Pregap

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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 pregap was used to hide computer data, tricking computers into detecting a data track whereas conventional CD players would continue to see the CD as an audio CD.

This method was quickly made obsolete in late 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

On certain CDs such as the Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age, the pregap 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 CDs with an unusually long pregap before the first song can be detected by using EAC, which will highlight the first song in red.

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, using audio extraction software like Exact Audio Copy. Some drives will report errors when reading these tracks, some will seem to extract them properly, but the extracted file will only contain silence.

Albums with tracks hidden in the pregap

It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article. (Discuss)

311

Transistor - "Transistor Intro"

A.C.T

Last Epic - hidden orchestral introduction

Adventures in Stereo

Monomania

AFI

Decemberunderground - hidden introduction

Very Proud of Ya - "No Dave Party"

Agoraphobic Nosebleed

Altered States of America "100-song 3" Mini-CD/10" - Features a 1 minute, 45 second song entitled "Wonder Drug Wonderland" when track 1 is "rewound" . Effectively making a 100-song release, although the last track on the album is labeled "99" in all regular cd players.

PCP Torpedo/ANbRX - "Azido Phencyclidine Electrophoresis" on PCP Tornado and "Agoraphonic Nosecandy Mix" on ANbRX, which is a remix done by Submachine Drum.

Alcazar

Alcazarized - "Dance With The DJ" (On the first edition of the album, released in Sweden)

The Aliens

Astronomy For Dogs - Untitled hidden track in the pregap

Anal Cunt

Morbid Florist - Cover version of the Doors' "Hello, I Love You."

Apollo Up!

Light the End and Burn it Through - "Roken Is Dodeljik", a re-recording of an instrumental track from their Demonstration Recording EP

Arcturus

La Masquerade Infernale - Untitled hidden track

Armor for Sleep

What to Do When You Are Dead - A hidden suicide note

Art Brut

Bang Bang Rock & Roll - "Subliminal Desire for Adventure"

Die Ärzte

13 - "Lady" in the pregap of "Punk ist..."

Geräusch - "Hände innen" in the pregap of "Als ich den Punk erfand..."

Jazz ist anders Bonus EP - "Nimm es wie ein Mann" in the pregap of "Wir sind die Besten"

As Cities Burn

Hell or High Water - untitled hidden track

Ash

1977 (early copies)

1. "Jack Names the Planets"
2. "Don't Know"

Autechre

EP7 - (untitled track)

Bang Camaro

Bang Camaro (album) - (untitled track)

Beastie Boys

Hello Nasty - "El Rey y Yo" (not on all editions)

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones

Little Worlds - Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams and David St. Hubbins of Spinal Tap, stuck in traffic and flipping through different radio stations. The songs they hear are songs from the album played in different styles and on different instruments.

Ben Folds Five

Whatever and Ever Amen - message by Ben Folds about Ben Folds (only on re-masters)

Better Than Ezra

Friction, Baby - (untitled track)

Billy Bauer

Plectrist

1. "Lover Come Back To Me" (incomplete take 1)
2. "Lover Come Back To Me" (incomplete take 2)

Black Moth Super Rainbow

Dandelion Gum - Unknown Track

Blind Melon

Soup - "Hello Goodbye"

Blink-182

Blink-182 - "Stockholm Syndrome Dialog"

Bloc Party

Silent Alarm - "Every Time Is The Last Time"

Blur

Think Tank - "Me, White Noise"

Boo Radleys

Kingsize - "Tranquillo"

Brand New

The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me - Overlapping phone messages

British Sea Power

Open Season

Calexico

Feast Of Wire - (unknown title)

Camouflage

Sensor - "Sensor Intro" - (0:35) - just some noises

Camouflage

Relocated - "Relocated Intro" - (1:21) - based on track "Bitter Taste" with words "I've got a name for you... Relocated"

Carina Round

Slow Motion Addict - "Same Girlfriend"

Cheap Trick

Cheap Trick (a.k.a. "Red Ant") Original 1997 pressing features montage of studio outtakes and rough versions of songs from the album.

Clearlake

Cedars - "Sounds Of Clearlake" - 9 minutes of music/sound clips

Cool Hand Luke

Wake Up O' Sleeper

Course of Empire

Initiation (1994) - "Running Man"

Criteria

En Garde (2003) - song by Team Rigge

The Czars

The Ugly People vs. The Beautiful People - "Top Breed"

Dashboard Confessional

Dusk and Summer

1. "Write It Out"
2. "Vindicated"

Damien Rice

9 - "9 Crimes" (Demo)

Darkane

Demonic Art - Jazzy version of Chaos Vs. Order (US Edition)

David Ford

I Sincerely Apologise For All The Trouble I've Caused - "This Is Not Desire"

David Gray

White Ladder - "I Can't Get Through To Myself"

Diamond Rio

IV - Various earlier hits mixed with sound effects

Dog Fashion Disco

Committed to a Bright Future - "Grease" Cover of the Frankie Avalon song to the Motion Picture

Dream Theater

Octavarium - Several tracks feature additional pregap content before the music of the song starts.

Ed Case

Ed's Guest List - "Mayhem" with guest vocals from Skin

Evanescence

Origin - A humorous outtake from the song "Anywhere"

Fair to Midland

Fables From A Mayfly - "Tibet"

Fall Out Boy

Folie à Deux - "Lullabye"

Farin Urlaub

Am Ende der Sonne - "Noch einmal" in the pregap

Finite Sky

Wash Away This World - "I know you're late, but at least you're on time" + "Find Me" in the pregap

Five Iron Frenzy

All the Hype That Money Can Buy (2000) - The 3-second song "What's Up?"

Flyleaf

Memento Mori (2009) - "Uncle Bobby"

Freddy Jones Band

North Avenue Wake Up Call - "Play Guitar"

Frenzal Rhomb

Shut Your Mouth - "Baby Won't You Hold Me In Your Arm"

The Gathering

Black Light District - "Over You"

Souvenirs - "Telson"

Goldie Lookin Chain

Safe As Fuck - "Bedsit"

Groovechild

House of Life - "The Big Rewind"

Harvey Milk

The Kelly Sessions - "My Broken Heart Will Never Mend" (appears first on the album's track listing, but not described as a hidden track, thus resulting in much subsequent confusion)

Hayden

Skyscraper National Park - "Mingus" (only present on the Canadian version)

Head of Femur

Ringodom or Proctor - Untitled hidden track (glockenspiel and soft voice)

Hilltop Hoods

Left Foot, Right Foot - "Afternoon Group Session"

The Calling - "Stay The Fuck Away Because I Spilt When I'm Talking"

The Hard Road - Untitled hidden track

Hoggboy

"Or 8?" - untitled instrumental

Hot Club de Paris

Drop It 'Til It Pops - "Welcome to the Hot Club de Paris" (a capella)

Hoodoo Gurus

Blue Cave

Hybrid

Morning Sci-Fi - "Lights go down Knives come out"

I Choose Noise - "Everything is Brand New"

I Am Kloot

I Am Kloot - Deep Blue Sea

I Monster

Neveroddoreven - Cells

Immortal Technique

The 3rd World - "Apocalypse [Remix] featuring Akir & Pharoahe Monch"

Jack Planck

To Hell With You I'll Make My Own People - "Fuck You"

James Brown

Live At The Apollo Vol. 2 (Deluxe Edition) - Radio DJ (and concert MC) Frankie Crocker talks to the crowd with a comedian for about four minutes before the show begins (not present in all editions)

Jebediah

Of Someday Shambles - "Big Beer Wall"

Jerry Douglas

Glide - Unknown track

Jim Moray

Sweet England - "After The Fire"

Kanye West 

Graduation - Goodnight

Kamelot

The Black Halo - A short non-musical intro to the album.

Kenji Itō

SaGa Frontier 1 - Original Soundtrack - Disc 3: "Coon's Theme"

Kid Carpet

"Ideas and Oh Dears" - "Message 1"

Kinobe

"Wide Open" - untitled instrumental

Korn"

"See You On The Other Side" - hidden Twisted Transistor intro

KULT

Poligono Industrial - "Kasta pianistów"

Kylie Minogue

Light Years - "Password"

Lamb

Fear of Fours - "Lullaby" (instrumental)

Best Kept Secrets: The Best of Lamb 1996-2004 - "Wonder" (instrumental version)

Larrikin Love

The Freedom Spark - "It Explodes"

Less Than Jake

Losing Streak - banter spoken by former band mascot "Howie J. Reynolds", an elderly Gainesville local

Lemon Jelly

'64 - '95" - "Don Edoardo '64"

Lewis Black

The Carnegie Hall Performance (disc 1) - (untitled Track)

Lisa Loeb

Cake and Pie - (untitled Track)

Lit

A Place in the Sun - (untitled Track)

Look Down

24/7 Dance Force - Untitled

Luke Haines

Das Capital - "overture"

Lucy Kaplansky

Flesh and Bone - I've Just Seen A Face

Ludo

You're Awful, I Love You - Goodbye Bear

Mae

Singularity - Last Transmission: Part I

Matthew Parmenter

Horror Express - "Making Music"

Maxwell

Embrya - Gestation: Mythos with various voices and watery sound effects

Mayday

Old Blood

1. "Domes/Doma/Dominarum Arcana/Döm"
2. "Rebirthing"

Mayhem

Grand Declaration of War - "Completion in Science of Agony (Part II of II)"

McFly

Room on the Third Floor - "Get Over You"

Melt-Banana

Charlie - "Neat Neat Neat" (Originally by The Damned)

Mew

Half the World is Watching Me - "Ending" (Only included on some versions)

Minuet

"Interpreting Movements That Are Preponderant To Sound" - 9+ minutes of outtakes from the recording session

Miocene

Cellular Memory EP - instrumental jam

MJ Cole

"Sincere" - silence

Moneen

The Red Tree - hidden introduction

Mono Puff

It's Fun to Steal - (untitled track)

Morbid Angel

Entangled in Chaos - Untitled hidden track (static/interference style noises).

Motorpsycho

Blissard - (untitled track)

The Music

The Music (Limited Edition CD) - "New Instrumental"

Ms. Dynamite

A Little Deeper - "Get Up, Stand Up"

Muse

Hullabaloo CD 2 - "What's He Building", a poem read by Tom Waits

The Never

Antarctica - only confirmed on promotional version of CD

No Wings Fins or Fuselage

No Wings Fins or Fuselage - multiple demo tracks.

Nobuo Uematsu

Final Fantasy VII Reunion Tracks - Karaoke version of "One-Winged Angel (Orchestra Version)".

Norma Jean

O' God The Aftermath (Deluxe Edition) - an instrumental jam before the first track starts

Oceansize

Everyone Into Position - "Emp(irical)error"

The Offspring

Americana - "Pretty Fly (Reprise)" (some versions)

Opeth

Ghost Reveries - "Reverie"

Orchestrol Parade

Avec ou sans l' - "Mais c'est pas là!"

Osdorp Posse

Geendagsvlieg - "Sleur"

Ott

Blumenkraft

Pennywise

Unknown Road - "Slowdown"

Protest the Hero

Fortress

Public Enemy

Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age (1994) - "Ferocious Soul" (Drum track with Chuck D ranting about the state of Hip-Hop and the impending negative criticism the album is going to receive- which coincidently it did.)

Pulp

"This Is Hardcore" - cymbal

Queens of the Stone Age

Songs for the Deaf - The Real Song For The Deaf

Rammstein

Live Aus Berlin - (Audience cheering)

Reise, Reise - (Fragment of the flight recorder of a Japanese Boeing 747 disaster.)

The Red Shore

Salvaging What's Left

Regular Fries - "War On Plastic Plants" - "War On Plastic Plants"

Relient K

Mmhmm - "Mmhmm"

R.E.M.

Murmur - 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition - bonus disc (vintage radio promo for the album's original 1983 release)

Reckoning - 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition - bonus disc (vintage radio promo for the album's original 1984 release)

Resin Dogs

Grand Theft Audio -

Sanctifica

Negative B (2002) - 9min 20sec of hidden content (band members talking?)

Sarah Masen

The Dreamlife of Angels (2001) - "Longing Unknown"

Satyricon

Rebel Extravaganza (1999) - "Untitled"

Simon Webbe

Sanctuary (2004) - "Pusherman"

Sister Machine Gun

Burn (1995) - "Strange Days" (A cover of The Doors song)

Skunk Anansie

Stoosh (1996) - (Untitled Track)

Sly & Robbie

Late Night Tales - La Isla Bonita Cover by Sly & Robbie of Madonna track

Jimmy Smith

Root Down (2000) - Band and audience banter before the first song including Jimmy Smith telling the audience to be quiet.

SNFU

FYULABA (1996) - The sound of arguing before the first track between a band and an owner of a night club who accuses the band of trashing the dressing room. It is unclear if the band is actually SNFU or not.

Son of Dork

Welcome to Loserville - "Eddie's Song (choral)" & "Welcome To Loserville (choral)"

Soulwax

Leave the Story Untold (1996) - Untitled

Much Against Everyone's Advice (2000) - Untitled

Any Minute Now (2004) – "I Love Techno"^[1]

Most of the Remixes (2007) - Einstürzende Neubauten - Stella Maris (Soulwax Remix)

Staind

Dysfunction - "Excess Baggage" - On some versions of the CD this track is within the pregap, others it starts 16:20 into the last track. This song is also sometimes mistakenly called "Black Rain".

Steven Wilson

Insurgentes (2009) - "The 78"

Super Furry Animals

Guerrilla (1999) - "Citizen's Band"

Out Spaced (1998) - "Spaced Out"

Tait

Empty (2001) - various random recordings

Telepopmusik

"Angel Milk" - spoken intro

Terrorust

Post Mortal Archives - Untitled hidden track (static/interference style noises). Found on original release of 1000 copies.

They Might Be Giants

Factory Showroom - "Token Back to Brooklyn"

tobyMac

Welcome to Diverse City - The "real" intro to the track Burn For You

Total Eclipse

Access Denied - "Cornered"

Tripping Daisy

Time Capsule EP - "Disgruntled Customer"

UNKLE

Psyence Fiction - "Intro (Optional)" (Uncredited intro featuring an audio collage of some of DJ Shadow's and James Lavelle's musical influences). This hidden audio is not on the US pressing, but can be found on UK and Japanese pressings. May be available on other pressings around the world.

Various Artists

Songs in the Key of X (soundtrack from The X-Files)

1. "Time Jesum Transeuntum Et Non Riverentum (Dread the Passage of Jesus, For He Will Not Return)" by Nick Cave and the Dirty Three
2. The X-Files theme by the Dirty Three

Various Artists

Ego Trip's The Big Playback - Interview with KRS-ONE

2 Many DJs

As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt. 2 - Can't Get You Out Of My Head Remix of Kylie Minogue's song

Vitalic

OK Cowboy (2005) - "One Million Dollar Studio"

The Wannadies

Bagsy Me (1997) - Demo versions of both 'Silent People' and 'Bumble Bee Boy' - one track in left channel and the other in the right.

The Wedding

Polarity (2007) - Outtakes from "Southside"

When

The Lobster Boys (2001) - Untitled Hidden Track

Winds

Reflections of the I - "untitled"

The Wombats

The Wombats Proudly Present: A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation - Untitled (Talk and Drinking)

Wintersleep

Untitled (2005) - "Spring"

XTC

Coat of Many Cupboards (2002) - Disc 2 - Wanking Man, Disc 3 - The Shaving Brush Boogie

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^[2].

Windows XP:

• Exact Audio Copy provides the functionality to write to Index 0

Linux:

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

Potential incompatibilities

Windows XP:

Some users reported that Winamp 5.541 will stall and thereafter fail to recognize external CD drives if CDs with pregap information are attempted to be ripped using Winamp's internal CD-ripping software.

See also

• Hidden track
• List of albums containing a hidden track

Notes

1. ^ Appears also regularly on "Nite Versions" as track 7 with this name
2. ^ http://tmkk.hp.infoseek.co.jp/xld/index_e.html

External links

• History of Mixed-Mode CDs
• Technical Specifications of the Squirrel Nut Zippers "Hot" ECD