Maybe this has been discussed before but I just started a new topic in case this is only an issue for the latest Foobar versions. I thought foobar was supposed to be gapless with nero aac. If it can be, how do I make it gapless? Mp3s are fine and are perfectly gapless. In case you are wondering, I use dbpoweramp to rip to nero aac at .65 vbr if that matters. Thanks

Oh and I am using windows Vista Home Premium in case that also matters

I have no idea except there must be something wrong here. Have you tried to rip end encode with fb2k, and checked your dsp chain?

dsp chain? I have nothing enabled on my dsps except my crossfeed plugin but even when disabling that, its still not gapless. Is there a gapless component that I need to get?

Well, foobar2000 is gapless when files are gapless. Perhaps this older thread interests you.

hmm weird... ripping from the same cd using dbpoweramp into mp3, foobar plays it gapless. ripping it into nero aac it's not. No difference in configuration when ripping except one is an mp3 album rip the other aac

looking from that link I guess nero aac isn't gapless as it is claimed to be

foobar2000 converter, NeroAacEnc 1.3.3.0, vbr q=0.55 => gapless on fb2k 0.9.6.5.

Maybe dbpoweramp does some postprocessing on the files that removes the gapless data? Try using the command line encoder directly with the same options and see if you get the same results.

I find Nero AAC is gapless encoded with dBPowerAmp on Windows Vista and 7 when playing back using iTunes and Winamp (all recent versions of both). These files also play gaplessly on my Nano 2G.

I should add that these AAC's were created from lossless rips, usually WMA's.

yup same files gapless on itunes but not on foobar... so now its definitely foobar then

You could try Foorbar's diskwriter output plugin and analyse the transition either in a wave editor or with Synchrotron.

what would be the point of that if I know it is already gapless from playing it in itunes? Can anyone answer whether the the latest foobar is gapless with nero vbr aac files by trying it? I just want to know if I'm the only one getting this problem. Its weird that not too many are asking or complaining about this especially when foobar claims to be gapless with nero aac

I too have experienced the same problem. I recently ripped a lot of discs to Nero AAC using dBpoweramp and found that for some reason they failed to play gaplessly in both Foobar and Winamp. Interestingly upon importing them into iTunes they were not scanned for the iTunes gapless tag, as lame mp3s are upon import, and so they didn't play gaplessly even in iTunes as a result. As these were for my parents' use and they aren't bothered about the gapless nature of the files I never bothered to pursue it any further I'm afraid, but nevertheless I can confirm I've suffered the same issue so you're not alone!

The Nero encoded files I linked to in my previous post have same glitch on transition with both foobar2000 and latest iTunes. If you insist that foobar has issues go ahead and upload two sample files that show this.

Nero AAC is gapless for me.

I had some mp3s which I previously ripped using EAC and LAME 3.98r2. They play gaplessly in fb2k 0.9.6.8. I transcoded them to mp4 using NeroAACenc in fb2k.

The mp4s play gaplessly in fb2k.

I completely concur; foobar encoded NeroAAC files play gaplessly in Foobar and Winamp for me. Can we therefore deduce that this lack of gapless playback is some issue with dBpoweramp's current method of ripping or encoding, but an issue limited to when using NeroAAC?

Here are two 5 second clips that show the issue I ran into earlier. I hope menno does something about it.

iTunes uses its own gapless playback methods. It will scan file, analyze the metadata, and then figure out how to properly play files (Lame mp3, Nero AAC, etc.) for gapless playback. Uploading a few samples would allow people to try to experience your issues. As previously stated, you should upload samples if you keep insisting that foobar2000 or dBpowerAMP are the issues. That way, we can help you narrow down the problem or notify the developers (of either application) if there actually is an issue.

Why isn't anybody digging into the issue by analyzing the transition? There are two possible causes, one being a broken gapless implementation, the other a perfectly working gapless implementation but an encoder going off course at file boundaries. We have seen both happen in the past.

just checked this thread its 5 am here. I'll try to do whats been said to give you guys data at a later time

TOS #9 says clips must not be longer than 30 seconds. Keep that in mind before you start uploading files.

Nero AAC encoded @ highest bitrate with dbpoweramp front end is gapless on Foobar and on my iPod 5G.

Ok now I just figured something out... Foobar is fine and does gapless even with itunes aacs. Its my nero aacs that are not gapless. The Itunes plus aacs were ripped with itunes and there were some tags I couldnt understand so I deleted them... Boom, now the same itunes aac files arent gapless on foobar. So the question now is... Do AACs need special tags in order to make them gapless? Ive read that AAC is not gapless by nature compared with mp3 so I guess it is these tags that I deleted which are needed to have gapless playback. How do I set DBpoweramp to tag the nero AAC files to make them gapless?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gapless_playback#Format_support

Both MP3 and AAC need special provisions in the encoder to be "gapless" as neither are naturally gapless formats. I would assume that such information would be stored in headers, not tags, though.

Then why do tags make a difference in itunes aac gapless behavior

AAC uses blocks of 1024, 960, 128, or 120 samples (MP3 576 and 192). When the original file ended inside of such a block (most of the time) you need to record within a tag how many samples of the last block must be discarded to get the original sample count.

All encoders also add a small delay. The exact sample count of this delay needs to be recorded in a second tag so that the decoder can compensate this during playback.

All this works pretty well with most players for ages. Unless of course you are so smart to delete all metadata you don't understand .

The only thing, that can cause gaps despite proper gapless metadata, is when the encoder introduces artifacts at file boundaries. I think Nero AAC and LAME are sometimes affected by this, but not Apple AAC.

So the question is... How do I make dbpoweramp write this metadata on the tags like itunes in order for nero aac to be gapless? When you say nero aac and lame are SOMETIMES affected lets just say on my end lame is ALWAYS gapless without this extra stuff on the tags while nero is ALWAYS not gapless. If only lame mp3 at v0 was transparent I wouldnt worry about it but I feel even nero at a smaller size (.55) is more extended at the highest frequencies.

I would use itunes to encode to aac and forget about the whole issue but boy does itunes encode really slow with error correction on. 4.8x on my lappy vs more than 20x using dbpoweramp secure

It does by default. As said, the metadata issue is a non-issue and usually works. If an encoder is inserting artifacts at file boundaries, there's not much you can do.



Without gapless metadata LAME could not be gapless by definition, as it is also using blocks of at least 192 samples. I haven't heard, yet, that Nero would always be not gapless, usually it's reported to be gapless, expect for cases where the encoder adds artifacts.



Best practice would be to rip to lossless using EAC or dbpoweramp and then convert to Quicktime AAC.

Ahh my luck So no gapless nero for me. So Itunes it is then for gapless albums or lame v0

How do I convert to quicktime aac?

If you don't have access to a Mac, rip to ALAC with dbpoweramp and then convert the resulting files with iTunes to AAC. For anything further, the search function is your friend.

Thanks