CD importing/quality questions

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by LordPendragonOfCaria, Feb 6, 2016.

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  1. LordPendragonOfCaria

    LordPendragonOfCaria New Member Thread Starter

    Is there a way to fix the playback system on the computer?
     
  2. LordPendragonOfCaria

    LordPendragonOfCaria New Member Thread Starter

    To clarify my situation, the disc imports and plays perfectly fine as far as I can tell, except for a point in one song (the last) were there is a VERY small/fast blip of static. I'd write this off as just a problem with the manufacturing of the disc, because I heard it when I play the disc in the drive too, but my own concern is that I don't hear this blip when I listen to it on say YouTube or an Amazon MP3 file.
     
  3. bmoregnr

    bmoregnr Forum Rezident

    Location:
    1060 W. Addison
    So you are playing via your computer right, what then, line out to what amp or speakers, are you going digital out to a DAC? Computers have a lot of things going turning on and off that can show up as static; how is everything powered, through the same power strips, near monitors or TVs; all that stuff is more likely the culprit over the file especially if you have proven it was ripped accurately.
     
  4. LordPendragonOfCaria

    LordPendragonOfCaria New Member Thread Starter

    Truthfully, I sort of lack the technical knowledge to answer these things ^^; I can tell you though, that I always just listen to my music straight out of the computer's built-in speakers. I also tried the same disc + drive on my mother's computer, where I heard the same static blip, in the same spot.
     
  5. bmoregnr

    bmoregnr Forum Rezident

    Location:
    1060 W. Addison
    That is curious. So you are saying it is there when you play the CD the same as when it is a file, or only when it is a file? What is it, maybe some here has that file to check.
     
  6. Robert C

    Robert C Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    It's obviously an error on the CD. Try ripping with error correction!
     
  7. LordPendragonOfCaria

    LordPendragonOfCaria New Member Thread Starter

    Both when I play the CD and as a file. I even played it AGAIN in a car CD player, and I'm pretty sure I heard the error.

    Most likely. I think I tried that already, but I'll do it/do it again and get back to you. I'd buy a new copy, but I'm guessing I would still have the same issue. I've handled the CD very well as far as I can recall.
     
  8. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    Is it possible the CD has copy protection? Some CDs have copy protection that is designed to confuse computer drives. That confusion can cause brief bits of static. Car CD players are specialized computer CD drives. Car CD players read the CD the same way computers read a CD.
     
  9. LordPendragonOfCaria

    LordPendragonOfCaria New Member Thread Starter

    No idea, so, possibly. Any way to work around that? :/
     
  10. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    There are ways.
    What's the tile and the label that released it? Is it an import from Europe?
     
  11. BrewDrinkRepeat

    BrewDrinkRepeat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Merchantville NJ
    Only when using lossy compression. There is no loss of quality when converting between lossless / uncompressed formats. You can rip to WAV, convert to Apple Lossless, convert to AIFF, then to FLAC, then back to WAV and the file will be bit-for-bit identical.

    As for a drive, I use a $20 USB drive as my current MacBook pro has no internal optical drive and I use an AccurateRip-enabled ripper (XLD). I see no need to buy anything more than a basic drive for ripping purposes, and if your different OS and/or hardware options are resulting in different-sounding rips then something is seriously wrong with some part of your setup and you're not getting bit-perfect rips.

    Capacity. Some folks are ripping only for portable listening, they are not ripping to create a full-fidelity HD version of their CD collection to listen to at home.
     
  12. Jasonb

    Jasonb Forum Resident

    My PC internal drive does a better job than my external usb drive. Plextor and Pioneer were always the most reliable.
     
  13. LordPendragonOfCaria

    LordPendragonOfCaria New Member Thread Starter

    "Full Circle", by Drowning Pool. It's not an import of any sort. Printed in the US.

    It's not the only album I have though (got maybe a couple others) where I heard a tiny blip of static both when playing the CD itself and for the file then once I've imported it. So hopefully I can figure out WHY some albums do this, for future reference.

    PS - I'm also still curious if anyone has any tips in regards to CDs that always seem to freeze up when the importing reaches the last one or two tracks. I did some troubleshooting myself, and it would seem that a new disc drive AND new computer (so with it a new iTunes program/account) doesn't solve the problem. If it's just something in the disc that I have to live with, regardless, I can accept that, but I'd like to know for sure.

    Thanks again for all the info/advice you guys.
     
  14. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    Try ripping using a ripping program that does secure rips. Secure rips read each part of the CD twice. To verify that the second time reading that section of the CD matches what was read the first time. If it doesn't match then it reads that section over and over till it gets a match or throws up an error saying that part of the rip is not reliable. That is how secure rips are able to detect errors. That does obviously slow down the ripping process. Which is a reason why programs like iTunes don't do that.

    Three programs that I'd recommend that do secure ripping (there are others).
    EAC (Exact Audio Copy): the standard, but somewhat confusing to use and needs some custom configurations, especially if ripping to a format like AAC.
    dBpoweramp: a great ripper for getting good metadata and tags. Not free. Requires some custom setup to get to work well.
    CUERipper: Free. Easy to set up. Easy to configure to rip to AAC, or ALAC, or FLAC.

    I'd recommend trying CUERipper. It's easy. It works. It will verify your rips.

    CUERipper is a part of CUETools.
    Download CUETools here: CUETools download
    It is a ZIP file with no installer
    Extract the ZIP file to its own directory. Move that directory to a location where you like.
    Since there is no installer you will need to manually double-click on cueripper.exe to launch it. Or you can create a shortcut to the EXE file and put that shortcut on your desktop or in the Start Menu.

    The CUERiper UI is fairly straight-forward.
    Screenshots and descriptions of the UI settings are here: CUERipper Settings
    Click on button #11 in the screenshot. Change it to "lossy"
    Click on button #13 and change it to "m4a"
    Click on button #12 and change it to "tracks"
    Click on the slider #18 and set it to "secure"
    Put in a CD and click GO

    The default location for the files will be in your music folder in your user profile.

    CUERipper will verify the rip using the AccurateRip database and its own CUETools Database. If either AccurateRip or CUETools Database say the rip is good then the rip is good.

    Try ripping the CD that has some sections of static. See if you can get a accurate and verified rip using CUERipper. Then listen to the rip and see if you still hear static in those sections.
     
    shaboo and Robert C like this.
  15. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    Drowning Pool is on Eleven Seven Music. Discogs says that some releases from the era on Eleven Seven Music have Macrovision copy protection. For example this release. It is possible that your CD has Macrovision protection. Which is something that could cause bits of static in the rip.
     
  16. LordPendragonOfCaria

    LordPendragonOfCaria New Member Thread Starter

    Installed the program, and I think I did every step you listed. But when I try to rip the CD, it says that the system cannot find the file specified. Any ideas?

    Ah, okay. Thanks
     
  17. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    I don't know what file it is referring to. We'll have to try to narrow that down.
    Try ripping a different CD just to check if a different CD has the same error.
    Try changing the ripped file type to "lossless" and "flac" to check if that works. It's possible the file that can't be found is related to doing m4a conversion. FLAC conversion should work.

    It's also possible that the files on the CD can't be found if there is copy protection on the CD. That style of copy protection creates an audio session on the disc and a data session on the disc. Part of the copy protection scheme forces the computer to only see the data section and hides the audio section. If the audio section is being hidden then the CD ripping software won't see it. More info on that type of copy protection is here (wikipedia link).
     
  18. Robert C

    Robert C Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    A new disc drive might solve your problem. I have two and sometimes one drive reads a disc that the other won't. The bit in bold is completely inaccurate. A new iTunes account isn't going to make any difference and you could just install the latest version of iTunes on your existing computer, you don't need a new computer to achieve that.

    Why not search for the song on Spotify or Youtube and see if the error is there? TBH, it sounds to me like you have a faulty disc and you just need to replace it.
     
    Rasputin likes this.
  19. Robert C

    Robert C Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    These people should, in my opinion, still rip to a lossless format if only to create a back-up of their discs.
     
  20. LordPendragonOfCaria

    LordPendragonOfCaria New Member Thread Starter

    I switched to lossless (still AAC), but this new importing software still froze/got 'hung up' at the same spot. Truthfully I think this is a sign that it's just an error in the disc, and I'll need to make due. I did find an alternative anyways, by buying the 'faulty' song off Amazon MP3 and then just converting it to AAC like the tracks I ripped off the disc itself.
     
  21. Oggy

    Oggy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cambridge, England
    Ripped over 10,000 songs using iTunes, found a number of errors - basically you don't know until you play them

    Now use dBpoweramp (have used EAC, also), as I'm ripping all my CDs, in a lossless format. AccurateRip, gives you piece of mind and no unwanted nasties. I sort out the metadata, cover art, and then rip once, and back up and back up. Not the sort of job I'd want to do many times!
     
  22. LordPendragonOfCaria

    LordPendragonOfCaria New Member Thread Starter

    UPDATE

    Tried the song with a blip/static (the Drowning Pool one) on Spotify, and heard the same problem. Must be something with the disc, which I can accept.

    For the other album in question, that hangs/freezes when importing the final song, there is another song that imports fine, but has noticeable blips of static in spots, when playing both the CD itself or imported files. So on the whole, I'm guessing this album just has errors in the production :/

    So... I THINK I got my problems settled for now. Thanks to everyone for the help.
     
  23. Rasputin

    Rasputin Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    Usually when the end of the disc hangs, it's a drive problem.
     
  24. LordPendragonOfCaria

    LordPendragonOfCaria New Member Thread Starter

    I originally suspected that, but I actually bought a new drive and I still had that problem :(
     
  25. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    My local library has the Drowning Pool CD. I'll get it and rip it to see if there's any funny business going on. The CD is currently checked out. I'll have to wait for it to be returned. Could be a few weeks.

    Which track had the blips or static?
     
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