FreeDB- am I the main source?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Cherrycherry, Aug 28, 2018.

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  1. Cherrycherry

    Cherrycherry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Le Froidtown
    Seriously, am I one of two or three people submitting and populating this DB?
    I use EAC program for ripping CD's to HD.
    It feels(subjectively, I know) that one out of three of discs are not found in the database and I am coerced into being a data entry technician. I don't know/think that EAC can be configured to use an alternate DB for song and artist titles.
    Dos anyone else think that they are spending an inordinate amount of time entering artist and song titles for many of their CD's on EAC?
     
  2. oldschool

    oldschool I love tape hiss

    Location:
    Sofia, Bulgaria
    No, you are not the only one submitting but if it's new music and not particularly popular there's a good chance the DB doesn't have the CD TOC yet.

    Also, I've had in the past instances where freeDB was working for prolonger periods of time. You can also try picking another DB from Database -> Get CD Information From
     
  3. Cherrycherry

    Cherrycherry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Le Froidtown
    Glad to know that there two of us typing away.
    Thanks, @oldschool !
     
  4. jfeldt

    jfeldt Forum Resident

    Location:
    SF, CA, USA
    I submit too, but it seems I only need to every 20th disc or so. I often get discs very near to the day of the release, and sometimes if I wait a few days/weeks they get populated. Other times with non-popular music, I have to input it no matter what.
     
  5. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    I type and submit new entries to FreeDB when I notice that a CD isn't in FreeDB. But sometimes I take the time to do that and the submission doesn't take or is rejected. I also use ripping programs that pull metadata from other databases (like MusicBrainz or CueToolsDB or GD3 or other sources) and I won't notice that FreeDB doesn't have an entry and in those cases I neglect to add the info to FreeDB. I don't want to just be a leach of metadata. Gotta share. That's how these databases are built and maintained.

    In general I've found FreeDB to do pretty well for popular music if the CD isn't a new release. FreeDB is less useful for classical. Mainly due to some people not knowing how to enter classical metadata.

    What I wonder about more is if I'm one of the few audiophiles who actually submits ripping info to the AccurateRip database. Popular CDs of popular music are well represented in AccurateRip with lots of entries. But audiophile CDs are often have very very few entries, like less than 5 and sometimes zero. Come on audiophiles. Audiophiles are the type of people who are neurotic about ripping and using ripping programs like EAC and dBpoweramp. Yet many audiophile CDs have very few entries in AccurateRip. Come on audiophiles. Share that AccurateRip data. Don't be a leach.
     
  6. TarnishedEars

    TarnishedEars Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Seattle area
    I just recently started ripping my CD collection. And so far, I must admit that I've been a bit of a free-loader so-far, because I've simply been setting-aside my CDs which lack metadata until I have time to tag them properly. But I definitely plan to have a metadata entering fest one of these days as I rip all of my remaining oddball CDs.
     
  7. hvbias

    hvbias Midrange magic

    Location:
    Northeast
    This is one of the many reasons I prefer dbpoweramp; it has access to more databases. Though it is still not uncommon that only FreeDB has the tags for less popular classical CDs. I always submit my tagging to FreeDB if it's either not present or I can improve on what is there.

    I believe both EAC and dbpoweramp are auto setup to submit AccurateRip results, you just have to click yes every 30 days (or whatever the default is) when it asks you to submit the information. So I doubt it is audiophiles being leeches, anyone that rips CDs must know it's in their own interest to have all this information in the database.

    Are you buying them shortly after release? Speaking just for myself I often wait a while before buying them and when I rip them there are many entries.
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2018
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  8. Grower of Mushrooms

    Grower of Mushrooms Omnivorous mammalian bipedal entity.

    Location:
    Glasgow
    I have found quite often that when my tagging program reports 'no match for disc', if I then do a manual search on freedb.org using the search tool, I'll find 1 or more versions of the disc, sometimes very subtly different, eg very minor differences in track duration.
     
  9. Sevoflurane

    Sevoflurane Forum Resident

    I submit every CD I rip to the AccurateRip database. I’ve submitted a fair few discs not previously in the database, too.
     
  10. hvbias

    hvbias Midrange magic

    Location:
    Northeast
    Are you able to import these into your tagging program or do you copy and paste manually?

    I searched for a CD I ripped yesterday where FreeDB was the only database had the tags and this is what the page looks like: http://www.freedb.org/freedb/classical/a212b31e
     
  11. jfeldt

    jfeldt Forum Resident

    Location:
    SF, CA, USA
    Submitting information to AccurateRip does not help FreeDB. Maybe if that is not clear, that is part of the problem with FreeDB not being very populated?
     
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  12. Grower of Mushrooms

    Grower of Mushrooms Omnivorous mammalian bipedal entity.

    Location:
    Glasgow
    I rip with EAC, but somehow I've never managed to make it do the tagging.

    So I use a program called Media Tagger, which has an option to manually input the freedb disc ref number and the genre, then it populates all the fields automatically
     
  13. jfeldt

    jfeldt Forum Resident

    Location:
    SF, CA, USA
    Here is a screenshot I just made showing how to submit metadata when using EAC, to FreeDB if you have that chosen as your provider (I think that is the default still). I have around 5,000 CDs, and all of them are in FreeDB now. They were either in FreeDB already, or I added them if they were not. Again, submitting to AccurateRip does not help people with metadata in FreeDB. If that is not widely known, that may be one source of why FreeDB seems more sparse than it should be.

    [​IMG]
     
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  14. Cherrycherry

    Cherrycherry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Le Froidtown
    I didn't know that. I am dunce.:nyah:

    Thank you very much for pointing that out.
     
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  15. jfeldt

    jfeldt Forum Resident

    Location:
    SF, CA, USA
    Glad to be of service!
     
  16. Cherrycherry

    Cherrycherry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Le Froidtown
    I just checked my settings and confirmed that I have been doing it wrong all this time.
    Whenever I put a CD into the drive with EAC, I typed ALT+G.
    When the FreeDB showed no matches, I entered all the data myself.
    I "assumed" that when I was submitting Accurate RIP results, that somehow(?) the FreeDB was being updated.
    My local computer has all of the information, but probably nothing ever made it to FreeDB.
    That blows.
     
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  17. Sevoflurane

    Sevoflurane Forum Resident

    Can you submit to FreeDB from dBPoweramp? I tend to just pick which of the metadata providers gives me the best result, but i’d happily submit new CDs to FreeDB if they aten’t already there.
     
  18. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    Yes, it is possible to edit or add info to FreeDB from dBpoweramp.

    Click on the green icon in the toolbar to bring up the menu.
    Green toolbar icon >> Active Providers >> Submit Changes to >> freedb

    You'll need to experiment and learn how the process works and how/why sometimes it doesn't. There are some hidden "black box" style behaviors that determine whether you can submit changes and whether the changes will take or be rejected.
     
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  19. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    You're not a dunce. The process with EAC to submit to FreeDB is confusing. The UI for EAC is confusing at times. It's not what I consider a well designed UI. But it is what it is. EAC is now 20 years old. Its UI and architecture is based on decisions made 20 years ago. UI design and software design has changed a lot over the past 20 years. EAC shows its age. It still works well, but shows its age.
     
  20. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    All of the metadata providers are separate. And the AccurateRip and CueTools ripping verification databases are also separate. We've got FreeDB, MusicBrainz, Discogs, and some others as metadata databases for CD artist/title/track info. We've got AccurateRip and CueTools as ripping verification databases. All of these databases are separate. Submitting to one does not submit to any of the others. It is confusing. But audiophiles are they type of people who will figure out how to rip an SACD. I consider figuring out how to rip an SACD to be more complex than figuring out how to rip a CD and submit CD data to both FreeDB and AccurateRip.
     
  21. Pantsmaker

    Pantsmaker New Member

    Location:
    Phoenix
    I signed up on the forum just to ask this question that I didn't have until I read this forum page!

    Can we submit multiple entries to the FreeDB at once... I've been ripping CDs for a while and would hate to have to insert each CD again just to hit submit.

    If I hit submit now, will it submit all of the data that I've input so far, or just the CD that's currently in the drive?

    Thanks!
     
  22. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    The ripping software I've used will only submit to FreeDB for the CD that is in the drive. I'm not aware of any software that will do batch or bulk updates to FreeDB.
     
  23. hvbias

    hvbias Midrange magic

    Location:
    Northeast
  24. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    FreeDB will allow updates to a previous entry. But not every time. I don't know what their criteria is for when to accept an update or change to an existing entry and when to reject. It almost seems random. If you want to increase the odds that FreeDB will accept your entry you can submit it with a new category. For example, if the entry you want to update is in the category "Rock" then submit your changed entry with the category set to "Misc". Then FreeDB will end up having two entries for that CD. One in "Rock" and one in "Misc".
     
    hvbias likes this.
  25. hvbias

    hvbias Midrange magic

    Location:
    Northeast
    I suspect this would definitely be a work around that works!
     
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