Tweet
Turn Hidden Tracks into Seperate Tracks While Still Having "Bit-Accurate" album?
There are actually two, similar, "re-tracking" questions I had, that I don't believe have been answered (at least to do with still having a bit-accurate CD).
Firstly, let me explain the logic: As far as I'm aware, an album-Flac (assuming it passes AccurateRip/CTDB) is a bit-accurate rip of a CD, apart from the fact it doesn't contain the track timings, lead-ins, etc. In this sense, it is similar to a .tar file (it is a stream of otherwise unstructured data... The structure itself coming from metadata, or additional data).
Then, what a .cue file does is provide the necessary information to structure the data accurately onto a cd, including the track times, and possibly HTOA tracks. In theory, you could edit the .cue file yourself and create your own timings. The best example here would be, for example, I would like to manually split The Mars Volta album Frances The Mute into its correct tracks as laid out on the back cover (this album was infamous for a spat with the record company, where they refused to release it in its original state as the number of tracks would class it as an EP... So they left the timings correct in everything but the final track, a 30-minute long piece which they arbitrarily split into 6 parts as a way to get back at them). So, I presume, as long as I backed up the original .cue, I could create a second .cue with the "correct" timings... If I ever wanted to burn an accurate copy of the CD, I would just swap out this new file with the original one created from the disc.
Similarly, if an album had a hidden song after silence on the final track, I could edit the .cue with an extra track, so I could listen to that individually with the revised .cue
My query then... Well, maybe it's more research/debate. How does this relate when splitting an album FLAC into seperate tracks? As it is possible to still have a "bit-accurate" album made up of seperate FLACs, and I don't tend to store my albums as album FLACs anymore. Is it possible to split an album into FLACs in my preferred way, yet still be able to put it back together if I ever wanted to burn that CD again? So, lets say for Frances The Mute, I have the album split into its 5 actual songs (or even to the correct 12 movements within those 5 songs), as 5 separate FLACs, which I can still put back together into an accurate album? How would I do this, or what would be the best way to do this? Or, would it be easier to keep a backup of the original FLAC album for this purpose... Or even use a .cue swapping solution like I said above?
I'm equally interested in creative solutions, although preferably the easiest. Also I am largely speaking of my understanding of the file formats and structures in quite abstract terms... I'm aware it's more than likely I've got the technical details, or terminology, wrong.
Thanks!
Firstly, let me explain the logic: As far as I'm aware, an album-Flac (assuming it passes AccurateRip/CTDB) is a bit-accurate rip of a CD, apart from the fact it doesn't contain the track timings, lead-ins, etc. In this sense, it is similar to a .tar file (it is a stream of otherwise unstructured data... The structure itself coming from metadata, or additional data).
Then, what a .cue file does is provide the necessary information to structure the data accurately onto a cd, including the track times, and possibly HTOA tracks. In theory, you could edit the .cue file yourself and create your own timings. The best example here would be, for example, I would like to manually split The Mars Volta album Frances The Mute into its correct tracks as laid out on the back cover (this album was infamous for a spat with the record company, where they refused to release it in its original state as the number of tracks would class it as an EP... So they left the timings correct in everything but the final track, a 30-minute long piece which they arbitrarily split into 6 parts as a way to get back at them). So, I presume, as long as I backed up the original .cue, I could create a second .cue with the "correct" timings... If I ever wanted to burn an accurate copy of the CD, I would just swap out this new file with the original one created from the disc.
Similarly, if an album had a hidden song after silence on the final track, I could edit the .cue with an extra track, so I could listen to that individually with the revised .cue
My query then... Well, maybe it's more research/debate. How does this relate when splitting an album FLAC into seperate tracks? As it is possible to still have a "bit-accurate" album made up of seperate FLACs, and I don't tend to store my albums as album FLACs anymore. Is it possible to split an album into FLACs in my preferred way, yet still be able to put it back together if I ever wanted to burn that CD again? So, lets say for Frances The Mute, I have the album split into its 5 actual songs (or even to the correct 12 movements within those 5 songs), as 5 separate FLACs, which I can still put back together into an accurate album? How would I do this, or what would be the best way to do this? Or, would it be easier to keep a backup of the original FLAC album for this purpose... Or even use a .cue swapping solution like I said above?
I'm equally interested in creative solutions, although preferably the easiest. Also I am largely speaking of my understanding of the file formats and structures in quite abstract terms... I'm aware it's more than likely I've got the technical details, or terminology, wrong.
Thanks!
Comment