[Flac] Cuesheets and metaflac

[Charles Steinkuehler]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

I'm trying to use flac to make backups of my CD collection, and am
running into problems with disks that contain a pregap (or lead-in)
before the start of track one.

cdrdao rips these disks *WITHOUT* the pregap, and puts a PREGAP entry
into the cue file.  For my test CD (Police, Synchronicity, catalog#
0082839373524) I get (in part):

  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    PREGAP 00:00:32
    INDEX 01 00:00:00

Once I import this cue file into a flac file with metaflac, however, the
pregap information is *LOST*.  This means I can no longer generate a
correct cddb query from the embedded cue file, nor can I create a proper
CD from the resulting cue/uncompressed-flac (the audio data and CD table
of contents will be 'skewed' by the pregap amount, so the resulting
cd-discid will be different).

I am aware of the "REM FLAC__lead-in" field in the cue file exported by
metaflac, but it always seems to be 88200 (2 seconds), regardless of any
PREGAP or other entries in the imported cuefile.

Currently, the only way I've found to be able to store a workable
(generates a CD identical to cd-discid after compress/uncompress cycle)
is to rip the entire disc (including the pregap) and create a cue file
with an INDEX 00 entry (which flac/metaflac will properly store/retrieve):

  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    INDEX 00 00:00:00
    INDEX 01 00:00:32

The main problem is this requires hacked cuefile generation tools, as
neither cdrdao/toc2cue, mkcue, or cuegen create cue files like this.

Are there plans for flac/metaflac to support some sort of pregap
indication in imported cue files for CD backup, or is there some other
work-around I'm not aware of?

Any pointers to how best to deal with "problem" CDs containing pregap
would also be welcome.  I'm sure I'm not the first to face these issues,
but I can't seem to find much useful info online...

Thanks!

- --
Charles Steinkuehler
cstein at newtek.com
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (MingW32)

iD8DBQFEwS2cenk4xp+mH40RAtKWAKCi9G8A1n7qhjC9ZO0lhIdFzrHkUwCdHlKD
IVitcnTudp6l5nfg7OseL3I=
=DmKX
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----