A few CDs won't rip ... what's the problem?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by npc210, May 4, 2012.

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  1. npc210

    npc210 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I generally rip my CDs to lossless using my laptop plus dbpoweramp and have had no issues ... until yesterday.

    I bought a batch of used discs and for whatever reason, two titles -- Love's S/T album and Four Sail, both the Rhino remasters, and both in EXC condition -- just won't rip at all. In addition to those two albums, I also bought around a dozen others CDs and didn't have any problems ripping them to my computer.

    I'm fine with having these two CDs as "car copies." I'm just curious as to why these discs -- and only these discs -- are giving me trouble.
     
  2. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    I don't know what types of errors cause discs to be difficult to rip. Discs with scratches are obvious why the ripping program is having difficulties. It's the discs with no visible problems and in good to great condition that make me wonder why?

    Try ripping with EAC. Sometimes EAC will rip a disc that dBpoweramp won't. And vice versa. Sometimes dBpoweramp will rip a disc that EAC won't. If your drive supports C2 error correction try ripping with C2 error correction enabled and then with C2 error correction disabled. Sometimes that helps.

    If you have access to a different CD drive try a different drive. I have two drives in my desktop computer. One old Plextor that can only do CDs. And a CD/DVD drive. I think the lasers are different between the two drives since one is CD only and the other is a CD/DVD combo. Whatever the differences are, trying the other drive does help in many cases.
     
    Master_It_Right likes this.
  3. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Crappy laptop drive. Get an external drive.

    I've had marginal CDs where I had to try three or four different Plextors before I found one that worked OK. Crap happens.

    dBPowerAmp is a lifesaver with this, but if and when it encounters bad frames, it'll sit there and try to re-rip them endlessly if you let it. Sometimes, it's better just to try a different drive, try a burst rip, and then just listen to the damn file and move on (assuming it sounds OK).
     
    Master_It_Right likes this.
  4. Coldacre

    Coldacre Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Melbourne
    it could be a crap drive, but cd burning is one of those things where one in a few thousand, one just will not rip. I bought a Stooges cd brand new that wouldn't rip on my iMac, no matter what ripping program I tried (XLD, Max, iTunes) tried it on my brothers brand new PC, no joy. the disc is just not interested. possibly the only cd to have bullet proof "copy control" :D
     
  5. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music...

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    Just One

    I have had one CD that simply would not load in the drive and this was a brand new MFSL title that would play in my CD player. I finally took it over to my friends and it loaded fine. I ripped it to his iTunes then burned a copy back to CD. That copy loaded and ripped on my computer just fine.

    I have had two recent issues where it would load in the drive but neither XLD in any of it's three ripping modes nor iTunes could rip them. It turns out both of these used, original release CDs from the 80s, were pitted and those pin holes simply were too many to over come. I had to search for another copy of those masterings to get it done.

    Bottom line, one was the CDs and the other were drive issues.
     
  6. MikeyH

    MikeyH Stamper King

    Location:
    Berkeley, CA
    I used to listen mostly to ripped CDs on the computer, and quite a few had problems reading on one drive or another.

    Sometimes, cleaning a NM classical cd (detergent, water, pat dry) would allow it to rip. They played fine. There's just stuff that seems funny with all music CDs.

    I'd be very happy if they all morphed into full resolution data CDs. That's what I burn now when I want to.
     
  7. Jim G.

    Jim G. Geezer with a nice stereo!

    There seems to be an issue with some Rhino cd's not being able to be read by computer cd drives. Can you play these on your computer?
     
  8. Lownote30

    Lownote30 Bass Clef Addict

    Location:
    Nashville, TN, USA
    Some Cds are just manufactured poorly and don't even recognize in certain computer drives. You just have to find an older Plextor drive on a desktop. Those things will read anything that can be read.
     
  9. autodidact

    autodidact Forum Resident

    I'm both intrigued and slightly troubled by these reports. I've never had a problem ripping a disc that wasn't obviously physically damaged. My drives are nothing special -- an assortment of DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, CD, and CD-RW drives. I use EAC. If they are scratched, sometimes there are glitches. Otherwise, over hundreds of rips, not a problem. I hope this is not a new trend.

    So these discs that won't rip, I am assuming they also will not play with Media Player or Foobar, etc.?
     
  10. Alternative4

    Alternative4 One of These Days I'll Get an Early Night

    Location:
    New Zealand
    I have Forever Changes, Da Capo and Four Sail, none of which play on my computer drive.

    However I put them into an old laptop drive and they played fine.

    Must be a weird mix of compatible technology.
     
  11. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music...

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    For me I am talking about two different types of occurrences over three CDs out of more than 2,000 rips
     
  12. SBurke

    SBurke Nostalgia Junkie

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    Definitely try a couple different drives.

    I've ripped over 10,000 CD's, and while many would not rip accurately on one of the four or five different drives I've used, the number of discs that wouldn't rip accurately on any drive is very small, like under 50 (and that includes scratched discs).
     
  13. jh901

    jh901 Forum Resident

    Location:
    PARRISH FL USA
    Oddly, I'm having the same problem with couple of strong Exc JVC Japan pressings from the VDJ series. I've ripped a few dozen to WAV using dBpoweramp from the same series and, of course, many JVC Japan pressings in general.

    I'll try them on another desktop when I get around to it.
     
  14. greelywinger

    greelywinger Osmondia

    Location:
    Dayton, Ohio USA
    I've recently had a problem ripping a Rhino CD.
    Jive After Five : The Best Of Carl Perkins
    It seems the drive is attempting to read the CD with no sucess.
    I will try to rip on a friend's computer.

    Darryl
     
  15. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    I use Kit clear coat scratch remover before ripping these CDs.
     
    arisinwind likes this.
  16. Veni Vidi Vici

    Veni Vidi Vici Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    Older drives seems to work better and handle a broader range of discs. I wonder if the CD-specific workings is being compromised with newer drives where the primary purpose of them is to support DVD(-RW) or Blu-Ray.

    Presumably if a disc is unrippable it's because the table-of-contents can't be read (I guess you can't interpolate that, eh?). Or perhaps it can't be tracked properly because it's been mispressed in some way. I suspect spinning the disc at multiples of the standard angular velocity doesn't help because every disc I've had problems with has played fine in a proper CD player.
     
  17. greelywinger

    greelywinger Osmondia

    Location:
    Dayton, Ohio USA
    I had no problem playing the disc in a CD player, just couldn't get the drive in my computer to read it.
    If I rebooted the computer would that help any?

    Darryl
     
  18. Veni Vidi Vici

    Veni Vidi Vici Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    Probably not. Try it in another, older drive. I find my wife's old MacBook from 2007 works perfectly on the discs my 2012 Apple external drive gives up on.
     
  19. Master_It_Right

    Master_It_Right Forum Resident

    I'm going to throw my vote in for buying an external drive. I had this problem occasionally and decided to buy an external in order to keep the stress off the CD/DVD drive in my PC. I noticed it would do discs perfectly that the stock drive choked on. If that's not an option, try EAC and see if that will do it instead.
     
  20. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    The first thing to do before going to another drive is to use clear coat polish and use it on your primary drive.
     
  21. Veni Vidi Vici

    Veni Vidi Vici Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    With these kind of errors I don't think it makes any difference whether the drive is internal or external. Nor is it going to make any difference using EAC or iTunes, either (the drive is controlled by the OS device driver in either case). Some chipsets and mechanisms are simply better and more forgiving of discs that are not quite Redbook for whatever reason.
     
  22. gregorya

    gregorya I approve of this message

    I've had a few instances where this happened and I ejected the CD, reloaded it and it worked fine. Another time or two where a reboot helped. Very random; most of the time all is well.
     
  23. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    Macs dislike Warner's CD.
     
  24. William K

    William K Forum Resident

    Location:
    NW Indiana
    If all else fails you may also want to see if you have the latest firmware installed for your drive.
     
  25. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    I use an iMac at one of my jobs and it does reject some CDs, and accepts others and plays them (often with hardware noise).
     
    DrBeatle likes this.
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