iLife '04: The Missing Manual

Joining Tracks

If you want a seamless chunk of music without the typical two-second gap of silence between CD tracks, you can use the Join Tracks feature to stitch together a sonic sampler in one big file. This feature is great for live albums or other CDs that run one song into the next.

To rip multiple songs as one track, pop in the CD you want to use, download the song information, make sure the list is sorted by track number, and then Shift-click to select the tracks you want to join during the ripping process. You can only join tracks that are in sequential order on the CD.

Once you’ve got the tracks selected, go to Advanced → Join CD Tracks. iTunes displays a bracket around the selected tracks, and indents the names of the tacked-on ones. If you change your mind and want to separate one of the tracks from the group, select it and go to Advanced → Unjoin CD Tracks. (You can Shift-click to peel off multiple tracks from the group, too.)

Click the Import button to rip the selected songs to one big track.

Tip

Suppose you’re trying to join up some tracks, but iTunes is having none of it—it’s dimming the Join Tracks command in the menu. The solution: Make sure that the tracks on the CD are sorted according to ascending Track Number. (If not, click the top of the very first column on the left of the iTunes window. The top of the column should be colored blue and the triangle pointing upward.) Then try Join Tracks again.