Hi all, first post so be nice!

I have a question, and it's something a bit different so I'm hoping there are some really clever types on here who understand how CD technology works to a very high standard.

Basically what I want to do is to create a CD which deliberately skips as part of an art project. I want the skipping to be controllable, i.e. I want to be able to actually program the skipping and have control of when the CD skips and how much it skips (to some degree at least) - in other words, it's no good just telling me to scratch the CD or something like that. I also need to be able to burn copies of the disc, so preferably it would be something like an iso file which I can then burn when I need to.

I was trying to work out a way to do it, and I have to confess I don't know THAT much about CD technology. I was wondering if it is possible to deliberately put bad sectors onto the CD to cause it to skip? But I'm not sure if that would work, or how I would go about doing it.

Does anyone know, or is there a better method? I'll just repeat - the data on the CD is NOT really important (although I don't mind if it's readable) - I'm purely interested in controllable skipping on audio CD players.

Weird I know, but an interesting puzzle I hope. Thanks for any help in advance!

An iso image is DATA. Audio CD players do not play data discs, only audio discs. To make deliberate CUs on an audio CD you would need a drive that allows you complete control so you could be in charge of writing the C1 and C2 codes. I do not believe they have made one of these yet.

Thanks RichMan - yeah I know an iso is data but that's what I meant, something LIKE that, maybe raw or making a master image or whatever, something duplicatable. I appreciate what you're saying though, it must be tricky without the proper hardware. Is there another way to do it though, maybe scramble it up so it's trying to jump tracks a lot, or something like that? There must be a way to confuse a cd player sufficiently to make it jump around with at least some rhythmic quality?

Even with the drives that support RAW writing, you still do not get to provide the C1/C2 codes. If you write the image as an audio CD then the drive will put the proper C1/C2 codes on it. This prevents deliberate unreadable sectors. If you scramble the audio sector info all up, it will just sound like crap when it is played. I don't know of any possible way to make an audio CD skip when you want it too, unless maybe you came up with your own 'protection' type scheme and hired the big encoding companies to write the code for it. This would costs tens of thousands of dollars.

Ah I see - thanks a lot for the help mate, much appreciated! I'll keep trying to work something out, maybe change the idea around slightly or something, hopefully come up with something similar. Or if anyone else has something that does this, maybe accidentally when doing something else, then feel free to chip in!

Wouldn't it be easier if you put the skipping effect in the audio stream? Just an idea.

just use a sound editor to give the effect...

intentional skipping isn't really a weird question...DJs have been doing it for years! haha