Ripping with reversed polarity

[rickmcinnis]

Is it possible to add a switch into the registry so that one could rip a CD with the polarity reversed? I know you are not intrested in adding it to the control panels.

I have no way to do switching with digital stuff within my electronics and would like to be able to re-rip disks I hear with reversed polarity if this can be accommodated. Easy to do between the phono cartridge and phono amp ...

Sure would be neat!

[mville]

Re: Ripping with reversed polarity

Out of interest, are you referring to the audio waveform polarity OR the stereo channels Left and Right i.e. speaker polarity?

[rickmcinnis]

Re: Ripping with reversed polarity

Out of interest, are you referring to the audio waveform polarity OR the stereo channels Left and Right i.e. speaker polarity?

To reverse the polarity of the signal, not to switch left to right and vice versa.

I have no way to do this with my digital system other than building a line stage with an output transformer so I could place a switch after that and I would rather not have another amplification stage just for this purpose. I do not need the gain.

I have made a list of CDs that I know need to be in reverse polarity and it would be good if I could rip them with reverse polarity.

I am not expecting this to be possible but I thought I would ask.

[schmidj]

Re: Ripping with reversed polarity

First I am surprised that you find any commercially issued CD's with the polarity of one of the channels reversed. How did you determine this was the case for those CD's? Do you have a phasescope to look at the output of your CD player?

This was an issue in the early days of stereo vinyl, but modern mastering is very careful concerning audio polarity. I do suppose that in this era of self-produced music recorded in someones basement recording studio, it could be an issue again.

While I know of no way of doing this in dBPoweramp, it is easy to do in many audio editing programs. Audacity, which is a free download, has the ability to reverse polarity on tracks. Given that you presumably have only a few CD's with this issue, simply open the ripped files in Audacity, reverse the polarity of one of the channels, and then save the result.

[Spoon]

Re: Ripping with reversed polarity

How do you detect a CD needs reverse polarity?

[rickmcinnis]

Re: Ripping with reversed polarity

How do you detect a CD needs reverse polarity?

Only way i know is to listen to it.

When you do this long enough it becomes obvious.

With the phono set up it is simple to go back and forth and with time you learn the cues.

To the fellow above I want to reverse the polarity in both channels not just one. Think of reversing the wires to your speakers, all of them.

In my case this would take forever with multiple amplifiers.

I have had DACs in the past that would allow this, like the THETA. Also, a few of the computer based players allow this. Neither my DAC not the SDTran384 have provisions for polarity reversal so I was hoping this might be a possibility.

I guess this means it cannot be done?

[c-eling]

Re: Ripping with reversed polarity

Quite a few older compacts have run into this problem, mainly from different countries of press from another
There is software that will do this
One example of reversed polarity Duran Duran Rio, the Japan 1990 'Pastmaster' is reversed compared to it's original Japan Triangle
I think I remember a early Peter Gabriel IV or III being reversed also, but can't remember the press
Rick, can you post some other examples?

@Spoon, man I would love to see an option to add the pre-emphasis curve to the ripper, at least for the tag located in the TOC ,hint hint