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[eithkrp1]

I have been re-ripping my CD collection over to FLAC, when using the smartlist to look at duplicates, i see tracks from the original CD and say the greatest hits's cd with different bitrates, DR, etc.   Is there a way to truly tell if there if one track is higher quality than the other from these metrics?   I know from the Volumen levels, sometimes the newer one may just have a higher volume level?   Not sure how that would impact the other items.

Thanks,

[blgentry]

When I have song duplicates on different albums like the examples you cited:  One song from the original album and another from a Greatest Hits album, I just keep them both.  That way the albums remain intact.

You don't care at all about albums being "whole", then you could try to figure out some metric.  Dynamic Range is a decent metric, but not perfect of course.  Generally speaking, songs with more Dynamic Range sound better than those with less DR.

If they are both FLAC, then they should both be "full quality". If not, I'd obviously dump an MP3 track and keep a FLAC (for example).  You might also want to look at Length.  Because there are often slightly different releases of a song and you may have several different versions.

Brian.

[Spike1000]

My 2p on this.

Disk space is cheap. Spend your time listening to the tunes you have rather than trying to prune things and remove duplicates.

You could spend a lifetime using your ears to work out which one is fractionally better but once you've deleted one you've lost your reference point and the remaining one becomes the reference copy you have and, by default, the 'best' copy.

Spike

[eithkrp1]

Thanks, I prefer to clean up the duplicates, just an OCD thing, but my question was more around if any of those metrics indicate whether one track is of higher quality (ie., a different master, etc.) as i'm pulling them all into FLAC.   

Knowing that the tracks these days are recorded at a higher volume level, and the ones i've compared (as in my image), show very different volume levels, whether that would have in impact on the DR, or is the higher DR a better track.

Thanks,

When I have song duplicates on different albums like the examples you cited:  One song from the original album and another from a Greatest Hits album, I just keep them both.  That way the albums remain intact.

You don't care at all about albums being "whole", then you could try to figure out some metric.  Dynamic Range is a decent metric, but not perfect of course.  Generally speaking, songs with more Dynamic Range sound better than those with less DR.

If they are both FLAC, then they should both be "full quality". If not, I'd obviously dump an MP3 track and keep a FLAC (for example).  You might also want to look at Length.  Because there are often slightly different releases of a song and you may have several different versions.

Brian.

[blgentry]

As I said, DR is just one measure.  I consider it a decent measure of sound quality.  Tracks with lower DR will sound "louder" overall.  I don't think Volume level is all that useful in this case, but it's debatable.

If you're looking for a measure of "complexity", the Bit Rate field will tell you which file has more information on average than the other.  I've never used this for this purpose so I have no idea how well this correlates to sound quality.

Brian.

[eithkrp1]

Sounds good, thanks...

As I said, DR is just one measure.  I consider it a decent measure of sound quality.  Tracks with lower DR will sound "louder" overall.  I don't think Volume level is all that useful in this case, but it's debatable.

If you're looking for a measure of "complexity", the Bit Rate field will tell you which file has more information on average than the other.  I've never used this for this purpose so I have no idea how well this correlates to sound quality.

Brian.

[eithkrp1]

I've found that a lot of the "greatest hits" CD's i have that might be 10 years or so newer than the original CD that the track was released have higher bitrates but not necessarily higher DR.   but they all are almost 5db Higher in volume level..   That's why i was curious.

As I said, DR is just one measure.  I consider it a decent measure of sound quality.  Tracks with lower DR will sound "louder" overall.  I don't think Volume level is all that useful in this case, but it's debatable.

If you're looking for a measure of "complexity", the Bit Rate field will tell you which file has more information on average than the other.  I've never used this for this purpose so I have no idea how well this correlates to sound quality.

Brian.

[MusicBringer]

And of course greatest hits are often the short edited single version rather than the full length album version.
Over the years I have gone through this exercise time and time again.
I used to dump the supposed poorer version only to find it was a different recording and I wish I had kept it.
I now keep many more duplicates. Such as CD rips, vinyl rips, SACD. HDTracks and so on.
It's already been said dump the empty three copy.
If I use any measure to help me decide then its the DR 128 LU.
...but, use yer ears.

[blgentry]

You're seeing evidence of the Loudness War.  Newer releases tend to have been changed to sound louder, which makes the Dynamic Range smaller.

Here's a short video that talks about this problem in the music industry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcKDMBuGodU

Brian.

[Dawgincontrol]

I go by bit-rate if they are exactly the same.  And I do mean exactly.  Make sure to listen to them first.

[aviateur]

Hi:

I use my ear and the rating system for this particular task. When I have duplicates (identical versions of the same song), as you described, I sample each 'by ear'. The one that sounds best receives an appropriate rating. All the others I give a 1 rating. So, as Spike mentioned, I still have my reference. It is an occasional process that I execute only as the songs surface during playback. My main focus is to enjoy the music. Some times, I replace older recordings with remastered versions but this doesn't always mean the remastered version is better. A case in point is The Doors self-titled first album, which was remixed in 2007 by Rhino. Let's just say that this effort was not to my liking. So, all the tracks received 1-star ratings because my original purchase of this 1988 CD was better. Fast forward to 2016 which is when I purchased The Complete Studio Recordings of The Doors. These recordings were much better. So this version became my reference standard for this album. So, at that time, all the other versions received 1-star ratings. I know this is all subjective based on one's listening preference. That aside, I use the rating system to downgrade or upgrade duplicate tracks. So, my Smartlists bypass the 1-star ratings.

Cheers,
Lawrence

[MusicBringer]

1-star ratings
Snap!

I do the same. I use 1-star for the same purpose which is why it aught to be pos to rate lower than 1. Grrhh.

[blgentry]

I do the same. I use 1-star for the same purpose which is why it aught to be pos to rate lower than 1. Grrhh.

So use a 10 star rating field instead.  Or make a field called "bad version" or something and mark all of your "non chosen" songs with that field.  There are many ways you can do this, since MC allows you to customize the database with different field names and types.  You are not limited to the built in fields.

If you're not familiar, the 10 star field type was introduced something like 18 months ago.  Just create a few field called something like "Rating10" and give it an edit type of 10 stars.  Then you'll be able to rate from 0 to 10 stars, inclusive.

Good luck.

Brian.

[aviateur]

Brian:

As always, your advice is excellent. Thanks.

Cheers,
Lawrence

[MusicBringer]

Brian:
As always, your advice is excellent. Thanks.

Hear! Hear!
Thanks Brian.
 

[ssands]

I will sometimes do an online search to find out what others have noticed. So, one of the CD re-issues of "801 Live" cut off the last song too early. I might not have caught that unless I happened to preview that particular song until the very end.
Sometimes a quick listen tells me it was a hasty transfer to CD and it just doesn't sound good, even if lossless. I haven't checked for parameters on that, but it "just doesn't sound right".
It takes time - I approach haphazardly and time and inclination allows.

[MusicHawk]

Rather than use the Rating/Stars field, which I avoid because it is too easy to tap the stars and change the Rating, I use a custom field, called Grade. This lets me assign numbers, letters, whatever system I like.

I use Grade letters,
A=Excellent
B=Good
C=OK/charted but not memorable
D=Weak/filler
F=Do Not Play
U=Unrated/Unknown
Z=Special Purpose

and...
X=eXtra/Dupe

When I have multiple copies of exactly the same performance, from difference CDs, LPs, sources, I choose the best by ear, give it an A or B or C or whatever, then mark the other dupes as X.

When choosing "best" of identical performances, I start with highest bit-rate (largest file size typically), but then listen to the actual recording. As others note, there can be wide variations in quality regardless that happen in the mastering, dubbing, re-releasing, and other craziness that can mess up even a very high-resolution version. Hi-fi crap is still crap.

I also use custom field RecVer to identify variations of the same song, whether same performance or not. It might have values like:
ST1 = Stereo mix 1
ST2 = Stereo mix 2
MO = Mono
RE = REchanneled
DS = Digitally-created stereo, usually DES.
V1976 = Version recorded 1976
V1985 = Version recorded 1985
V1, V2, etc = Versions but dates/origin not known
LIVE = recorded at live concert performance
Etc .... whatever is needed to distinguish same song / same artist tracks.

Then, my Rename code appends RecVer to the title+artist that forms the main name, so each file name is unique and I don't have to rely on MC appending numbers to keep them separate.

I do more, but that's the gist.

PS: I don't care about album integrity. I identify the Album of any song that came from an album, but I really care about the songs/records themselves, not the particular packaging in which they were sold.