iTunes, bless it, really does a poor job keeping my CDs organised and accurately tagged...The problems start right from the outset with poor labeling of tunes through Gracenote, so how do I by-pass iTunes at the initial part of my CD rip project and:

1. Rip my CD's using the LAME encoder then...

2. Tag them using Musicbrainz (am currently trying to figure out Jaikoz though I've just found out about other databases such as AMG, GD3 and freedb, would these work as well)...then...

3. Create a new iTunes library to put them in and have iTunes not mess with their new metadata...

Doesn't need to be free software, nor open source, but just need to know the workflow and sortware to use...

If it can't be done in one go then I can get an Apple script to handle it written fairly easily (I have scripting friends, very handy)...

If this is done accurately from the beginning then it only has to be done once...

I'm using Intel iMac with 10.5.8

Many thanks and over to you...

P.S. I'm on holiday for 2 weeks now so not sure if I will or won't be able to answer posts..will check the Internet status when I get there...

http://sbooth.org/Rip/

X Lossless Decoder will query either MusicBrainz or freedb [your choice, if the album is found on both servers]. you might be able to add an additional database to query in XLD Preferences dialog, but i’ve never tried.

i like using Jaikoz for correcting [or adding missing] metadata. it can look up the PUID of your tracks & make a more accurate metadata match, & you can manually match tracks to MB metadata track by track. you can also query discogs if an album isn’t in MB’s database. also, the developer is insanely responsive. i’ve been a licensed user of Jaikoz for, what, three years now? ...& i’ve never seen somebody post a question in the forums & not have a personal reply from him by the end of the day, if not within hours.

you can set it up so that it automatically imports audio into your iTunes library when you save your files; it can also update changed metadata from tracks already in your library, so iTunes never gets the chance to revert them back to the old tags.

Blimey...Holiday was great but catching up has been, as you can tell, quite hectic...

SBooth looks promising...Still in development and I haven't got it to work yet but only been playing with it for 5 mins...Will report back...

Now...I've had a look at Jaikoz before...Infact I've donated to the project...The trouble with it is it's seemly infinately configurable...and I simpy don't know how to make it do the thing I need it to do...

I'd be happy to use it though if only there was a blaggers guide to help get started...

I'd like to just ripp my CD then have it throw up the metadata then write it to the files...That's it...

Dose such a guide exist...?

Many thanks...

PigeonCake

By the way... CoverScout is truely brilliant at finding cover art and well worth the money...