Hi,

I need to join some .wav files together seamlessly. They are all gapless and in theory should transition from one to another flawlessly. However the only software I have just now, Foobar, give me a small but very audible pop between sections. Any one have some suggestion? I've heard somewhere that I need software which allows me to 'join only at 0dB crossing' - but I'm not sure...

Tony

PS, it's very important that no other processing is done - the files are 96k/32.

Hi,

if there is a pop, the waveforms do not fit together seamlessly.
The only solutions would be either a short crossfade or cutting the source files at zero transitions, where dhe direction of the transitions has to be equal.
Or there are different DC offsets in the files, so you would have to highpass them before joining.

Did you have a look at the transition areas in a wave editor?

Think of a plot of a sine wave; every cycle goes up positive, then down past zero to a negative amplitude, in a smooth curve. Music can always be viewed as similar, but often more complex, waveforms. If two separate parts are stuck together, and the plot lines do not make a continuous smooth line at that point -- because one ends going down and the other begins going up, at different places on the cycle -- or they are similar in direction but dissimilar in amplitude -- there is a break in the smooth flow that will generally be heard as a click or pop.

Joining at a place on both where they cross the zero amplitude center line is just one aspect to consider. Basically the smooth curve must be continued, with no sudden break in direction or amplitude. Most audio editors can also automatically crossfade at the join -- make a smooth, no clicking, transition from one to the other. This waveform change takes place over a very small duration and generally does not change the sound on either side of the join unless things are initially a long way from matching.

If foobar2000 does not take care of these considerations, an audio editor is probably required. Possibly some special purpose tool that accomplishes this exists.

Audacity with a very short (few milliseconds) fade-out on one track, and fade-in on the other will work - I know because I pieced together a whole 79 minutes live recording made of MP3's, and I couldn't tell they were encoded with FhG which isn't gapless.