Cue & M3U Files.. Need a Little Education and Assistance

[badelman]

Hello, a lot of rips I see have a cue file and an M3U file. I don't know what the M3U does but when I read about what the cue is it seemed like something I want to add to the ripping process. My understanding is that it enables you to play the cd the way it was meant to be played with all the gaps and silence as opposed to cutting songs off 1 at a time. I do know that I want each album to be a folder full of songs and not just one file containing all the songs.


1. First of all what does the M3U file do and what does the cue file do?

2. Would someone please tell me if this is something I should do?

3. If so how to go about it??

Thx, Barry

[garym]

Re: Cue & M3U Files.. Need a Little Education and Assistance

Hello, a lot of rips I see have a cue file and an M3U file. I don't know what the M3U does but when I read about what the cue is it seemed like something I want to add to the ripping process. My understanding is that it enables you to play the cd the way it was meant to be played with all the gaps and silence as opposed to cutting songs off 1 at a time. I do know that I want each album to be a folder full of songs and not just one file containing all the songs.


1. First of all what does the M3U file do and what does the cue file do?

2. Would someone please tell me if this is something I should do?

3. If so how to go about it??

Thx, Barry

Why do you need a CUE file? your info about purpose of a CUE file is incorrect. Separate tracks (FLAC, Lame MP3, etc.) will all play just like intended on the CD (gapless, etc.) I have ripped over 5,000 CDs and never found the need for a CUE file. And I have lots of gapless albums.

The m3u file is a playlist file. Some rippers also create a playlist file of the album tracks when ripping. I've never seen the need for this. And in some cases it can cause problems (the player shows duplicates, picking up both the tracks and the tracks as listed in the playlist, for example, Squeezeboxes and LMS). In the old days, this might have been done because players weren't sophisticated enough to simply organize and play full albums without the m3u. Again, no need for this today.

bottom line: you don't need CUE files or m3u files to have perfect rips that play as intended.

[Spoon]

Re: Cue & M3U Files.. Need a Little Education and Assistance

m3u is a playlist, a collection of tracks, you should not need this if your player can group by albums (if it cannot you need to choose a new player...)

If you rip a CD in dBpoweramp you get the correct gaps and silence as long as the album is played in order, no need for a cue sheet.

[badelman]

Re: Cue & M3U Files.. Need a Little Education and Assistance

garym.. thank you. Wow so much crappy info on misc internet sites.

[garym]

Re: Cue & M3U Files.. Need a Little Education and Assistance

garym.. thank you. Wow so much crappy info on misc internet sites.

Yes! But this is a good site for information. As is: hydrogenaudio.org

[badelman]

Re: Cue & M3U Files.. Need a Little Education and Assistance

I will check it out. Thx garym!

[Max Dread]

Re: Cue & M3U Files.. Need a Little Education and Assistance

Hi

I had some similar questions as those asked by Barry (RE the CUE files, not m3u). Came across this thread so thought I would add to it and resurrect....

The thread explains well why CUE files are not needed in mine/Barry's situation. What I'm keen to know is when are CUE files needed and in what circumstances are they used?

Cheers

[garym]

Re: Cue & M3U Files.. Need a Little Education and Assistance

cue files were useful in the old days (to get gapless playback). I don't find cue files to be useful any longer as gapless now works with FLAC, mp3, aac, etc. There are a few other subtle reasons to use cue files, but none matter to me and I don't rip with cuefiles.

[Max Dread]

Re: Cue & M3U Files.. Need a Little Education and Assistance

Are they useful when burning a CD from FLAC files? If I rip a CD to FLAC and then at some point in the future decide to burn the FLAC files to CD (as an album) would the CD be as it should (gapless, etc)? Or would I need the CUE file for that?

Cheers

[garym]

Re: Cue & M3U Files.. Need a Little Education and Assistance

Are they useful when burning a CD from FLAC files? If I rip a CD to FLAC and then at some point in the future decide to burn the FLAC files to CD (as an album) would the CD be as it should (gapless, etc)? Or would I need the CUE file for that?

Cheers

The burned cd would still be gapless, etc. it might not be exact re hidden tracks and some other minor things. (Google why use cue files for detail). But why in the world would one ever want to create physical CDs again from flac files. Once ripped, I've never had the slightest need to burn files back to cd.

[Max Dread]

Re: Cue & M3U Files.. Need a Little Education and Assistance

That's great that a burn would still be gapless.

I hate hidden tracks etc and if burning a CD I tend to remove them anyway because they are just annoying imo.

As to why... I certainly won't have the need as far as I can think. But you never know who else might want one....

Also, I'd just like to add how much I appreciate all the help you've given me over the last couple of weeks or so. Many many thanks for your kindness and time (and the same goes to Spoon in some of my other threads).

[garym]

Re: Cue & M3U Files.. Need a Little Education and Assistance

You're welcome. People on forums were very helpful to me when I started down the ripping/digital music path years ago and had lots of questions.