Pause between tracks

Happy New Year, everyone

For many years, the best album EVER has been Hot August Night by Neil Diamond. It just is. Listen to it, if you don’t believe me. Played on vinyl through a top quality hi-fi system, you capture every bit of a great concert and great song writing.

At least, it’s been the best until ND released Hot August Night III and it’s on Tidal in MQA quality. So, now, with even more great songs and quality to match vinyl, this really ought to be the greatest album EVER. Except it isn’t, not quite, for one simple reason. Between every track there is a second’s pause and you lose that sense of being at a live event.

So, to my question: please, what can I do to remove the gaps between tracks? I want to experience a live album as just that: “live”. I’m sure there must be a way. I can’t find it in Settings; and I recall, when I was a user of Spotify, I could adjust the pause between tracks.

Any help from the Community would be very much appreciated.

I am sure that someone will be able to give you an answer but currently we haven’t been given enough information.

Are you talking about listening to Tidal MQA via the dCS Mosaic Control app ( if so iOS or Android)? Or listening via one of Tidal’s own players; mobile, desktop or web? Or some other platform; Roon, Audirvana etc?

Perhaps you would care to expand a bit e.g. system etc?

In the meantime a Happy New Year to you as well.

Pete, thank you.

I’m using a DCS Network Bridge, which I control from either my iPhone or iPad via the Mosaic app (ver 1.1.0).

Do you need anything more?

All best, Simon

I think that you may have to await the next time that Andrew from dCS signs in for an authoritative answer. There are some circumstances where Mosaic will not provide gapless replay but I am only aware so far of this being related to the use of certain UPnP server software rather than in relation to streaming services.

I am using Qobuz via a Network Bridge and Mosaic and it all works fine. Just checking for you and with this particular streaming service the 24/96 flac of Hot August Night ( 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) is playing gaplessly (oh the trouble that I go to :smiley:)

I do not think that there is an on/off option for gapless in Mosaic . I just remembered that the dCS MQA implementation cannot deal with gapless from MQA encoded CDs and wonder if this is something along those lines. Have you tried any other MQA repertoire from Tidal that needs gapless replay to see if it too fails in this respect and that it isn’t just this item?

BTW one reason that I asked about the platforms was that my first thought was that gapless is not possible ( AFAIK) when using a web player rather than downloaded desktop type, at least with all the ones I have tried.

Pete

Thank you - again.

You may have the answer, as the problem seems to be related to MQA files. I streamed Hot August Night III in the car without any gapping. I then tried Deacon Blue Live At Barrowlands on the Network Bridge. This played without gapping but it was a CD quality file. So, I tried Kylie’s Golden live album - apologies but it was the first MQA file I found for a live album - and the gapping reappeared. I tried to improve my street cred and swapped to Beth Hart Live At The Albert Hall, another MQA album, and the gapping is there as well.

So, science suggests it is a problem decrypting MQA files and it’s noticeable on live albums where one track is supposed to follow on seamlessly from the one before.

All best, Simon

There is a known issue with gapless playback of MQA tracks and this has to do with the way in which the MQA decoder and renderer components bolt together. The only easy way to get truly gapless playback with MQA is to have the decoder component permanently engaged and we’ve elected not to do that since it would be of no benefit (and possible detriment) when non-MQA content is played.

There’s a very hard way to do it without having the decoder permanently engaged and we’re not sure if we’re going to go down this path or not. It would be a huge amount of work for very little real gain since the number of truly gapless MQA albums is very small and the number of customer requests we’ve received for this capability is even smaller.

Andrew

Thank you. Yes, it would be nice to have but it’s not worth incurring huge costs to obtain it. I’d rather money be spent improving sound quality and perhaps an interface to Amazon HD Music?

All best, Simon

There’s an easier solution to the MQA gapless issue. Just switch to Qobuz and typically the albums offered in MQA on TIDAL are in hi-rez on Qobuz with no gapless issue and $5 less per month.

@spursfan666 - no offense but the Neil Diamond Hot August Nights III is a horrible live recording. It sounds compressed with the recording mikes a mile away. Even the audience applause sounds terrible.

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Only for the next 19 days as Qobuz’ special offer on pricing terminates on 31st January. Also the OP, like me, lives in the UK and the special offer is only open to Qobuz USA customers.

So I assume that that Spursfan666 will need to pay more for hi-res Qobuz (£24.99 per month). I say assume as Tidal UK seems not to reveal its streaming prices any more ( I just checked). So you now sign up, give your credit card details THEN they tell you the price. Business genius!

Brian and Pete, thank you both. Yes, Qobuz is significantly more expensive than Tidal, especially as there is no Family Plan option. I’m hoping DCS will provide an interface to Amazon HD, which might provide a cost-effective alternative. As for Hot August Night III, I was thinking more about the music than the recording quality.

… and I can’t say I’ve noticed a poor recording. Tidal - DCS Network Bridge - Audio Research GSi75 - Sonus Faber Amati Anniversarios. It sounds good to me.

How does TIDAL get away with not informing subscribers of their streaming fees. I assume you can cancel TIDAL any time you want and not be charged for a full year.

Yes, it’s very odd. The pricing options were clearly displayed the last time I looked. Now they have disappeared. It’s not going to help them attract new customers. I find the product is good, as is their customer support. Maybe it’s an oversight.

Can you reconsider upgrading network bridge to allow gapless playback for Tidal MQA? A lot of classical music is continuous and is divided into multiple tracks, and currently playback via Network Bridge is seriously disrupted between tracks and affects the flow of the music.

Thanks
Simon

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DCS have said above in this thread that although the engineering involved for MQA gapless replay is complex it could be done. However the low level of demand for this feature and the high cost of its implementation currently makes it not viable economically.

It is good, however, that you make this request as it adds to the demand side of the equation. However one must consider that MQA has still not had a lot of traction outside of Tidal which remains a comparatively minority streaming service ( that is compared to Spotify, Apple and Amazon) and that of its subscribers only a further minority are likely to be interested in classical music. So I would guess that the demand:cost of supply ratio hasn’t changed much. However covid lockdowns in various countries have served to expand the number of subscriptions to movie/tv streaming services so maybe the same has happened to audio streaming services? Would that be sufficient to tilt the balance for dCS?

Of course as you are no doubt aware switching to Qobuz will provide full hi-resolution gapless replay < 24/192 if you are in a country serviced by them. Just to provide an update on one of the postings above, Qobuz is now less expensive than previously and there is also now a family subscription option.

I live in Hong Kong and Qobuz is not available

Thanks for that information. I understand that there are now Chinese music streaming services using MQA ( e.g. Xiami). That could hugely expand the demand base for gapless MQA replay if Xiami has (western) classical repertoire . Maybe dCS could take another look as I am sure that they sell in mainland China as well as HK?

I won’t subscribe to Xiami or other Chinese streaming services, just to be clear.

As I am a Brit that is fully understood.

BTW, I wasn’t suggesting that you subscribe merely that its existence with millions of subscribers increases the pool of potential MQA listeners which, in turn, may increase the demand for gapless replay and make the provision of it by dCS more viable than it was some time ago.