way to remove gaps between songs?

This question is one that crops up a lot on these forums and has been a major source of complaint for as long as the iPod has been in existence.

Currently the only way to eliminate the gap between songs using iTunes is to import the cd as one track. You do this by using the “join cd tracks” option in the advanced menu of iTunes.

Make sure the tracks are in their correct order, and highlight those you wish to join.

No gaps, but the downside is that you will of course lose the ability to navigate between tracks, and the song info is also lost. The iPod will display the cd title in the song field in the “now playing” screen . You’ll also have one large file instead of a number of smaller ones.

If you would like to see gapless playback implemented to the iPod, add your voice to the many here.

iPod Feedback.

I spoke with a developer recently who was working on an application that would let you have chapter marks for AAC audio.

I don't think you're able to do chapter marks for mp3 files though?

I guess that would be a decent solution for the lack of gapless playback [which I'm still stunned that Apple has yet to fix]. The "join tracks" option is utterly useless and definitely unfriendly!

I wonder if it would be possible to name the chapters and then navigate between them that way.

You can have gapless playback on your iPod.
Here is what you need.
The AppleScript 'Export as XML Chapters'.
Available from here:
http://www.rosetrace.com/7elogan/ipod/exportasxmlchapters.tgz
AudioBinder.
Which is available from here:
http://homepage.mac.com/vaughn/audiobinder/
Plus Apples own Chaptertool application.
Sorry can't find the link at the moment.

Import the CD into iTunes with all the tracks joined together as an AAC file. With the CD loaded run the AppleScript 'Export as XML Chapters'.
Copy the audio file from its iTunes location to another folder say on your desktop and put the XML file into the same folder as well. Now launch AudioBinder import the audio file and then the XML file and Bind. The resultant file will be sent to iTunes.
Now the file will sadly appear as an Audiobook, don't know why it just does. When you play the track you will see a new icon in iTunes which will allow you to navigate around the chapters / tracks. When imported into your iPod you can when playing the track navigate between the chapters / tracks using the back / forward keys.
If you pay for AudioBinder you can even get it to save an alias of each track which you can use in playlists!!
All in all AudioBinder is an excellent bit of software and does something that Apple should of built into iTunes ages ago!
I would think it was a godsend for all classical music lovers out there that use an Ipod, like me.

The above only works for AAC files upto 320K it does not work on Apple Lossless files!

Phil

[Sorry I could not supply the link to the Chapter Tool but I am at work at the moment using a windows PC and I don't have all my links to hand.]