CD ripping- was software synthesizers

[Ian Andrews <i.andrews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Garry King wrote:

>But I also know a guy here that will rip CD audio with Soundhack instead of
>Peak or something else because it "sounds" better.

It probably does.

Its a common mistake to assume that just because a signal is kept in the
digital domain that it remains lossless (I believed this up until
recently). CD audio (red book) goes through error correction and
concealment algorithms every time the CD is played or even when the data is
accessed (which, by the way, it really wasn't designed for). The error
correction works well with audio (eg. AES/EBU or SPDIF out), but can cause
problems with data retreival. So some apps do a better job of ripping than
others.

When I send stuff out for mastering I always send it on DAT because I never
know if they are going to rip from CD or what program they are going to rip
with. If they specifically ask for CD (which sometimes occurs) I then make
sure that the mastering engineer is aware of these issues.