Can't get at hidden info on audio CD

Newbie Forum
#1

Hi

I’ve purchased a copy of a small-run commercial audio CD. One of the band members has confirmed that they’ve hidden something on the CD.

The best I’ve been able to do is see the 11 normal tracks inside “Session 1”. I can also see that Track 1 starts at 3:41.39, which suggests to me that there’s something hidden before that.

Am I (no pun intended) on the right track? Any suggestions on how to access the hidden data (it may be an audio track or an mp3, I don’t know yet) would be very appreciated, as would any pointers to software that might help me poke around the CD a bit more to see what else I might find.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR HELP.

#2

Go to the beginning of track 1 and then press rewind to get to the hidden audio.

#3

Thanks for the rewind tip, but I’ve tried that in several different CD players already. All that happens is it either stops at the beginning of the visible Track 1, or goes back to the 11th (final) track and plays it.

#4

Have a look at the CD contents with ISO Buster.

#5

Try it on a DVD player

#6

Thanks - I tried it on two different DVD players, and 8 CD players, all without success.

Thanks also for the IsoBuster suggestion. It confirms that there is a “Track 0”. I’m trying to extract this to a WAV right now, but that’s 45 minutes elapsed and it’s done just 32%, and the icon next to Track 0 means “that IsoBuster felt the need to compensate or alter what the drive returned to get to the data”, which doesn’t sound too promising.

I’m continuing to let it run, anyway - meantime, any more suggestions?

#7

hmmm. I know that on the new “Rammstein” Album titled “Reise Reise”, there is exactly such a feature. But there i know that almost every CD-Player can go to the hidden track (voice recorder of a crashing Airplane) by playing track one some seconds and rewinding to -0:35

Thats all i know how to do this with this cd.

regards
Muellinger_hn

#8

Strange, rewind should do it for sure. It sounds like you might be pressing ‘Previous Track’ instead of rewind.

#9

Not all players can read that part.

Get a Plextor (or TEAC maybe) drive and you will be able to rip it.

Is that CD protected?

#10

Unfortunatly the track 0 is a bad idea for a hidden track since most players can’t rewind anymore. A Playstion will be able to play that track, it may also work on a PS2…older standard CD players used to accept that trick but newer players don’t…not to mention you can’t rip the track w/o actually editing the TOC :frowning:

#11

YES!

Thanks L1br4h - that was the key - an OLD player!

I dug out an old Aiwa boombox (about 10 years old), and it worked on it - but the same on a months-old Sony, and assorted others of recent (last 4-5 years) age won’t do it.

I’ll give it a go in th PS2 when I get a chance later tonight too.

MEANTIME, THANKS FOR THE FINAL CLUE THAT GOT ME THERE!

#12

:confused: ??

You can read the track if your drive is able to read that part.
Plextor drives (at least my Ultraplex40x) and probably most TEAC drives are able to digitally read index-0 before the 1st track…

:confused:

#13

My plex won’t read it in EAC unless I am suposed to use a different app? I have the 4012A 40x which is older. Perhaps some newer plex’s will, point is placing a hidden track before the first track is a bad idea nowadays…better off sticking it at the end, place in a bunch of fakse tracks and a long lead - not really sure why anyone would want to hide a track to begin with?

#14

well, maybe I talked too fast and modern Plextors can’t read that, but my old SCSI 40x CD-ROM could do it…
I did it with EAC and with Feurio! (not sure about PlexTools).

The problem with EAC is that you must be sure of using the correct read command.
With Feurio the correct command is already chosen because all Plextors has been tested by them and it seems they receive good info from Plextor.

In fact, I can digitally play that index-0 zone with Feurio player by rewinding from the beginning… that’s a good symptom that you can rip it. Then you only have to select “read index marks” and “read index-0” to rip.

I guess that PlexTools should also do it… but my Ultraplex seems dead now, and I can’t test it.
My LG burner can’t read that index-0 at all.