CUE files, MP3s and burning

[fluffhead77]

I have a PC user friend who is having some issues with this and I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with using the CUE sheet to split an MP3 file he has (a DJ set) and burning it to disc...I'm a mac guy and can't really give him any practical help, only what I find on the net...

anyone?

[mattm]

Here's an example of a cue sheet that would divide an mp3 (Phish 02-20-1993 disc1) into the seperate tracks:

TITLE "Phish 02-20-1993 : Roxy Theater - Atlanta, GA"

PERFORMER "Phish"

FILE "ph1993-02-20cd1.mp3" MP3

TRACK 01 AUDIO

TITLE "Crowd"

PERFORMER "Phish"

INDEX 01 00:00:00

TRACK 02 AUDIO

TITLE "Golgi Apparatus"

PERFORMER "Phish"

INDEX 01 00:13:00

TRACK 03 AUDIO

TITLE "Foam"

PERFORMER "Phish"

INDEX 01 04:48:00

TRACK 04 AUDIO

TITLE "The Sloth"

PERFORMER "Phish"

INDEX 01 13:32:00

TRACK 05 AUDIO

TITLE "Possum"

PERFORMER "Phish"

INDEX 01 16:44:00

TRACK 06 AUDIO

TITLE "Weigh"

PERFORMER "Phish"

INDEX 01 26:50:00

TRACK 07 AUDIO

TITLE "All Things Reconsidered"

PERFORMER "Phish"

INDEX 01 32:24:00

TRACK 08 AUDIO

TITLE "The Divided Sky"

PERFORMER "Phish"

INDEX 01 37:35:00

TRACK 08 AUDIO

TITLE "The Horse >"

PERFORMER "Phish"

INDEX 01 50:35:00

TRACK 08 AUDIO

TITLE "Silent in the Morning"

PERFORMER "Phish"

INDEX 01 52:35:00

TRACK 08 AUDIO

TITLE "Fluffhead"

PERFORMER "Phish"

INDEX 01 66:35:00

The indentation on here is bad so click here to see the file as it should look. Just a note on this file, I pretty much made up the start times for the tracks based on the length in the info txt file. That's not recommended for real.

That's a pretty easy example. It starts with the TITLE of the entire compilation, then the PERFORMER and then the FILE where it's stored.

The next sections are info about each track. Here we have TITLE (of the track), PERFORMER (of the track) and the INDEX which is

INDEX [track-index] [start-time].

Here are most of the tags you can use:

INDEX - This is used to spefify the start time. The track-index is usually 01 and is used to split a track into smaller tracks.

POSTGAP - The time at the end of the track (like the 2 seconds you'd find on a CD)

PREGAP - The time before the track starts

REM - Used to add a comment for anyone reading the file

SONGWRITER - Thesong writer. If this tag comes before the track tags it will set the songwriter for the entire compilation and if it's after the track tags it will set it for that track

PERFORMER - The performer, same rule as SONGWRITER

TITLE - The title, same rule as above

TRACK - This is used to start a new track. It looks like TRACK [track number 1 - 99] [type]. The type can be:

AUDIO - Audio/Music (2352)

CDG - Karaoke CD+G (2448)

MODE1/2048 - CDROM Mode1 Data (cooked)

MODE1/2352 - CDROM Mode1 Data (raw)

MODE2/2336 - CDROM-XA Mode2 Data

MODE2/2352 - CDROM-XA Mode2 Data

CDI/2336 - CDI Mode2 Data

CDI/2352 - CDI Mode2 Data

Once you've done this you can use cd burning software to burn the cd by choosing the .cue sheet and it will make the tracks, etc, for you. You can also load the .cue file into something like DAEMON Tools (used to load images as virtual drives so that the computer thinks it's actually a CD/DVD) and then use your audio program to listen to it.

[mattm]

PS: You have to use a text editor like notepad or textpad to make the cuesheet. Actually, there are many text editors you can use but you can't use a program like MS Word as it puts different line termination chracters at the end of each line. Then again, if the program you use to read it recognizes Word's end of line chracters it's all good but something simple like notepad is your safest bet. Basically you need an editor that can't add fancy things like bolding, italics, etc to the text, just plain old text.