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Topic: Trying to coax low-quality CDs through EAC (Read 3617 times) previous topic - next topic
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Trying to coax low-quality CDs through EAC

I have around 20 commercial CDs in my collection that are apparently of very low quality.  My personal laptop cannot even load them, and it takes my work laptop (my only alternative) quite a while to do so.
When I run these CDs - which contain single 79-80 minute tracks - through EAC, I can usually get to 60% or so before the drive starts having trouble reading them.  By 70%, I start getting Read and Sync errors.  Letting the drive cool off for a few minutes doesn't help much, but if I let the laptop sleep overnight, I can sometimes get the rest of the track read without errors.

I should note that these CDs have paper (adhesive) labels...I suspect that has something to do with the problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to "coax" these low quality CDs through the reader?  I'd prefer not to copy the tracks as multiple WAVs and splice them, as I'd lose metatags, album art, and possibly some audio data doing that.

EDIT: I should also note I haven't found any way to turn my reader's speed below 10x.

Trying to coax low-quality CDs through EAC

Reply #1
Burst mode.

I can't justify ripping to single-file images.  I used to do it and realized that it was pointless and caused me more work than ripping to individual tracks, especially when dealing with errors and tags.

Trying to coax low-quality CDs through EAC

Reply #2
I agree with Greynol on track mode, which makes it easier to re-read troublesome tracks with a different drive and/or a different ripping application.

Try CUERipper and, if you haven't spent the trial period already, the trial of the full version of dBpoweramp. (I'd say, wait until you have time to do all the troublemakers, and with two drives or maybe three. One application running each, over night. Then if all else fails: burst.)

Trying to coax low-quality CDs through EAC

Reply #3
If the discs are giving so many errors the data will not be recoverable with any drive or software, regardless of the mode.  In the end you'll just be wasting your time and shortening the life of your drive(s).  From my experience and what I've read, this is especially the case with laptop drives which are not as easy or cheap to replace.

 

Trying to coax low-quality CDs through EAC

Reply #4
Do they play on a normal good old CD player?
... I live by long distance.

Trying to coax low-quality CDs through EAC

Reply #5
Do they play on a normal good old CD player?

Yep, they sure do.  And interestingly, if I wait long enough - i.e. overnight - the rest of the track can usually be read without errors.
For this reason, and because the sound I hear when the errors start makes me think the paper label is separating from the CD, I suspect that I could get a good read if I could cap the drive at 2x or 3x speed.

To clarify: each CD contains only one track, and the tracks are a full 80 minutes long.  (These are a series of speeches.)  I don't like single-image files either but, in this case, a single track file IS a single image file.

Trying to coax low-quality CDs through EAC

Reply #6
Does the CD player have a digital out? You could always record it digitally if you have a digital in to record to.

Trying to coax low-quality CDs through EAC

Reply #7
Does the CD player have a digital out? You could always record it digitally if you have a digital in to record to.

That's a great idea!  I'll have to check if the player itself has one compatible with my laptop, but if it doesn't I suspect I could route it through my A/V receiver.  Thanks.

Trying to coax low-quality CDs through EAC

Reply #8
I should note that these CDs have paper (adhesive) labels...I suspect that has something to do with the problem.
Could well be. I had to rip two cdr's with adhesive (paper) labels recently and they had the same symptoms: ok in the beginning, but getting stuck after a while (in my MacBook). After several attempts I decided to remove the labels with lukewarm water. That worked, although the surface remained a bit sticky. I didn't take the risk to use dissolvent to remove it. Both cdr's ripped well after that. Needless to say that if the label contains important info, make sure you can still identify the discs afterwards

ps: even a cd-player with analog out would probably do the job in this case

Trying to coax low-quality CDs through EAC

Reply #9
Analogue out of CD player to analogue in of soundcard can produce very good recordings if the two converters are of good quality, if you can get over the angst of "is it lossless or not?" but in my experience CD player output is often too high for soundcard line in and much clipping will occur, even from a recording that never heard of the loudness wars. In that case you need a level control in between.

Trying to coax low-quality CDs through EAC

Reply #10
By the way: cdda2wav has a speed selection. foobar2000 has speed reduction. Both EAC, dBp, CUERipper and fb2k do reduce speed when they experience problems on my drive and setup.

Trying to coax low-quality CDs through EAC

Reply #11
Does the CD player have a digital out? You could always record it digitally if you have a digital in to record to.

That's a great idea!  I'll have to check if the player itself has one compatible with my laptop, but if it doesn't I suspect I could route it through my A/V receiver.  Thanks.



I doubt your laptop has a S/PDIF digital in, but if it does it probably has SCMS copy protection which may impose some limitations on what can be done to the files (you can't re-burn them to a blank CDR, for example). Also transfering 20 CD's this way, or using analog jacks, will be a time consuming process done at real time only. Yuck.