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Andrew Kaluzniacki
iPod Notes
17 March 2004
 

Update The best answer for ripping without clicks and pops I can find is CDParanoia which has been ported to OS X by Tobias Sargeant here.

I've compiled and run it on 10.3.3 and it seems to work just fine.

It looks like CDParanoia does the right thing in using the raw audio sector data - check out the FAQ.

[August 2002]

Drew's iPod Page

Or why I want to love my iPod, but can not.

The iPod is not faithful to the CDs that it replaces.
Apple can not tell me Dark Side of the Moon is better with pauses between the tracks, and clicks and pops in the songs.


Overview

    I bought my iPod in November 2001 and I think it is the coolest toy I've had in years. Too bad I can not enjoy my music on my new toy because the software that 'rips' my CDs, including iTunes as far as I have tested is not very good. I get clicks and pops, and in some cases 10 to 15 seconds of static from CDs that have otherwise played perfectly (by my ear) in 2 and 3 other audio CD players. Given that one of the CD players, an Apple PowerCD player from the early 90s, is almost a decade old, and can play the CDs better than 4 year old ( a Beige G3/300 from '97 ) Apple hardware I am a bit disappointed. So I'm going to do a little research until I find a solution that can rip at least 9/10 CDs so as to be indistinguishable to my ear from the audio CD player rendering. In addition to the poor ripping, apparently there are issues with track length and silence between track. In short, the combination iTunes + iPod does not faithfully reproduce the CD experiance. Given the effort that artists go through to make their work 'perfect' I would hope Apple could take the effort to reproduce it correctly.

Apple says, "Don't steal music."
I say don't change the music please.
 

Research So Far

Ben claims he has no problem on all his hardware - which is more recent than the Beige G3. But I've seen too many posts in the iPod groups complaining about clicks and pops that I do not think it is just my old hardware. Even if it is old hardware, it is absurd that the hardware can play the CD out the audio jack correctly, but not be able to read the same bits correctly into memory.

I am using my Alice in Chains Dirt CD as my principle test CD. I have listened to Dirt on my Apple PowerCD player dozens of times in the two or so years that I have had the disc and have never noticed problems with the disc.

Audio Catalyst 2.1 when used in more-compatible mode seems to have no problem correctly ripping the tracks. Too bad Real doesn't support the Mac any longer.

I see that the iTunes System requirements include built in USB. I guess that leaves any Mac more than 4 years out of luck. Sad when you think CD players have been doing it right for 20 years.

Raw Data

"Junkhead" track 7 of Dirt plays correctly on my BeigeG3 internal CD player when using OS 8.6 and the AppleCD Audio Player v 2.3.3.   - 16 Dec 01

"Junkhead" track 7 of Dirt does not play correctly on my BeigeG3 internal CD player when using OS X and the iTunes 2.0.2  ( need to test 2.0.3).
Note also that I am pretty sure it was playing directly from the CD and not one of the already ripped files, but I could remove all the files and test the track before it is ripped.- 15 Dec 01
 
 

Apple Audio CD API

tech note on post Blue and White Macs - does direct PCM to the audio chip.
/* not sure what I can post regarding such info - might have to check into it at the Apple Dev site. */

Red Book standard

I claim that if it can be played by my BeigeG3 then it should be rippable. I worked a bunch with the Red Book standard when I was doing CD-i games for PF.Magic, and I see no reason why I should not be able to read raw Red Book sectors and do the decoding in software to get audio as accurate as the built in audio decoder.

Other iPod Links  |  Apple iPod  |  iPod Hacks


Other Related notes:

Hey Andrew--

A couple of interesting links here. First, some German audio magazine
did a test where they stuck 200 audiophiles in a room and made them listen
to MP3s. They concluded that a well-encoded 256 bit MP3 is indistinguishable
from the original CD. Sounds, though, like that "well-encoded" thing is a
bit of an issue.
 

http://www.r3mix.net/

Click the "quality" button on the left-hand menue  to get to the article.

And, here's a pretty good article about Mac MP3 encoders.

http://www.airwindows.com/encoders/index.html

Later

--bn
 

From the iPod FAQ
Question 20: Can I use FireWire mode with noncomputer products?
Answer: Yes. First you will need to reset your iPod. When the Apple logo appears on the screen, hold down the Previous/Rewind button and the Next/Fast-forward button simultaneously until the FireWire icon appears. When you finish using iPod in this "forced" FireWire mode, disconnect and reset it again before normal operation.

 
 
 
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