Glitches ripping CDs

[admin_exported]

I've recently been given an iPod Classic and been happily ripping CDs on my Dell laptop and transferring them to the iPod. I notice that several tracks have what sounds like a scratch, both on the laptop and the iPod. Since the glitch is already present on the laptop, I presume that's where the problem lies.

I've deleted the tracks in question and then reimported them, but the glitches remain (I think they are at exactly the same point in the track in each case). This has only happened (so far) with 2 CDs, both of which play absolutely perfectly on the Denon CD82 in my actual hifi system. Is this therefore something to do with poor error correction on the laptop (XPS M1530) (even though I can't see any obvious physical defects on either CD), or perhaps its DVD drive has a fault?

Other than asking Dell for a new DVD drive under warranty, the only other possible remedy I can think of immediately is to use the digital output from the CD82 and input the signal into iTunes on the laptop. Can anyone tell me whether this is feasible, and if so how I might go about it?

 

[iRog]

Have you tried using different software to rip?
Exact Audio Copy is highly favoured by audiophiles as it is more accurate than most CD rippers and has extra features to enable you to clean up glitches.

 

[Anonymous]

Thirded (I agree with the other guys)

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="fr0g"]
But to repeat, it is better to use EAC or CDEx, which both have advanced error checking.
Using EAC, or CDex and others like them you can achieve bit-perfect extraction (into lossless formats) )

[/quote]

I thought that CDex only does jitter correction, not secure mode ripping like EAC can. Jitter is a very different issue altogether. Also most modern CD drives support accustream which means that jitter is corrected automatically.

EAC re-reads the same sector again and again and checks that it gets the same data each time, if it doesn't then it keeps on re-reading that sector untill it either decides that it has enough evidence that the data it has is correct, or eventually gives up if it can't get a definite answer. This usually works great even on very badly scratched discs.

The problem is, some CDs have forms of copy protection on that deliberately contain errors in an attempt to confuse computer CD drives. in these cases most rippers will just skip the sector (resulting in glitches), and sometimes even EAC will put glitches in the ripped audio. It may have ripped the CD 100% accurately, bit for bit, but it will have the deliberate error in too. Different CD/DVD drives have different built in error correction and error hiding characteristics. Ideally you want a drive with good error correction and handling characteristics which also hides errors well (mutes those samples) if it can't recover from them.

Since most audio CD players don't do any advanced error detection, they just feed the data from the disk straight into a DAC, they just skip the deliberate error samples, however, since this is done in real time, they just sort of smooth the error over since it likely to only be very small. When the delliberate errors are included in a computer audio file (eg mp3), the computer knows there is an error, spends time trying to correct, ultimately it can't, and you end up with pops and glitches.

If you re-rip that problem CD with EAC in secure mode, and you still end up with the glitches, then the CDs probably do have copy protection on since you say they are in fairly good condition. If this is the case, I am affraid there is not much that can be done apart from get a CD drive with good error hiding characteristics and re-rip those CDs in EAC in burst mode or fast mode, it won't result in a bit for bit perfect rip, but at least you might not get any noticeable pops and glitches.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks very much, so far simply checking "Use error correction ..." in iTunes (which, predicably, I have started using) as you suggest seems to have done the trick. I've learnt quite a lot from the replies - clearly EAC is the next step if I get any problems, though basically I'd like to stick to iTunes for its intuitive approach, unless it does end up compromising audio quality.

By the way - great Plato/Mencken quotes!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks. There certainly seems to be general agreement on EAC.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your confirmation.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks very much for your detailed and cogent explanation. Certainly taught me a lot. Copy protection hadn't crossed my mind. One of the CDs involved is REM's Accelerate, so could be affected. However, checking error correcting in iTunes seems to have improved the situation at present. I'd clearly be wise to resort to EAC in the end (and perhaps copy the results into iTunes).

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="fr0g"]

But to repeat, it is better to use EAC or CDEx, which both have advanced error checking.

Using EAC, or CDex and others like them you can achieve bit-perfect extraction (into lossless formats) )
[/quote]

Hi all,
I've got EAC, but what format do people prefer to use to play from, and which player if just wanting to play on the PC? I've got Windows Media, Real Player and iTunes?

Cheers
Tony

 

[Anonymous]

If you have the space for it on your computer, use EAC to encode into FLAC since it is lossless. If you don't have room for FLAC then high bitrate ogg vorbis is about the best you can get in terms of a lossy codec, far superior to MP3 when listened to through decent playback equipment.

Out of the players you listed, Winamp should play FLAC and ogg no problem. Real player may be able to play them as well. I don't think itunes can play either FLAC or ogg.

I use Winamp because it supports most formats, is customisable, and fairly light weight. Real Player and Itunes install a ton of rubbish with themselves without asking you.

Other good media players are foobar2000 and VLC.

For managing your music collection Media Monkey is excellent and can organise, tag and convert most formats. It is similar in concept to Itunes, but a lot more flexible and powerful.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="rigadig"]For managing your music collection Media Monkey is excellent and can organise, tag and convert most formats. It is similar in concept to Itunes, but a lot more flexible and powerful.[/quote]
Cheers for that, I've installed Media Monkey and it's looking good. I've removed iTunes and as much of the associated paraphernalia as possible, plus am using FLAC, as it's a pretty big hard drive.

 

[idc]

Sorry, but I am lost on this one. Please can someone confirm; if you have itunes and want to keep it you have to use their error correction. If itunes error correction fails to sort a problem then you are stuffed.

Or can other other error correction methods work with itunes? Is it a case of using a programme to down load the CD as a file and then import it into itunes?

I have an 80gb classic and Dell Inspiron 1300. The CD failing to import without problems is a perfectly clean and unscratched remastered CD of Who's Next.