Skip detection in MP3s?

jishaq · 7th June 2004, 23:41

The bane of my existence are scratched CDs that skip when played back. As careful as I am, I always manage to scratch the crap out of all of my CDs. This is the primary reason I've decided to rip my entire CD collection into .mp3 format onto a fileserver.

So I've set up Musicmatch Jukebox on 75% VBR, and have had three of my computers working for a week straight ripping my commercial CD collection into MP3s in a folder on my shared drive. Life is good, all my music is now in .mp3 format.

Now, I want to eliminate all .mp3 files that have skips in them due to scratches on the CD from which they were ripped. Is there a tool that will go through the gigs of MP3 files and note any file that appears to have skips? Listening to my entire collection with a notepad seems so 1990's... it would be nice to get a little automation to help mitigate this task.

Thanks!
-Jeff

ryan · 8th June 2004, 00:05

I'm betting musicmatch caused more skips than the scratches on the CD.

I do know a tool. You have two on each side of your head. That's what I would use anyways.

squakMix · 8th June 2004, 00:09

Quote:

Originally posted by idiot
I'm betting musicmatch caused more skips than the scratches on the CD.

I do know a tool. You have two on each side of your head. That's what I would use anyways.

Do you have any Idea how fucking long it would take to listen to all of his gigs of music (even one would take days), and pick out each and every song that skips?

Reaper · 8th June 2004, 00:12

You would have been better off using a program like EAC or CDex which can use the LAME encoder instead of Musicmatch which uses the Fraunhofer encoder. EAC and CDex also have features to prevent skipping when encoding.

ryan · 8th June 2004, 00:16

Quote:

Originally posted by squakMix
Do you have any Idea how fucking long it would take to listen to all of his gigs of music (even one would take days), and pick out each and every song that skips?

He would take just as long trying to find a program (and giving up), that would find the skips for him.

RKsportfan · 8th June 2004, 00:22

Ive heard that if you put a scratched cd in the freezer,it will fix some of the scratches

squakMix · 8th June 2004, 00:24

Quote:

Originally posted by idiot
He would take just as long trying to find a program (and giving up), that would find the skips for him.

I dont think that it would take literal weeks/months, unless a program like that does not exist.

ElChevelle · 8th June 2004, 00:38

Quote:

Originally posted by RKsportfan
Ive heard that if you put a scratched cd in the freezer,it will fix some of the scratches

If you care to eat them, microwave them on defrost mode.

Burn a backup;I've found that I can burn over a scratch, in most cases, that won't play. Don't ask me.

jishaq · 8th June 2004, 01:52

Quote:

Originally posted by Reaper
You would have been better off using a program like EAC or CDex which can use the LAME encoder instead of Musicmatch which uses the Fraunhofer encoder. EAC and CDex also have features to prevent skipping when encoding.

I have used EAC extensively when I was trading live shows on DAT, and running DAT/CDR/Tape trees with the seeds. Musicmatch does a pretty good job of automating the hell out of this process, such that I simply put a CD in the drive and click on 'Record' and it automatically gets the track info and everything.

Is this kind of automation possible to set up EAC and LAME to do likewise? LAME seems like it's all command-line-driven, so I'm not sure how smart it can be when it comes to looking up track listings online.

I guess I've diverged from my initial question, but this is an interesting subtopic.

-Jeff

jishaq · 8th June 2004, 01:56

Quote:

Originally posted by idiot
I'm betting musicmatch caused more skips than the scratches on the CD.

I do know a tool. You have two on each side of your head. That's what I would use anyways.

Yeah, I'm a little weary of Musicmatch, but I just don't give a damn anymore.

I've fixed up countless diginoise zaps, done crossfading magic to make up for single-channel dropouts, and cleaned up enough one-of-a-kind CDR skips to know exactly what a skip looks like in a WAV file. Now surely there's some tool out there than can parse through a .mp3 looking for suspect skips, and simply report them.

Then I have a list of 100 suspect songs to check out, rather than all fifty bazillion of the songs I'm ripping to MP3.

-Jeff

Reaper · 8th June 2004, 02:09

Quote:

Originally posted by jishaq
Is this kind of automation possible to set up EAC and LAME to do likewise? LAME seems like it's all command-line-driven, so I'm not sure how smart it can be when it comes to looking up track listings online.

LAME is just an encoder, EAC and CDex, the frontend, does the job of CD lookups on the net.

In EAC, go to 'EAC'(menu at the top), 'EAC Options', 'General' tab, enable 'On unknown CDs', 'automativally access online freedb database'.

jishaq · 8th June 2004, 02:16

Quote:

Originally posted by Reaper
LAME is just an encoder, EAC and CDex, the frontend, does the job of CD lookups on the net.

In EAC, go to 'EAC'(menu at the top), 'EAC Options', 'General' tab, enable 'On unknown CDs', 'automativally access online freedb database'.

Wow, EAC has come a *long* way. I thought I'd have to set up an assload of .bat's to get this done, but it looks like the latest EAC can do everything I need. Well thanks guys, this is great.

But I still didn't answer my original query of detecting CD skips in my MP3s.

-Jeff

ryan · 8th June 2004, 02:54

It's highly unlikely that you will find a program that can detect them.

MonKeyRum · 8th June 2004, 11:54

Look on the back of the CD's that you ripped from, if it has scratches check the mp3's that were ripped from the disk. Not an entirely fail safe method but a good way to start down the long road.

MStar · 8th June 2004, 14:21

Just delete songs as you hear the skips. Listen to them as you normally would, if you find a song that skips, can it!

randman · 8th June 2004, 15:43

Try MP3Utility.

ujay · 8th June 2004, 17:51

Best you can do is run the files through a click detector, with luck this will flag up drop outs as well. 'Wave Corrector' and 'Wave Repair' are two you could try.

Follow MonKeyRum's suggestion to narrow down the search and Randman's suggestion to find skips due to broken frames first.

(/edit) edited so the following few post make no sense at all. (/edit)

UJ

Gonzotek · 8th June 2004, 18:02

Quote:

Follow Gonzotek's suggestion to narrow down the search

Wha?!?

MonKeyRum · 8th June 2004, 18:14

Quote:

Originally posted by Gonzotek
Wha?!?

You so fast they already know your answer is right

ujay · 8th June 2004, 18:19

Sorry Gonzo and MonKeyRum - short circuit in the brain there, it doesn't update as fast as it used to

UJ

Gonzotek · 8th June 2004, 18:20

It's ok, I know I look like a drunken monkey

ElChevelle · 8th June 2004, 18:41

Skipping MP3's are the unfortunate results of morons aquiring the ability to share files.

7th June 2004, 23:41	#1
jishaq Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Santa Cruz, CA Posts: 8	Skip detection in MP3s? The bane of my existence are scratched CDs that skip when played back. As careful as I am, I always manage to scratch the crap out of all of my CDs. This is the primary reason I've decided to rip my entire CD collection into .mp3 format onto a fileserver. So I've set up Musicmatch Jukebox on 75% VBR, and have had three of my computers working for a week straight ripping my commercial CD collection into MP3s in a folder on my shared drive. Life is good, all my music is now in .mp3 format. Now, I want to eliminate all .mp3 files that have skips in them due to scratches on the CD from which they were ripped. Is there a tool that will go through the gigs of MP3 files and note any file that appears to have skips? Listening to my entire collection with a notepad seems so 1990's... it would be nice to get a little automation to help mitigate this task. Thanks! -Jeff

8th June 2004, 00:12	#4
Reaper Forum King Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 2,929	You would have been better off using a program like EAC or CDex which can use the LAME encoder instead of Musicmatch which uses the Fraunhofer encoder. EAC and CDex also have features to prevent skipping when encoding. ml_iPod - [Homepage] \| [Forums] \| [Wiki]

8th June 2004, 11:54	#14
MonKeyRum Major Dude Join Date: May 2004 Location: The North Posts: 859	Look on the back of the CD's that you ripped from, if it has scratches check the mp3's that were ripped from the disk. Not an entirely fail safe method but a good way to start down the long road. Suburbia: The place where they clear down trees and then name roads after them

8th June 2004, 15:43	#16
randman Ol' Dirty Loser (Major Dude) Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Parts unknown Posts: 1,287	Try MP3Utility. I see no stinking sig! Do you see a stinking sig?

8th June 2004, 17:51	#17
ujay Forum King Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: London Posts: 6,072	Best you can do is run the files through a click detector, with luck this will flag up drop outs as well. 'Wave Corrector' and 'Wave Repair' are two you could try. Follow MonKeyRum's suggestion to narrow down the search and Randman's suggestion to find skips due to broken frames first. (/edit) edited so the following few post make no sense at all. (/edit) UJ Last edited by ujay; 8th June 2004 at 18:21.

8th June 2004, 00:05	#2
ryan not fucked, not quite. (Forum King) Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Missouri via Tennessee Posts: 8,813	I'm betting musicmatch caused more skips than the scratches on the CD. I do know a tool. You have two on each side of your head. That's what I would use anyways.

8th June 2004, 00:22	#6
RKsportfan Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 1	Ive heard that if you put a scratched cd in the freezer,it will fix some of the scratches

8th June 2004, 02:54	#13
ryan not fucked, not quite. (Forum King) Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Missouri via Tennessee Posts: 8,813	It's highly unlikely that you will find a program that can detect them.

8th June 2004, 14:21	#15
MStar Major Dude Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Hardcore Heaven Posts: 1,491	Just delete songs as you hear the skips. Listen to them as you normally would, if you find a song that skips, can it!

8th June 2004, 18:19	#20
ujay Forum King Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: London Posts: 6,072	Sorry Gonzo and MonKeyRum - short circuit in the brain there, it doesn't update as fast as it used to UJ

8th June 2004, 18:20	#21
Gonzotek Gunslinger Join Date: May 2000 Location: Terminus Posts: 4,693	It's ok, I know I look like a drunken monkey I was away for a while. But I'm feeling much better now.

8th June 2004, 18:41	#22
ElChevelle Moderator Alumni Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: the MANCANNON! Posts: 22,448	Skipping MP3's are the unfortunate results of morons aquiring the ability to share files.

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