Discussion Forums - Questions about SwapaCD

Topic: Surface Scans On Discs

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WareW01f (Chris G.)



Subject: Surface Scans On Discs
Date Posted: 3/17/2023 12:52 PM ET
Member Since: 11/23/2020
Posts: 38
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Does anyone here do surface scans of their discs before they list? If so, what do you use. I was doing visual inspection, but I'm now scanning all the discs with cdparanoia and checking the surface ratigns before listing. Thoughts? 

Also, I'm noting that the state of metadata online in discs is rather hit or miss. It seems that most of the date was collected to simply annotate tracks for online players. I've been spot checking and the number of entries in some of these common databases is awful. I'm part wanting to go back and rescan all of my personal (for keeps) collection to see how far off this really is and fill in the gaps. 

djtal (Daniel T.)


Date Posted: 3/18/2023 1:50 PM ET
Member Since: 6/11/2007
Posts: 1,342
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When I receive a CD in trade, I check it's readability with EAC (Exact Audio Copy) which is a free download.  ~99% of the time, if EAC says the disc is good, then it is.  That is regardless of how many scratches are on the disc.  The site just requires playability, not scratch-free.

If EAC reports a problem, that doesn't necessarily mean that a CD player won't play it.  In that case, I to a test rip of the disc with dBpoweramp CD Ripper.  That program gives a different kind of analysis.  Tracks that are found questionable by both programs require that I listen to them, which is the final test, when needed.