I don't believe there is an actual amount of tracks a CD-R/CD is limited to. As long as their cumulated total is 80 minutes, they could all be five to ten seconds a piece (some burning programs, however, won't recognize very short tracks).
Well, from what I've read here, the overlapping, or crossfades, are nothing more in the majority of cases, the personal creative choice of the folks at Intrada. It seems they have a low tolerance for those who really hate them and wish they'd go away (Intrada isn't the only label to do this; for example, the Varese "Ghostbusters" had terrible crossfade of the final cue and end credits).
I personally fall into the camp that really dislikes crossfades. It's particularly terrible when it's a beautiful cue that would have a lovely ending, but suddenly is shortened a split second or more, and crossfaded with another, unnaturally ending the piece and forcing it to move along into another. It also leaves a person unable to have a proper version for a compilation (exercising, various types of score styles compilations, etc.) 'cause now you have to edit it, and faded it out early so it sounds unnatural, otherwise you have an abrupt ending. I can't think immediately of an instance Intrada has done this next one, for example, but while I'm speaking of crossfades and combining, might as well cover it: it's extremely annoying when a bunch of tiny cues are forced into a longer track. It's annoying, and mind you, while it may work in certain instances, most times it doesn't, but at least if it's not crossfaded, you can seperate it, but then that means you can't just pop in the CD you paid for. I mean, you start reaching personal opinions when you combine tracks. For example, Intrada made a combo decision I agree with, while others may have wanted it seperated: on ST:IV, they combined the Challenger dedication and the main titles (thankfully not crossfaded). But ALSO on ST:IV, I might have switched around some film tracks with their album counter parts, and maybe even moved around two or three cues (for a better listening experience), so it's easy to understand how they might feel.
I think it was LLLR that staed (I can't recall the exact minute) the pressing plants can't gurantee CD's over 78 minutes will play on all players, so they try to keep it at or under that amount. I'm positive Roger or Doug can vouch for that.
As to why some rare CD's combined music into one long suites rather than seperating the music, even with jump points that mark different tracks while still not interrupting the music, beats me. I don't think I've ever read a good reason, aside from classical music, where some people just prefer one uninterrupted listen if they can get it.
_________________ "Questions are a burden to others; answers a prison for oneself" "Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment and will die here like rotten cabbages." "Everyone votes for a dictator." THE PRISONER
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