Burn a Gapless Audio CD in Windows Media Player 12

Use Gapless Mode in WMP

While listening to your audio CDs, do you get annoyed with silent gaps between each song? Burn a gapless audio CD in  Windows Media Player 12 to create a custom compilation of non-stop music, a seamless podcast series, or audio recordings without any gaps.

Instructions in this article apply to Windows Media Player 12 on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7.

Burn a Gapless Audio CD in Windows Media Player 12

You must configure WMP to burn an audio CD, set it up for gapless mode, and add music to burn a CD with no gaps.

Not all CD/DVD drives support gapless burning - if you receive a message to this effect, you cannot burn the disc without gaps.

  1. Open Windows Media Player.

    Windows Media Player
  2. Switch to Library view if you're in any other view (such as Skin or Now Playing).

    To switch to Library View, press and hold the Ctrl key and then hit the number 1 key. Or, tap the Alt key once to show the menu and then go to View > Library.

  3. Select the Burn tab in the upper right side of the window.

    Burn tab in WMP 12
  4. Make sure Audio CD is the burn mode (not Data disc). If not, switch to Audio CD. 

    Audio CD selected as burn mode
  5. Select the Tools menu and choose Options.

    If you don't see the Tools menu, right-click the toolbar and select Show Menu Bar.

    Options in Tools menu
  6. Select the Burn tab on the Options dialog box.

    Burn tab of Options dialob
  7. From the Audio CDs area, enable the Burn CD without gaps option.

    Burn without gaps option
  8. Select OK at the bottom of the Options window to save the changes.

  9. If you haven't already, add music to Windows Media Player.

  10. Select the Music folder from the left pane.

    Music folder in left pane
  11. To add music to the burn list from your WMP library, drag and drop your selection to the burn list on the right-hand side of the screen. This works for single tracks as well as complete albums. To choose multiple tracks, hold down the Ctrl key while selecting them.

    If you've added something to the burn list that you no longer want on the CD, just right-click (or tap-and-hold) and select Remove from list.

    Dragging music to burn list
  12. When you are ready to burn, insert a blank CD. If you've got a rewritable disc that you'd like to erase, select Burn Options in the upper right and choose the option to erase the disc.

  13. Select Start burn to create your gapless audio CD.

    Start burn in WMP 12
  14. When the CD has been created, check it to make sure there are no gaps.

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