cue-splitter 2.6

cue-splitter is a nice and useful OS X application.

The name of the software is pretty suggestive. It allows you to easily split large MP3 files, such as mixes or single file output disc rips, based on a CUE sheet.

A CUE Sheet, also known as CUE file is a metadata file which describes the position of the tracks of a CD/DVD. They are stored as plain text files, so you can modify them with any ordinary text editor.

Some media players can use this kind of files in order to virtually split the tracks if you load a large audio file into the playlist. When a solution like this is not useful, cue-splitter is the kind of application that helps you.

cue-splitter actually splits the large file into many small audio files which are the tracks from the original one. Because the MP3 encoding doesn't use special headers, the splitting is done very fast as the application doesn't need to re-encode the audio frames.

Even though the producer refers to this product as to an MP3 splitter, I had the curiosity of testing it as a FLAC/WAV splitter because these loss-less formats are pretty popular. The test failed as I expected. The application loaded the MP3 file which was in the same directory as the FLAC/WAV ones when I used the dedicated CUE Sheets for the specific formats. It behaved well by failing back nicely.

Pluses: it allows you to easily split large MP3 files by using this application and a CUE Sheet. The interface is very intuitive and usable.

Drawbacks / flaws: it would be nice to have support for other formats such as FLAC or WAV.

In conclusion: the application is very good and available for free at the same time. However, the producer released it under a donationware flavor, so, in order to support the future development of cue-splitter, any donations would be welcome.

version reviewed: 2.6