Setting up CUE tools 2.1.4
Reply #18 – 2012-07-28 18:57:34
Is there any significant difference, when splitting FLAC files into separate tracks, between the four gaps handling choices present in CUETools ? There is no difference to either the audio itself or the timings of the boundaries (a.k.a. split points, etc. ) between tracks. The differences concern the location of INDEX 00 regions (‘gaps’) in the resulting individual files. For instance, i have heard people say that for true lossless, programs like Medieval are not suited due to the way they separate the tracks. Is this true ? It’s true that many people recommend against MCS, because it does not preserve correct timing of boundaries; the excuse is that this is to facilitate splitting without re-encoding, but all it actually accomplishes is to shift between-track boundaries, and thereby compromise accuracy, merely to save someone a small amount of time. CUETools, in contrast, is sane. Anyway, the actual audio data is not affected by the splitting method in any case (although MCS will give tracks incorrect starting points).Is any one of these four choices better than the others, and for what reason ? Between korth’s and my previous posts, I thought this had been covered, but to make it explicit: the answer depends upon which you value most out of (1) compatibility with various applications and emulation of the seeking behaviour of an actual CD player; vs. (2) having the INDEX 00 region of a given track stored in the same file as its INDEX 01, which might seem nice logically but introduces other issues including the ones I’ve already outlined.