What happened to the first second or so of my CDR?

[stereoptic]

I burned a copy of Bob Dylans Greatest Hits Volume 2 for the car. Both CDs fit on one CD with the exception of "all I really Want TO DO" which I stick on my CDR of Greatest Hits (1).

When I play it on some CD players, the first second or so of the first track (Watching the River Flow) doesn't play (short piano intro). Other players it plays fine. I even created a whole new image (using EAC), burned a new copy, and it does the same thing! I never had this problem with any other CDs that I have copied (either by "Copy Image and Create Cue Sheet" or
"copy Selected Tracks").

The .wav of WTRF plays fine, and the .wav used to burn the CD plays is OK also.

Any suggestions ?

[Rspaight]

Sounds possibly like an offset issue. Have you calibrated the offset in EAC?

Info here: http://www.ping.be/satcp/eacoffsets00.htm

Of course, the simple fix would be to stick in a couple seconds of silence at the top, but you didn't need me to tell you that. :)

Ryan

[stereoptic]

Thanks, Ryan. I've never adjusted the offset in EAC before (it is at 0) Just as the tutorial show, the end of track 1 is actually the first second of track 2, and so on. So somehow, an offset got introduced. I am concluding that it was done during the burn rather than the read because the .wav files are good. So I am not quite sure how to correct this (also without losing the very end of the last track)

[Rspaight]

I'm more aware of the problem than the solution. :) Luke Pacholski actually clued me in to this configuration, but I haven't had the time and inclination to really fool with it, since it hasn't been an issue for me yet. (Luke likes to compare CDs sample-by-sample as accurately as possible, and properly calibrated offset is a must for that.)

Some tips on setting your offsets correctly can be found here:

http://www.ping.be/satcp/eacoffsets02.htm#-

Wish I had first-hand experience to offer, but I don't...

Also, have you tried changing the CUE sheet to "fake" the correct track begin and end points? If this is only thing giving you problems, that might be a reasonable Mickey Mouse fix.

Finally, you might also want to play with your gap detection settings and see if different options help:

http://www.ping.be/satcp/eac05.htm#-

Ryan

[stereoptic]

Thanks again, Ryan. There is too much work just to make a "safe" copy for playing in the car. I think that I'll try your trick with editting the cue sheet, otherwise I'll just live with it.

:thumbsup:

[MITBeta]

What kind of burner do you have? EAC has a database of many burners whose offsets (both read and write) have been identified by users.

It's pretty easy to determine the offset if you have a couple of the reference disks that EAC used to proceduralize the offset identification process.

[stereoptic]

Originally posted by MITBeta
What kind of burner do you have? EAC has a database of many burners whose offsets (both read and write) have been identified by users.

It's pretty easy to determine the offset if you have a couple of the reference disks that EAC used to proceduralize the offset identification process.

It's a Plextor PX-W4824TU. But if the offset was the problem, then wouldn't I have the problem all of the time?

[MITBeta]

No, because EAC allows you to determine and then compensate for the offset so that it's eliminated altogether.

According to the database, most of the Plextor drives have a read offset of +355 and a write offset of -30.

Your particular drive wasn't in the database, but here's the reference anyway:

http://www.ping.be/satcp/eacoffsets01.htm#-

[-=Rudy=-]

Jeesh...I just rip to WAV files and dump them into CD Architect. (I can rip them right INTO CDA if I want to.) No BS with EAC, offsets, etc....CDA handles it for me.

[stereoptic]

thanks, all especially for the reference for my burner.

I think I solved it anyway. I originally ripped all but one of the songs from the first cd as individual .wav files. I then ripped cd2 as a "copy image and create cue sheet". I loaded the cue sheet and then appended the individual .wav files from cd 1 and moved them up in front of the cue sheet.
I think that somehow that caused the offset.

I took Ryan's advice and I edited the new cue sheet by removing the Index 01 and changing Index 00 to 00:00:00 for each of the individual tracks.


:cool:

[JoelDF]

Rudy, offsets are a CD reading problem with the drive. EAC only gives one the ability to counteract it.

Most of the time, you would notice nothing since the number that is put in is the actual number of samples that any given player/reader is off by, and there are 44,100 of them for just 1 second. How often does the very first note of a song start at the exact sample point that the track marker is placed?

My own drive, an NEC, requires an offset of +316, but I haven't actually used it yet. None of the tracks I've ever ripped have started within 1/140th of second of the track start point. :) Well, except for some Pink Floyd stuff were songs blend together anyway.

Joel

[MITBeta]

Right. The point of EAC is to provide, as the name suggests, an EXACT audio copy.

Most people aren't going to notice if a few samples are missing, but there are some drives with exceptionally long offsets, and when one makes a copy of a copy (of a copy of a copy) these offsets add up to significant losses in the final product. Clearly most people don't make so many copies, but it's nice to be able to have a tool that eliminates the problem alltogether and only needs to be set once for each drive you use.