Editing Track Indices and Metadata

Use the Track Indices (also called Track Markers) to divide a project into individual tracks for burning to CD or exporting to multiple individual files.

They can be edited in detail in the CD-Index-Manager, CD Title Indexes can store metadata other than the marker name.

Setting Individual Track Indices

Place the play cursor at the desired position and set track indices using the commands in the menu CD > Indices or these buttons. The numbering of already set, subsequent indices is automatically adjusted.

To display the track index buttons, select the workspace Mastering.

Set CD Track Index

Track indices split a project into individual sections that correspond to individual CD tracks when burning to CD, and split up individual files when exporting with Split at markers.

Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + I

Set CD Sub Index

Sub indices are used to mark individual sections within a track and can be accessed by some CD players.

Set CD Pause Index

The CD pause index is a special sub index (index 0) used to mark the end of a CD track. At this point, some CD players switch to absolute silence during playback until the next track index, and the time in the display runs as a countdown to the start of the next track.

Set CD End Index

This index marks the end of the CD. When burning and by default when exporting, the project is used from the project start to the end of the last object. If the last object still has a reverb tail after it ends, place a CD end marker at an appropriate distance from the end of the last object to ensure that this audio is exported with it.

You can also use the end index to specify the end of an export to keep additional audio material behind it, such as unused recordings and other material in the project that should not included in the export.

You can also specify the starting point for burning and exporting, because it always starts at the first CD track index, which does not have to be at the project start.

Set Track indices at object edges

This function inserts track indices at each object in the project.

In the submenu Set indices at object edges - Options some additional options for this function can be set by selecting the corresponding menu item:

  • Also set pause indices at object ends: This option creates pause indexes at the object ends in addition to the track indexes.

  • Time offset for indices at object edges: Select here a time interval with which the indices are set before the object edges.

  • No indexes at object crossfades: With this option, no indexes are created at objects that are blended to the previous object via a crossfade.

If the audio files of the objects contain metadata like artist, title, album… (ID3 tags of MP3 files) or ISRC codes from Broadcast Wave files, this function transfers them to the track indices.

Use the menu option Remove Index to delete an index from the project. To select it, place the play cursor on the index position. Remove all indexes (keyboard shortcut:Ctrl + Alt + Shift + I) removes all indexes.

The menu option Set track indices after silence… opens a special version of the dialog Set markers after silence, which lets you set CD track indices automatically based on detected pauses in the audio material.

Managing Metadata via Track Indices

CD Track Indices were originally intended only for dividing a project into individual titles before burning onto a CD. With the ability to burn CD text, the indices gained the additional ability to store the title of a CD track and other metadata (ID3 tags). Even though direct CD burning is no longer supported, Sequoia still needs the CD title indexes to store such metadata if the project is to be exported into several individual MP3 files that should contain the corresponding metadata for the individual tracks..

Use the function Set indexes at object edges to transfer already existing metadata from the objects' audio files to CD track indexes. Afterwards, this data can be edited via the CD-Text/ID3-Editor. To export the project to individual files and, in the process, enter the CD track index data in the metadata (ID3 tags) of the exported files, select the option Each CD track to a file in the Export dialog at Split at markers.