Ripping CD's with pre-emphasis on a Mac

I've searched and found several threads on this subject and I need some clarification.......I'm a little slow. I have numerous cd's with pre-emphasis and want to rip them to my Mac computer. I use XLD as a ripper. I've read that XLD detects pre-emph, is this correct? Once I rip a cd with XLD and play it back on my Mac, am I hearing the de-emphasized music? I save files lossless, either WAV, AIFF or ALAC, by the way. I know that my cd player detects and de-emphasizes these cds but if I want to stream the files is this happening? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

I don't think XLD detects pre-emphasis.

I rip with XLD and then apply de-emphasis with XACT as this batch processes and applies the same de-emphasis as sox but much easier.

XACT is a free download.

 

Thanks for the info, I'll check it out!

 

If I remember correctly, the ripping and burning of cd's with pre-emph has to do with the FLAG - not the actual music itself. It's the flag that tells the DAC to deal with pre-emph. Some cd's have the flag imbedded correctly, in the usual place. Some, such as New Order's Low-life do not.

If streaming from your computer, at least on a Mac, I'd rip from iTunes. I know that iTunes deals with pre-emph when playing back, but I can't confirm it rips any better than XLD. I suspect iTunes does include the flag when ripping.

When copying a cd with pre-emph, I always use Toast, and manually select the PE checkbox. I've tried burning pre-emph discs with both PE checkboxes and without. The discs burned with the PE turned on in Toast sound noticeably better.

 

Itunes is the easiest option but a) You will not know if your rip is accurate or contains errors - b) It's de-emphasis is allegedly not as a good as sox (I've not tested this).

Both options are fine it's really down personal choice and how fastidious you are about your rips.

Agree with using Toast if you wish to Rip PE Discs.

 

Thanks for all the help. I did a test rip with iTunes and another using XLD. After ripping with XLD I de-emphasized using xAct. Once completed, I moved the music to iTunes and compared the two cds. There was a HUGE difference between the cds ripped by the two methods I listed. The cd I used was my Black Triangle Abbey Road cd. The copy I ripped using iTunes was noticeably brighter and shrill. The copy I ripped using XLD then de-emphasizing with xAct was very warm and sounded awesome! When I play this cd using my cd player in my system it has always sounded great but I noticed when I stream it from iTunes it is very bright. De-emphasizing with xAct gave me the same sound as my cd player does. Thanks again for the help!

 

That's great to know - thanks for doing the testing

 

I've had xACT for years, and never knew it handled PE. Thanks for the tip. (BTW...I used to just rip CDs with whatever program, and apply Pre-Emphasis EQ via a Waves Q plug-in preset in Pro Tools)

 

Ok, so what is the best way to determine which CD's HAVE pre-emphasis on a Mac?

 

That's a great question. Maybe someone can ring in on this as I have no idea. I am just going by a list compiled a few years ago on this forum stating all known releases with PE.

 

I'd love to know that as well...

 

Anyone?

 

So far, the best way I have found is to run EAC 0.95b3 under Parallels.

(Oh, and the reason the earlier poster had problems with the Abbey Road black triangle is probably because it didn't indicate pre-emphasis in the TOC but only in the sub code data which iTunes doesn't detect).

 

Quoting just to emphasize the section in bold, which is entirely correct.

 

Useful list here - see #384

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/pre-emphasis-list.121188/page-16

 

We could simply link to that exact post, like so:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/pre-emphasis-list.121188/page-16#post-9740531

 

This peaked my curiosity. I was very excited to get the original Factory Records copy of Low Life and it sounds kind of bad. I wonder if that is the pre-emphasis.

 

Thanks for this. I have one or two on the list and wondered why they sounded a bit bright - doh! This has done the trick.

 

I have a Japan for UK no barcode and no TOC indications, ripped it with foobar/IIR filter which includes pre-emphasis, sounds a helovalot better

 

When you apply de-emphasis using software, does the actual data undergo a permanent EQ change, or is some other magic happening to keep the process reversible and transparent? I'm specifically interested in determining whether a de-emphasised file loses fidelity. You think it would do if the processing is permanent and the resulting file is 16-bit. Does any software exist that can save the de-emphasised file as 24-bit?

 

A little late to the party, but I have been dealing with this recently as well (trying to detect pre-emphasis in Mac OS).

So far I have found that XLD will correctly detect pre-emphasis in the TOC and mark the cue sheet with the correct FLAG.
It does not detect pre-emphasis in the subchannel. Same with itunes.

Similarly, the drutil toc command (used in terminal), will call back the CD TOC and provide information on pre-emphasis. The drutil command, however, also cannot detect pre-emphasis in the subchannels (even using drutil subchannel).

Anyone have any ideas on a program for Mac that will detect subchannels pre-emphais info?
I know cueripper does it on windows. EAC does not. Not sure about dbpoweramp.

It would be nice if there was a native program available for Mac OS. Maybe I should submit a feature request to XLD if no one has any better ideas.

 

Depends if you are applying de-emphasis using your software player (which usually does not), or when ripping (like itunes). Similarly xact converts the files. Don't know of anything that does a 24-bit conversion.

 

This is really awkward, I googled half the internet yesterday (man, it's a big world out there) about how to apply de-emphasis to audio tracks, but I already posted in this thread recently:

Well, I can also confirm that iTunes doesn't (always) recognise pre-emphasis, as mentioned earlier:

I received a first pressing of Earth, Wind and Fire's Raise! (CBS/Sony Japan 35DP 15) which iTunes didn't rip correctly.

According to its release notes, the latest version of XLD, from April 27th, recognises pre-emphasis both in the TOC and in the sub channel. But it's not listed in the log file, so you still wouldn't know that the disc contains pre-emphasis.

That would be nice! I couldn't find any contact info on the XLD website. It would be nice to mention in the log file if pre-emphasis was detected.

Anyway, I ripped the EW&F disc to WAV, but playing this file with QuickTime Pro didn't add the proper de-emphasis. I added it myself using SoX, converted the file to Apple Lossless (just to make it smaller) and now the file plays fine.

It's a bit of a hassle, but finally Raise! sounds wonderful on my stereo, on my iPhone and in my car.

 

I had been applying de-emph on my Mac(s) in Pro Tools using the Waves Q10 plug-in's CD-De-emph preset - until someone pointed out here that the free xACT app can handle de-emph. Now I use that.

 

I still haven't tried to de-emph the factory pressing of New Orders Low Life.