MP3 looping problem

[paulie_loan]

zdravo!
I have one problem with mp3 format music. i've made short song for my intro scene. but, i thought it would be good to make just a short cut and to loop it in intro scene. it all seemd nice, but then problem occured: when i made that short mp3 sample and exported it, and then opened it with CEP , it had short "silence" just before the point where wave started and same short "silence"at the end. when you loop that mp3, you have small starting delay, and it just sounds wrong.
i hope you understand my problem. so, how can I make that short mp3 sample without "starting an ending silence"? is maybe that ogg format better(without starting and ending silence?)
I use FLstudio for making music. could it be set in FL's options, or is it a mp3 characteristic?
thanks !

[Ghormak]

Such is the nature of MP3. I definitely recommend using OGG.

[strazer]

To my knowledge you can make mp3s loop. Any silences at the start or end of the mp3 file are likely the result of your music program or its export feature rather than the codec.
Can't you export as wav from FL and trim the file manually in CEP, then encode it there?
I recommend ogg too, just because it's completely free.

[Fuzzpilz]

No, I'm pretty sure Ghormak is right - padding in the last frame is an inherent design flaw of MP3. I think I read somewhere that LAME writes additional information that can be used to avoid this or something, but of course the decoder would have to know about this... which I doubt most do.

[paulie_loan]

thanks guys!
well, I tried it all before posting a problem here, and it all resulted the same way. after cutting and cropping wave and encoding it to mp3 format, i had that silence again. so: FL and CEP did exactly the same thing so it must be the nature of MP3. i'll try with OGG file. i didn't want to use WAV cause the file is few times larger.
poz

[paulie_loan]

i've tried with ogg file. i've downladed free software for convertion, and i converted that short cut from wav to ogg format. new problem occured: when looped, every time the wave starts i hear some noise, like single crack.
like this:
tra-la-la-la CLICK la la la CLICK la la la.....
how to avoid that? maybe i sholud download some other free convertion software?
do you guys have some useful links or hints?

[Snarky]

The crack is due to a sudden jump in the wave. Typically, this happens when a sound file is cut off in the middle. Going suddenly from sound to silence, or to another sound, is like trying to change gears in your car without using the clutch (let's assume you have manual transmission for the purposes of this argument).

One way to get around this is to fade out the sound very quickly just at the end. A sound editor should allow you to select just a very small part of the file and fade it out. If you make it small enough, you won't be able to hear the silence, hopefully.

A more complicated way to fix it is to make sure the wave matches up exactly from the end of the sound clip to the beginning. This is far more difficult to do, but should give you a better effect. You'll need to take a couple of copies of the clip, crossfade them together, and cut the resulting track at precisely the same point in each clip. Even so, It will only work if the OGG player plays the loop truly continuously, with no pause whatsoever in between. I'm also not sure if the OGG compression may distort the wave at the edges so it doesn't match up correctly.

[paulie_loan]

well...
i tried it all before posting(zoom in at the and of the wave, then fade out). i also did a fade in. it was all done with mp3 file but it got it's "mp3 nature gift" so i had that silence again. then i tried with ogg. but, i have convertor only, so when i tried to convert taht fade in/fade out edited wave file, i got that ogg file, and i got that click thing.
one problem more....when i try to play wav file it just doesn't work(in my intro scene). i have no problems with mp3 and ogg file(except this click problem), but looks like my wav file simply doesn't work.

[paulie_loan]

problem solved.
i've downloaded ogg filter for CEP and then edited wave. sounds great. thanks a lot guys!

[strazer]

Glad it works now.

when i try to play wav file it just doesn't work(in my intro scene). i have no problems with mp3 and ogg file(except this click problem), but looks like my wav file simply doesn't work.

AGS only supports uncompressed wav files (PCM). Maybe your file was compressed with ADPCM or something?