Joining tracks on an album

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Blorkersson
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2022 3:19 pm

Joining tracks on an album

Post by Blorkersson »

Is there a method to join adjacent tracks on a CD (at ripping time) to create one track once the album is in MMW?

To be clear, I do not mean combining tracks to create one album, I mean joining two or more adjacent tracks to create one track that will play as one track when the player is in Shuffle mode. For example, albums such as Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper albums are designed so that each side of the original vinyl record was played as one long track, with each song segueing (crossfading) into the next one.

By joining the relevant tracks on a album I can then enjoy the whole of one side of the album when the player is in Shuffle mode without the abrupt and jarring endings as the player shuffles to a totally different song.

A bit of background:
I would like to be able to join:
the first seven tracks of Sgt. Pepper as one track (the original side one)
the remaining six tracks of Sgt. Pepper as one other track (the original side two)

I can rename the one long track myself if necessary, after the rip is complete.

I have previously joined tracks in iTunes (it's set when ripping, so the the required tracks are joined as they are ripped), but realised that I have yet to do it with the Sgt. Pepper album. I'm keen to be able to do it in MMW because I think it's inevitable that iTunes for Windows will be off to The Great Gig In The Sky in the not-too-distant future. (Pun intended.)

These are not the only examples. Other albums/songs I've joined:
All Andreas Vollenweider albums
Two specific tracks from Faithless's album Reverence: Angeline and Insomnia (numbers 5 and 6) as they crossfade from one to the other.

(I have looked through the MMW5 Help pages, as well as this forum, but so far, haven't found what I'm looking for.)
Peke
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Re: Joining tracks on an album

Post by Peke »

Hi,
Unfortunately MM can't join tracks and do not do any Audio data manipulation/editing. We opted out to RIP tracks exacly like they were presented on CD so if CD is track separated then it will rip in separate tracks and if whole CD is one track it will be one track.
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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Timo_Beil
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Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2007 1:00 pm
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Re: Joining tracks on an album

Post by Timo_Beil »

Hi Peke,
thanks for reply... but I think, the OP has an other intention (just like me):
MM should play the tracks only one after the other, even in shuffle mode.
That is similar to a word processing software, where orphans should be avoided.
May be a nice feature: Properties> always concatenate track 1 and 2, no matter how you play it.
MM 2024.0.0.3005-port-DE, Win 11 pro, I7-6700, 16GB RAM, DB & Media>TrueNAS
Rob_S
Posts: 879
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2021 1:53 pm

Re: Joining tracks on an album

Post by Rob_S »

Agreed, this would be nice feature, but could also get complicated. It would be like a fixed playlist within a shuffled playlist.

Of course you can sort of do it now by NOT using shuffle mode, and adding desired album to playing list in order.

Also, meanwhile the free Audacity can assemble tracks into a single file.
Using 5.1 LATEST alpha or beta build on Windows 10, HP laptop, managing 13k tracks
Lowlander
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Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Joining tracks on an album

Post by Lowlander »

That would likely be left for an Addon, like the Addon for MMW4.

MediaMonkey itself can not join tracks from a CD into a single file on Rip.
Blorkersson
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2022 3:19 pm

Re: Joining tracks on an album

Post by Blorkersson »

Well!

Thank you all for your replies, although (and I apologise if I seem rude, but) some of them seem to have spectacularly missed the point.

iTunes has a feature called Join Tracks. It only works for Audio CD tracks and can only join adjacent tracks. It cannot join anything else (e.g non-adjacent tracks on an audio CD, digital audio being copied {not ripped} from a data CD, digital purchases or anything already in iTunes) and it is performed at rip time, not afterwards, so this is not a matter of MM manipulating or editing data, apart from not separating the tracks as it rips from the CD. Presumably, the easiest way to "not separate the tracks" is for the ripping software to ignore the track marker as it rips, so ripping the adjacent tracks as one. I'm not a programmer, but surely that's one tiny routine that says "if the user tells you to, ignore the track separator when ripping from the Audio CD".

I've just experimented with my existing copy of the Sgt. Pepper album:
using Audacity to join the mp3 versions that I ripped in iTunes many years ago is feasible - if you already know how to use Audacity, which I do. However, the process took me about half an hour, is prone to making mistakes (i.e. putting tracks in the wrong order) but - it turns out that iTunes has added blank seconds into the separated tracks when they were ripped from the CD, so I had to use Audacity to edit them out. Again, not something to attempt unless one knows Audacity well. I also re-ripped the CD into iTunes with joined tracks and that appears to have worked without the silent gaps found in my original rip.

The LinkedTracks feature from MMW4 that Lowlander mentions appears to do a similar (but not the same) thing. I followed the link in that post to the original request by someone back in 2006. In 2013, that same post attracted the comment that this is a really important feature. I'll admit, it's perhaps less so now that Audio CD users have already copied their CDs into digital form and far less music is purchased as CDs.

I doubt that iTunes will last much longer, it's already gone from the latest MacOS machines. I'll just have to ensure I've ripped everything I want before it disappears. So as far as this specific album is concerned, I've solved my original problem, albeit outside of MMW.

As an aside, but as a consequence of segued albums being split, there was a post recently in the Apple forum from someone who was complaining that a line sung at the end of "Money" on Dark Side Of The Moon is repeated at the beginning of "Us And Them", and that this (in his/her view) was a bug that destroyed the listening experience when listening to only Us And Them. The reality is that that two songs are meant to be heard as one, being crossfaded from the first to the second song. (Oh what the young have missed out on, not experiencing vinyl at the time. The recent phenomenon is not the same.)

Thank you once again for your replies.
Peke
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Re: Joining tracks on an album

Post by Peke »

Hi,
FYI MM have Grouping Tag under details in track properties.
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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oldugly
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Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2020 8:20 am

Re: Joining tracks on an album

Post by oldugly »

Peke wrote: Mon Jan 23, 2023 8:16 pm Hi,
FYI MM have Grouping Tag under details in track properties.
I have seen that tag, and was wondering what it does. I cannot find anything in the forums or the wiki that explains its function or how to use it. Any help would be appreciated!
MediaMonkey Gold user for 10+ years.
MM5 Gold (Lifetime) 5.0.4.2693; Windows 11; MMA 2.0.0.1152
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