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cd playback problems most often on the very last track?


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Maybe this should be posted in off topic->tech talk, but I want lots of people to read it and, since lots of psytrance is on CDs, it's not _that_ off topic I guess.

 

Anyway, I noticed when one of my CDs has playback problems (even, or maybe, even mainly with brand new original CDs) more often than not they occur on the very last track. Did anyone else observe the same? Does anyone know anything about this? I have noticed this across 6 different cd players, so these are clearly not to blame.

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Well until now all my Goa trance / psy trance CD that I bought are still perfectly working.

 

Now for the burned CD (It's just I want to release my own compilation, with all the best track on 1 CD), I've to say that it happend a lot that the last track is having some problem. By example it's playing back, or it stop before the song end. Well I think it's important to say that in this case, it may be simply that burning step that didn't happend correctly.

 

But now I could notice another fact : on a burned CD that worked 100% perfectly , one of the last track were playing back lastly. Very short and not much disturbing anyway, but as you asked if people noticed same things as you ;).

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Yes, I've noticed this when ripping CDs. Most of the cases where a track gets read errors in EAC it happens on the last track, be it brand new releases or CDs from 15+ years back. I have no idea what causes this though...

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Definitely. I think I've seen more failed last tracks than others put together. I'm not sure about the ultimate reason and it may vary, but most likely it's related to the spiral being written outwards. Especially for "full" (or over-long) CDs, the last track is right next to the disc edge. Therefore it has the best chance to get damaged from handling. Also, if there are problems with sealing, the metal layer may become exposed and corroded, obviously from the edge.

 

Data density and linear velocity should be equal for the whole disc so that shouldn't play a role. (Compare that to vinyl where the angular velocity is constant and the centre has a tighter packed groove, hence worse sound. That's among the reasons why they're carved inwards and the centre is left empty for shorter releases.)

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I know what you're talking about and wish I knew too. The only album I can remember this with off the top of my head is D-Tek - Earth Technologies.

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Maybe this should be posted in off topic->tech talk, but I want lots of people to read it and, since lots of psytrance is on CDs, it's not _that_ off topic I guess.

 

Anyway, I noticed when one of my CDs has playback problems (even, or maybe, even mainly with brand new original CDs) more often than not they occur on the very last track. Did anyone else observe the same? Does anyone know anything about this? I have noticed this across 6 different cd players, so these are clearly not to blame.

It happened to me years ago, the problem was the player. It happens more often in car readers, because of the vibrations.

 

Technically speaking, I mean, at the press level, your CD isn'lt likely to be defective at the end rather than at the beginning, unless the CD exceeds 80 minutes, which might increase the defect rate. This is only theoretical, a red book fanatic would argue there are risks above 76 minytes but this is bullshit. Most presses go over 82 minutes flawlessly.

 

Now you may also be the one guy in the world stumbling several times in a row upon THE one badly pressed CD over the whole batch. Very unlikely.

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It happened to me years ago, the problem was the player. It happens more often in car readers, because of the vibrations.

 

I have a Marantz CD5004, a Cambridge Azur 640C, 2 Denon Dn-S3000 and 2 Denon Dn-S700 right now in my flat. The former two are stand alone (entry level) hifi cd players, the latter 4 are dj-cdplayers. I have never owned a car or any car radios/cd players.

 

 

Technically speaking, I mean, at the press level, your CD isn'lt likely to be defective at the end rather than at the beginning, unless the CD exceeds 80 minutes, which might increase the defect rate. This is only theoretical, a red book fanatic would argue there are risks above 76 minytes but this is bullshit. Most presses go over 82 minutes flawlessly.

 

I can't even remember having a brand new audio CD with playback problems on anything else than the last track.

 

 

Now you may also be the one guy in the world stumbling several times in a row upon THE one badly pressed CD over the whole batch. Very unlikely.

 

The great majority of my CDs play back flawlessly. Looking through my main CD bag, consulting my memory, I count 1 cd where a track has a problem that is not the last track, but 3 where it is the last track out of ~10 tracks each (all 4 are original CDs). Going through my secondary CD bag, on all of the 4 cds with playback problems it is exctly the last track, also all original CDs. Out of 95 original cds 8 have playback problems and on 7 of these 8 it's the last track.

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I have an issue like this with one CD from Nipponic brand: out of 10 tracks, it wouldn't go further than #6. I took a good look at the CD, but couldn't find any scratch. I guess it has something to do with the reflective material. After that, I decided to back up my collection in iTunes and iPod, and my favorite ones in my iPhone.

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I listened to the last tracks of the cds I was not 100% sure about. Total cd playing times are:

 

VA - Dark Lines 67:18

VA - La Familia 78:39

Filteria - Daze of Our Lives 75:04

Crop Circles - Tetrahedron 78:55

Psysex - Expressions of Rage 74:01

Banco De Gaia - Big Men Cry 68:00

 

Electric Universe - Higher Modes: last track plays perfectly, contrarily to what I remembered.

 

So for 6 out of 7 cds with playback problems they are on the last track.

 

edit: corrected some grammar and wording.

Edited by trancenonZENsedance
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I never heart a track playing backwards without using soom tool, really funny.

 

I'm not talking about music playing backwards, I'm talking about playback problems, like when the cd is not playing steadily but jumping forwards and backwards, skipping some seconds over and over again.

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sounds like could be your player, grubby hands (no offence) do you work with chemicals? or enviroment possibly?

i owned over 5000 cd's at one point, and have never experinced this (started collecting in the late 80's still have cd's from that error that work perfectly.

on the other hand over time depending on the quality of the plastic use, some do dergrade quickly, and i believe the life cd's were originally given was about 10 years or so?

or

some serious bad luck to you

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I can pretty much rule out the cdplayer as being the culprit because I have 6 of them. I don't touch my cds with dirty hands, when I touch them it is with one finger on the outer edge and one finger inside the small hole, or on the artwork on top of the cd, if I need to pull them out of the bag. They either go directly from the cdbag into the player or the other way, or in rare cases are carefully placed in the cdbag without being properly inserted into their place or on a cloth that usually covers the dj-cdplayers and mixer when they're not in use.

 

My flat is not especially humid or dry and there's no fungus afaik, it was completely renovated before I moved in 2 years ago.

 

Anyway I am trying to find out why it's mostly the very last track that isn't playing properly, which I can't really attribute to bad luck on my part.

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What kind of problem with playback are you experiencing?

 

I have issues with a few CDs ( Peak Records - Epeakurean, Archaic - Wildness, Master Margherita - Mastura) that make horrible "scratching" pulsing noises on the odd track. (Usually near the end of the CD.)

I thought it might be the CD player, as it doesn't happen on my cheaper one in another room, but I bought a second copy of one of the discs, as it's one of my favourites, but the new disc behaved exactly the same.

The Pioneer player is quite old, but playback is usually very reliable, even playing heavily scratched discs (although those mentioned are in perfect condition visually,) I thought the laser might be wearing out, but if two copies of the same disc present problems, there must be at least something wrong with them, don't you think?

 

Has anyone else experienced similar noise when playing discs? The intensity of it varies dramatically on consecutive plays. Love to know what is the cause.

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What kind of problem with playback are you experiencing?

 

I have issues with a few CDs ( Peak Records - Epeakurean, Archaic - Wildness, Master Margherita - Mastura) that make horrible "scratching" pulsing noises on the odd track.

 

Could be that I've heard these scratching noises once, but for me it's this:

 

 

I'm talking about playback problems, like when the cd is not playing steadily but jumping forwards and backwards, skipping some seconds over and over again.

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