Gapless and Wave

[BerniJue]

I encountered the strange phenomenom that wave files ripped with dbpoweramp don't play gapless on my network streamer (PS Audio Directstream with Bridge II). That applies to different apps or control points (Bubble, MConnect), to different media servers (Minimserver, Synology media server) and different NAS.

I noticed this especially with several CDs of the Alpine Symphony of Richard Strauss, where all the movements are seamless interwoven and gapless play is absolute necessary.

When ripping to flac, the music plays gapless. When ripping to wave, but without writing the tags in to the wave files, the music again plays gapless. As soon as I edit additional tags later, gapless is distorted again. A friend of mine using Roon with a Naim streamer and wave has no problems, neither with ripping to wave nor using my ripped original files with dbpoweramp. Another friend playing my files with foobar via computer USB had also no problem with gapless.

So, I think there could be a problem with the method dbpoweramp stores the tags in wave, which is different from embedding them into flac. Then the control points need a little bit more time to read the header, and by that distorting gapless.

My question now is, is there anybody encountering the same or a similar problem? Can I solve the problem with a different configuration of dbpoweramp? Your hints for any solutions are highly welcome.

Regards BerniJue

[Dat Ei]

Re: Gapless and Wave

Did you check the other way round? Check a tagged wave file of your friends on your system?


Dat Ei

[Spoon]

Re: Gapless and Wave

The issue can be where players do not follow the wave specification and try to play everything in the wave file as audio, you can disable the ID tags for wave files in dBpoweramp Control Centre >> codec options

[BerniJue]

Re: Gapless and Wave

Thanks. @ Ei: I have only used a ripped version with Roon, obviously they use the tags differently storing them together in an extra file.
@ Spoon: I have checked "Disabled writing tags". Then the music plays gapless, as I reported, but then I do have the coverphoto, the file name but no additional information. I shall try the codec options. I could choose LIST & ID3 Tags. I will leave ID3 Tags out, and see what happens. Moreover, I have the possibilty of leaving "Write extensible header". Maybe, that would make a difference.

[BerniJue]

Re: Gapless and Wave

I have tried most of the codec options. When I leave Id3 out, require only LIST, the control points will not play at all. The best way still seems to rip without tags, when I really want wave. To fully enjoy gapless I have to rip in flac

[mville]

Re: Gapless and Wave

I have tried most of the codec options. When I leave Id3 out, require only LIST, the control points will not play at all. The best way still seems to rip without tags, when I really want wave. To fully enjoy gapless I have to rip in flac

What do the PS Audio Directstream with Bridge II developers say, regarding this issue?

[BerniJue]

Re: Gapless and Wave

I have discuss it with them already. They also cannot understand that behavior and point at a fault in the ripping software. I have asked Convers digital. They produce with Mconnect the control apps and the software for the BridgeII. First, I thought something went wrong with the recent firmware updates for the Bridge, but maybe it is more a fundamental problem that the control points cannot read the tags with wave fast enough. As I said, no problem with flac, even when I rip to flac uncompressed.

[mville]

Re: Gapless and Wave

I have discuss it with them already. They also cannot understand that behavior and point at a fault in the ripping software. I have asked Convers digital. They produce with Mconnect the control apps and the software for the BridgeII.

Which dBpoweramp version/platform are you using?

Take one of your Alpine Symphony of Richard Strauss CDs, which plays gapless i.e. with no tags, tag it with other tagging software that supports wav files e.g. MP3Tag and see if that plays gapless.

[BerniJue]

Re: Gapless and Wave

Thank you. Good idea. I use 16.4. I have downloaded MP3Tag, quite tedious work as I have to edit each file. I will report in a few days the behavior.

[mville]

Re: Gapless and Wave

Thank you. Good idea. I use 16.4. I have downloaded MP3Tag, quite tedious work as I have to edit each file. I will report in a few days the behavior.

In MP3Tag, you can select all the files of the CD to add Album, Composer, Disc, etc.

[BerniJue]

Re: Gapless and Wave

Hi mville,

I found the bug following your advice. I use a Alpine Sympony ripped with dbpoweramp without tags. Then it plays gapless, and my control point Bubble shows also the cover stored in an extra file named folder.jpg. I took MP3Tag and added the tags, the music still played gapless, and I had the tags on my tablet, and also the cover. I have not added the cover into the files with MP3Tag. dbpoweramp always writes a tag with the cover into the file. That is the difference between the two softwares. So, got the idea simply erasing the cover from the original ripped files with the help of MP3Tag, and the music plays gapless. Possibly the extra cover as a tag causes the problem delaying the reading somehow and by that distorting gapless. I tried that on another CD with the Alpine Symphony, the music plays gapless.
Thank you and all the others for your advice. The problems seems to be solved at last.

[mville]

Re: Gapless and Wave

dbpoweramp always writes a tag with the cover into the file.

No, it is an option in CD Ripper. Change your options so you don't get embedded artwork, only the .jpg file output to the album folder.

FYI, I output the cover.jpg to my album folder and my flacs have no embedded artwork.

[mville]

Re: Gapless and Wave

I found the bug following your advice. I use a Alpine Sympony ripped with dbpoweramp without tags. Then it plays gapless, and my control point Bubble shows also the cover stored in an extra file named folder.jpg. I took MP3Tag and added the tags, the music still played gapless, and I had the tags on my tablet, and also the cover. I have not added the cover into the files with MP3Tag. dbpoweramp always writes a tag with the cover into the file. That is the difference between the two softwares. So, got the idea simply erasing the cover from the original ripped files with the help of MP3Tag, and the music plays gapless.

Maybe you could report the no gapless playback for flac with embedded artwork bug to the relevant parties.

... just a further note to say it MAY be due to an embedded artwork filesize restriction, as this often crops up in network audio devices. Usually the artwork is not displayed if the embedded filesize too big. This is the first time I have heard of this gapless playback issue.