I checked Albumwrap from INFAMUS SOFTWARE , the "ultimate" tool to merge mp3s in a single regular mp3 file and AlbumWrap Extractor, to split that file. I know that this method has no advantages vs. archiving: It's not possible to use VBR for example (HORROR!), but I wanted to check it with Lame Encoded CBR files.
I'm able to wrap the files correctly : When I listen to the big file I can hear all the tracks seamlessy. But when I try to extract I obtain all copies of the first Track , or to be precise the duration of the extracted files is correct but when I play them, each one begin with the first track and if the duration is greater than the first track then it continues with the second, else it is truncated . Is this a bug of Albumwrap and has to do with ID3 Tags and/or with LAme Tags? (I use Eac for ripping and Lame 3.90.2 for encoding with --alt-preset cbr 192). I have tried all the combinations for ID3: ID3 v.1.0/ID3 v.1.1 and ID3 v2.3.0/ID3 v2.4.0.
I will continue to use the zip trick:
- Zip all the files with "No compression"
- Manually add the .mp3 extension after .zip extension
The resulting file is still a regular mp3 and is fully previewable, but it is also a regular zip file and can be also VBR (useful for P2P users!). F**K Albumwrap!

I have to add two more things:
- I have tested and replicated this on three pcs, all with Win98 SE OS.
- This happens ONLY if I create the file: Albumwrap Extractor works fine if I use it with internet downloaded files.
-

I ask if someone has the same problem.
Any suggestions?

I found that Alba extracts AlbumWrap files much better than the AlbumWrap Extractor. Get the Alba extractor from http://alba.sourceforge.net/

-Winky

Yeeees. It works! It can correctly extract the single tracks!
But this is pretty strange: How is it possible that it is working better than the "native" application? There must be something wrong.
And, my question is: if I realize a compilation (my songs...naturally) and I put it online (example WinMx...), will the users have the same problem with my files?
I say this because I have no problem to extract files made by others, so maybe the problem is only mine.
It would be interesting if I could post a albumwrapped file to make a test. It will contain only few seconds of three tracks encoded and albumwrapped by me.
How and where can I post that file??

I'm no AlbumWrap expert, but I believe that track offsets are kept in the mp3's id3 tag. Are you re-tagging your wrapped files after wrapping them? I think this may cause corruption.

-Winky

No, I don't re-tag the albumwrapped file.

The problem I've found is a bug of AlbumWrap Maker under Windows (I don't know why) but the result is the following one:

The structure of an Album wrapped is:

offset 1326 Number of tracks
offset 1338 Duration track 1 + [][] + start point of track 1 + [][] + Name of the mp3 file for this track

From here every 501 bytes one can find the same for the rest of the tracks.

In one file with 11 tracks we get:

offset 1338 Info first track
offset 1839 Info second track
offset 2340 Info third track
........
offset 6348 Info last track (11th)
offset 6849 First mp3 track

Then you will find that the start point of the first track will be 0.6849

The bug consist just in this mark, all the tracks point to this offset, so when we extract one, always we can listen the first song, but the duration is correct.

I'm working in making a program to resolve this. I'll post it when I'll get it

Greetings for all

Well, I've found the bug at last.

To all the users with Windows:

All the problem is the character we use to specify the decimals in our Regional Configuration.

The AlbumWrap only knows as decimal the character "." and not the ","
All we need is to set this as follows:

Open Control Panel ("Panel de Control")
Select Date, Time, Regional and Language Settings ("Opciones regionales, de idioma, y de fecha y hora")
Set up Regional and Language settings ("Configuración Regional y de idioma")
Select Customize ("Personalizar")

For Decimal symbol set "." and for thousands set ","
("En símbolo decimal pon "." y en separador de miles ",")

Click Apply or Accept ("Pulsa sobre Aplicar o Aceptar")

Close the Control Panel and Try now

wow you Have done well.
do your findings apply to the alba version 0.4