been learning about audio CD format...
Andy McFadden's CDR FAQ is awesome.
(His page about file formats is also highly recommended.)
i still don't know why cdparanoia prints (typically) 00:00 instead of 00:02 which is returned by the "read TOC" cdrom ioctl for the first track. is it just blindly subtracting 2 seconds or what? must read the source... anyway despite the FAQ i don't understand the exact nature of this 2-second gap.
freedb really is a mess (accurate criticism by jwz). i wonder if there is hope. i'd like to help...