Checking the boundaries

This is the step that decides whether the record comes out right. Everything before it is measurement; here you listen and, where the machine got it wrong, move the cut.

Where to look first

The track table has a cat Δ column: how far each track's length is from the duration MusicBrainz gives it. A boundary that agrees with the catalogue to within a second or so is almost certainly right. The ones that disagree are the ones to audition.

Common reasons for a disagreement, none of them faults:

• Tracks that run together with no gap between them. The catalogue splits them at a point no silence marks.
• Long run-in or run-out on the pressing.
• A different pressing to the release you picked.

Auditioning

Select a marker, then press A. It plays a few seconds across the boundary with a short 1400 Hz tick landing exactly on the cut instant. You hear whether the tick lands in the gap or on the music.

space plays from the playhead, or from 3 s before the selected marker.

Moving a boundary

• ← and → nudge the selected marker by 0.05 s; hold shift for 0.5 s.
• Drag the marker with the mouse.
• Type the exact time in the track table.

A boundary you set by hand stays where you put it. Nothing later moves it.

Zoom with the wheel, Z for the selected track, F or 0 for the whole side.

Reading the display

Under the waveform is the same side measured in the 1–3 kHz band, with the gap threshold drawn on it. Where that curve drops below the line is where a gap was detected.

Ghost markers show where the catalogue says each cut should fall. The distance between a ghost and a real marker is the disagreement, drawn.

Adding, splitting and removing tracks

• Add track in the side panel appends one.
• Split here (or S) splits the track under the playhead in two. If the playhead is inside a detected silence it snaps to the gap edges.
• The track table has a control per row for removing one.

Titles and numbers are edited in the track table.

Saving

Save writes both documents to disk. Revert throws away unsaved changes and reloads the saved plan.

You do not have to remember to save before cutting — Cut tracks saves first if there are unsaved changes.

Checking by ear outside the browser

ripdoctor check <plan.json> <side directory> <output directory>

writes one short clip per boundary, each with the tick on the cut, so you can go through them in any player.

Next

Cutting tracks.