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> Just don’t forget to skip track 1.

There is very slightly more to it than just the mixed-mode sessions: the audio tracks on the Quake CD were mastered with pre-emphasis, so your ripper or player needs to apply corresponding de-emphasis EQ in order for them to sound correct. 1996 was actually a strangely late year to find any CD mastered with pre-emph; it was mostly an '80s thing: https://www.studio-nibble.com/cd/index.php?title=Pre-emphasi...

On top of being a technique that had fallen out of common use by that time, Quake has the pre-emphasis metadata flagged in the subcodes but not flagged in the TOC, so some software players/rippers like (annoyingly) Exact Audio Copy won't heed it: https://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Comparison_of...

Here's a side-by-side comparison — my EAC rip of my MacSoft version of Quake (left) alongside the output of `sox_ng deemph` for the same file (right): https://i.ibb.co/9m18CSsk/Emi-2026-08-17-18-52-48.png

And if you're curious, here's the pre-emphasis subcode channel Q flag and pre-emphasis frequency response as described in the Red Book standard, and sox_ng's code for undoing it:

― https://audio-union.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Red-Book-...

― https://codeberg.org/sox_ng/sox_ng/src/branch/main/src/deemp...

Although if someone has been unknowingly listening to the pre-emphasized tracks for thirty years, maybe the ‘incorrect’ one is what sounds right to them? :)

by protimewaster7 hours ago|

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IIRC, it's actually debatable if the pre-emphasis flag is supposed to be set. I don't remember the exact details anymore, but I think it was discovered that there multiple releases with bit-identical audio tracks, but some of them have the flag set while others don't. They can't both be correct, because the audio data should've changed if the emphasis was removed.

by Lammy7 hours ago|

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Make sure that it isn't a case of the software you're using to inspect the disc intentionally looking the other way with regard to that flag.

> Quake has the pre-emphasis metadata flagged in the subcodes but not flagged in the TOC, so some software players/rippers like (annoyingly) Exact Audio Copy won't heed it

I learned that this is an intentional deficiency in EAC: https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/eac-not-detecting-pre...

> For a short while, up to version 0.95b3 [in 2004], Exact Audio Copy had a manual function to actually scan the audio area of the disc also [talking about subcode channel Q versus the TOC] to find if tracks used pre-emphasis. This was removed due to some perceived legal threat. Now, basically, a standards-compliant disc that doesn't use the TOC kludge won't show "pre-emphasis"

And sure enough, the Red Book standard mentions usage of the other three flag bits alongside the pre-emphasis flag: https://audio-union.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Red-Book-...

The adjacent bit is “copy prohibited” versus “copy permitted”, which is not a piece of metadata I knew Compact Disc had. Makes a lot more sense why EAC would remove that feature in the legal climate of the P2P era, because to look for one flag also must look for the other, and this way it's out of sight and out of mind and Gee Your Honor We Didn't Know You Couldn't Do That if someone uses EAC to rip a “copy prohibited” disc. I wish I could get this feature back in 2026 though :p

by protimewaster7 hours ago|

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I actually remembered more about this after my initial post. I ended up with two copies of Quake (one is the original shareware release and one is a later release of the full game), and one of them has the PRE flag set in the TOC and the other one doesn't. Now I'm wondering if I ever checked the subcodes for the one that's missing the flags in the TOC. I'll have to dig it out sometime and check.

I did verify that the audio is identical down to an offset, though, between the two.

> The adjacent bit is “copy prohibited” versus “copy permitted”, which is not a piece of metadata I knew Compact Disc had.

I wonder if any equipment ever actually used those other flags for anything?

by Sesse__4 hours ago|

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> I wonder if any equipment ever actually used those other flags for anything?

MiniDisc did. You could make one (digital) copy but not two.

by 7 hours ago|

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by doubled11213 hours ago|

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The data track never sounds very good. A little too industrial for my tastes.

by 986aignan12 hours ago|

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Now I'm curious if it's possible to make a data track that has at least some resemblance to actual music. That could be an interesting challenge if it can't obviously be ruled out.

by jonhohle12 hours ago|

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In each sector 2048 of the data bits are just bits, but each data sector also includes 12 bytes of sync, 4 bytes of metadata and 288 bytes of ECC that are not really controllable (if you want the disc to be readable). Then there’s the ISO 9660 on top that will impact the first few sectors. If you have a single file (say a zip/tarball/rar, image) you could limit that. Assuming you could mask the noise from the ECC at 75hz it might be possible.

by BLKNSLVR11 hours ago|

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Sounds like the sort of thing Aphex Twin would do.

by prmoustache8 hours ago|

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That's how I tentatively "imitated" Aphex Twin and Autechre when I was a teenager using impulse tracker. Selecting random files as samples until I would find a section that sounded the way I wanted.

by eythian2 hours ago|

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I think it's the sort of thing Master Boot Record should do

by samplatt9 hours ago|

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Honestly that'd probably appeal to Reznor's aesthetic.

by chungy13 hours ago|

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Mind that every Quake release includes the same soundtrack, it's not just the shareware version ;)

There's millions of such CDs in the wild, both shareware and fully purchased copies.

by jonhohle12 hours ago|

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Oops, I can see how that reads like only the shareware version is this way. It’s often cheaper if you’re just going for the music.

by jillesvangurp3 hours ago|

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I remember I had the CD but rarely used it because having to pop in the CD just to play the game was annoying. So, I mostly played it without the sound track. Also, I never was that much into nine inch nails. Just not my genre. But my memory of the game is that it was fine without music.

by hadlock12 hours ago|

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NIN and iD (re-?)released a vinyl record set for the 30th anniversary a couple weeks ago.