wave. It was designed specifically for this task, and is simple to use. It costs $15.

An alternative is my own program Wave Repair. It is rather more complicated to use than CD Wave, but has the benefit of being free if you only want to use it for track detection and cue sheet generation.

Any automatic .CUE generator that detects tracks without a CUE sheet?

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Lunatique on
...CUE generators out there that can automatically detect the beginning and ending of each track and then create a CUE sheet based on the detection?



Exact Audio Copy
Plus the tools to listen, edit and  and refine the cue sheet for when auto detection goes wrong.

Any automatic .CUE generator that detects tracks without a CUE sheet?

Reply #3 –
If nothing else, you build an ISO of an audio CD out of the file, mount it, and rip it with a CUE generating tool if that's how you're used to getting CUEs.

Any automatic .CUE generator that detects tracks without a CUE sheet?

Reply #4 –
Quote from: cliveb on
You need to appreciate that any such program must use rules for detecting track boundaries. Typically they will look for a period of near-silence. Inevitably the track detection rules will go wrong sometimes: two tracks that segue won't have a suficient gap and the boundary will be missed; a very quiet section in the middle of a track will be incorrectly detected as a boundary. Therefore any program of this type must first detect the tracks, then allow you to correct any errors, before finally writing the cue sheet.

With these provisos in mind, the obvious choice is CD Wave. It was designed specifically for this task, and is simple to use. It costs $15.


I've never had much luck with auto track detection for the reasons you gave.  With CD wave you can see most of the track gaps and just click to establish them.  For seamless gaps there's pretty much no solution but listening, or just leaving it as a multi-song medley track.

Audacity lets you drag the track markers around after you put them down if necessary.  I'm not sure if it can output cue sheet format but it can save the tracks in their own files.  Another free solution.

Both these programs can auto-number the tracks so they stay in the right order if you split the files.

Any automatic .CUE generator that detects tracks without a CUE sheet?

Reply #5 –
Quote from: DonP on
Audacity lets you drag the track markers around after you put them down if necessary.  I'm not sure if it can output cue sheet format but it can save the tracks in their own files.


That's what I do (except in an old version of Sound Forge, not Audacity). There are two caveats to that approach, though:
  • Unless you're very particular about where you put the markers, the tracks won't be a multiple of 588 samples, so adjustments will be necessary to keep them gapless (otherwise, silence will be added to pad them when burned to CD). If your burning software doesn't have a way to correct the boundaries, the 'fix' mode of the command-line tool shntool can do it for you.
  • Audacity's default settings result in dither being added; those quiet spaces get noticeably louder if you don't go into Preferences > Quality and change the High-quality Conversion dither to 'None' before exporting the WAV.

Any automatic .CUE generator that detects tracks without a CUE sheet?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: SCOTU on
If nothing else, you build an ISO of an audio CD out of the file, mount it, and rip it with a CUE generating tool if that's how you're used to getting CUEs.
You didn't actually read the post, did you?

Any automatic .CUE generator that detects tracks without a CUE sheet?

Reply #7 –
Quote from: dv1989 on
Quote from: SCOTU on
If nothing else, you build an ISO of an audio CD out of the file, mount it, and rip it with a CUE generating tool if that's how you're used to getting CUEs.
You didn't actually read the post, did you?


Is that not a valid solution to the problem?  I guess I don't technically know how EAC detects where tracks start and end.

Any automatic .CUE generator that detects tracks without a CUE sheet?

Reply #8 –
Quote from: SCOTU on
Quote from: dv1989 on
Quote from: SCOTU on
If nothing else, you build an ISO of an audio CD out of the file, mount it, and rip it with a CUE generating tool if that's how you're used to getting CUEs.
You didn't actually read the post, did you?


Is that not a valid solution to the problem?  I guess I don't technically know how EAC detects where tracks start and end.


EAC reads the toc to get track start points. In this case there is no toc or offset list to create one. EAC can generate a cue with the function in the wave editor portion of the program as I stated, other than that EAC will need a disc to use it's toc and gap detection routines. I have used EAC to make a number of custom cue sheets as it can take only a few minutes.
 

Any automatic .CUE generator that detects tracks without a CUE sheet?

Reply #9 –
Quote from: mjb2006 on
  • Audacity's default settings result in dither being added; those quiet spaces get noticeably louder if you don't go into Preferences > Quality and change the High-quality Conversion dither to 'None' before exporting the WAV.


If you're not using filters you can do all the editing in 16 bit fixed and there will be no format conversion and the manual indicates no dithering.

Cutting tracks on block boundaries sounds like a good default to put in preferences.