How do I properly cut MP3 files?

[dreamlayers]

I want to cut apart some MP3 files based on CUE files, with the result being accurate and gapless when played on players which support gapless output.

Medieval CUE Splitter 1.0, MP3Cutter 4, mp3DirectCut 2.07 and mp3splt 2.1 all simply cut apart the file at a frame boundary.  That is wrong because data for frames can be in past frames due to the bit reservoir.  Even without that issue, decoders seem to not output the first 529 samples from the start of a track.  I also know that the frames overlap, so those samples probably cannot be correct without encoder state left over from the frame that comes before.

There's also pcutmp3, which does it differently.  There the problem is that it writes encoder delay values which are larger than usual and ignored by some players.

Does any software do this correctly?  I managed to do it manually and I'm considering writing software which does it, but first I'd like to know if such software exists.

[Llorean]

These are Rockbox forums. They're for questions about the Rockbox software, and discussion of issues with it, etc. This is a general purpose audio question, and should be asked in a forum more focused on audio editing and encoding.

[dreamlayers]

I'm sorry.  I thought this was a topic "relating to using your Rockbox'd player."  Whole albums in one file with an accompanying cue aren't as convenient to use as albums stored as individual files and now that I have a non-HWCODEC player, I'd like to split them.  I guess that you mean the forum is just for discussion related to stuff you do on the Rockbox'd device itself.  I'll ask in the Hydrogenaudio forums as soon as my account there is activated.