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Topic: Cactus Data Shield and impact on music (Read 1596 times) previous topic - next topic
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Cactus Data Shield and impact on music

Hello. I tried to rip my "Placebo - Once more with feeling" album to mp3 and some audio issues arised. This album is Cactus 200.5 protected, which means the correction datas are damaged on this press. This album is compilation album. I ripped it in burst mode and i don't have any clicks and pops but the quality of some tracks is lower compared to the same tracks from original albums. Few tracks (i didn't hear it thorougly yet) sounds like high frequencies were cut out. This album had to be remastered of old tracks version and I wonder if the problem lies in copy protection mechanism or just this album was very badly released. I read that cactus errors shouldn't have influence on music experience but maybe it is not true. Not all tracks sounds bad.

Re: Cactus Data Shield and impact on music

Reply #1 –
This sounds poor mastering. Cactus as I understand how it works cannot impact the spectrum. But I also have quite a few Cactus CD and I cannot report such artifact.

Re: Cactus Data Shield and impact on music

Reply #2 –
Yeah, probably. I would like to hear non cactused version of this album. I heared my rip out and it seems only one track is in such bad quality. The rest may sound sometimes a little bit different than on original albums but they are still good and ok. I replaced this track with original.
Cactus 200 had few sub revisions. The 5th revision given erroneous data correction. In theory bad datas were put in nonhearable places on CD. Almost all current drives are able to rip such cds but accurate mode is impossible to achieve.

Re: Cactus Data Shield and impact on music

Reply #3 –
Quote
I heared my rip out and it seems only one track is in such bad quality.
Does this track sound OK when you play it on a regular CD player?   That should tell you what the CD "really" sounds like.

If so, you can record it as it's playing with Audacity (or other recording application).    It won't be 'bit perfect" but it should sound just as good as when you directly play the CD.

Or, maybe the song is available as an MP3 from Amazon, and maybe you can get the original version if it's better...   At least once I've had a track I couldn't rip and I bought the MP3.    (MP3 is lossy but usually sounds fine and it certainly sounds better than a track with audible defects.)

Re: Cactus Data Shield and impact on music

Reply #4 –
If it just sounds like a bad mastering, then it is likely a bad mastering and not the Cactus.
If it skips, then we have an issue.