How much time before and after song?

[Kent F]

Hey there-

Wondering how much time you leave in front of and after songs on the multitrack for songs produced for CD. Is there a particular standard or minimum?

And is there a different approach for files prepared for download?

Thanks.
Kent

[UpTilDawn]

I'd always been told that 300ms to 500ms before the first track is a good buffer time. In fact, I've just always used it for every track - destined for a cd, or any other reason.

But there's always the pre-roll time that can be programed into a cd burn, too. Most burning programs that I'm familiar with will put in a 2 second pre-roll before the first track by default (I believe that's usually user editable as well). Nero always put it before every track by default. I always adjusted to taste after the first track.

Time between tracks is totally dependent on program material. 4 seconds used to be standard, I believe.
Lots of the recordings I produce are of live concerts, where I don't use any space at all between tracks for continuity's sake.

[MMP]

No rules on the spacing. It’s usually just a matter of taste. I change it up depending on the BPM and the “feel” change between songs, giving more abrupt changes a little bit longer to settle, or having the start of the next song feel on the beat of the previous one.

[Cary B. Cornett]

At one time is was common practice to insert 3 seconds of leader tape between songs on a master reel. Now there is no fixed rule. For a CD, it is common to have a very short dead space at start of file/cut to allow for variances in how different CD playback transports behave.

After hearing about the practice of starting the next song on the "one" beat at the tempo of the previous song, counting out the pause between cuts, I adopted that practice. Now, since the pause between is determined by the tempo of the song just ended, I include that pause at the end of the song when I render an mp3 file. If you have a playlist of the entire album, the pauses between songs will be what they should be when running that playlist. If the file of the song is included in an otherwise random playlist, the pause at the end of that song most likely still works. At least, that's my opinion.

[Dave Labrecque]

At one time is was common practice to insert 3 seconds of leader tape between songs on a master reel. Now there is no fixed rule. For a CD, it is common to have a very short dead space at start of file/cut to allow for variances in how different CD playback transports behave.

After hearing about the practice of starting the next song on the "one" beat at the tempo of the previous song, counting out the pause between cuts, I adopted that practice. Now, since the pause between is determined by the tempo of the song just ended, I include that pause at the end of the song when I render an mp3 file. If you have a playlist of the entire album, the pauses between songs will be what they should be when running that playlist. If the file of the song is included in an otherwise random playlist, the pause at the end of that song most likely still works. At least, that's my opinion.

This "on the beat" thing only works if the rendered files have close to no "pre-roll" built-in though, right? And that doesn't work for some CD players when jumping to that track directly. So what do you do about that?

[TotalSonic]

In general - to deal with Compact Disc player's and some software players default latencies or "unmute times" (sometimes built in deliberately in order to avoid having a click at the start of the track or track change) you want about 300ms of "pre-roll" before the audio begins for the 1st track, and at least 200ms of pre-roll before any of the following tracks. For programs with continuous audio (such as live concerts, "DJ mix tapes", concept albums with every track cross faded to the next) all you can do is fine the best point closest to zero energy crossing within the audio. For spacing between tracks - while at one point it was suggested to leave 2 to 3 seconds in between each track, at this point there is no "standard" and it should just be set as per artist's or producer's preference.

Best regards,
Steve Berson