Reply To: gap between tracks – help

#18280
jtbse
Participant

@hypnotoad wrote:

I’m getting gaps between songs, and I’m wondering if this is a function of iTunes, Firefly’s iTunes server, or something else.

How long are the gaps? And what compression format are your tracks(mp3, aac/m4a, flac?)

I think it’s likely just a product of the compression format of your songs. AFAIK, MP3 and AAC both “feature” short, unavoidable gaps due to the way frames are constructed in the digital file. FLAC, on the other hand, should play gaplessly.

Some players (iTunes is one) can provide gapless playback of lossy formats through some digital acoustic magic, but I don’t think Firefly can play any of these games at present.

I always encode anything that needs to play without gaps as FLAC for this reason.

[Edit: Here’s a pretty good summary of what I’m talking about: http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Gapless

So I think it’s pretty much about the encoder/decoder…I don’t think Firefly has issues with keeping the stream opened…but I’m not sure what Firefly does with the “extra” metadata specifying padding and track length that most lossy gapless schemes like iTunes depend on. ]