How to create a "cue-sheet" a.k.a.".cue" file

A cue-sheet is a file used as a map for cd image writers to assemble audio onto an audio cd. There are different variables that can be affected by a cue-sheet, such as: pause or no between tracks, track file name recognition, album name recognition and more. Why would you use a cue-sheet? Many programs insert small gaps between track beginning and endings, this is not a good thing if you are trying to create a seamless audio cd. A cue-sheet also allows you to slice up a mix without actually slicing up a mix.

Example: Lets say you have a 60 minute mix and you want track separation instead of using a 60 minute continuous mix (with no pause or break area's), your file would look like this:


    FILE “C:\my_crappy_mix.wav” WAVE
    TRACK 01 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
    TRACK 02 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 07:50:22
    TRACK 03 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 08:22:53
    TRACK 04 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 14:17:53
    TRACK 05 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 25:02:40
    TRACK 06 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 27:34:05
    TRACK 07 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 31:58:53
    TRACK 08 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 35:08:65
    TRACK 09 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 40:27:02
    TRACK 010 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 44:01:13
    TRACK 11 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 57:17:16
    TRACK 12 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 60:12:32

EXAMPLE #2 - Audio disc from multiple source files (one track per file) with no "pause areas" between tracks. Note: You can “mix and match” different audio file-types within the same cue-sheet (WAVE, AIFF, MP3, etc).

    FILE “C:\TRACK1.MP3” MP3
    TRACK 01 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
    FILE “C:\TRACK2.MP3” MP3
    TRACK 02 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
    FILE “C:\TRACK1.WAV” WAVE
    TRACK 03 AUDIO

    INDEX 01 00:00:00
    FILE “C:\TRACK2.AIF” AIFF
    TRACK 04 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
    FILE “C:\TRACK1.MP3” MP3
    TRACK 05 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
    FILE “C:\TRACK2.MP3” MP3
    TRACK 06 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00

The files will be recorded continuously with no gaps between them. However, if any file is not an exact multiple of the CDROM sector size (2352 bytes), then the last sector will be automatically padded with zeros. This could result in a gap between tracks with a maximum length of 1/75th second.

EXAMPLE #3 - Audio disc using multiple data files (multiple tracks per file) with no "pause areas" between tracks.

    FILE “C:\TRACK1.WAV” WAVE
    TRACK 01 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
    TRACK 02 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 05:50:65
    TRACK 03 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 09:47:50
    TRACK 04 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 15:12:53
    FILE “C:\TRACK2.WAV” WAVE
    TRACK 05 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00 Note: All times are
    relative to beginning of current file

    TRACK 06 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 02:31:40
    TRACK 07 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 06:56:13
    TRACK 08 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 10:06:25