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Compilation CDs - Can Too Many Tracks On One CD Degrade Audio Quality?

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drp1003

Well-Known Member
Do compilation CDs and greatest hits CDs with over say 15 tracks have compromised audio quality by squeezing too many low bit-rate tracks (for a lack of a better term) on one 700MB CD?

It would interesting to know how the music studios or the folks they hire to master these CDs 'fit' so many songs onto one CD. What process do they use to 'shrink' the file size if at all?

Sorry in advance if this subject has been done to death in the past. Links to another AudioKarma thread would be great.
 
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The first CD's were simply vinyl albums recorded on to CD's. I don't mean they "played" the album into a CD recorder, I mean they were music compilations that were originally created for the vinyl format. That format had a time limitation. So CD's appeared to have that same limitation when, in fact, they didn't. A CD size is simply determined by its byte capacity, which happens to be much longer than a vinyl record.
 
Artie said:
The first CD's were simply vinyl albums recorded on to CD's. I don't mean they "played" the album into a CD recorder, I mean they were music compilations that were originally created for the vinyl format. That format had a time limitation. So CD's appeared to have that same limitation when, in fact, they didn't. A CD size is simply determined by its byte capacity, which happens to be much longer than a vinyl record.
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The CD format specifies a fixed bitrate (i.e., bits per second) and capacity (bits overall), which means a standard (Red Book) CD is limited to 74 minutes of music.

Some CD-R disks and recorders will support a bit more, up to 80 minutes of music.
 
OK, I get it now.

I checked the overall runtime of several of my compilation CDs - like those old TIME-LIFE CDs from waaaaay back in the day - and they all do indeed come in well under or close to 80 minutes.

I read the REDBOOK CD Wikipedia entry and it states that only way to get more time on a CD is by squeezing the track pitch down; the spiral grooves are placed closer together. The CD pickup can still read the disc. Interesting.

I've always had this assumption that compilation CDs (the redbook ones you buy not CD-Rs you make yourself) were a compromise between disc space and audio quality.

Thanks!
 
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IIRC when Phillips approached Sony about coming on board with helping develop and manufacture CD's and players they originally had a smaller disk in mind. The story is that Akio Morita told Phillips the CD would have to be able to hold his favorite version of Beethoven's 9th on one CD. Hence the 74 minute CD.
 
Production values for a compilation CD may be different from those used when producing an original CD. Could even be remixed from the original multi-track master tapes.

Could sound better, could sound worse.

But the CD generated will still physically (track pitch, dot pitch) and logically (data format) comply with the Red Book standard. It's not a 'CD' otherwise...
 
Phillips originally proposed a 60 minute CD. It was slightly smaller than what we ended up with.
 
This is not directly related to the OP, but I used to burn CD-Rs. I noticed that the music on them became distorted after a few years. After I rip an LP, I save it to a flash drive and Google Play in addition to my computer's hard drive.
 
Jack Keck said:
This is not directly related to the OP, but I used to burn CD-Rs. I noticed that the music on them became distorted after a few years. After I rip an LP, I save it to a flash drive and Google Play in addition to my computer's hard drive.
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I had this issue with memorex CD-R blanks. Disc rot and de lamination was the issue. Hold it up to light, you may see missing coating.
 
I just checked the file size and bit-rate of the same song, one from an original CD and the other from a greatest hits CD with 15 tracks on it (not a lot, but still....), and sure enough, the numbers are nearly identical.

At least audio quality is the same when you compare those numbers - no file compression. Again, that goes back to my (very wrong) assumption I stated earlier, and my poor understanding of REDBOOK CDs.


I ripped all of my CDs to ALAC format years ago using iTUNES.
 
As noted above, the initial redbook spec's limited the playing time to 74mins. Later, they were able to improve the technology to fit closer to 80mins on a CD. Some early CD players, and players with lasers wearing out, could have difficulty with the 80-mins of music disks. I found it to be a warning sign that my laser needed replacing on a marantz CD player I had.

What does degrade the quality of new CDs is mastering which has too much compression and/or noise reduction applied. That degrades the music quality, but has no bearing on the amount of music on a disk.
 
From all the CD’s I have, all the movie recorded soundtracks sound better than individually recorded artists.
 
JoeESP9 said:
I've been burning music CD's for more than 20 years. I started with a burner that required the CD-R be placed in a caddy. I've never noticed any age related distortion.
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Stored correctly, I agree. Quality CD-R media should have a > 30 year life expectancy.
 
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