How to create perfect digital music copy from used CDs?
April 11, 2017 8:05 AM Subscribe
A album I love which is out of print in CDs and not available anywhere streaming is something I'd like to create a pristine copy of by composing multiple copies of used CDs.
The album in question is Doppelganger by Curve (effing brilliant album). My old copy is busted or missing and the rips that I did 15 years ago are also missing from my recent backup scheme. Fail.
What I'm thinking is that I could buy multiple used copies of this CD online, since no new ones are available. I'd get three of them. I'd then rip them to WAV files, and directly compare the data in order to eliminate errors caused by scratches, dirt, wear and tear etc. i.e. if two of the copies agree on what a particular byte should be, then that's good enough.
Is this a feasible idea? I'd LOVE to have a pristine copy of this album again (in lieu of having the band over for a cup of tea).
The album in question is Doppelganger by Curve (effing brilliant album). My old copy is busted or missing and the rips that I did 15 years ago are also missing from my recent backup scheme. Fail.
What I'm thinking is that I could buy multiple used copies of this CD online, since no new ones are available. I'd get three of them. I'd then rip them to WAV files, and directly compare the data in order to eliminate errors caused by scratches, dirt, wear and tear etc. i.e. if two of the copies agree on what a particular byte should be, then that's good enough.
Is this a feasible idea? I'd LOVE to have a pristine copy of this album again (in lieu of having the band over for a cup of tea).
Best answer: You can get a copy in FLAC format from their Bandcamp, which is a lossless format that's equivalent in sound quality to ripping a CD. And that would toss them a little tea money at the same time.
Otherwise, given that you already own the CD and it's just damaged, I'd say that you're morally OK just finding a FLAC copy to download.
What you're proposing with CDs is possible, though I don't know if there's any off the shelf software that will do it for you.
posted by Candleman at 8:11 AM on April 11, 2017 [7 favorites]
Otherwise, given that you already own the CD and it's just damaged, I'd say that you're morally OK just finding a FLAC copy to download.
What you're proposing with CDs is possible, though I don't know if there's any off the shelf software that will do it for you.
posted by Candleman at 8:11 AM on April 11, 2017 [7 favorites]
seconding brokeaspoke. Just buy one cd, if Exact Audio Copy says it didn't have any errors you're good to go. If one of the tracks has errors buy a second cd and rip with Exact Audio Copy, and hopefully you'll have no errors or errors on a different track.
posted by gregr at 8:23 AM on April 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by gregr at 8:23 AM on April 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
BTW, both applications I mentioned are free.
posted by brokeaspoke at 8:26 AM on April 11, 2017
posted by brokeaspoke at 8:26 AM on April 11, 2017
Response by poster: Thanks for the tips folks. Think I'm going to go with the BandCamp solution as that's basically easy and helps with tea money :-) How did I not know about BandCamp? This is awesome.
posted by ephemerae at 8:36 AM on April 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by ephemerae at 8:36 AM on April 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
Bandcamp totally rocks.
posted by brokeaspoke at 8:55 AM on April 11, 2017
posted by brokeaspoke at 8:55 AM on April 11, 2017
Agree with the bandcamp suggestion and I'd always check there first.
but for future reference of anyone reading this:
You do NOT need to buy more than one copy of the used CD in question if you want to make a perfect digital backup.
Broadly, Exact Audio Copy has a couple features to detect if any reading errors were made and if so, correct them or try reading it again. Also, if you do the 'test and copy' feature, it will 'rip' (convert audio on the cd to a digital file) a track once, and then rip it again, compare the results, ensure that they're the same, before proceeding to the next track.
Also once the rip is done; it will compare your results with others who have ripped the same CD across the world and then anonymously submitted them to a global database (cuetools or accuraterip, forget which).
This guide on ripping your music CDs to FLAC (a lossless, no loss in quality, copy) is extremely comprehensive and is also used on people on private bittorrent trackers who share lossless copies of music cds.
posted by fizzix at 9:04 AM on April 11, 2017 [3 favorites]
but for future reference of anyone reading this:
You do NOT need to buy more than one copy of the used CD in question if you want to make a perfect digital backup.
Broadly, Exact Audio Copy has a couple features to detect if any reading errors were made and if so, correct them or try reading it again. Also, if you do the 'test and copy' feature, it will 'rip' (convert audio on the cd to a digital file) a track once, and then rip it again, compare the results, ensure that they're the same, before proceeding to the next track.
Also once the rip is done; it will compare your results with others who have ripped the same CD across the world and then anonymously submitted them to a global database (cuetools or accuraterip, forget which).
This guide on ripping your music CDs to FLAC (a lossless, no loss in quality, copy) is extremely comprehensive and is also used on people on private bittorrent trackers who share lossless copies of music cds.
posted by fizzix at 9:04 AM on April 11, 2017 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Wow, sounds like ripping software has vastly improved since I was last obsessing over it 10 years ago.
posted by ephemerae at 9:17 AM on April 11, 2017
posted by ephemerae at 9:17 AM on April 11, 2017
EAC is actually pretty old. It's probably been 10 years since I last used it!
When I really cared back then about getting a good rip of a CD, I did exactly what you proposed -- use EAC to copy it twice, and make sure both checksums match.
(Bandcamp is awesome.)
posted by neckro23 at 11:32 AM on April 11, 2017
When I really cared back then about getting a good rip of a CD, I did exactly what you proposed -- use EAC to copy it twice, and make sure both checksums match.
(Bandcamp is awesome.)
posted by neckro23 at 11:32 AM on April 11, 2017
> it will compare your results with others who have ripped the same CD across the world and then anonymously submitted them to a global database (cuetools or accuraterip, forget which)
Accuraterip is the largest rip verification database and the best guarantee of a good rip you can get.
Cuetools database is different, while it can also be used for verification like AR its main purpose is being a repository of parity data for full CDs that can be used to repair faulty rips.
By enabling the CT plugin in EAC (or by using CueRipper) and ripping a CD successfully (ie, passing AR verification), EAC/CR automatically submit error correction data to the CTDB that will help people who own the same CD but can't get a perfect rip because some sectors are damaged.
It basically does what the OP asked for, but without having to purchase more than one used copy.
posted by Bangaioh at 2:01 PM on April 11, 2017
Accuraterip is the largest rip verification database and the best guarantee of a good rip you can get.
Cuetools database is different, while it can also be used for verification like AR its main purpose is being a repository of parity data for full CDs that can be used to repair faulty rips.
By enabling the CT plugin in EAC (or by using CueRipper) and ripping a CD successfully (ie, passing AR verification), EAC/CR automatically submit error correction data to the CTDB that will help people who own the same CD but can't get a perfect rip because some sectors are damaged.
It basically does what the OP asked for, but without having to purchase more than one used copy.
posted by Bangaioh at 2:01 PM on April 11, 2017
I've always preferred 'Cuckoo'.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 3:17 PM on April 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 3:17 PM on April 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by brokeaspoke at 8:11 AM on April 11, 2017 [5 favorites]