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Topic: EAC and year metadata (Read 13005 times) previous topic - next topic
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EAC and year metadata

Hi all-

Up until recently, I've been using iTunes to rip my music to hard drive, mainly because it was simple and ubiquitous. I've now decided that I'd like to do something a little more robust to back up my CDs, and after some searching I settled on using EAC to create FLAC files.

I've got everything more or less configured and working properly, but one thing is stumping me. I ripped a greatest hits compilation CD that I had previously ripped with iTunes, and I noticed that the Year field in the metadata was different. In iTunes, each track had a separate year field, for the year that that track was originally recorded. But with the files I created using EAC, every file has the same year, and it appears to be the year the compilation was released. I believe that both iTunes and EAC are set to query the same database, so I don't imagine that's where the difference is coming in. Have I configured something incorrectly in EAC? Is it not possible to pass year data to individual tracks like this? I imagine it's possible to go back and edit these tags by hand after the fact, but that seems like a pain that I'd rather avoid if it's possible.

Apologies if this has already been answered and/or is in the wrong place - I'm fairly new to both digital music and this forum.

Thanks for any assistance,

-Nate

EAC and year metadata

Reply #1 –
Quote from: nate on
I believe that both iTunes and EAC are set to query the same database, so I don't imagine that's where the difference is coming in.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm certain that this isn't true.

iTunes uses Gracenote while EAC uses freedb and I don't think EAC is capable of applying a different year to each track individually.

EAC and year metadata

Reply #2 –
EAC's UI has no concept of tracks with different release years.  The Year is entered at the disc level, as is Genre.  You'll need to re-tag externally.

I think freedb, which EAC uses, also treats it as a "disc year"... but I'm not sure anymore.

EAC and year metadata

Reply #3 –
Quote from: greynol on
Quote from: nate on
I believe that both iTunes and EAC are set to query the same database, so I don't imagine that's where the difference is coming in.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm certain that this isn't true.

iTunes uses Gracenote while EAC uses freedb and I don't think EAC is capable of applying a different year to each track individually.


I think this the case by default, yes. But for whatever reason my EAC wasn't able to access freedb, so I changed the settings to query Gracenote instead, and it's been working fine.

Thanks!

-Nate

Quote from: grommet on
EAC's UI has no concept of tracks with different release years.  The Year is entered at the disc level, as is Genre.  You'll need to re-tag externally.


Ok, good to know, thanks - so it's not just my error :)

In that case, is there something you can suggest as an external retagger? The more automated, the better, as I've got several hundred CDs to do.

Thanks!

-Nate

EAC and year metadata

Reply #4 –
Quote from: nate on
EAC wasn't able to access freedb, so I changed the settings to query Gracenote instead, and it's been working fine.
I did not know you could do this.  Thanks for teaching me something new! 

Quote
In that case, is there something you can suggest as an external retagger?
I use Tagscanner but there are countless people who will suggest foobar2000.

EAC and year metadata

Reply #6 –
Quote from: wylistener on
Quote from: greynol on

Quote from: nate on
EAC wasn't able to access freedb, so I changed the settings to query Gracenote instead, and it's been working fine.
I did not know you could do this.  Thanks for teaching me something new! 


How do you point EAC to Gracenote?  I don't use iTunes so I don't know what IP/hostname settings to copy over.


Under EAC>freedb/database options,I changed the "freedb server" line to "http://us.cddb.com:80/~cddb/cddb.cgi". So far, so good.

Quote from: greynol on
I use Tagscanner but there are countless people who will suggest foobar2000.


Great, thanks! I'll give those both a try.

-Nate

EAC and year metadata

Reply #7 –
Or MP3Tag.

Just use the tool you figure will fit your workflow best.

EAC and year metadata

Reply #8 –
Quote from: nate on
Quote from: wylistener on

Quote from: greynol on

Quote from: nate on
EAC wasn't able to access freedb, so I changed the settings to query Gracenote instead, and it's been working fine.
I did not know you could do this.  Thanks for teaching me something new! 


How do you point EAC to Gracenote?  I don't use iTunes so I don't know what IP/hostname settings to copy over.


Under EAC>freedb/database options,I changed the "freedb server" line to "http://us.cddb.com:80/~cddb/cddb.cgi". So far, so good.


I tried that and EAC said "server error".  Do you have to use a special email id?

EAC and year metadata

Reply #9 –
Quote from: wylistener on
Quote from: nate on

Quote from: wylistener on

Quote from: greynol on

Quote from: nate on
EAC wasn't able to access freedb, so I changed the settings to query Gracenote instead, and it's been working fine.
I did not know you could do this.  Thanks for teaching me something new! 


How do you point EAC to Gracenote?  I don't use iTunes so I don't know what IP/hostname settings to copy over.


Under EAC>freedb/database options,I changed the "freedb server" line to "http://us.cddb.com:80/~cddb/cddb.cgi". So far, so good.


I tried that and EAC said "server error".  Do you have to use a special email id?


nope, I just used my regular email address and didn't have any problems.

EAC and year metadata

Reply #10 –
I just tried and got server error as well.

EAC and year metadata

Reply #11 –
Quote from: nate on
Under EAC>freedb/database options,I changed the "freedb server" line to "http://us.cddb.com:80/~cddb/cddb.cgi". So far, so good.


A long overdue followup - it seems that the above trick worked for a while, but no longer does. I suspect there was some loophole in the Gracenote system that no longer works.

-Nate

EAC and year metadata

Reply #12 –
AFAIK, the "Year" metadata field refers to the the date the disc the song is sourced from was released, not the date of the song's original release. Thus, ALL tracks ripped from a CD should have the same year - the year of that disc's release.
EAC>1)fb2k>LAME3.99 -V 0 --vbr-new>WMP12 2)MAC-Extra High