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Topic: Ripping music from CD-R's (Read 4204 times) previous topic - next topic
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Ripping music from CD-R's

I have read an article that said it's bad to rip music from cd-r's, but it didn't explain why. Please help me if you know why.

Ripping music from CD-R's

Reply #2 –
what is this nonsense?? post the article.
Be healthy, be kind, grow rich and prosper

Ripping music from CD-R's

Reply #3 –
They may be talking about piracy. If you are allowed to make a backup copy of an original disc, but the original disc would be pressed, not burned.

They may be talking about deterioration of the paint layer in CD-R. When the paint does deteriorate (that depends on many factors, disks are expected to survive a couple of years), you may start getting corruption. Secure rippers (such as EAC) will detect the corruption and try their best to get it right.

They may be talking about transcoding. If music is ripped, lossily (say mp3) compressed, decompressed, burned onto CD-R, ripped and lossily compressed again, the noise introduced in the two compressions will add, making overall quality really bad. This does not happen if either or both steps are lossless, which requires you to know how the CD-R was created.

So, there is no overall rule against ripping CD-Rs, just some gotchas.

Ripping music from CD-R's

Reply #4 –
Disks are expected to survive a couple of years at least.

Keep your flames.

Ripping music from CD-R's

Reply #5 –
i can only think of one case, when ripping from cdr's is bad:

when the CDRs were burned from mp3's - because if you would then rip them again, you would be transcoding.

- Lyx
I am arrogant and I can afford it because I deliver.

Ripping music from CD-R's

Reply #6 –
Ripping from CD-Rs is not recommended not because an intrinsic problem with the CD-R format itself, but with the processes that might have taken place during the information transfer from the original to the CD-R. The CD-R might have been burnt from lossy sources, the original may have been suboptimally ripped or there could have been burning errors. Moreover, if the copy is on bad media or somewhat old, the natural decay processes might have damaged it.
If, however, you know the copy is good (perfect rip, lossless, burnt with no errors on new, good media) there should be absolutely no problem with ripping from a CD-R.

Ripping music from CD-R's

Reply #7 –
we've had this argument before.


there are actually instances where ripping from a cdr is better than ripping from teh original (copy protected cd's, scratched cd's that were able to be ripped without errors with EAC or plextools).
"You can fight without ever winning, but never win without a fight."  Neil Peart  'Resist'

Ripping music from CD-R's

Reply #8 –
Thanks very much guys. I read the article off another forum. I lost the link so i couldn't post it.

Ripping music from CD-R's

Reply #9 –
Quote
we've had this argument before.


there are actually instances where ripping from a cdr is better than ripping from teh original (copy protected cd's, scratched cd's that were able to be ripped without errors with EAC or plextools).

Reminds me of something that seems to happen when P2P users get a bit over-zealous trying to download WAV files (assuming that they're original CD rips - at least this was what this friend had thought when he downloaded them on a 64Kb line!  ). Out of curiosity, I tried opening ten of his WAVs in Cool Edit, and played them through the frequency analyser. Result: all but two were either NICAM transfers (complete with audible distortion and nothing greater than 15/16kHz range), or (in the majority of cases) just decoded MP3s. Let's just say that the moment I told this to my excited WAV-laden "audiophile" friend, he knew the meaning of the word 'owned'.

Sometimes less is indeed more...