I’ve been asked to hide a track at the end of this CD with a 3 min gap. How do you do that? Just leave the space and then the hidden track? Or should I use some other specific settings?
They also want the same thing for iTunes sales! How does that work? Do I put together the last two tracks with a 3min gap in the middle in one big file? In iTunes it will just seems one very long track! Is there a specific way to do it?
Any help appreciated.
Thanks
Hi,
You are correct leave as so much paus you/producer/musician needs
You can only have one CD Track Start marker (otherwise the Hidden Track
wont be hidden !) but you could insert a CD Track Index marker
where the hidden Track begins if you like and you need the CD Track End marker !
“Hidden Track” before CD Track 1 is more common I think !?
rewind from very start of CD track 1
but ask in Mastering forum as well Bob Katz etc
regards S-EH
Thank you for your help.
Can I just add the hidden track without any markers after the close CD marker of the last visible track?
What about iTune store? Is there a way to hide the track there?
At the end, this is simple: simply use a 3 min pause before the last track.
You can’t add anything after the last CD End marker, so you hide the ‘hidden song’ (just to avoid confusion with the word ‘track’) in one of two ways: either as an extra long CD track with 3 minutes silence between ‘known last’ and hidden song, or as an extra CD track which is not mentioned and starts with 3 minutes silence after the CD Start marker, and ending with a regular CD End marker. For online distribution, I think only the first option will really keep it hidden - apart from the extra length that could make it obvious.
This is exactly what I have always done, well… done once. Thanks for confirming that. But one way or another it is obvious that there is something going on at the end of the CD. So what’s the point to try to hide it anyway?
Another way would be to create an empty short last track and hide the hidden song in the pause before that. CD only, not iTunes of course. Or hide it before the first track (like S-EH said), that seems clever, but no one will never know! So why did you record the song in the first place! 
This hidden track business seems just silly to me.
Thank you all for taking the time to help.
Another way would be to create an empty short last track and hide the hidden song in the pause before that
I don’t think so, because the pause is played, hence it will not be hidden.
I read this suggestion somewhere. Make a long pause (3 minutes + hidden track) and then a short track of a few seconds. The idea is that during the pause when you hear nothing for about a minute you see there is another track and you skip the pause only to find an empty track.
ok, if the pause starts with a long silence. This is a good trick indeed.