editing music question

so i am makeing a backup copy of a cd of mine. and on the original copy the songs run back to back with no space inbetween, makeing it so the cd sounds like one continues song. understand?
but when i make a copy useing windows media player (newest version i think) it creates a space of about 2-5 seconds inbetween each track. so it sounds a lot .... ... ungooder.
does anyone know of a -free- program or even a cheap one. where i can edit this sort of thing. or if not that, a program where i can make all tracks in to one single track.. i hope i am makeing sense.
thanks for help

 

If the CD is already compiled with no gaps, you could use CloneCD, BUT be care ful make sure you run it at 16x or slower because thats the speed that Audio disks are designed to go at, and if you go any faster you risk getting clicks and pops.

CloneCD have stopped downloads due to legal threats !!!

Well, all you need is another 1:1 copying program (another one is CDMate or Nero), write an image of the CD first then burn the image, Most .will have some sort of "copy CD function"

We have the same problem with Nero when compiling a new disc, its highly irritating.. especially when youre tying to make a semi-professional sounding CD.

Sonic Foundry do a good CD mastering program (standalone and plugin to sound forge) but thats most definatley not free!

 

The gap between tracks is generally the result of two things:
1) Burning the CD in Track-at-Once (TAO) instead of Disc-at-Once (DAO). Track-at-Once adds a 2 second gap between tracks.
2) Having the recording app configured to add in time between the tracks. Some apps, IIRC, allow you to change the gap length for TAO.

As goldfish says, one easy way to avoid that is to use a program that dupes the CD, since that always does Disc-at-Once.

Here's what DAO/TAO selection looks like in Nero:

 

burnatonce explicitly allows audio CD mastering without the 2 sec gap, too. It's freeware, but kind of an expert level interface.

Edit:
And here's some infor on TAO vs DAO, as well as anything else you might want to know reasonably.
http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq02.html#S2-9

 

jeeeezus you guys are some help, all kinds of solutions here, thanks