Cue sheet
Cue sheets are used to provide index information for a large audio file. Cue sheets have the file extension ".cue", and are simple plain text files.
Cue sheets are especially useful for DJ mixes where the resulting audio file is one long mp3. With a tracklist a cue sheet can be created that will allow you to access the tracks very easily. Remember though: cue sheets only work with compatible software.
Contents
Playing Cue sheets
Cue sheets are only useful if you can play them! Here is a list of compatible software players:
- Foobar2000 has native support for cue sheets (Windows)
- Winamp
- Cue Player Plugin for Winamp (Windows)
- mp3cue Plugin for Winamp (Windows)
- mp3cue Plugin for Winamp with XMMS (Linux)
- MPlayer (Windows/Linux)
- 1by1 player (Windows)
- Amarok (Linux)
For the plugins all you gotta do is to have the cue and the mp3 file in the same folder:
- for most players just drag the cue sheet inside the main or playlist window, and it works just fine
- for the mp3cue plugin it's different - here u drag the mp3 file inside the Winamp windows and the cue will open in a separate window
All plugins will show up the track name, and at the end of each track it will keep on playing without any gaps at the end of song, coz it will keep on going smoothly throughout the whole mix, coz you gotta remember its playing one mp3.
Creating cue-sheets
You can always use these tools such as CueMaster, to edit & create cue sheets, here are the links for that:
- Liveset cue-sheet editor
- cue master - cues from CDDB/FreeDB entries
- cue generator
- cuesheet compiler
- another cue generator
- cue maker
- convert CD descriptions into cues
- CD Wave, instructions for creating cue sheets with CD Wave
Most cue sites with cue-sheet generators also allow the upload of cues in this way building cue-sheet collections.
Finding cue-sheets
Here are some good websites to help ya search for cue sheets:
Burning cue-sheets to an audio CD
- Burrrn does the best job
Looking for tracklistings (as a precondition for preparing cues)
Sometimes you will find a few cues as well...
- FreeDB
- Tracklistings.net
- Essential Mix Tracklistings
- TranceAddict tracklistings
- Tracklistings Progressive/Breaks
- And check for more on our Links page as well.
Misc
Also check the Wikipedia entry for more info on the cue-sheet syntax and for some info about using cue-sheets with CD images [1]!