iPhone / iPad / iOS Users - Gapless Playback For DJ Sets Not Working Anymore

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  • ger stokes
    Gold Gabber
    • Jun 2004
    • 547

    iPhone / iPad / iOS Users - Gapless Playback For DJ Sets Not Working Anymore

    Hi all,

    How many of you use iOS devices to listen to dj sets? For me, the main reason for starting to use an iPhone was so that I could listen to my music with gapless playback, cant listen to split up dj sets with a pause between each track right?

    Well, now it seems that gapless playback on iOS devices is broken now. There's an intermittent bug that I found ages ago that still hasn't been fixed in iOS 8. This only happens on my iPhones and using iOS, this bug is not found when I use my iPod classic or when playing the same albums through iTunes.

    I thought it might have been spotted by other iOS users and fixed in iOS 7.1 or at least the current version of iOS 8, but instead it's gotten worse, albums that used to play smoothly between transitions now suddenly pause and jump for a split second when changing from track to track.
    What's happening is, I listen to a lot of albums that are continuously dj mixed and play straight through without any pauses between tracks, and I've been experiencing problems a lot now with random split second pauses between tracks and choppy transitions. These albums in question have been ripped from cd using the latest versions of iTunes.

    For example,
    I'd be listening to an album and it would play gapless and smooth for most of the album, but maybe one or two transitions on the album would have a split second pause between them, and the rest of the album would play perfectly with no pauses, skips or jumps at all.

    I've been mailing apple about this and been on the phone to them about it, but they wouldn't acknowledge the problem at first, then they said they heard what I was talking about and would look into it and fix it in a coming update, that was months ago. So I called them again a few weeks ago to see if they can sort it yet and now they saying that they don't support gapless playback anymore, or at least they think they don't?
    I think this is total BS, and really found it hard to believe that this was the case, Apple stopping supporting their music player on iOS devices. Seeing as iTunes plays everything smoothly and no gapless issues. I just went out and bought an iPhone 6 for €900 / $1060, and for that money you'd expect it's basic music player to work. It's total BS to think that a top computer software / hardware company would just decide to abandon basic functions in their devices, especially when we are talking about how much Apple takes pride in their products and how much more they charge for them over their competitors.

    So this is my next step to try and get this problem seen and out in the open more. The more people who know about it and are aware of the issue, the better.Hopefully more people can get the word around and get this noticed by Apple and finally fixed.

    I've uploaded some test files below to show the problem. The files are mp3's and aac, and have been ripped from cd using the latest version of iTunes. The mp3's are the ones with the issue, but the aac play with no problem. If you listen to the transition at the end of track 2 (2-02 Colours (JH Re-Edit)) going into the start of track 3 (2-03 Your Body), you will notice the split second pause / jump. But listen to the aac version and compare it to the mp3 version and you will hear that it plays back fine, just as it's supposed to. Try them in iTunes too and both versions playback fine, no jumps or pauses.
    You can download them here, all links have the same files, I just uploaded them to different hosts for other people's choosing...


    http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=86512332626247919914



    MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.











    I really hope that people can spot this issue too and help get this fixed, I know this gapless playback feature might not be important to some people, but like I said at the start, it's an essential function for me in a music player and I use it on a daily basis when I listen to music. And I thought a lot of people here would use it too, seeing as we all listen to dj sets and buying the latest "Digweed Live In..." cd's and sticking them on our iPods or iPhones or whatever.
    Thanks for reading this long rant of mine, appreciate it.
    https://hearthis.at/gerstokes/
  • feather
    Shanghai ooompa loompa
    • Jul 2004
    • 20898

    #2
    Re: iPhone / iPad / iOS Users - Gapless Playback For DJ Sets Not Working Anymore

    Odd, I haven't noticed this and I just heard a mix album in split tracks.

    In previous iTunes I know you could select all the tracks, do a command + i and you have the option to select 'gapless' :



    Interface might look different with different versions of iTunes.

    But this is now missing from the latest iTunes and I don't see a way to enable it.

    i_want_to_have_sex_with_electronic_music

    Originally posted by Hoff
    a powerful and insane mothership that occasionally comes commanded by the real ones .. then suck us and makes us appear in the most magical of all lands
    Originally posted by m1sT3rL
    Oh. My. God. James absolutely obliterated the island tonight. The last time there was so much destruction, Obi Wan Kenobi had to take a seat on the Falcon after the Death Star said "hi and bye" to Leia's homeworld.

    I got pics and video. But I will upload them in the morning. I need to smoke this nice phat joint and just close my eyes and replay the amazingness in my head.

    Comment

    • ger stokes
      Gold Gabber
      • Jun 2004
      • 547

      #3
      Re: iPhone / iPad / iOS Users - Gapless Playback For DJ Sets Not Working Anymore

      It's nothing to do with iTunes, they did away with that feature ages ago, it does it automatically now.
      All split albums play fine in iTunes, just as they're supposed to.
      It's a bug in iOS that's causing this random pauses and choppy transitions.

      It doesn't happen in every track on the albums, maybe say 7 out of 10 tracks will play fine and then there'll be a split second pause between the other 3 transitions.
      Sometimes you're lucky and you get a whole album that's ok, no pauses between transitions, but then I was listening to albums and at least one of the tracks on it would pause between transitions for a second, really annoying.
      Test the files I attached in the links above and you'll hear what I'm talking about. The aac files are ok, but the mp3 has the jump between track 2 and 3. It plays fine in iTunes and other music programs, but on iOS devices it'll jump / pause.
      https://hearthis.at/gerstokes/

      Comment

      • Donny Concrete
        Gold Gabber
        • Sep 2006
        • 816

        #4
        Re: iPhone / iPad / iOS Users - Gapless Playback For DJ Sets Not Working Anymore

        I thought you couldn't rip to MP3 without having some gaps

        Even a man who is pure in heart And says his prayers each night, may become a wolf when the wolf-bane blooms and the moon is full and bright.

        Comment

        • ger stokes
          Gold Gabber
          • Jun 2004
          • 547

          #5
          Re: iPhone / iPad / iOS Users - Gapless Playback For DJ Sets Not Working Anymore

          Originally posted by Donny Concrete
          I thought you couldn't rip to MP3 without having some gaps

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gapless_playback
          Correct. But we're talking about the software here.
          What the software does is remove these gaps, so that the albums play back as they're intended, hence the name "gapless playback"
          There's a bug in Apple's software.
          https://hearthis.at/gerstokes/

          Comment

          • ger stokes
            Gold Gabber
            • Jun 2004
            • 547

            #6
            Re: iPhone / iPad / iOS Users - Gapless Playback For DJ Sets Not Working Anymore

            I've been talking to apple on the phone earlier and the guy said to get this problem fixed, more people have to contact them about it and let them know that gapless playback isn't working anymore and they need to start supporting it on the current iOS devices and the more people that contact them, the quicker it gets fixed.

            Can you take a minute and drop them a mail here at the support page about it...
            Apple - iPhone - Feedback Apple - iPhone - Feedback

            Pass it on, the more that knows about it the better.

            Thanks
            https://hearthis.at/gerstokes/

            Comment

            • feather
              Shanghai ooompa loompa
              • Jul 2004
              • 20898

              #7
              Re: iPhone / iPad / iOS Users - Gapless Playback For DJ Sets Not Working Anymore

              But if 7 out of 10 tracks play fine and some don't, is this a random thing? It could be hard even for Apple to ascertain what the problem is if they can't reproduce it.

              i_want_to_have_sex_with_electronic_music

              Originally posted by Hoff
              a powerful and insane mothership that occasionally comes commanded by the real ones .. then suck us and makes us appear in the most magical of all lands
              Originally posted by m1sT3rL
              Oh. My. God. James absolutely obliterated the island tonight. The last time there was so much destruction, Obi Wan Kenobi had to take a seat on the Falcon after the Death Star said "hi and bye" to Leia's homeworld.

              I got pics and video. But I will upload them in the morning. I need to smoke this nice phat joint and just close my eyes and replay the amazingness in my head.

              Comment

              • ger stokes
                Gold Gabber
                • Jun 2004
                • 547

                #8
                Re: iPhone / iPad / iOS Users - Gapless Playback For DJ Sets Not Working Anymore

                Nah, it's a bug that they won't fix because they say they don't support gapless playback anymore.
                It's not a massive thing for them to fix, they're just not arsed.

                I had the same problem with another music app on android and while ago, mailed the developer about it and he spotted the problem and was able to fix it in no time.

                Typical apple though, not giving a shit about basic music player functions that are standard on the majority of other music players and devices. They should be able to fix the issue in no time, instead they want more people to suggest bringing support for this feature back. Don't know the reason for that?
                https://hearthis.at/gerstokes/

                Comment

                • subterFUSE
                  Gold Gabber
                  • Nov 2006
                  • 850

                  #9
                  Re: iPhone / iPad / iOS Users - Gapless Playback For DJ Sets Not Working Anymore

                  Just tested gapless playback on my iPhone 6 running iOS 8 (latest update).

                  Plays just fine for me. Although, I am playing Apple Lossless files.

                  I have a feeling the problem is MP3. For the life of me, I don't understand why anyone still uses that horrible format?

                  Comment

                  • ger stokes
                    Gold Gabber
                    • Jun 2004
                    • 547

                    #10
                    Re: iPhone / iPad / iOS Users - Gapless Playback For DJ Sets Not Working Anymore

                    Yeah, the problem is with mp3. AAC and flac would play gaplessly ok.
                    My music collection for the last 10 years is mp3 and don't want to have to change it, time and effort.

                    I can play my files with flawless gapless playback on my pc with foobar2000, windows media player, and iTunes. And if I get a basic android phone there's loads of music player apps that support gapless playback too. Just have no idea why apple won't fix it on their devices? They had it working before and it's ok on iTunes.
                    https://hearthis.at/gerstokes/

                    Comment

                    • ddr
                      DUDERZ get a life!!!
                      • Jun 2004
                      • 7006

                      #11
                      Re: iPhone / iPad / iOS Users - Gapless Playback For DJ Sets Not Working Anymore

                      if it was a compilation cd i was ripping (ie i own the original) i always just ripped it as a continuous mix instead of individual tracks.

                      i agree though, this has always been a problem hence why i always did the above with nero.
                      "pics or stfu" - R.I.P. Steve "Jibgolly" James

                      Comment

                      • subterFUSE
                        Gold Gabber
                        • Nov 2006
                        • 850

                        #12
                        Re: iPhone / iPad / iOS Users - Gapless Playback For DJ Sets Not Working Anymore

                        Originally posted by ddr
                        if it was a compilation cd i was ripping (ie i own the original) i always just ripped it as a continuous mix instead of individual tracks.

                        i agree though, this has always been a problem hence why i always did the above with nero.

                        I hate ripping as one track. I prefer ripping as Apple Lossless with tracks divided so I can have the full track info available, plus the ability to jump forward or back if wanted.

                        For mixed compilations I put the DJ's name in the Album Artist field and the Composer field. The artist field is for the individual track artist, and the Title field gets "Track Name (Remix)".

                        By putting the DJ name in the Composer field, you can browse by DJ and then view mix albums they have done. Browsing by Artist doesn't work well for DJ music if you have your tracks divided with the actual artist name in the artist field. Apple could fix this by having a Browse by Album Artist option, but they don't.... so I use Composer.

                        Comment

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