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Topic: Is there no way to properly merge VBR files? (Read 2533 times) previous topic - next topic
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Is there no way to properly merge VBR files?

Okay, I've done several searches on the topic but haven't found any useful info yet.  I've ripped some audio books from CDs into VBR mp3s - I'm trying to get the resulting files merged into chapters. 

I've made sure that there are no tags at all before concatenating, but no matter what I do or what program I use, I can't get the proper file length to display when I play the resulting file in my audio player.  It doesn't matter what player I use.  The displayed file length is either much to short - about the length of one of the individual segments, or it's close but still off by several mintues (probably because the VBR headers have been ignored all together). 

I've tried using various programs to "fix" the VBR header of the merged file including Foobar and VBRfix - none work.  What am I missing here?? 

If it wasn't for the fact that it took me several hours to rip all of these files from several long unabridged audio books (20+ disks each) I would redo them all with CBR but I really don't want to do that.  Plus my file size to quality ratio is much better with VBR.

Is there no way to properly merge VBR files?

Reply #1 –
Did you use the same encoder (and settings) for all files?

Is there no way to properly merge VBR files?

Reply #2 –
Yes.  I used lame 3.97 with the same VBR settings for all files.
 

Is there no way to properly merge VBR files?

Reply #3 –
I use mp3directcut's "append all/selection to..." function and then run the result through vbrfix, and it seems to work properly.