# editing a .cue file



## kangxi (Jan 24, 2014)

Hi all,
Are there any .cue file experts out there who could help with a little query?
Does anybody know the syntax for an instruction inside a .cue file to tell the playing to stop at a certain point? I have a flac file of a live concert. There's a soloists' encore halfway through it that I would to play more often than the rest of the concert. I can edit the original cue file (the one that plays the flac file from beginning to end) so that it starts at the point where the encore is about to begin. But after that it just ploughs on to the end of the concert. How can I get it to stop at the end of the piece I want to listen to?
TIA.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

One approach to consider is to use a music editor (like the free Audacity) to extract the segment of music you want and save it as a separate file for playback.


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## kangxi (Jan 24, 2014)

KenOC said:


> One approach to consider is to use a music editor (like the free Audacity) to extract the segment of music you want and save it as a separate file for playback.


Thanks for that; it will be an option to explore if i can't find a simpler solution. I can't help feeling there must be a simple off switch to put in the cue file at any desired time, but I can't find anything on the internet yet.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

The audacity option has the additional advantage (assuming that there's applause) that you can fade in and fade out, to prevent an abrupt start/end.


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## kangxi (Jan 24, 2014)

Art Rock said:


> The audacity option has the additional advantage (assuming that there's applause) that you can fade in and fade out, to prevent an abrupt start/end.


That's a point worth considering. Thanks.


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## kangxi (Jan 24, 2014)

I've just been told on another forum (Foobar users) that what I'm after is probably not possible: "I don't think such a thing exists. CUE files were originally intended for burning CDs and you wouldn't want to stop/pause in the middle of a burn."

It looks as if audacity is the way to go. Unless anybody knows of another way to play a large flac file that would allow me access to the various subsections inside it. (If I play it with foobar it treats the whole file as a monolithic single file. Which it is of course).


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## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

This may or may not be to your liking ...

Edit the cue sheet to assign three tracks to the FLAC file in question: have the first track begin at the start of the concert (time 00:00:00), have track two begin at the start of the encore (time 28:18:00 in my example below), and have track three begin at the end of the encore (time 38:13:00 in my example). If you wish to listen to the whole concert, play all three tracks; if you wish to listen to just the encore, play only track two.

PERFORMER "name of performer"
TITLE "title of cue sheet"
FILE "exact name of FLAC file.flac" FLAC
..TRACK 01 AUDIO
....TITLE "start of concert to start of encore"
....INDEX 01 00:00:00
..TRACK 02 AUDIO
....TITLE "encore"
....INDEX 01 28:18:00
..TRACK 03 AUDIO
....TITLE "end of encore to end of concert"
....INDEX 01 38:13:00


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

kangxi said:


> Hi all,
> Are there any .cue file experts out there who could help with a little query?
> Does anybody know the syntax for an instruction inside a .cue file to tell the playing to stop at a certain point? I have a flac file of a live concert. There's a soloists' encore halfway through it that I would to play more often than the rest of the concert. I can edit the original cue file (the one that plays the flac file from beginning to end) so that it starts at the point where the encore is about to begin. But after that it just ploughs on to the end of the concert. How can I get it to stop at the end of the piece I want to listen to?
> TIA.


Press "stop" in the media player?


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## kangxi (Jan 24, 2014)

Dirge,
That's a great suggestion! Many thanks,
regards,
Kangxi


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## Metairie Road (Apr 30, 2014)

Use 'Medieval CUE Splitter'. It's free. clean and easy to use.


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