ISRC reading inconsistancies

[simonf]

Hi All,

I have noticed that the CD Ripper is very inconsistant in reading ISRC data from disks. I can put the same disc in 3 times and sometimes it finds the ISRCs and sometimes It dosn't. I find that if say a disc has ISRCs on tracks 1,2,3,6,7,8,9 it will most commonly read the first 3 tracks ISRCs. My customer has encountered the same thing so its not a hardware thing. I have have tried nerocmd to read the data and get better results, but not perfect. I have writen another program using the bass.dll library and get better results although you quite often need to run it a couple of times to get it to work 100%.

The only thing I have found that will get it every time is CloneCd, if I rip a disc I find the .CCD or .SUB file both contain the ISRC's perfectly. So the drive can read them OK. I then mount the CD using virtual clone drive and rip It.

Ok So the thing I need to know is Is the ISRC reading going to be improved in the ripper. ???

The other way I could do it Is to read the cd in raw mode and extract the P-chanel data direct from the raw data. but I cant find a way of reading raw sectors from Managed VB.Net Code.

[LtData]

Re: ISRC reading inconsistancies

Spoon made a note in the r13.1 beta discussion thread:

ISRC would not be used with PerfectMeta, I will make a note for R13.2 to re-add it.

[sjmac]

Re: ISRC reading inconsistancies

I think Exact Audio Copy is reliable at exracting the ISRCs (if the option is turned on in Tools > EAC Options > Tools), so I use EAC to write a single-WAV cue sheet containing the ISRCs in the same folder as my ripped files. It should be easy to write a little script to read the ISRCs from the .cue and write them in to the ripped files later. The .cue files also have the Index 00 times in if I want to put the CDs together again later.

Also I think dbPowerAmp can extract it reliably, it just tends to overwrite it or not bother writing it to the compressed files (see discussion in the beta thread).

I've been suprised that some CDs don't seem to have the ISRCs in, like Pink Floyd The Wall '94 remaster ... is that too old for this standard?

BTW, I understand that the ISRCs are intended for radio stations / royalty collections, but I assumed that the number as read from the CD would make a nice index to collect extra metadata for the tracks, but it seems pretty much unused for that sort of thing; none of the services that dbPowerAmp use seem aware of ISRC.

Is there anything useful I can use ISRCs for?

[simonf]

Re: ISRC reading inconsistancies

The reason I need ISRCs Is because my customer suppllies content to radio stations and they want the isrcs to be included in the BWF.

I also found that EAC gives a good ISRC if you generate a cue sheet but it dosn't tag wavs, I have a program thatg extracts the tags from the wavs and automatically populates there database.

Incidentaly no program on my laptop extracts the ISRC correctly from the toshiba drive except clonecd (its a technical problem with the drive I think ) The first character is correct and the last 7 digits. The Second to 4th digits are corupted.

I think my drive dosnt deserialize the 6 bit data properly to 8 bits.

Clone CD must read the drive in raw mode and deserialise it in software.

I have just writen a program to search the 70TB's yes i said TB's of disc images my customers hold to extract the isrcs it was a pig to work out where the data was in the stream but I can now extract isrcs from RAW DAO96 data.I would use this method to extract the isrcs if I could find a Library that would allow me to read sectors from managed code.

The other use for isrc's is to prevent duplicate tracks my customer has over 70 copies of a single track from different albums in theory at least if the ISRC's match the tracks should be the same so they only need to keep 1 copy in their live library.

Glad to see the isrc issue is a known problem and is being looked at, I have gote code I have written to extract ISRC's from raw reads which I will make available if it will be some help.

Rgds Simon

[Spoon]

Re: ISRC reading inconsistancies

Looked at R13.1 and it will read ISRC fine if it is on the CD even with Perfect meta activated.

[sjmac]

Re: ISRC reading inconsistancies

Looked at R13.1 and it will read ISRC fine if it is on the CD even with Perfect meta activated.

Yes but ...

I am using the beta R13.1 that expires in November 2008. I have ISRC checked in the Metadata options.

As soon as I put in a CD that is not in the local cache the ISRC numbers are read and displayed in the track grid view.

Then the PerfectMeta loads data, and the ISRC numbers are erased from the grid.

If I Choose Meta[v] > Retrieve From > CD-ISRC then the numbers come back but erase the downloaded metadata.

Then I choose Meta[v] > Retrieve From > dbPowerAmp local cache and the nubmers are added back in to the grid.

Then I choose Rip and the ISRC numbers are not written to my WMA files.

Still broken?

[Spoon]

Re: ISRC reading inconsistancies

Make sure ISRC is set to write in the Meta & ID Tag options (in Options).

I have tried and on my machine the ISRC are not removed once perfectmeta comes in.

[sjmac]

Re: ISRC reading inconsistancies

No, this is not working on my machine.

Yes, ISRC is set to write in Meta & ID Tag options page.

I have the R13.1 (release) installed now (running with a quad core CPU), creating lossless WMA files.

CD try auto-ejects after a rip.

Even if I see the ISRC numbers in the CD Ripper track list grid they don't get written to the .wma files that I am creating; that is, if I right-click the .wma file I don't see ISRC in the "Edit ID Tag" form, but I do see UPC number for example.

However, by playing games re-reading the ISRCs then reloading info from the dbPowerAmp cache then ripping I can get the ISRC numbers written.

[Spoon]

Re: ISRC reading inconsistancies

If ISRC is listed in CD Ripper (and double check by selecting one track and choosing 'meta' tab next to encoder, it should list ISRC in black, if it is grey then it will not be wirtten).

[sjmac]

Re: ISRC reading inconsistancies

No, ISRC is not listed in the META tab, but is selected in the options, and is listed in the track list grid.

Screenshot: http://aptile.co.uk/dbpaOptions.jpg

[Spoon]

Re: ISRC reading inconsistancies

You would have to select a track in the above listing (of 3 tracks) as ISRC is unique per track (for it to be shown in the meta section).

[sjmac]

Re: ISRC reading inconsistancies

Fair point, same result: http://aptile.co.uk/noisrc.jpg



Options are as in the previous screenshot (ISRC is selected), and the ripped file does not contain the ISRC that is shown in the Track List grid.

[Spoon]

Re: ISRC reading inconsistancies

It is very odd because the internal ID Tag (meta data list) is used to populate the ISRC on the screen (in the track listing), but clearly it is not there on yours. What happens if you switch off the ISRC column and then switchi it on again (whilst in the state as shown above).

[sjmac]

Re: ISRC reading inconsistancies

If I toggle the ISRC column in the track view grid it comes back emtpy.

[sjmac]

Re: ISRC reading inconsistancies

If I choose the arrow next to Metadata > Retrieve from > CD ISRC the numbers come back, but the track names are overwritten with "Track 1", etc.

If I then choose Retrieve from > AMG the track names come back, and the ISRC numbers remain in the grid, and in the Meta properties for each track.