Changing iTunes metadata makes tracks “not present in AccurateRip”

[joeyc410]

Hi all,

Something I have noticed with PerfectTunes is that, if I, for organizational purposes, change the track number or album title associated with a particular file, that file, when run through PerfectTunes, becomes unrecognizable by the program. This might seem like a simple outcome given that I am changing certain attributes of a song file as it is originally checked against AccurateRip. However, if before I rip a song or album to import it into iTunes, I change in CD Ripper its album title or artist or any other characteristic that it is originally recognized as having, I do not face the same issue when running the ripped files through PerfectTunes.

I only discovered this issue as a result of experimenting and being paranoid about changing file metadata in iTunes. I could leave the files exactly as they are to get them to be read as accurate, but then I end up with, say, remixes from several EPs that I would rather just edit to be part of 1 album, so I do not have the same cover art 3 times in a row (just an example).

I strongly believe I am not actually altering the audio data just by editing the iTunes metadata, but the idea of the tracks no longer being accurate is rather frustrating because I feel like I should be able to edit metadata for any purpose.

Something else that is interesting, too, is that certain tracks will read as having errors, still as a result of changing their metadata in iTunes. This I know is not an accurate result.

Do you think it is really as simple as changing the metadata is ruining the file&*8217;s ability to be read as accurate? Or is this a bug?

Thank you!!

[simbun]

I only discovered this issue as a result of experimenting and being paranoid about changing file metadata in iTunes. I could leave the files exactly as they are to get them to be read as accurate, but then I end up with, say, remixes from several EPs that I would rather just edit to be part of 1 album, so I do not have the same cover art 3 times in a row (just an example).

After editing the tags is PerfectTUNES still able to identify the individual discs? It should be able to handle multiple discs in a folder, but then it would probably rely on AlbumArtist, Album, DiscNumber and finally TrackNumber to indicate the sequence within the disc (I'm guessing here).
AccurateRip uses the number of tracks on a CD and the length of those tracks to identify the source disc, at that point it uses a type of hash to verify the individual tracks.

It'll be easier to diagnose if you attach a verification log from before and after you've modified the tags.

[Spoon]

You would have to upload a before and after file to dropbox or similar and provide us with links for comment.

[joeyc410]

After editing the tags is PerfectTUNES still able to identify the individual discs? It should be able to handle multiple discs in a folder, but then it would probably rely on AlbumArtist, Album, DiscNumber and finally TrackNumber to indicate the sequence within the disc (I'm guessing here).
AccurateRip uses the number of tracks on a CD and the length of those tracks to identify the source disc, at that point it uses a type of hash to verify the individual tracks.

It'll be easier to diagnose if you attach a verification log from before and after you've modified the tags.

Hello,

Please see the attached files.

These screenshots show what exactly PerfectTunes is showing after I have edited the tags for certain tracks on particular albums. I'm not sure if PerfectTunes can identify that the edited tracks are from different discs, which I am assuming is why I am running into issues?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T08...ew?usp=sharing

This one shows a different result. After editing the tags, 2 tracks are registering and two aren't.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pjE...ew?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vyY...ew?usp=sharing

Here are the original logs showing that all tracks were ripped accurately before tags were changed -

The first two logs show tracks from different discs that I edited to be one bigger album. There are a bunch of different versions of this particular album that feature different songs.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sko...usp=drive_link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Dk0...usp=drive_link

This one shows tracks giving originally accurate results before being combined into another existing album as they were part of a different CD single.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HKG...usp=drive_link

The same with this one -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jHp...ew?usp=sharing

I was hesitant to post about this issue as I was fairly certain that editing tags has nothing to do with audio data or damaging it in any way, but I couldn't help but want to hear your thoughts on this as I'm not sure I 100% understand why it's happening.

Thank you!

[Spoon]

You cannot transfer tracks to different albums, as AccurateRip is based on whole albums, a track with the same name on a single would not be the same as the track on an album, even if they appear the same (length).

[joeyc410]

You cannot transfer tracks to different albums, as AccurateRip is based on whole albums, a track with the same name on a single would not be the same as the track on an album, even if they appear the same (length).

That makes sense. As long as editing the metadata doesn’t alter the audio data, then it’s not really an issue.

[simbun]

These screenshots show what exactly PerfectTunes is showing after I have edited the tags for certain tracks on particular albums. I'm not sure if PerfectTunes can identify that the edited tracks are from different discs, which I am assuming is why I am running into issues?

It's quite difficult to follow exactly what you're doing, but you can combine multiple EP's/albums into a single "album" as long as you keep them separated at the discnumber level, as then PerfectTunes will try and verify them independently e.g.

Original Release                       New Album Name     DiscNumber
Can't Get You Out Of My Head EP        Kylie Singles      1
In Your Eyes Maxi                      Kylie Singles      2

A more flexible option is to arrange/tag them exactly how you want, and recreate the original albums by creating CUE sheets, which will then verify (I'm not sure if PerfectTunes verifies CUE sheets but I know CUETools does). I use this technique with CDs that have multiple index points, as I split the tracks into their component pieces, and without a CUE AccurateRip will think the album has more tracks than it actually does. An example of such a disc is Enigma - MCMXC a.D..
I split tracks 2 & 7 into 3 parts (using the sub indexes in the table of contents) then combine those parts back to a single track using a CUE sheet like:

FILE "01.01.flac" WAVE
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "01.02*01.flac" WAVE
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "01.02*02.flac" WAVE
    INDEX 02 00:00:00
FILE "01.02*03.flac" WAVE
    INDEX 03 00:00:00
FILE "01.03.flac" WAVE
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
....

Whilst it may look complicated it's actually very straightforward.