[Atlplasma]

Thanks for the follow up, Steve...  the ticks coming from the drive, makes sense.  You could get an external drive for ripping...  supposed to be quicker than the internal one and costs about 50 bucks...  just an idea, some people swear by them.  I haven't gone down that path yet, my old iMac died before the drive did.

I think I may go that route eventually. Home Sharing is a bit clunky, and I have better things to do with my time. 

[oneinthepipe]

I burned a CD yesterday on my iMac's internal hard drive and have a "tick" on only one track occurring approximatley every one-and-one-half seconds, for the entire length of the track.  I never had this happen before.  The sound is tick, tick, tick, tick.  Is this the clicking that is discussed here?

[Atlplasma]

I burned a CD yesterday on my iMac's internal hard drive and have a "tick" on only one track occurring approximatley every one-and-one-half seconds, for the entire length of the track.  I never had this happen before.  The sound is tick, tick, tick, tick.  Is this the clicking that is discussed here?

It could be. Is it occurring on one of the last couple of tracks? On my system, it is very noticeable (not like the background noise that you sometimes hear on older recordings.

[oneinthepipe]

I burned a CD yesterday on my iMac's internal hard drive and have a "tick" on only one track occurring approximatley every one-and-one-half seconds, for the entire length of the track.  I never had this happen before.  The sound is tick, tick, tick, tick.  Is this the clicking that is discussed here?

It could be. Is it occurring on one of the last couple of tracks? On my system, it is very noticeable (not like the background noise that you sometimes hear on older recordings.

It was on the fourth or fifth track of a brand new Elton John Tumbleweed Connection CD.  It was a tick (like a metronome) that repeated at a constant rate from the beginning of the track to the end of the track.

I noticed on a couple tracks on a couple of newer pop CDs (different CDs) that there are scratchy sounds like on a dirty LP, but I think that the CDs were intentionally produced that way.  One of those CDs is a Corinne Bailey Rae CD, IIRC.

[Atlplasma]

I burned a CD yesterday on my iMac's internal hard drive and have a "tick" on only one track occurring approximatley every one-and-one-half seconds, for the entire length of the track.  I never had this happen before.  The sound is tick, tick, tick, tick.  Is this the clicking that is discussed here?

It could be. Is it occurring on one of the last couple of tracks? On my system, it is very noticeable (not like the background noise that you sometimes hear on older recordings.

It was on the fourth or fifth track of a brand new Elton John Tumbleweed Connection CD.  It was a tick (like a metronome) that repeated at a constant rate from the beginning of the track to the end of the track.

I noticed on a couple tracks on a couple of newer pop CDs (different CDs) that there are scratchy sounds like on a dirty LP, but I think that the CDs were intentionally produced that way.  One of those CDs is a Corinne Bailey Rae CD, IIRC.

If you have another computer, copy the CD to it and play it back. If it sounds fine, move the CD files to your other computer. If the noise is not present, it's the internal drive on your "music server" computer.

[oneinthepipe]

OK, I also have a MacBook Pro and will burn the CD to the MBP's HD. 

[Atlplasma]

OK, I also have a MacBook Pro and will burn the CD to the MBP's HD.

Okay, further developments on the "ticking" front. I purchased an external burner and re-imported all the problem cds. Using the external drive seemed to eliminate the ticking in all but one disc, an old recording of Rubinstein at Carnegie Hall. I tried importing it one more time and got the same results on the last couple of tracks. I then switched from Apple lossless to Aiff and did the import/replace step one more time. To my surprise, the ticking sound was no longer present. Why exactly would be pure speculation. 

Steve

[oneinthepipe]

I haven't had a chance to burn the CD to my lappy, but I played the CD on my CDP, and there wasn't any ticking.  When I burned to CD to my iMac, I used AIFF.  I will try to find time tomorrow to burn the CD to my lappy.

[oneinthepipe]

I burned the CD (Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection) on my lappy, and the exact same ticking is present on the version that I burned on my iMac.  I can't hear any ticking when the CD is played through a CDP.

[Atlplasma]

I burned the CD (Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection) on my lappy, and the exact same ticking is present on the version that I burned on my iMac.  I can't hear any ticking when the CD is played through a CDP.

I'm assuming that you burned it as AIFF, correct?

[oneinthepipe]

Yes, AIFF. Exactly the same as on the iMac.

[Atlplasma]

Yes, AIFF. Exactly the same as on the iMac.

This is really too weird. I bet if you import it as Apple lossless on your computer it will play fine. 

[AudioBear]

I had the same problem with the internal drive of an old iMac. It also seemed to happen on CD's with lots of tracks, usually classical! I guess I only noticed after ripping around 800 CD's....argghhhh...

In the end I diagnosed it as a failing CD drive, so I got a new external DVD/CD drive. Never had any problems since then.

I now use the external drive for ripping, even on my new iMac, using XLD. Mainly to save the internal drive and because they are so much more expensive to replace than the external drive

Hope this helps,

[oneinthepipe]

I can rip to an external.  I thought the strange thing was that the ticking occurred on two separate computers.  Later tonight, I will rip the CD to an external drive (after I figure out how to do that).

[funkmonkey]

I burned a CD yesterday on my iMac's internal hard drive and have a "tick" on only one track occurring approximatley every one-and-one-half seconds, for the entire length of the track.  I never had this happen before.  The sound is tick, tick, tick, tick.  Is this the clicking that is discussed here?

This is exactly what I was hearing...  still I have only noticed it in a few old rips, and only with iTunes.  So far everything I have ripped (using my iMacs internal DVD drive) and encoding to FLAC with MAX (on an external HDD) has been clean.

[Atlplasma]

I burned a CD yesterday on my iMac's internal hard drive and have a "tick" on only one track occurring approximatley every one-and-one-half seconds, for the entire length of the track.  I never had this happen before.  The sound is tick, tick, tick, tick.  Is this the clicking that is discussed here?

This is exactly what I was hearing...  still I have only noticed it in a few old rips, and only with iTunes.  So far everything I have ripped (using my iMacs internal DVD drive) and encoding to FLAC with MAX (on an external HDD) has been clean.

I think Funk might be on to something pointing the finger towards iTunes. That said, I've noticed that I can sometimes "fix" a problem CD by re-importing it in a different format. If it ticks in lossless, I try AIFF. If it ticks in AIFF, I try lossless. Might give Max a try though.