I don't think that's possible, period.

A CUE file is used to define the track layout of a BIN file. A BIN file contains the original data from a CD, which means uncompressed CD audio tracks.

If you want to make a BIN file from an MP3, you'll have to use a CD burning program capable of making an Audio CD (or a BIN/CUE image of an Audio CD) from an MP3 file. If you try to make a Data CD with the MP3 file, you will get garbage sound if you try to play it as an audio CD.

(You may be thinking of Sega CD games, which are sometimes distributed as an ISO image with the audio tracks as a bunch of MP3s, but that is a special arrangement explicitly supported by Sega CD emulators.)

Ok, thanks, but I've seen that I didn't express myself the way I wanted. What I meant was: is it possible to mount a music cue sheet in DosBox? I don't mean the BIN file. What I want is to have mp3's or whatever and a CUE file with the tracks and being able to make that work in DosBox. In other words, I want to know if it's possible to use compressed audio in DosBox.

Like I said, that's not possible. There is no such thing as a CUE file that points to MP3 tracks (or at least nothing I've ever seen) !

it might work if your lib_sdlsound understands mp3.
Dunno exactly how we handle it.
the "stock" 0.71 dlls don't support mp3

Jorpho wrote:

Like I said, that's not possible. There is no such thing as a CUE file that points to MP3 tracks (or at least nothing I've ever seen) !

There is such a thing. Though nowadays there are quite uncommon. CUE files can point to ISO files, WAV files, MP3 files and even OGG files. Each file is typically treated as a subsequent track. I've never tried one of these CUE files in DOSBox though given that they are so rare and most mixed-track type discs are simply supplied or created as a single cue file nowadays.

As you mentioned CUE files are more commonly used now to define the track types and lengths that are contained within a BIN file.

In fact if you are using Windows... download Daemon Tools and mount the CUE file that way. It will mount those types of CUE files without an issue. You can then access the virtual CD drive that Daemon Tools creates from within DOSBox.

Well, that's news to me. 😅 Are such CUE files supported by programs other than Daemon Tools?

Thanks all, but in fact, Daemon Tools doesn't support this, and besides, I needed to know if this worked specifically in DosBox, although I kind of suspected that it didn't.

Thanks anyway!

You are right... further research shows that the MP3s need to be converted to WAV files first before it'll work in Daemon Tools. The CUE sheet has to be modified appropriately.

I know I've mounted these before, but the only program left that I've used is Alcohol 120%. Perhaps I'm wrong. Anyway hard drive space is cheap... convert your image over to a bin/cue format and save yourself some agony.

Tsk, Tsk, Tsk... The uninformed speak (;

CUE/MP3 is a kind of "dirty workaround" to get small sized disc images. It was common for pirated CD-based console games (for example PC-Engine, Mega CD) some time ago.

The big problem with MP3's is that they are not exactly the same lenght as the original WAV's, no matter how they are encoded. There is _no way_ to create a CD with original timings out of ISO (BIN)/MP3 files, because the timings of the WAV's decoded from MP3 will be different than the timings of the original WAV files. In most cases, you probably won't notice the difference in lenght, though (maybe silence before looping a track, or audible pops at the beginning/end of a track, or something similar).

There is currently no program that can mount ISO (BIN)/MP3. Some console emulators do support the combination, though - but even with these emulators, there'll be some serious audio problems when playing the game.

Bottom line: don't use ISO (BIN)/MP3 (or OGG). It's crap. Dump your originals as BIN/CUE, and everything will work fine.

As Qbix already stated, it depends on how lib_sdlsound is compiled. I 'think' default settings are to compile mp3 support in as it does not need any third party libraries.

Otherwise it should work, if the cue file it correct.
If you have troubles you can post the cue sheet.

Hi RadioBuzz!

@ADDiCT: Actually, you're wrong about OGG. MP3 gets wrong timing because it changes the soundwaves a lot when compression takes place, so when you convert back to WAV, it translates to either bigger or smaller file size than the original uncompressed track like 90 percent of the time.
OGG and MPC (MPEG-Plus / Musepack) DO NOT have this problems, even when the soundwaves are still different from the original, and you always get a file of the same size and length as the original, or so i was told back in the day. I've done my fair share of PC-Engine emulation 😜

I don't think you can get a file just the same as the original after decompressing OGG or MPC. They are both LOSSY audio codecs. It would be different if we were talking about FLAC, APE, OPTIMFROG or something else, that is LOSSLESS.

😕 I said less messed up soundwaves, RESULTING in same filesize and lenght as the original, not that the waveforms OR the quality where equal. Of course, you could only do that with lossless compresion, but for preserving th actual size and lenght, ogg and mpc seem to be good enough. I've never experienced any audio de-synch problems on the various Pc-Engine games i've played so far, and a fair share of then were cinema-intensive. The real problem with PC-Engine games is that almost all of then have the track begin and end sectors hardcoded in the game.

Bottom line: don't use ISO (BIN)/MP3 (or OGG). It's crap. Dump your originals as BIN/CUE, and everything will work fine.

This is still true.

OK, it's also allright to use BIN/ISO + lossless (FLAC, APE, etc.). (;

Alexsource wrote:

MP3 gets wrong timing because it changes the soundwaves a lot when compression takes place

To be pedantic, that's not the actual reason (OGG "changes the soundwaves a lot" too, for example) - the issue is that MP3 is encoded in "frames" of a constant size (1 frame = 26ms, or around 38fps), so if the end of the original wave being encoded doesn't fall exactly at the end of a frame, there's silence being added to fill the gap. That's why you get wrong lengths, and clicks/gaps if you're looping.

Ok, ADDiCT, but it is still true that OGG does not cause audio de-synch, so it is really a matter of personal preference, etc.

I didn't now about the frames issue, when i read about it i guess it wasn't fully explained. Anyway, there are some threads about it at magic engine forums. Some dude made a fixing tool for mp3 rips and badly ripped isos (it doesn't fix ALL the problems, of course).

It is possible to add MP3 or OGG encoded tracks to CUE and mount them in dosbox. Dosbox has to be compiled with the flag C_SDL_SOUND in order to do so.

0.72 release should be capable of this.