CUE File Creator for burning continuous mixes to CD

Hi all,
as a hobby, I recently decided to study a bit of C# programming. Exciting stuff I hear you scream!

Anyway, as part of this study I set myself a task of creating a small program that would create a CUE File from a Traktor NML Playlist. I always hated the issue that for any mix I burnt to CD, it would always be just 1 track and no CD-Text. The program I created parses the NML Playlist for track Title & Artist and allows you to define the start minute & second value of each track in the mix. Using the CUE File that it creates, you can then burn your mixes to CD with accurate track locations & CD Text. It also doesn't insert any gap between tracks so mixes will sound continuous. All you need is a CD burning software that can use CUE files. Here's a brief overview of the instructions on how to use the program
1. Do a DJ mix using Traktor 2.5.1
2. Export all tracks in the mix to a Playlist in NML format
3. Load the NML Playlist into this application
4. Load the name and location of the MP3/WAV recording of the mix
5. Edit the Track Names and Artists if required
6. Enter the Minute and Second values of the start location of each track within the mix
7. Enter the Mix Name, Mix Artist, Genre and Year
8. Save the CUE File
9. Use the CUE File with a CD burning software (e.g. Nero) to burn the continuous mix with tracks to disc


Just unzip the attachment and run it on your PC. Note this will only work on Windows and may need some .NET packages installed (let me know, curious to know how it performs on other PCs).

Hope you all find this useful. Since it is my first C# program, please be kind if you come across any issues. All feedback welcome!

Cheers
Shav

 

Oooooooor you could use a program like Sony sound forge. Thanks for file though will give it a try.

 

Yeah, I'm sure there are some other apps that can also create CUE files. This one is a bit different as it will parse the Traktor Playlist and populate the Track Artists & Track Names for you so hopefully less effort.

Cheers
Shav

 

that i do like

 

Just a quick update. This also works with the latest version of Traktor 2.6.

Cheers
Shav

 

It'd be handier if it populated the start times as well. I know it's not always 100% accurate, but it would save a lot of time.

 

Just a question: How much did you pay for Soundforge? Shav made his software available for free. Yeah, I know, your using a crack.......
---
Will try it and report Shav. Thanks for sharing this simple but also clever and useful aplication with us FOR FREE.

 

Steady on with the accusations Kenny. You don't 'know' that for sure.

 

Hey Cabana, do you mean the start times of every track as it comes into the mix?

I don't think this is stored anywhere by Traktor but if it is, let me know and I can have a look.

Cheers
Shane

 

Yes that's what I mean. If you take the start time of a track and subtract it from the start time of the next track, you get its length.

Here's an example from a recent playlist of mine:
Track 1 - 2013/2/11 12:43:28
Track 2 - 2013/2/11 12:50:06
Track 3 - 2013/2/11 12:57:44

These would become:
Track 1 - 6:38
Track 2 - 7:38

Etc...

It's not perfect because often times a track starts before you can hear it, but it's close enough.

 

Another option would be to allow the import of Audacity labels files. (So users can intuitively set the track start times in Audacity. That also has the advantage that you can set CD-DA frame-accurate start times.)

 

Hey Cabana, are you able to generate a playlist that includes the time & date like you've shown for the mix you've done? Just not sure how I can do what you're looking for because I don't think a playlist with timestamps is possible to generate from Traktor.


Malzfreud, that sounds like a good idea. Let me check it out.


Cheers
Shane

 

it was just a random idea of mine as i approve of this project. needless to say, feel free to ignore my suggestions. i obviously don't know how much you wanna expand on that project.

options exist to generate cue sheets out of audacity label files (see here). but obviously, those programs don't interface with traktor NML files so you're def bringing something new to the table.

imo, another cool extension would be the writing of cue sheets into audio formats which support cue sheets in the metadata. e.g., you could encode the user-provided WAV to FLAC and embed the cue sheet via METAFLAC (METAFLAC can add metadata as well as seek points based on a cue sheet). cue sheets embedded in FLAC are sort of a neat trick because you can distribute your mix in a single file but still retain per-track metadata).

 

Shav,

Sorry, I was looking at the HTML output that you get when you save a playlist to HTML. It shows the actual date and time.

I opened up the NML file itself and it looks like each track has a "STARTTIME" value towards the end of the file. This is in seconds. Here are the same tracks but from that file:

Track 1: 45808
Track 2: 46206
Track 3: 46664

These would become:
Track 1 - 6:38
Track 2 - 7:38

The math appears to hold up using these values.

 

Hey Cabana, can you attach the NML file here so I can have a look? My NML files don't have this parameter.

Cheers
Shane

 

I think I know what the problem is. You're exporting a new playlist instead of using the one in the History folder.

 

Hey Cabana, it's an interesting one. I was looking at the file and from what I can figure out, I think the STARTTIME is the time of day in seconds that you began playing that track. However as far as I can figure out, it's not the time you brought the track into the live mix so if you spend a few minutes cueing up a track, using STARTTIME as timestamp could be out a few minutes. There is another field called duration which I think is the live playing time so I might look at that some more and see if a good alternative for populating track times automatically.

Cheers
Shane

 

Hey Malzfreund, here's an updated version. I've added the ability to create a draft Labels file that you can import into Audacity so a marker for each track will be present and quick to move markers to correct start points. Also have the ability to import an Audacity Labels file. Just finished it so haven't tested it much. Let me know if any problems


*** Instructions
1. Do a DJ mix using Traktor 2.5.1 or 2.6
2. Export all tracks in the mix to a Playlist in NML format
3. Load the NML Playlist into this application
4. Load the name and location of the MP3/WAV recording of the mix
5. Optional. Create an Audacity label file based on the tracks in the Playlist.
In Audacity load up the audio recording and import the label file created.
Move the white dot of label makers to the correct start point of each track in the mix.
Once completed, export/save the updated accurate Audacity labels.
6. Optional. Import an Audacity Label file. This program will parse this file
and populate the track start times from the Label file .
7. Edit the Track Names and Artists if required
8. Enter the Minute and Second values of the start location of each track within the mix if required
9. Enter the Mix Name, Mix Artist, Genre and Year
10. Save the CUE file
11. Use the CUE file with a CD burning software (e.g. Nero) to burn the continuous mix with tracks to disc
11. Use the CUE file with a Audio Splitter file (e.g. Medieval CUE Splitter) to split mix into separate audio files
12. Hope it works!
13. http://www.mixcloud.comshav_mixtapes

 

Yes, I'm aware the time isn't perfect - I mentioned that earlier - but it's still handy to have it put in something close to accurate automatically.

 

shav,

awesome, thanks!

i'll probably be playing with the new traktor tonite but i'll def make sure to give your brand-new V2 a spin tomorrow.