Lookup track information vs manual entry

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rnmerchant
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Dec 26, 2009 6:15 pm

Lookup track information vs manual entry

Post by rnmerchant »

I have successfully used the track information lookup feature with the modified DLL for a while now and it works fine.

Most of the time.

Surprisingly (not!) it doesn't work when the album is not in the Musicbrainz database... Which is not a fatal error as Musicbrainz is a 'user-supported' database, so one can put albums into it.

I've done that but it is slightly problematic as the algorithm is not quite simple enough for me. However I 'sort-of' did it and I hope one of the other aficionados on that site will fix my entry...

But if this was not available, this gave me to wonder if there is a way of entering tracks and their duration in a batch rather than individually track by track. Cut/paste, import CSV, or something like that..... Or could one somehow manually edit the SIA file? is there a format for that file?

Thanks Richard
rnmerchant
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Dec 26, 2009 6:15 pm

Re: Lookup track information vs manual entry

Post by rnmerchant »

An update on this topic, with particular respect to the inputting information into the Musicbrainz database.

I've now done this several times and it is not as challenging as I initially thought. One just has to do it step by step, and the online help is reasonable.

One odd thing I've noticed, using the track lookup in Spin-it-Again. One should be able to use the lookup by entering only the artist name - this normally gives a list of artists to choose from, then all the entries associated with the artist. However I have noticed this doesn't always work - today, for example, looking up the group 'the Sandpipers'. The lookup generated no entries for this group, although it is in the Musicbrainz database. However, the particular album I was using was not in the database, so I entered it manually as I've described.

Subsequently, using the lookup with the album name, the group and album was found. A bit odd.. I should note that the entry into the Musicbrainz database is 'almost' instantaneous - certainly within a minute or two. So it is a fairly seamless process. It is also a lot easier to enter the information into Musicbrainz than manually within Spin-it-Again - at least for the albums I have done - because the song information is often available in another database (Discogs for example) and can be pasted in from there. Musicbrainz is a user-supported site, and while one has to have an account there is no charge or anything, no downside that I've found.

Cheers Richard! :D
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