CD Audio Playback (I don't get it)

[AudioNovice]

Hi, I am a bit baffled by all of the different modes and options for playback and extraction from an audio CD.

I have a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card and it is connected to my Lite-On combo drive via the digital audio cable (S/PDIF I think?). I am really confused about a lot of things and if someone cares to explain the following it should clear everything else up

I know what S/PDIF stands for and how it works, but, can I play or extract my audio CD's through S/PDIF since my CD-ROM drive is connected to my sound card through the "digital audio cable"? Do I have the wrong idea of what S/PDIF is meant to be used for?

In my Creative Surround Mixer there are volume controls for CD Audio, S/PDIF-In and CD Digital... But when I play an audio CD in regular playback software those controls have no effect on the output, I can only control it through the wave. Am I supposed to be able to play CD's through those channels and if so, how?

Also my CD-ROM drive has Digital CD audio enabled and most of my CD's play fine with this option on, but when I play one specific CD the songs take ages to load and there are pauses and blanks during playback. I disabled the Digital CD audio option in windows and then they played back fine? Is there something I'm doing wrong, or might the CD have copy protection which is what causes the problem?

When I use Sony Sound Forge or iTunes to rip audio from my CD's, how do I know if the audio is being ripped digitally, analogally or whatever?

I apologise for my newbiness, I just really cant understand what's going on with my CD-ROM and audio settings and would love to know how to ensure everything is "digital".

 

[lpdeluxe]

The S/PDIF connection is to interface your computer with the outside world. The CD player is connected internally. With the proper software you should be able to "rip" audio CDs without any external devices attached to the sound card.

The CD that won't play has been damaged or the data may be corrupted. Try spraying it with Armor All, buffing it from the center out, and see if that helps. If that doesn't help, get a Skip Doctor and polish it. If that doesn't work, you've probably got an unfixable problem.

 

[AudioNovice]

Hi, thankyou for helping me understand that I just got confused with all the things I was reading about DAE and S/PDIF.

I updated the firmware on my CD drive and now all my CD's play back fine with the digital option checked in the drive settings. The one CD that I thought wasn't playing back properly was not the case, it was many CD's, the firmware fixed the problem though

I knew it couldn't have been the CD because it was brand new. However when I rip that CD into iTunes or try to use all of my different ripping programs (CDex with Lame etc.) the CD rips fine except for 2 tracks which get all jumbled up towards the end, and I think this is because these two tracks are mixed into eachother whereas none of the other tracks are.

I ripped them several times and the songs came out different every time and I am certain it is the drive that wont rip the mixed songs properly. It plays them back fine, just when I go to rip.... it becomes a different story. I tried to rip them on another computer and they worked perfect first time.

Do you think my drive is the problem? Is there anything I can do to get around it? I have a good feeling that the same problem would occur with any other mixed CD's.