Question re Information Society "Walking Away" Promo CDS

[Fred Taghon]

I owned the Information Society "Walking Away" USA Promo CDS about 25+yrs ago. I ripped it before selling it, but it's one of the CD's that when I ripped it, I edited the audio files to shorten the silent gaps between tracks and I also apparently increased the volume of each track a bit (when compared to a FLAC upload of it I found).

I recently bought this Promo CDS again from someone on Discogs so I can get a perfect rip. It's in Near Mint condition, but unfortunately, it's one of the late 1980's Promo CD's manufactured by Discovery Systems USA that has gone bad over the years. It literally won't even show up when I insert it into any stand alone CD player, which means it won't play at all on these units.

I tried it with 2 different computers and 3 different computer CD/DVD drives as well. It will load - it shows the disc and all 4 tracks in iTunes, but when I try to play any of the tracks the audio is all distorted and flutters in and out really fast, like trying to tune in to a radio station that is too far away. I tried ripping anyway with iTunes but the resulting files sound the same - all distorted and fluttery.

I've also tried ripping the CD with XLD on my Mac but I can't even get XLD to detect the pregaps, let alone rip the CD.

So my question is, before I blow any more money on another copy of the Promo CDS (the seller DID actually give me a refund, so ultimately and thankfully it wasn't a financial loss in the end), has anyone else had the same issues with this disc? Or, just as importantly, does anyone have a copy of this disc that STILL works (plays and rips accurately)? I have run into a couple other Discover Systems USA promo CD's that had some play/rip issues, but all of those I ultimately got clean rips from by trying a few different computers and CD/DVD drives. And all of those were also playable on stand alone CD players. No such luck with this particular release. I'd feel more at ease buying another copy if there was a decent chance that it will actually play and rip. Unfortunately, not all Discogs sellers are willing to test the disc (most especially sellers that are actually brick and mortar stores). You'd think if someone told them, "hey this disc you're selling may not actually play", that they'd be willing to save a lot of headaches down the road by popping it into a CD player at least, to see if it will play. Guess not.

Any insight is appreciated. Thanks!

[PKPN]

Same here. My disc was fine when it was new, but now it's trash, despite its pristine appearance. Tracks 1 & 2 will rip without error. 3 rips with minor errors. 4 is unreadable; my drives go berserk halfway through, and a real CD player does not do any better.

I have someone else's clean rip here: https://goo.gl/60f1hM

[Sean]

This is kind of scary. I haven't listened to my Walking Away cd single in years and have put it away in a box. Now I am kind of worried it's not going to play. What other New Wave cd singles do you know of that has somewhat a similar problem? Is it only the ones from this company?

[Sean]

I am noticing that most of the discs made by Discovery, especially the promo ones had a really thick picture disc label side. I bet you anything the paint from that has melted into the cd and made it unreadable. I have a few cd's that have had that problem.

[Fred Taghon]

This is kind of scary. I haven't listened to my Walking Away cd single in years and have put it away in a box. Now I am kind of worried it's not going to play. What other New Wave cd singles do you know of that has somewhat a similar problem? Is it only the ones from this company?

It took me a few tries on a couple different computers to get clean accurate rips of Erasure's "Chains of Love", Siedah Garrett's "K.I.S.S.I.N.G." and Times Two's "Cecilia" promo cds, all made by Discovery Systems. So far at least all 3 will play fine on stand alone cd players and on computers. And they load fine on a computer, but using the drive I normally rip with, they all had tons of errors. On a whim I tried my older computer and they all ripped accurately.

The Discovery Systems promos do tend to have a more graphic intensive label side on their cds so your theory may be on the right track. Hmmmmm

[Fred Taghon]

Same here. My disc was fine when it was new, but now it's trash, despite its pristine appearance. Tracks 1 & 2 will rip without error. 3 rips with minor errors. 4 is unreadable; my drives go berserk halfway through, and a real CD player does not do any better.

I have someone else's clean rip here: https://goo.gl/60f1hM

Thanks for sharing your experience and the flac rip. That's actually the rip I found that told me I had manipulated the volumes of my original rip from 20+ yrs ago. It does indeed appear to be a legit perfect rip.