Pregap

The pregap on a Red Book audio CD is the portion of the audio track that precedes "index 01" for a given track in the table of contents (TOC). The pregap ("index 00") is typically two seconds long and usually, but not always, contains silence. Popular uses for having the pregap contain audio are live CDs, track interludes, and hidden songs in the pregap of the first track (detailed below).

Unconventional uses of the pregap

Computer data in pregap

The track 01 pregap was used to hide computer data, allowing computers to detect a data track whereas conventional CD players would continue to see the CD as an audio CD.

This method was quickly made obsolete in mid 1996 when an update to Windows 95 in driver SCSI1HLP.VXD made the pregap track inaccessible. It is unclear whether or not this change in Microsoft Windows' behavior was intentional: for instance, it may have been intended to steer developers away from the pregap method and encourage what became the Blue Book specification "CD Extra" format.

Hidden audio tracks
Further information: List of albums with tracks hidden in the pregap

On certain CDs, such as Light Years by Kylie Minogue or HoboSapiens by John Cale, the pregap before track 1 contains a hidden track. The track is truly hidden in the sense that most conventional standalone players and software CD players will not see it.

Such hidden tracks can be played by playing the first song and "rewinding" (more accurately, seeking in reverse) until the actual start of the whole CD audio track.

Not all CD drives can properly extract such hidden tracks. Some drives will report errors when reading these tracks, and some will seem to extract them properly, but the extracted file will contain only silence.

Pregaps in CD-R media

OS support

Mac OS X:

Currently does not support more than a 2-second pre-gap in the first track under its CD burning utilities. Using a combination of Roxio's Toast and a custom .cue file can provide a way around this.

Ripping of pregap audio is supported by the application X Lossless Decoder.[1]

Windows:

Linux:

  • cdrecord supports writing any kind of pregap
  • cdrdao supports writing any kind of pregap
  • K3B, a frontend for several CD/DVD burning/ripping utilities, supports hiding the first track in the pregap of the second one.
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See also

Notes
  1. http://tmkk.pv.land.to/xld/index_e.html
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