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[stevemathews]

I've decided to re-rip my music collection from MP3 to FLAC.
I've got the FLAC plug-ins installed & all's working fine with the ripping.
BUT
A large number of my cd's are not recognised in the YADB database.
This is frustrating since my current MP3 MC libray is fully tagged.
I've tried to update YADB with my tags but i get error messages saying there is a file or server error 0 files have been updated.
Is there some way to get around this or could i make a local tagging database from which to look up when the cd is ripped?

All advice gratefully received
thanks

[Alex B]

Previously the YADB track info database has worked pretty well with the individual tracks that I have personally submitted, but it seems to be broken at the moment. I have reported about this in the MC11.1.200 thread and in the MC12 forum.

However, this database contains only basic tags, not everything you have in the library. I use the following system for preserving all library info.

First I make a playlist of the old files and change the file names from e.g.
"01 - Song A.mp3", "02 - Song B.mp3, "03 - Song C.mp3"  to  "01.ape", "02.ape", "03.ape", etc
with the Rename Files From Properties and Find And Replace tools.  I.e. I change the old names to plain track numbers and force the filename extension to be ".ape" (I use APE, but this should work as well with FLAC).

When I re-rip files I use a different library, a separate ripping base folder, the Artist\Album folder structure and plain track numbers as the naming rule. I don't do a YADB lookup. I fill manually the Artist and Album fields quickly with something short that I can recognize later.

After I have ripped the files I replace the now wrongly named old mp3 files in the original album folders with the new APE files. I move the files outside MC.

"Update Tags From Library", "Update Library From Tags" and "Rename Files From Properties" are the last steps (the order is important).

If you want to preserve the old files you can backup them and the library before doing this procedure (which you should do anyway). After re-ripping move the FLAC files to a different base folder (do this inside MC) and restore the backups (the media files as they were and the library backup to a new empty library) so you can use both libraries.

[John Gateley]

Nice answer Alex.

Steve - when you get a CD that isn't recognized, post the time, your IP address and the name of the CD here.

Thanks,

j

[Alex B]

Thanks John,

Can you confirm that the "Lookup Track Info From YADB" and "Submit Track Info To YADB" functions are not working at the moment? (I don't mean the CD database.)

[Alex B]

Actually, MC's Help has already this:

Re-rip existing music and keep tags and statistics

If you re-rip a track (perhaps you want better quality) and import it into Media Center, it is considered a new item, and therefore has no tags, statistical information, or playlist associations.

But if you already have that track in Media Center (with tags, statistics, and playlist associations), you can apply all that information to the new track. Follow these steps:

1.   Rip the track into a new folder.

2.   In Media Center, go to Playlists > Recently Ripped, and if the track is there, select it and press Shift + Delete, then select Remove From Library.

3.   If your new and old tracks are the same format, go to step 4. Otherwise, in Media Center, select the old track, right-click, select Library Tools > Find and Replace. In the left, check only Filename. In the Find What box, type in the old extension (e.g., .mp3), and in the Replace box type in the new file extension (e.g., .ape).

4.   Find the old track in Windows Explorer and press F2 then Ctrl-C to copy the name. Go to the new folder, select the new track, press F2 and Ctrl-V to paste. This gives the new track the same name as the old track.

5.   Still in Windows Explorer, delete the old track (send it to the Recycle Bin in case of error).

6.   Paste the new track into the old track’s folder.

7.   In Media Center, find the track, right-click on it and select Library Tools > Update Tags from Library. (This applies all the Media Center information to the new track).

8.   Right-click on the file again, select Library Tools > Update Library (from tags). (This sends the new file’s format information to Media Center).

9.   You may want to re-analyze the file for replay gain information (Select the file in Media Center, right-click, and select Library Tools > Analyze Audio).

Practically, I have only added the "track numbers as filenames" step, which makes the process faster and the possibility to use a separate temporary library for re-ripping.

[stevemathews]

Alex, thanks for the tips - i prefer your method to that in the manual but i'm still not looking forward to re-ripping my 1000 odd albums!

John, generally the CD lookup database is reliable & i've been adding to it - i was just surprised that some quite popular albums (at least here in the UK) weren't in it such as Steps - Buzz and Atomic Kitten - Feels so good. They're my wife's albums so maybe you've been applying a quality filter! Anyway i seem to have added them in successfully now.

I've spotted an error just now though at 18:26 UK BST (12.26 your time?), i tried to rip Llama Farmers - Dead Letter Chorus & it input details for The Beta Band - Beta Band. I'm on 217.47.66.144 i think - actually it could be 86.140.234.153.

Even though the CD lookup works I still don't seem to be able to use the "Lookup Track Info From YADB" and "Submit Track Info To YADB" functions.

thanks

[skylarplane]

I often find that YADB doesn't find the necessary information.  So I usually download the CD with Windows Media into my directory of songs, then import to MC.  Then I'll go to Amazon and get the cover art and add that to my Cover Art file then add it to my tags.

Its a hassle and I'd wish that the YADB was better.  I use to use another software to load my songs it used several data bases to look up info.  MC should do the same thing.

Skylar

[John Gateley]

I've spotted an error just now though at 18:26 UK BST (12.26 your time?), i tried to rip Llama Farmers - Dead Letter Chorus & it input details for The Beta Band - Beta Band. I'm on 217.47.66.144 i think - actually it could be 86.140.234.153.

It's not the Llama Farmers you tried to rip: the CD you looked up had 10 tracks, the Llama Farmers disc has 13, (and the Beta Band has 10). I don't know what happened here, any ideas?

j

[stevemathews]

  Wrong CD in the case 
And i'm usually so organised!
Sorry for sending you on a wild goose chase!

Steve

[John Gateley]

Thanks for letting me know...

If anything else comes up, just give a shout

j

[Alex B]

The audio fingerprinting based separate track info database should work for basic tags when re-ripping. Normally a lookup can find the info for completely untagged files if the info has been submitted previously.

I keep a playlist of tracks that I have submitted. This playlist has currently over 30000 tracks. From time to time I submit a bunch of new properly tagged tracks. When I have occasionally tried the lookup it has worked fine.

Unfortunately, the system seems to be offline or broken now.

[John Gateley]

Hi Alex,

Yes, the individual track stuff was broken, now fixed. Thanks,

j

[Alex B]

Thanks,

It works again in both directions. I tested it with a few files from my library.


However, I think I may have encountered a problem.

Here is what I did:

- Selected an APE file.
- Converted it to VBR MP3 ~128 kbps with Helix encoder (this represents an old file) and submitted track info to YADB (used this MP3 file).
- Tried the lookup with the original APE file (this represents a re-ripped file). It didn't work
- Made another MP3 encoding from the APE file with LAME @ ABR 128 kbps and did a lookup. It didn't work.
- Tried the lookup with the Helix MP3 file. It worked.

So the lookup worked only with the exact same file. The two other versions of the same track didn't work. It seems that the file detection system is too strict.

[benn600]

I don't know about most users but I always double check every track and make sure the naming convention follows my preferences.  I have found mistakes quite often.  Spelling mistakes are very annoying but it is great when I can catch them.

I wish people would be more careful with fixing spelling mistakes--don't submit a CD unless you're going to check it.  When I enter new titles, I always type it in and then reread everything.  I also follow the general convention (with the auto correct feature) of initial caps on every word.  This makes it easier because there are no questions.  Using the no initial caps on "a" and other words is annoying because there are some questionable words...just make our lives easy!

I also don't like long track names -- but that's out of my control.  I guess I should just not buy CDs with long track names (lol...yea right).

Here's a good question.  Name the most popular song with a long song name--8 words or more.  This would (may) show that long song names generally screw songs overall (lower their popularity).  What's what song on the radio?!  I really like it...oh, it's "kjslkdf ksdjflskdj lskdjflsk ksdfjks djksj ksjdfksdfks hdksj...."  Yea, I'll remember that and go buy it!

[John Gateley]

Hi benn600 - interesting hypothesis. The two songs I could think of ("Magnum Opus: Father Padilla meets the perfect gnat/howling at the moon" and "several species of small furry animals gathered together in a cave and grooving with a Pict") had what little fame they acheived mostly because of their long names

Alex - I'll take a look at the APE/MP3 problem, the individual track lookup is long overdue for an overhaul...

j