I have ran across a couple audio cd discs where audiograbber shows one or more tracks, usually the last tracks on the cd, as having a negative value for the time length and filesize. Audiograbber will crash if you try to rip these tracks.
The tracks are .cda just like a normal track when viewed in explorer. They will play in winamp. They will not rip.
Some research. Information found at:
Relevant but not directly specific to this issue. Our tracks are not hidden tracks, but they do have negative indices for the time and size. In our case, it is likely (unconfirmed) a new form of copy protection. So far I have noted it on "Greatest Hits" compilations and not on regular album cd releases.
To rip these tricky tracks, I used winamp version 2.5. I had to download and install a plugin (you may gave to download 2 plugins). You will _need_ these two plugins:
- CD Reader
- Nullsoft Disk Writer
The Nullsoft Disk Writer will not write cda files to wav files unless the CD Reader plugin is also installed.
- Reference: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=53059
- You can't use the default CD input plugin to rip CDA's.
- http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=56755
I am using "CD Reader v1.71." as the Audio I/O Input Plugin and "Nullsoft Disk Writer Plug-in v1.0 (out_disk.dll)" as the Audio I/O Output Plugin.
After those are configured (use the configure button to set file path etc) I opened the CD in windows explorer and selected the offending .cda track to play in winamp. You will hear no audio while winamp writes the cda out to disk as a wav file.
Now use the lame.exe to convert the wav to mp3. Here is a sample command line I used:
C:\progra~1\Audiograbber\lame.exe track16.wav track16.mp3 --alt-preset standard
This workaround allows you to grab those tricky cda tracks with negative indices to a useable wav file you can then convert to mp3 with lame.