[HN Gopher] How CD Pregaps Gained Their Hidden Track Superpowers
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       How CD Pregaps Gained Their Hidden Track Superpowers
        
       Author : shortformblog
       Score  : 26 points
       Date   : 2024-07-09 19:38 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (tedium.co)
 (TXT) w3m dump (tedium.co)
        
       | MOARDONGZPLZ wrote:
       | I read this whole thing twice and I now know what pregaps are and
       | the history but still have no idea why people would put them on a
       | CD or why they're useful for hidden tracks.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | Oh good, so I'm not the only one that thought the article
         | failed to actual state what the superpower was. Some lame ass
         | patent was granted?
        
         | monocasa wrote:
         | Basically cd audio tracks have a base sector _and_ a start
         | specified. That allows sectors representing audio before
         | timestamp 0:00 to be represented the track. The reason for this
         | originally was probably to allow the drive to get synchronized
         | before the track started. Enterprising cd masterers put actual
         | hidden audio data in that area which would allow you on some CD
         | players to rewind past 0:00 and then play the hidden audio at
         | the negative timestamp.
        
         | add-sub-mul-div wrote:
         | As the article says its like an easter egg, putting a hidden
         | song before the first track of a CD. If the song wasn't in the
         | pregap it wouldn't be hidden. It's just for fun.
         | 
         | (Sometimes songs can also be hidden in tracks at the end of the
         | CD like 99, but that feels less mysterious.)
        
           | mattl wrote:
           | Sometimes CDs would have a long piece of silence at the end
           | of the last song and then another song on the same track.
           | 
           | Other CDs really experimented with the shuffle feature. They
           | Might Be Giants' Apollo 18 had a bunch of very short tracks
           | that would usually play between songs when shuffle was used.
        
             | add-sub-mul-div wrote:
             | I had that CD and remember the short tracks but never
             | thought of playing it on shuffle that way.
             | 
             | I think it was nine inch nails' Broken EP that had the
             | hidden tracks on 98/99 rather than after a long silence,
             | but I could be wrong.
        
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       (page generated 2024-07-09 23:00 UTC)