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What is Gapless Playback?

September 6, 2010

I have never noticed this being an issue on my MacBook, especially when upgraded to iTunes 10, but a few Windows users have noted that when importing tracks into iTunes can cause a delay or lag during the “Determining Gapless Playback” phase.

So, what is Gapless playback?
Apples description can be found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1797
To quote “


Summary

Gapless playback means that there is no pause in playback between the end of one audio file and the beginning of the next audio file. This allows for playback of content with no gaps the way it was meant to be heard. Some examples of gapless albums include:

  • “Dark Side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd
  • “Abbey Road” by The Beatles
  • Many live and classical albums”
Amusingly, you cannot turn this function off, and I can see why, having a 2 hour dance album thats been mixed that then has a 3 second pause between each track would be highly annoying.
However, if you turn the crossfade option on, then Gapless ONLY applies to albums that you tell it to. So if its causing you annoyances maybe this is the way to do it. Id be interested to hear if any other Apple users have any of the reported issues or delays.

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One comment

  1. Rather amusingly, Apple lists one of the Albums as Abbey Road… You cannot even buy that from the iTunes store…



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