Skip to main content
Sine_Monkey
Sine_Monkey
Participant
August 1, 2018
Answered

Exporting m4a's Without Added Gaps

  • August 1, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 1096 views

Hi, People,

This is really starting to bug me and I need to solve it for my work.

Whenever I export a WAV > m4a a gap is always added on to the end of the loop, thus breaking the seamless loop that I started with.

Is there a way/can you export to m4a without this gap being introduced? I've done lots of reading and think it could be metadata being added on; if this is the case, is there a setting I need to check or uncheck for this not to be added and my loop remaining seamless?

Thank you in advance.

Sine Monkey.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer ryclark

    i don't think that it is possible due to the nature of compressed format audio files. .mp3s are the same. Each needs to have a complete number of fixed size packets of audio samples for the codec to be able to do it's work. So if your audio loop doesn't exactly fit the packet size the codec either pads it out with silent samples (gaps) or curtails it. Neither of which makes for good looping. So you are really stuck with saving your loops as standard uncompressed .wav or .aiff files or use one of the proprietary audio loop formats I'm afraid.

    1 reply

    ryclark
    ryclarkCorrect answer
    Participating Frequently
    August 1, 2018

    i don't think that it is possible due to the nature of compressed format audio files. .mp3s are the same. Each needs to have a complete number of fixed size packets of audio samples for the codec to be able to do it's work. So if your audio loop doesn't exactly fit the packet size the codec either pads it out with silent samples (gaps) or curtails it. Neither of which makes for good looping. So you are really stuck with saving your loops as standard uncompressed .wav or .aiff files or use one of the proprietary audio loop formats I'm afraid.

      Sine_Monkey
      Sine_MonkeyAuthor
      Participant
      August 2, 2018

      Thank you for such a thorough and detailed answer, ryclark, much appreciated. 

      I was kinda hoping you weren't going to say that, but there you go....?! It's just good to know the issue can't be fixed and I'll have to find another way. Knowing this will get me a little kudos at work at the very least....

      Thanks again, Brother.

      Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
      Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices