Music Problem

[Reaper]

Recently, I've been unable to play or rip music CD's properly on my PC. It would be fine, if it wasn't for the fact that I've just bought an iPod and want to put alot of my songs onto it. The problem is that, when playing the music, whether it be from the CD or after it's been ripped to my computer, it's very crackly and distorted. I've looked through my audio settings but, since I don't really know what I'm looking for, it all seems pretty normal to me.

Does anyone have any advice or help on what could possibly be the problem?

[shinnstheory]

What program do you use to rip music onto your PC?

[Aladdin]

I'm guessing since you're putting the songs onto your ipod, you copy your CDs straight onto the iTunes music player. Am i right?

iTunes doesn't specialise in copying CDs, so it normally does a bad job. That could possibly be the problem.

[Reaper]

Yeah, I just put my songs straight into iTunes, but the quality is just the same as it is when I'm listening to the CD or copying it into Window's Media Player.

The music I already have on my PC plays perfectly. So it seems like it's definitely a problem with my CD drive. I don't think it's broken though. There must be some sort of internal option.

[Austin Tacious]

hmm... thats a tough one.

first thing i'd try doing is moving the pc to another part of the room in case there is something magnetic interfering with the cd drive. if it still doesn't work properly i'd suggest having a look inside the pc to make sure no wires have become loose at the back of the cd drive.

do the tracks play that way on the i-pod too, or just when listening on the pc?

i would also try a different ripper in case it's that that's at fault. i use FreeRip and have no problems with it at all.

i'll ask around. if anything else is suggested iu'll let you know


EDIT: just out of interest, you say you checked the settings... what bitrate are you recording at? if it's very low that could explain the poor quality.

[Reaper]

It's like that even when I try to just play the CD, regardless of what programme I use to do so. The bitrate shouldn't matter with that, should it?

And it was an overnight problem, really. I hadn't changed or downloaded anything that should have caused this to happen.

Also, if I rip a song to my PC, it will be distorted. When copying the music to the iPod, it sounds exactly the same as it does on the PC.

[lhw]

Have you tried realigning the laser? If not, pick up one of those CD cleaning / aligning discs, and see if that helps. They normally run under $20 here in the US.

[Reaper]

Cool, I'll get one asap. Hopefully that will put things back to normal.