I am able to use the cue file effectively.

After i have burned my tracks to cd though,there is still a spilt econd pause between tracks.

Does anyone know how i can eliminate that?

Thanks

Technoman, you need two index numbers under the track, 00 and 01. 01 is where the new track starts and 00 is exactly 2 seconds before that. This allows the CD player to continue playing whilst changing tracks.

This is a great thread on cue files, but the information is a bit all over the place so I thought I’d sum it up in a definitive guide.

In basic terms, a cue file splits up a liveset (or any other long piece of music) into smaller segments. This means that, although the music will still play continually, you can skip to a certain song and the name of the song currently playing will show, if the equipment is CD text compatible.

A cue file can be created in notepad and it has to be made to be explicitly correct, as computers can’t interpret any possible mistakes. I’ll give an example of a cue file and explain it beneath.


PERFORMER "Mixed by DJ Nonsdrome"
TITLE "Trance Night Vol. 8"
FILE "c:\music\Trance Night Vol. 8 - Mixed by DJ Nonsdrome.mp3" MP3
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "01 - DJ Shog - Another World (Instrumental Club Remix)"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "02 - Magic Wave & MVL - Did You Hear Me (Marc Van Linden Remix)"
INDEX 00 05:47:74
INDEX 01 05:49:74
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "03 - Alex Bartlett - Amnesia (Steve Murano Remix)"
INDEX 00 11:05:16
INDEX 01 11:07:16
TRACK 04 AUDIO
TITLE "04 - Dave 202 & Phil Green feat. Savier - Moments of Silence"
INDEX 00 14:01:47
INDEX 01 14:03:47
TRACK 05 AUDIO
TITLE "05 - Mind One feat. Rena - Star For Me (Instrumental Remix)"
INDEX 00 18:52:18
INDEX 01 18:54:18
TRACK 06 AUDIO
TITLE "06 - Orion's Voice - The Next Life (Origin Unknown Remix)"
INDEX 00 23:39:55
INDEX 01 23:41:55


The first three lines are pretty self explanatory, fill in the performer and title inbetween the quote marks on the appropriate line.

As for the file, just put in the full directory of the file. To check it is the full directory, copy it and paste in to Start, Run and click OK. If it’s right, the file will open. Also, after the quote mark you need a space and then what type of file it is. In the above example it is a .mp3 file so you should write MP3. If it was a .wav file you write WAVE (note the ‘e’ on the end).

The file name of the cue sheet and the file name of the music file all have to match or you will get a line 3 error message.

Where it says TITLE by the files, in between the quotes put the name of the track that you want to show up on a computer, or any device that supports this.

Now for the INDEX part – this is how the computer knows where to split up the tracks. The numbers go like this – minutes:seconds:frame. The frame is a slice of a second – there are 80 of them in a second. You could leave the frame at 00, but the track number would change at the start of the second, not on the beat (unless you’re lucky!). You can use a program to find exactly which frame the track changes, but I won’t go into that here. Instead, if you count and think it’s about half a second in, put 40. A quarter of the way in, 20 etc.

As you’ve noticed, there are two INDEX numbers, 00 and 01. INDEX 00 is two seconds before INDEX 01 (which is where the track changes). This allows the CD player to continually play while changing tracks.

Do this for all of the tracks and just save the notepad file (it will be a .txt file).

One final thing to note here – the name of the cue file must be the same as the name of the music file.

If you can’t be bothered to create your own cue file then the biggest resource I know of is: http://www.regeert.nl/cuesheet/

Now to explain how to put these cue files on to a disc...

The program that I’m using is CDRWin, you could also use Nero or as well as a number of other programs. Note – Adaptec Easy CD creator doesn’t support cue files. The version of CDRWin is a trial version so you can only burn at 1x speed. This isn’t too bad (about 13 mins to burn a 70 minute CD) but you can ‘obtain’ a serial number to make it function as normal if you look around.

It’s really simple in CDRWin, all you need to do is locate the file you want to burn, locate the appropriate cue sheet and click record disk.

Hopefully that’s everything, anything that you think I’ve missed/should add, just reply and I’ll edit it.

Jack.

I'm trying to burn Tiesto in Concert to cds. I know how to use .cue files on any regular mix, but here's my problem.

The cd's I have can't hold more than 80mins of music, and each mp3 I have is about 2.5 hours long. Is it possible to use a .cue file on only half of the mp3? If so, how do I do that?

hi goonerjack,

thanks a lot for replying to cue files.

that was very helpfull.

i done it and find that the beats are off when the tracks change over.i noticed that you mentioned something about knowing exactly at which frame the track changes.

how would i go about finding that so that i can get a perfect mix without any little stops or bumps.

thanks again

technoman

OK, I'm still REALLY confused about this. Someone posted a cue for PvD live @ Club of Colors Hungary 11-8-99. How do I copy this from plain text and make it into a cue? What do I use? I have musicutter but I don't know how to convert it from plain text into a cue. Can anyone help? Thanks.

Hi the Tornado,

After the filename there should be an extra three letters.

egaul van dyk.txt

change the .txt to .cue

So do I just copy what he posted on the board and paste it into notepad then type the filename and add '.cue'? Because I tried that and it didn't do anything.

Hi again,

Just copy the information of the cue file.

Open up notepad and then paste it in.

Save it.

you should see filename.txt

if you see the .txt change it to cue.

windows will ask you a question if you want to change the file name.

just click ok.

if you dont see the .txt,go to your c drive.on the menu bars at the top go to tools,select folder options.then select view.look for where it says hide extensions for known file types.if there is a check mark there remove it.this will enable you to see the .txt and then you can change it.

let me know if this works

hey guys, after loading the cue sheet by using musicutter 0.6, i proceed to click on the split now option, but it says invalid source file, what does that mean?

quote:

Originally posted by technoman Hi again, Just copy the information of the cue file. Open up notepad and then paste it in. Save it. you should see filename.txt if you see the .txt change it to cue. windows will ask you a question if you want to change the file name. just click ok. if you dont see the .txt,go to your c drive.on the menu bars at the top go to tools,select folder options.then select view.look for where it says hide extensions for known file types.if there is a check mark there remove it.this will enable you to see the .txt and then you can change it. let me know if this works

I don't know what you mean by "go to your c drive". Sorry I can't figure this out.