Freedb

[BestRip]

Hi,

I have decided this is the program to run with, it's great!!!
I have a serious question though, is the freedb ofline or what can possibly be the reason for 3 of the Beatles biggest albums:
1 (No.1, all the hit singles), Abbey Road and the White album all pass as unrecognized???
The other day I checked out a High Fidelity Magazine reference CD and it checked out correctly. This is really strange I think.
Is there a good reason or do I have to expect to enter most of my albums manually? All the albums I didn't get a response for were available on Gracenote cddb.com so I've been copying/pasting, but now that's REALLY boaring.

[Spoon]

Try going to the freedb.org home page and do a manual search for these discs, that will tell you if they are in the data base.

[BestRip]

Thank you, I found the database and lots of the albums I was missing. Is there a way to retrieve this info that I found or is it copy/paste line by line that applies?
Funny thing that there are such slight differences that cause the failure of recognition. (I can assure you that I'm not bitching about home brewed CD's, but originals that don't seem to match -like 1 second miss-match). How about if the db submitted the nerest match with a warning of "no exact match found"?

[Spoon]

1 Second miss-match? very odd, it could be that the CD is slightly different in different parts of the world, or even one of those annoying attempts to Copy protect CDs.

Anyhow you get what you put into freedb, if you value it then submit the few discs that do not appear already, the world will be a much better place

[BestRip]

I understand from your avoiding the question that the use of the database is as I suggested (copy/paste), or?
Having a what I think is a great album by Leonard Cohen/ Ten New Songs, I thought it just have to be in the database but the response was negative, so I looked it up as you suggested and there it was, all in all 14 different entries of the album (probably 2 different issues - hard to tell)!:headbang:
I suggest that you have a look at this example, if you have a moment, it's really wild. I'm saying this because I'm afraid it will turn rather useless if not handled. I understand it's not your database but since your absolutely excelent program somewhat depends upon it, it could be of some concern.

I'm using the Monkeys non-destructive compression in normal mode and DSP'ing some low volume CD's with a fantastic result, its really great.

Thank you for all your efforts making this product turn out so well!!! :smile2:

[Spoons]

I guess the only way Spoon can test it, is to have the same album that you have that is not retrieving the info from the data base.

but what your saying is the album you have is "exactly" the same album in the freedb.org data base you found by doing a manual search?

you could try and submit your album to the data base and then see if it will retrieve what you submitted.

[Spoons]

I understand from your avoiding the question that the use of the database is as I suggested (copy/paste), or?

I'm not so sure Spoon was avoiding the question but rather the question is a your choice on how you enter album names is yours.

[BestRip]

Originally posted by Razgo
I guess the only way Spoon can test it, is to have the same album that you have that is not retrieving the info from the data base.

but what your saying is the album you have is "exactly" the same album in the freedb.org data base you found by doing a manual search?

you could try and submit your album to the data base and then see if it will retrieve what you submitted.

What I mean is that there are some 14 -15 different entries on that particular album but mainly only 2 maybe 3 different official issues of them.
It is easy to see what I mean by just browsing through the db contents of "Leonard Cohen / Ten New Songs" at freedb.org. Of course there may be a few different pressings of the CD but I'm surpriced that they would have these 1 - 2 seconds differences on some tracks, unless most are "home maid"?

I did try a second time with a few of my own entries and they have all responded with track listings the second time around.

What do you think about the idea of a response from the db that says something like "No exact match found, please verify this track listing" for close but not exact matching. I don't know what it would take to make the freedb respond like this but I'm guessing it could reduce the amount of extra entries and resulting maintenace?

[Spoon]

Feedb cannot work like that, your searches are working from the assumption that the artist name is known already. Freedb will only accept searching on times that match exactly (times are 1/75 of a second in accuracy).

[Spoons]

ok, I see what you mean. Spoon may have to clarify further how DMC looks at the data base.

but yes i see what you mean. if the album in the data base is the same as your album at home but one of the tracks on the data base is listed at say 2 sec more then I guess a match won't be found.

so maybe someone submitted the album incorrectly in the first place or as you say it may have been a home made copy that wasn't done correctly.

thats why i suggested for you to submit your album to the data base and see if it would retrieved it correctly. but i don't know what happens if the same album is already in the data base?

as far as an error message like "No exact match found, please verify this track listing" as you suggested, there is already an error message that pops up like this.



but to configure it further to know why the data base could not find it might be a nightmare to code/configure.

[BestRip]

Is it the total time or the time of each track and it's combination that is searched for matching?

The 1/75 of a second must be a programmed parameter so it could be changed I guess - don't know to what effect. I'm just thinking of how it could be improved for use and safeguarded.

I used the Windows Media Player and it's database before I came across dBpowerAMP (looking for more facilities and you have plenty of them!), but the database functions were slightly more forgiving and "user friendly" I think.
Hoping for better use of the freedb, like if I manually find the correct album that I could just fetch that track list to my current dMC Audio CD Input.:smile2:

[Spoon]

It is some algorithm that adds all the track offsets on the CD.

[totalXSive]

I find quite a few of my CDs do have FreeDB entries, and if they don't, I submit them - I'm in the process of re-ripping a few of my better CDs into Ogg Vorbis, and those that I've submitted are now coming up.

Sites like MusicMoz also use FreeDB for importing track data, if you're interested.

[BestRip]

Thank you Neil,

The problem is not that the CD's cannot be found in the freedb, but rather that there are too many entries and I'm starting to suspect most of them are "home brews".

Just now I was ripping Phil Collins/No Jacket Required and the standard response dialogue Razgo showed erlier in this thread came up (as usual). :headbang: So I took a look at freedb.org again and there are 14 entries on this album.:confused: They all really must have had small differences in them or they would not have been registred as new entries in the database. I'm almost sure there are not this many different CD pressings made. Since I am TOTALLY certain that my copy is NOT a home made one I assume that most or all of the other entries are.
This seems to occur mainly on some very popular albums, perhaps also the most copied ones?:rolleyes:

Is there a way to attach the dbpowerAmp Music Converter to MusicMoz or any other database for that matter?

I just love these Smilies
:happy:

[totalXSive]

Um, probably, but FreeDB is by far the best system.

I'm assuming that some of the really popular albums that have been released all over the world may have slight differences. In the UK, for example, a lot of releases come with bonus tracks or CD-ROM components to deter people from buying (supposedly) cheaper imports from mainland Europe.