Hello everybody,
I edited an audio clip with Sonar X2 so that it would loop precisely and then exported it to MP3.
When I listened to the file on Windows Media Player and WinAmp, however, it dind't loop correctly anymore, there was a disruption at the end / beginning. Looking at the exported file with Audacity, I saw that there now was a short bit of silence at the beginning, which was the cause for the failing loop. I removed that silence with Audacity and then exported the track to a new file.
This new file now plays according to plan in WinAmp.
Is there a way to avoid the Audacity-detour? Can Sonar export a Clip precisely as it is, without adding silence at the beginning?

there was likely something wrong with your time range selection when you exported the file. maybe you had a loop, edited the audio afterwards but didn't adjust the loop and then selected it to export.

My understanding is that MP3 data compression adds a tiny bit of silence at the beginning by design. Normally, the only way you can get lucky with this is when your loop length happens to be an exact multiple of the standard MP3 data block size.
 
More information (than you probably want) can be found here: http://www.compuphase.com/mp3/mp3loops.htm

Why mp3?  Why not WAV?  And how did you edit it in SONAR?
 
@

artturner
My understanding is that MP3 data compression adds a tiny bit of silence at the beginning by design.

Yes, MP3 is not a good format for preserving exact start and run times.

i export to Wav, open audacity and make an mp3. I like to have both around til the next iteration.
 
Of course, that is FWIW...

Thanks for your answers.
Strangely, I get the same result when I export to WAV. There's a tiny bit of unwanted silence at the beginning that I need to remove with Audacity.
 
 

Why not remove it in Sonar.
Perhaps you should explain your export audio process.

Hi. Did you zoom in fully, to make sure there is no "extra" in your loop?
Best of luck.

Do you have snap to zero audio crossings selected in preferences? I export loops all the time from SONAR, that's how I do the loop libraries.