problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

[Rickwang]

Hi

I have used dBpoweramp for about three years (an older version) and had problems getting metadata for certain music CDs (mostly classical ABC Classics in Australia where I live). Didn't worry about it too much and just typed in the details I required, as it worked for most other CDs.

I have now had the need to use it a bit more and looked for alternatives on the web - I am a Mac user and mostly the relevant metadata was found and continues to be found for these types of CDs by iTunes but i didn't want to use that. I found an additional free program called XLD which I downloaded and it also finds the correct metadata (but won't find album art unless you subscribe to Amazon!)

I though the most recent version of dBpoweramp might help so I took a chance and purchased it but still no luck with the metadata for these particular types of CDs! For examples recent 2018 CD set called America:Bold and Brilliant to be found at www.abcclassics.com.

I am not clever enough to be able to work out what fields I might need to edit in the metadata to allow it to be imported automatically but I find it a bit strange that two free programs can find it without a problem but this program can't......

Does anyone have and ideas or thoughts?

Thanks

Rick

[linkman]

Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

Although iTunes is free to you Apple pays (or at least used to pay) some sort of fee/royalty to access the DB that iTunes uses to look up the metadata. The license info for iTunes indicates that it uses Gracenote, which charges for lookups or use of the API. Free program does not mean free database lookups. All of the titles in one DB are not necessarily in another DB.

[garym]

Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

For things in gracenote db (itunes) and not dbpa lookup, I simply open the CD in itunes, "select and copy" the matrix of information on the CD import screen, then "paste" into EXCEL. A couple of clicks later (deleting some of the columns so I only have track number, title, and artist columns left). At that point I have the info I need. I then save as a "CSV" file. Then I use mp3tag "Convert - Textfile to tag" option (with the settings: "%track%,%title%,%artist%" to import all this info into the file tags automatically.

This sounds like a lot of work, but once setup, it is basically a few mouse clicks and takes only seconds. A lot easier than manually typing all the info in.

[Rickwang]

Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

For things in gracenote db (itunes) and not dbpa lookup, I simply open the CD in itunes, "select and copy" the matrix of information on the CD import screen, then "paste" into EXCEL. A couple of clicks later (deleting some of the columns so I only have track number, title, and artist columns left). At that point I have the info I need. I then save as a "CSV" file. Then I use mp3tag "Convert - Textfile to tag" option (with the settings: "%track%,%title%,%artist%" to import all this info into the file tags automatically.

This sounds like a lot of work, but once setup, it is basically a few mouse clicks and takes only seconds. A lot easier than manually typing all the info in.

Thank you very much for that! Will give it a go.

[Rickwang]

Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

Although iTunes is free to you Apple pays (or at least used to pay) some sort of fee/royalty to access the DB that iTunes uses to look up the metadata. The license info for iTunes indicates that it uses Gracenote, which charges for lookups or use of the API. Free program does not mean free database lookups. All of the titles in one DB are not necessarily in another DB.

Understood and thanks. I do realise that 'free' was rather a loose term....

[Rickwang]

Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

Thank you very much for that! Will give it a go.

Hi! I have just tried to do as you suggested. No problems till I get to the bit about mp3tag I see there is a limited free version now entitled TidyMyMusic for Mac but there is no Convert option that I can see and the program doesn't allow me to import a .csv file. Does this mean I need to purchase the full product?

Thanks for your help.

[Rickwang]

Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

Hi! I have just tried to do as you suggested. No problems till I get to the bit about mp3tag I see there is a limited free version now entitled TidyMyMusic for Mac but there is no Convert option that I can see and the program doesn't allow me to import a .csv file. Does this mean I need to purchase the full product?

Thanks for your help.

Hi again! I have just realised there are multiple mp3tag programs available. I have tried one called Kid3 but it didn't have the appropriate Convert option. Can you tell me which program I should use?

Thanks again for your help.

[Rickwang]

Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

Hi again! I have just realised there are multiple mp3tag programs available. I have tried one called Kid3 but it didn't have the appropriate Convert option. Can you tell me which program I should use?

Thanks again for your help.

Hi again for the last time (for the time being). I have discovered the program I think you were referring to called Mp3tag version 2.95 which is German and runs in the Mac environment via a program called Wine. I have found a Convert icon but I'm not able able to able to open a.CSV file that is sitting on the desktop. Where should the CSV file be and is a particular way of opening it?

Thank you once again for your help.

[Dat Ei]

Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

Gary has written about the program named "mp3tag". So you are right with your last post. You can find the progam here: mp3tag

You can change the language settings for that program to about 35 different languages.


Dat Ei

[garym]

Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

Gary has written about the program named "mp3tag". So you are right with your last post. You can find the progam here: mp3tag

You can change the language settings for that program to about 35 different languages.


Dat Ei

Correct. I know nothing about the other programs mentioned.

[Rickwang]

Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

Gary has written about the program named "mp3tag". So you are right with your last post. You can find the progam here: mp3tag

You can change the language settings for that program to about 35 different languages.


Dat Ei

Thanks Dat but I am afraid I didn't make myself clear in my lst post. I did find the program on a German website and downloaded it in English and got it to work. However I could not work out how to open a .csv file to convert it as was suggested by Gary in his initial post.

Any ideas or advice?

Thanks

Rick

[garym]

Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

Thanks Dat but I am afraid I didn't make myself clear in my lst post. I did find the program on a German website and downloaded it in English and got it to work. However I could not work out how to open a .csv file to convert it as was suggested by Gary in his initial post.

Any ideas or advice?

Thanks

Rick

In mp3tag, open music files then select them. Then choose CONVERT from menu along top bar. From convert menu choose text to Tag option. If you need help on using mp3tag, please post on the mp3tag forums. Me or someone will answer you over there.