question about how to use cue file to break big audio file into tracks

[jimdagys]

I can't find any info on this topic which seems pretty basic. I have a folder with a big "ape" sound file (Monkey's Audio file) and the related cue file. When I look at the cue file in Notepad, I see all kinds of info like track numbers and exact times for each track. (I have pasted part of this cue file at the end of my question.) My question is: How can I use the cue file to break the big file into the proper tracks? I plan to convert the ape file into mp3 and I have several tools to do this such as "Monkeys Audio" or "All to Mp3 Converter" but as far as I can see, these tools will just convert the whole large ape file into one large mp3 file. I suppose I could use an mp3 splitter and listen to the whole mp3 file and split the file whenever I hear a track change (or manually type in all the track times to the mp3 splitter), but this seems a lot of bother. Is there anyway to use the cue file to automatically split the large file?
PERFORMER "¥¼ª¾ºq¤â"
TITLE "¥¼ª¾¼ÐÃD"
FILE "CDImage.wav" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Track01"
PERFORMER "¥¼ª¾ºq¤â"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "THIS MASQUERADE-SHIRLEY BASSEY"
PERFORMER "¥¼ª¾ºq¤â"
INDEX 00 01:59:52
INDEX 01 02:02:31
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Track03"
PERFORMER "¥¼ª¾ºq¤â"
INDEX 00 07:11:17
INDEX 01 07:13:70

[mats.hogberg]

I'd extract the .ape to CDImage.wav, Then just burn it using this cue sheet. The cue sheet should take care of breaking it up in tracks.
You may have to edit the gibberish in the PERFORMER and TITLE tags into something readable first.

/Mats

[jimdagys]

You mentioned "burn" a file. I don't want to burn a disk. I just want to listen to the music on my mp3 player.

[mats.hogberg]

Ah - Yes, but if you don't want to cut it up by hand, using the timings in the cue sheet as guide, a pretty fast and painless route would actually be to create the audio CD first (possibly to CD-RW if you can't force yourself to waste a CD-R) and then rip it to MP3 using CDEx or EAC or...

/Mats

[jimdagys]

If one doesn't have a cd burner, is it possible to somehow make a virtual cd from the ape file (what software is needed?)and use the cue timings and then mount the virtual cd using Daemon Tools and then rip to mp3 tracks? Or could the
CDImage.wav file that you mentioned be directly mounted with Daemon Tools?

[mats.hogberg]

If you decompress the ape to CDImage.wav, maybe you can mount the cue with daemon tools - never actually tried that!

/Mats

[olyteddy]

MP3 DirectCut can also handle CUE sheets. Never tried it but the options are there. It'll cut your one big MP3 without re-compressing.

[GideonK]

There appears to be a discrepancy between your sound and cue files. The sound file is an APE file but your cue file reffers to a WAV file.

Using Notepad, change the third line in the cue file to the name of your APE file and add a path, if necessary.
It should look something like this:

PERFORMER "Joe Schmo"
TITLE "Something"
FILE "If I Could Tell You.ape"
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Sacred Ground"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "The Flame"
INDEX 00 07:09:20
INDEX 01 07:11:20
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Midnight"
INDEX 00 13:06:10
INDEX 01 13:08:10

Load the cue file in a cue splitter program like this one (It's free): http://www.medieval.it/content/view/28/70/
and it will split your APE file into individual tracks in your HD.

By the way, who is "¥¼ª¾ºq¤â"?? I never heard of that performer.

[jimdagys]

I am new at this, but it seems that the software mentioned, Medieval Software (http://www.medieval.it/content/view/28/70/) might do the trick. I frequently get these ape audio files that include cue sheets and it would be useful to find the best way to get the big ape file converted into the corresponding mp3 tracks. You said, "There appears to be a discrepancy between your sound and cue files. The sound file is an APE file but your cue file refers to a WAV file."
Maybe this is because it is intended to first convert the whole ape file into wave, and then use the cue sheet to cut the wave file into tracks.
However, if I can first cut the big ape file into smaller ape tracks using the Medieval Software, then I maybe could use a software that I already have (All to Mp3 Converter) and batch convert the smaller ape files into mp3 files. Does this sound reasonable? Also, I am a little confused about how to examine a cue sheet. For example in the cue sheet there is: INDEX 00 07:09:20
INDEX 01 07:11:20
Does that mean that a song ends at 7:09:20 and the next one begins at 7:11:20? Must there always be a 2 second delay between songs? Also, the big ape file that I have is named, CDImage.ape. If I want to use the Medieval cutting software, does that mean in line 3 of the cue sheet I should change
FILE "CDImage.wav" WAVE
to
FILE "CdImage.ape" ?

[guns1inger]

2 seconds is the standard delay between CD tracks.

[69mako]

Load the cue sheet in CDWave Editor and then save. It will seterate the tracks for you.

Mako

[mats.hogberg]

2 seconds is the standard delay between CD tracks.

...but by using cue sheets, you can make gapless audio, while still have it split up into tracks, like live albums.

f I can first cut the big ape file into smaller ape tracks

Cutting up compressed formats is always more difficult than cutting up a wav.

/Mats

[jimdagys]

SUCCESS I think this should be made a sticky. That is, given a large audio file and cue file, what is the easiest way to convert and separate the large audio file into separate mp3 audio tracks so you can listen to the tracks with your mp3 player. The large audio file I have is in ape format (but it could be in some other format such as mp3, etc). Then you must have the cue file. I used the pay software called All To MP3 Converter to convert the big ape file to one large mp3 file. Then (IMPORTANT) I put the large mp3 file and the cue file into one folder. The large mp3 file and the cue file MUST have the same name before the dot, for example, CDImage.mp3
and
CDImage.cue
Then you should look at the cue file (open with notepad) and make sure line 3 looks something like this:
FILE "CDImage.mp3" mp3

You MUST have the letters something like mp3 at the end of the line.
Then use the freeware
http://www.medieval.it/content/view/28/70/
and load in the cue file. The software will automatically suck in the big audio file (make sure the cue file and audio file are in the same folder) and split it according to the track times in the cue file.
Thank you to those who helped me figure this out. Now I don't have to waste an hour listening to the whole large audio file and manually split it into smaller tracks.

[dphirschler]

I am wary of splitting compressed (ape, mp3, etc) files. I'd be more comfortable converting to wav first (Trader's Little Helper), saving the individual tracks (CDWave Editor), then compressing the tracks to mp3 (RazorLame). All freeware too.


Darryl