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[beansontoast]

Hi Everyone,

I'm hoping someone can help me out with this problem.

I an just trialling this software at the moment (30 day trial).
The software looks and feels great, with the exception of the results of the YADB database.

Of approximately 20 albums I've imported, it has already missed a couple which are definitely NOT obscure:-

Anthony and the Johnsons
Apples in Stereo

Is there something I'm possibly doing wrong, or is the database limited in what it knows about?
Alternatively, are there other databases we can point to ?

These CD's are definitely not obscure. In fact, Anthony and the Johnsons won huge critical acclaim for 'I am am bird now'.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks dudes ....

I was hoping to import about 600 alternative CD's, but if it misses 10% of my library then I could be wasting my time.

[bunglemebaby]

YADB relies on MC user input for its data. So, that means that Anthony and the Johnsons are in fact obscure amongst current MC users. The rest of the user community would appreciate the relatively menial amount of effort to manually import the data. 20 may also not be a good sample set, but you of course won't know until you try.

From my experience YADB seems to have correct data for about 95%-99% of my CDs. My tastes run on the rare/obscure side. There are various opinions on the use of the proprietary YADB, but in general it's pretty good for CD look up, is more accurate than most other databases out there, and there is a pretty good mechanism for manually adding data.

You could go with an external ripper in conjunction with MC too.

-JB

[beansontoast]

Thanks for the reply JB,

Bear wth me on this one, coz I'm a relative newb with this type of software !

OK, I can now see the limitations if the DB is maintained by user input. At the same time, I want to make this product work for me coz its good.

What I essentially need to do, is to rip in a lossless format and have the database give me the correct details, but if I import 60 of my 600 cd's which have no information, then thats at least 600 tracks I'll be manually updating, and I seriously haven't got the time (try 4 month old baby in the house !).

When you say use this in conjunction with an external ripper, then can you recommend one that allows lossless input AND has an excellent database access.

Of the 20 cd's I imported, another one was also incorrect when it reported Ryan Adams as Bryan Adams (dude, my street cred would take a serious bashing if that was made public  ), so even with my sample of only 20, there's three anomolies already.

Again, your input would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Beans

[rick.ca]

I appreciate you want one application to do everything, but that doesn't preclude using other tools as necessary. You could use a separate tagger to deal with those. I don't need to use it much anymore, so it may not be the best choice, but I use MP3tag for whatever MC can't handle... "Mp3tag supports online database lookups from, e.g., Amazon, discogs, or freedb, allowing you to automatically gather proper tags and cover art for your music library. Mp3tag supports Advanced Audio Coding (aac), Free Lossless Audio Codec (flac), Monkey's Audio (ape)..."

Understand that the actual tags in the media files provide the means to exchange the information between programs. So, for example, I use MP3tag like this: Select the tracks for which no information is available from YADB. Right-click and Send to MP3tag (which I've added to my Send to menu). Fill the information using one of the databases MP3tag can access, and save it. Back in MC, Update library (from tags) (i.e., read the information into the MC database). Finally, Submit Track Info to YADB—so the next guy whose 4 month old is keeping him awake all night catches a break.

[bunglemebaby]

MP3Tag should work pretty well, as described by rick.ca, but note that you will need to fill in at least the artist and album name so that MP3Tag has something to search the various databases with.

Another alternative that uses MC to rip is Jaikoz, which uses an acoustic matching algorithm (created by MusicIP) to match a file based on its audio data to a file/song already in the MusicIP database. It then uses this to search MusicBrainz for more robust metadata. I use this program with reasonably good success, especially for released albums that I've ripped myself. It is still an extra step though and it costs $40 (includes free updates). Do double check that it supports FLAC if you decide to go this route.

Another alternative, which some people on these boards seem to use, is dbpoweramp. I'm unfamiliar with it myself, but it uses AMG among a few other databases and many swear it "rips better" than anything else around. I believe it is also not free.

If you do a google search for 'dbpoweramp free alternative' or something like that you might find some other recommendations. I'm about to the end of my own knowledge here though.

I hope this helps point you in the direction of finding a good solution for your time constraints.

-JB

[benn600]

Thanks for the reply JB,

Bear wth me on this one, coz I'm a relative newb with this type of software !

OK, I can now see the limitations if the DB is maintained by user input. At the same time, I want to make this product work for me coz its good.

What I essentially need to do, is to rip in a lossless format and have the database give me the correct details, but if I import 60 of my 600 cd's which have no information, then thats at least 600 tracks I'll be manually updating, and I seriously haven't got the time (try 4 month old baby in the house !).

When you say use this in conjunction with an external ripper, then can you recommend one that allows lossless input AND has an excellent database access.

Of the 20 cd's I imported, another one was also incorrect when it reported Ryan Adams as Bryan Adams (dude, my street cred would take a serious bashing if that was made public  ), so even with my sample of only 20, there's three anomolies already.

Again, your input would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Beans

NO JOKE.  I just bought that Ryan Adams CD two weeks ago and saw the same thing.  Thought that was quite unintelligent for whoever typed it in.  The CD was clearly not B- ... first CD by him and only bought because it was featured.  It's good!

One thing that annoys me is that when I fix these--I check EVERY track--and usually find one to three mistakes--is that my changes are not submitted.  So all these fixes I've made don't even get added to the DB...very sad.  MC should ask if it can submit my data when I click rip (and have finished the corrections).

[Alex B]

The CD ripping (tag info) and YADB submission interface is one of the areas that would greatly benefit of redesigning.

Here are some of my older replies (in no particular order):

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=51436.msg351112;topicseen#msg351112
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=47364.msg325598;topicseen#msg325598
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=51060.msg349073#msg349073
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=47178.msg323456;topicseen#msg323456
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=51604.msg352265;topicseen#msg352265

I'd be more than happy to assist and create a combined and updated suggestion of the things that could/should be addressed but I'd rather do that when the issue really is on the to-do list and the developers are ready to start working with it.

[Peter_T]

I use EAC to rip (I understand that MC performs secure rips, but I like EAC) and it uses Gracenote CDDB.  I rarely stump it.  Then I have MC's auot-import keep an eye on my rip folder. 

I rip to FLAC and mp3 with EAC.

[Listener]

> Of the 20 cd's I imported, another one was also incorrect when it reported Ryan Adams as Bryan Adams
> (dude, my street cred would take a serious bashing if that was made public  ), so even with my sample
> of only 20, there's three anomolies already.

As a practical matter, you need to check the tag values that YADB returns and correct any mistakes.  If you check before the rip starts, the file names will be correct.  Or you can check and correct the tags  in the recently ripped view after the CD is ripped.

If the tag information is correct, it takes a few seconds for one CD.  If you have to change a single letter Bryan to Ryan, it might take a few seconds more.

Whether you use MC to rip and tag or something else, you'll need to check tag values.  No database is perfectly accurate, no database has every CD listed and no database will always arrange names the way you want them.

Bill

[benn600]

I'd be more than happy to assist and create a combined and updated suggestion of the things that could/should be addressed but I'd rather do that when the issue really is on the to-do list and the developers are ready to start working with it.

Great point.  It's fun to get involved and help when a request becomes a priority on the development track.  Not much fun talking to yourself about how great it'd be if...

[glynor]

Back when I used to have CDs, I used MC for the vast majority of my ripping.  For those occasional CDs where YADB doesn't have an entry, I generally fire up EAC, which I keep installed mostly because it has access to the Gracenote database.

I find Gracenote more comprehensive, but FAR more error-prone than YADB (things like the Bryan Adams/Ryan Adams thing you found above).  As others stated... No public DB is perfect.

Now I buy 99.99% of my new music online, and my old library has long since been ripped, so ripping isn't really a big issue.  When you buy music from Amazon, they're in nice LAME -v1 encoded MP3's, which is plenty for my needs, and they come very nicely tagged.

[beansontoast]

Thanks for the replies so far everyone, they are much appreciated, and its good to see that this this is a useful support forum.

I'll have a look at those products you have all recommended and will let you know how I get on.

Watch this space .....