Is there a way to check if a soundtrack is really a lossless rip (directly from the cd itself)?
Not 100%.
You can view the spectral views to see if they have cut-off frequency (cut-off around 20kHz is likely a compressed format (say lossless to lossy: flac to mp3/aac)).
However, not all studio-produced CD's are mastered carefully.
Some songs may come in already with poor frequency cut-off (The Departed soundtrack (track 1: "Comfortably Numb" Roger Waters (Feat. Van Morrison & The Band)).
The Departed - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Departed#Soundtrack)
I bought the official CD to The Departed OST and the first track is badly cut-off, likely because it's a "live" track.
"The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)" first distribution of the CD is heavily clipped (lots of bass distortion due to poor mastering dB levels).
"Audiochecker" software is not %100 accurate and controlled test environments reveal that you can manufacture misleading results if you wish. Which makes it a crap testing process. Russians love to use it, no contest.
There's another program that basically is a front-end to Audiochecker, so it's invalid as well.
And there's "auCDtect" which provides fancy, mathematical theorums on testing audio sources.
TAU Software - Tau Analyzer - Aucdtect Algorithm Details - True Audio Codec Software (
http://en.true-audio.com/Tau_Analyzer_-_Aucdtect_Algorithm_Details)
However, it's old and hardly used anymore.
Largely relies on you having a physical CD (for the a GUI/Front-End) or uncompressing files to bulky WAV format (for the CLI: Command Line Interface).
There's two ways to check that are common (yet still require a great deal of faith in the users telling the truth).
1) view the rip log (ensure it has AccurateRip results with it and that it has a larger number for "Confidence" (confidence is how many people ripped it "accurately" (according to their hardware and software setup) and shared their results).
However, this means people use software that has AccurateRip need to submit their rip results, even if it fails (it won't hurt the database, but merely contrast positive from negative results with more "confidence".). Most people are not into sharing anything from their own computer for privacy's sake (even when there is full disclosure that they only collect minor data and nothing compromising).
So blame the superstitious and paranoid whackjobs out there if confidence is very low (or "not in the AccurateRip database") after you make a seemingly "proper" rip.
Like an antivirus, the database is only as good as the people who contribute to the database.
And the soundtrack world is a small one (compared to other genres).
2) Ask the uploader/ripper if they did it themselves and how they did it.
Naturally, this will make them apprehensive and feel very insulted and spit in your face.
Welcome to Shrine~
No one will answer you. They'll simply say "I know what I'm doing" or "it's good enough for me" and prove nothing.
Intelligent people will tell you what software they used and if they configured it properly and used AccurateRip results.
If they ripped it lacking AccurateRip or other secure-ripping features, they'll generally say so and also tell you why they lack such features (shared machine with limited privilages on installing new things; lack of complete knowledge; Operating System limitations *cough*Linux/mac*cough*; or just plain old software preference *cough*iTunes*cough*).
In reality, no.
Everything can be manufactured or corrupted. Everyone can lie.
You just need to have faith things were done right by the willing people.
.cue files only tell you how to burn the files to a CD (which is pointless in this day and age; unless you have a car or a tiny CD player to play in the bathroom when you want to relax and take a bubble bath with a Katherine Heigl movie playing... :eye:)
.log files will give you some information.
If the results say they aren't in the AccurateRip database, it means no one (or only 1 or 2 other people) ripped (and/or) shared their rip results to the database. More people need to rip and share their results.
Brand new CD's will need a couple months before anything shows up in the database.
You can put on your reading glasses and look smart. :smrt:
Spectral anaylsis won't work %100. There's ways you can make something "look" lossless.