Why would a cd sound distorted on only some cd players?

goose134 · Post by **goose134** » Sun Jan 08, 2012 7:54 pm

Somebody needs to turn this into a noise rock song. Just incredible.

Neal · Post by **Neal** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 5:30 pm

More proof that everything is better with distortion.

As for why it did this, I am baffled.

SafeandSoundMastering · Post by **SafeandSoundMastering** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:07 am

That may well be a plant manufacturing fault. A fault which some cd players D/A have some bizarre sensitivity to. Very peculiar.

SafeandSound Mastering
music mastering

Beat Poet · Post by **Beat Poet** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 2:55 pm

I don't know if this is a solution, but you could burn the CD to WAVs and import them into a simple program like Audition or Audacity and lower the volume of the whole album. It's something I do regularly before importing pesky "loudness war" albums into iTunes, when Sound Check just can't make the quieter albums compete. Even Death Magnetic sounds less distorted!

dfuruta · Post by **dfuruta** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 5:02 pm

Like I said a little bit back, this weirdness only shows itself in iTunes, although it is somehow linked with this specific cd (and doesn't seem to be the result of any settings within the preferences). I was able to get the same effect by taking the normal audio, boosting it 60dB or so and clipping...

I've decided to look at this discovery as a little gift from the heavens, and I'm starting work on an album of my own music with the same sound quality.

Neal · Post by **Neal** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:15 am

Let us know how that comes together, I'd be interested to hear it.

cale w · Post by **cale w** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 8:41 pm

If it only does that in iTunes, it HAS to have something to do with the level matching bullshit iTunes does. But oh my, it is horrifyingly badass and gnarly. Especially at the end when it all just implodes.

signorMars · Post by **signorMars** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 1:21 pm

dollars to donuts there's main volume control for the cd player that Quicktime overrides but iTunes does not. it shouldn't affect the level of the rip, but iTunes is pretty dumb software, from my experience, so I wouldn't be shocked!

The Real MC · Post by **The Real MC** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 6:28 pm

Bit rot.

Someone gave me a CD-R twelve years ago. Six years later I ripped it, it was good then. Six more years later I pop the CD-R in the same player and it is all distorted. Lucky for me I had the ripped files and simply made another CD-R.

It seems to depend on the brand of CD-R. I have older CD-Rs that are still going strong. Certain CD-Rs do suffer from bit rot which is corrosion of the aluminum bits under the layer which no longer reflect laser light.

JWL · Post by **JWL** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:36 am

It could also be some harebrained copy protection/DRM scheme..... just a possibility since it plays OK in normal CD players but not on the computer/iTunes....

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Why would a cd sound distorted on only some cd players?

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