Cue Sheet (computing) - Non-standard Cue Sheets

Non-standard Cue Sheets

CD ripping programs normally offer the option of creating a separate file for each audio track, with the (pre)gap portion of a track placed at the end of the preceding track's file. This coincides with normal playback operation — the beginning of each file is the beginning of a track, not the gap preceding it — and with the layout described in the disc's table of contents, which doesn't specify gap information at all.

The cue sheet format, as specified in the CDRWIN Users Manual, doesn't support file sets of this type; rather, it's designed with the expectation that all of the audio data exists in a single file (CDRWIN only creates cue sheets for that kind of rip) or in separate files, but only with the gap portions of the audio either removed or placed at the beginning of the files.

In order to allow cue sheets to be used to burn a CD from ordinary file sets which have the gap portion at the end of each file, the CD ripping & burning program Exact Audio Copy (EAC) allows the creation of cue sheets that relax the CDRWIN Users Manual's restriction on where FILE commands can be used. This non-conforming cue sheet format, intended only for burning CDs with EAC, isn't supported by some other pieces of software, such as the media player foobar2000, which allows to use cue sheets as playlists.