Is it possible to put track markers in between tracks in one large audio file so that an audio player will treat the file as a CD?

[chrstrbrts]

Here's what I mean:

I have several songs stored as individual mp3 files.

I have amalgamated them into one large mp3 file.

When I play the file with VLC or any other piece of audio player software, the entire file just plays from start to finish as expected.

If I press the "next track" button, the right facing arrow next to a vertical line, the player software just starts the entire file from the beginning again.

What I want to do is put some kind of marker in between the individual tracks so that after I amalgamate them into one big audio file the audio player software will interpret pressing the "next track" button to mean "jump to the next track".

Essentially, what I want to do is somehow "trick" the audio player software into interpreting my single audio file comprised of amalgamated files as a CD with the typical "next track" button interface.

How can I do this?

I'm not committed to the MP3 format.

If I can get this to work with another format, that's fine as long as that format is common enough to be played by the major pieces of audio file player software e.g. VLC, Windows player, etc.

Thanks.

 

[mindless1]

?? Just un-do, what you did. Use the individual files if you still have them, or use an audio editor to split the big one up into each track again.

Maybe I'm not understanding the purpose, is there a reason that multiple files won't work?

 

[chrstrbrts]

?? Just un-do, what you did. Use the individual files if you still have them, or use an audio editor to split the big one up into each track again.

Maybe I'm not understanding the purpose, is there a reason that multiple files won't work?

I don't understand your advice. How would having individual files accomplish my goal? I don't want to have to load each file as the last one finishes. I want the whole album to play with markers in between in case I want to skip to another track.

 

[chrstrbrts]

Oh, I see.

VLC will let you load an entire directory.

Then, you can cycle through the individual tracks with the "next track" button.

I still wonder, though, if there's some way to do what I asked.

 

[mindless1]

Many players will either play a whole directory, or start at any point in that directory in sequence alphabetically (leave file named with artist and album, then track # before song name for the right sequence), or by using a playlist.

 

[chrstrbrts]

Many players will either play a whole directory, or start at any point in that directory in sequence alphabetically (leave file named with artist and album, then track # before song name for the right sequence), or by using a playlist.

Thanks. But, I'm going to see if I can accomplish what I asked about. I think it may be possible with .cue files.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I don't know if .mp3 files support "Indexes". See if they do.

 

[you2]

after much testing this doesn't do what you want; don't see delete option.
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Ok after some more reading it sounds like some people are converting the mp3 into mp4 (trivial with ffmpeg or similar tool but time consuming and makes larger files); and then adding chapter markers between files they concat. I didn't get as far as testing this but it seems to work. chapter markers are not exactly tracks... another alternative seems to be a gui tool like audacity that will allow you to create multiple tracks (I didn't get as far as saving multiple tracks as it kept merging them on the save - but perhaps that was the problem with using mp3 as the output format - not sure.

 

[Cogman]

You are looking for "Chapters" and it is container dependent.

Auphonic Blog: Chapter Marks for MP3, MP4 Audio and Vorbis Comment (Enhanced Podcasts)

The automatic audio post production webservice.

auphonic.com

Not every format or player supports it so YMMV.