Wonder why CD pressings often differ in length by two seconds?

2011-05-03 22:28:14

I was running some analysis on the CTDB, hunting for entry clones and such, and i found an interesting phenomenon.
There are hundreds of CDs in database which come in two variants, the short and the long one, whose last track is exactly two seconds longer.
This doesn't seem a product of any software glitch or CD-Rs or something, both usually seem like a legit CDs,
both TOCs known to AccurateRip and MusicBrainz, and often with high AccurateRip confidences.

Here's an example - The Colour and the Shape by the Foo Fighters:
http://db.cuetools.net/show.php?tocid=drOc...s-&id=18798
http://db.cuetools.net/show.php?tocid=Kvg8...w-&id=24344

Any ideas why this happens and should something be done about this by CD ripping software or CTDB?

Full list of those clones can be temporarily found here: http://db.cuetools.net/clones4.php

Wonder why CD pressings often differ in length by two seconds?

Reply #1 – 2011-05-04 14:30:58

I've found a number of these also, mostly from looking at the MusicBrainz db. You will also find variants with 2 or 8 extra frames of length, where each track has 2 seconds or where a toc varies only by an extended pregap. These are less likely and seem to be the result of cd-r and rip setting anomalies.

As to the ones you cite I'm sorry to say that I've been wondering also

Wonder why CD pressings often differ in length by two seconds?

Reply #2 – 2011-05-04 14:46:32

>Any ideas why this happens and should something be done about this by CD ripping software or CTDB?

IMHO no, this disc is as intended, even with 2 seconds (of silence) on the end.

If people were concerned by silence they would use a system on the player (iTunes does this) to detect silence on the tracks and eliminate it, or the ripper can generally remove silence (think the mastering guys always get it right? even when checking gaps from indexes there can be silence). Myself I am not to concerned if there is a couple of seconds of silence between tracks, as it separates the tracks when playing back.

Re: Wonder why CD pressings often differ in length by two seconds?

Reply #3 – 2017-10-15 05:20:01

I think the explanation is very simple:

People make CD-R copies of legit CDs, burning in track-at-once mode (erroneously).
On such copies, 2 seconds of silence are appended to each track, except the last track.

Re: Wonder why CD pressings often differ in length by two seconds?

Reply #4 – 2017-10-17 08:44:21

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Even EAC's "CD Layout Editor" has "Add 2 Second Gap On Append" enabled (checked in "Layout" menu) by default after a fresh installation. The opposite should be the case, I think.

Greetings, ...

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