Another Musicbrainz ripping problem

[webstar]

Further to the discussions about the B2 and Musicbrainz not correctly identifying multi disc sets I've discovered another problem this morning with this set

https://musicbrainz.org/release-group/0721061e-2dde-48bd-9b4d-b4a242ca0df4

The B2 identifies each disc as the first disc in the set and only gives those song titles, not the song titles for each individual disc. This happens even if I rename the album after ripping and Scan Disc before inserting the next CD.

Mark

[Ian Voce]

I agree with what you, that’s what’s happening.

I’ve gone back to iTunes to rip my old CDs. I’ve ripped them several years ago on my JB7 and 99% were found correctly in the database on the JB7. Now I’m ripping them again, I’m lucky to get a 50% match even with single CDs. As you say, no chance of success with 2 or more CDs in a set with Musicbrainz. I support what was written in an earlier post.

Regards

Ian

[PMB]

Thanks for the feedback, we are looking in to this.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Steve Copeland]

I am rather jealous of those who are only having Musicbrainz problems with boxed sets - I have entire labels that it doesn’t recognise any CDs from. So far these include: Chandos, Linn, NMC, hyperion, Signum classics, ECM and Decca. Naxos and EMI Classics are only sometimes recognised.

This is only a problem with classical music - anything else seems to be fine.

Is anyone else having this problem?

[Rod Vlastelica]

I'm lucky if Music brainz identifies half of the Cds I try to rip, regardless of label, genre, etc. It recognizes some pretty obscure stuff but misses on many mainstream cds. The unknowns I rip on my PC and have not found a single cd that can't be identified so far using their CDDB (Windows Media Player). Is there no hope of finding a better service for the B2? Prior to the switch to Mb, I was having great luck with this situation, with only a few cds out of approx. 200 not being identified.

[Mark Fishman]

I'm looking through the MusicBrainz docs, and apparently they have made an effort to handle classical music "appropriately", which means it doesn't match up easily with a tagging and identification system designed around popular "songs". While many of the apparently missing CDs might actually be there, MusicBrainz might be returning the info for classical discs in a format that Brennan software doesn't understand. It would be interesting to find some software that gets CD info from MusicBrainz and try that on a computer with the CDs that don't work in a B2 or BB1.

[Steve Copeland]

I am a technological idiot, so am relying on all your advice, but if Windows media player can do it, surely Martin B. can do even better somehow...? I really don’t want to have to rip to pc first and then again to bb1.

[Mark Fishman]

you shouldn't have to rip twice -- rip once (on pc) copy to BB1 (either over the network or with a thumb drive).

[Leslie Brownlee]

If you rip on a PC then you can use various methods to transfer it to your BB1 without having to rip it again. Brennan UI upload facility, USB stick or NAS. How well does WMP handle finding Classical music info? Seems ok with more mainstream CDs. Apparently WMP uses Allmusic Guide as its source for CD info. 

[PMB]

Hi All,

The way the CDDB lookup is working at the moment is it lists all CDs in a CD set and you have to pick CD1, CD2, etc from the list before ripping.

There is also a drop down that lists all the tracks if you click on a title (web UI), so you can check it's the correct one.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[PMB]

Hi All,

Martin has just released an updated version of software to correct some issues with the MusicBrainz CDDB lookup.

It also includes a Main menu item to rip CDs on the BB1 without having to use the web UI - option only appears if an external drive is connected and a Cd is present.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Steve Copeland]

I’m doing this now - ripping to pc and then copying to bb1. Slower to rip, but no compression required so quicker overall, and every single CD that Musicbrainz didn’t find has been recognised (to date, touch wood). Not going back, even with the new software update.

[webstar]

The 2 March 2020 update seems to have fixed a lot of the disc identification problems. I've been able to rip several multi CD sets where the tracks have been identified correctly, but the discs are not always separately identified - they can be ripped into the same folder leaving multiple tracks with the same number 1,2,3 etc. I wonder if this is something that a future update could fix ... Would it be possible for the Brennan software to renumber an album if it has the exact same name as one that is always on the drive.

For example, if Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits is already there and another disc with same name is ripped, could that be named Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits - 2 or similar so it goes into a different album folder ? (Or could this present other problems ?) This would avoid having to edit each disc title before ripping the next.

The popup on the Web UI that shows the track names before ripping is a great idea & very helpful. I wonder if it would be possible for users to edit the track or album titles in the Web UI before ripping ?

Mark

[PMB]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the feedback on 2nd March 2020.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[PMB]

Hi Mark,

Is this just a problem - tracks with the same number - when two CDs have exactly the same title? Do multi CD sets get ripped to separate folders e.g Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (CD1), Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (CD2), etc?

Paul

Brennan Support.

[webstar]

Hello Paul

It could be a problem with the way that CD sets are identified in the database - perhaps not all individual discs are identified as CD1, CD2 extra in their title.

One of the sets that didn't identify different discs and put everything in the same album folder was "The Real ..." Roy Orbison (barcode 88760771728) ... but I can't even find this on the Musicbrainz site so maybe the info was pulled from the internal CDDB. The freedb.org site search engine doesn't seem to be working so I can't check it there.

This aside, the latest update seems to be working really well - thanks !

Mark

[Richard Downey]

2nd March Update MusicBrainz still gets lots of CD's wrong , is there a way of setting Musicbrainz to look at UK/European database it is presumably using a USA one, or ideally switching to a complete database like Gracenote? I find like others here that it identifies very few of my CD's even recent ones , but rather than just loading them as unknown seems to pic a foreign language title at random (though maybe using the same CD number) .  The best database for this was always Gracenote , and I for one would be happy to pay a subscription fee to be able to use that.

[AndyC]

Hi. I too have found Musicbrainz getting multi CD sets wrong and identifying the 2nd disc the same as the 1st etc.

My work-around with multi-CD sets has always been:

1. After ripping the 1st CD of a set, IMMEDIATELY rename it by adding something like 'Cd1' or '1st CD' at the end of its album name. In this way, if the 2nd CD is identically named to the 1st in the database, the 2 albums won't get confused with each other or amalgamated as the poor b2 tries to make sense of it all.

2. Then, when the whole set is ripped, manually edit artist, album & track names in the UI if necessary - it only takes a few minutes to do this.

OK, this isn't quite the fully automated process we'd all like it to be, but it works and the correct music correctly labelled ends up on my b2.

Suggestion to Martin & the crew - when ripping, the lower left hand window of the UI shows the album name choices. Is it possible in some way to also show the track info that any given choice contains? Usually there are a number of valid choices for a given album & all you can do is choose one at random and hope for the best! And often you find that your particular choice was entered by someone with OCD who insists on adding to the basic track name lots more info in brackets - such as the names of every artist playing, the location and date of the recording, the album serial number etc. etc. Aaaargh!! All this then has to be edited out to get a correct and concise track name displayed when it's playing.

On the plus side, at least this excess of info gives us something to do whilst self-isolating from this media-over-hyped Coronavirus thing. 

[john Henrick]

In the latest software if you click the album on the left a pop up shows all the track names

[AndyC]

Thanks, John, what a great piece of info to apss on to everyone. 

I'm guessing I'm not the only b2 owner who didn't know this. Andy

[webstar]

It's a new feature with the latest software upgrade, and only works on the Web UI.