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J. Joyce
 
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Default Countdown on track one

OK, I'm stumped. In my whole collection of CDs I have three or four
that when you put the CD in the player, they start off with a negative
countdown on track one. This is NOT after hitting the rewind button.
Obviously this is diffrent from the countdown between tracks which is
common. TOC reveals nothing unusual, and
when I copy the CD I get the negative countdown on track one, but I
cannot reproduce the effect on other CDs. Anyone know the trick?
jj
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Clive Backham
 
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Default Countdown on track one

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 00:17:51 GMT, J. Joyce
wrote:

OK, I'm stumped. In my whole collection of CDs I have three or four
that when you put the CD in the player, they start off with a negative
countdown on track one. This is NOT after hitting the rewind button.
Obviously this is diffrent from the countdown between tracks which is
common. TOC reveals nothing unusual, and
when I copy the CD I get the negative countdown on track one, but I
cannot reproduce the effect on other CDs. Anyone know the trick?


This is intriguing. As you probably know, the countdown between tracks
N and N+1 starts at index 0 of track N+1, and finishes as index 1 of
N+1 is reached. Now, an audio CD player is supposed to start playing a
disc at index 1 of track 1. So in theory you should never see it
playing index 0 of track 1 (unless you rewind into it). I can't think
of any way that a mis-mastering of a CD would exhibit this behaviour.
Some hypotheses (guesses, actually) follow:

1. Audio CDs normally have a 2 second pregap prior to track 1. Perhaps
your CD player is non-standard and just starting 2 seconds into the
data stream instead of going to track 1, index 1. In that case, a CD
with a greater than 2 second pregap would show a countdown. To check
this, try playing those particular CDs on other CD players to see if
they also show a countdown.

2. Some mixed-mode CDs have a data track as track 1, and the audio
only starts at track 2. Audio players should ignore the data track and
start playing at track 2. I don't know whether in this case they will
skip to index 1 of track 2, or whether they would start at index 0
(and hence show a countdown).
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Justin Ulysses Morse
 
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Default Countdown on track one

J. Joyce wrote:

OK, I'm stumped. In my whole collection of CDs I have three or four
that when you put the CD in the player, they start off with a negative
countdown on track one. This is NOT after hitting the rewind button.
Obviously this is diffrent from the countdown between tracks which is
common. TOC reveals nothing unusual, and
when I copy the CD I get the negative countdown on track one, but I
cannot reproduce the effect on other CDs. Anyone know the trick?


Is there any audio playing during the countdown? Or is it digital
silence? Are they all a 2-second countdown, or are they
longer/shorter?

My best guess is that somebody's mastering software allows the CD to
begin at an arbitrary clock time, just as most software allows you to
begin with an arbitrary track number (The idea is that you might want
to start Disc 2 of a double album with "track 14" so that it matches a
complete numbered track listing on the packaging for the two CDs).

Other than that, I'm perplexed and intrigued. Playing games with the
CD preparation has always been interesting to me.

ulysses
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Scott Dorsey
 
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Default Countdown on track one

Clive Backham wrote:

This is intriguing. As you probably know, the countdown between tracks
N and N+1 starts at index 0 of track N+1, and finishes as index 1 of
N+1 is reached. Now, an audio CD player is supposed to start playing a
disc at index 1 of track 1. So in theory you should never see it
playing index 0 of track 1 (unless you rewind into it). I can't think
of any way that a mis-mastering of a CD would exhibit this behaviour.


There is a hidden track at index 0, which you can play only by rewinding
into it.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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knud
 
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Default Countdown on track one

Sounds like hidden tracks. Pop in your CD and rewind past the start,
should find a suprise!


blahblah
ALL MUSIC IS ORIGINAL...
EVEN IF ONLY ONE NOTE IS CHANGED!
EVERYONE CREATES IN A VACUUM!


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