In reply to:

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If they do, then it would suffice never to reset the decoder: files made by cutting a large MP3 would play exactly as one, and in the case of independend files the 'leftover' from the first would not spoil the beginning of the next.

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This is actually the behavior I'm hoping for... but the last part about independent filies is not 100% certain. Frankly I haven't heard evidence that the leftover bit reservoir information would be audible during the gap silence. But someone else may have heard it. And just because I'm more sensitive to glitches in gapless playback doesn't mean I should irritate someone's sensitivity to noise in a gap :-)

I think the absolute best solution would be to have a flag in each playlist that, when enabled, prevents the decoder from returning to neutral between consecutive tracks.You could use a similar playlist flag to tell the decoder to fade in and/or out gapless tracks when they are played independently (e.g. during shuffleplay).

I hope that this discussion is not suggesting that I'm unappreciative of the efforts to get gapless playback working. Frankly I'm thrilled about what's gone into 2.0, including what already has been done on gapless playback. In fact, I am now encouraged to keep my empeg; the announcement of its impending demise really had be thinking about selling it.

But I do think that the beta period is a perfect time to be making this noise, so I'm doing so!

Michael Grant
12GB Green
080000266