"Unable to read the disc's Media Catalogue Number (MCN)

neil.baldwin · Post by **neil.baldwin** » Sun May 13, 2007 10:06 pm

Hi.

I'm new to using Max as I previously used iTunes to rip all my CDs.

I'm using the latest build 0.7.1 of Max and having trouble with some discs. I'm only doing test ripping at the moment so I've no idea of the extent of the problem.

One particular CD, "The Velvet Rut" by Paul Curreri (2007), fails to get any disc/track information (using the Query Musicbrainz option doesn't work either) and in the log there is the error as per the title of the post. Yet, if I open up iTunes, it manages to read the disc and retrieve the disc/track information with no problem.

FYI I'm using Max 0.7.1 on a MacBook Pro with OS X 10.4.9.

Hope someone can help as I'd love to switch over to Max but at the moment it's not possible

Thanks,

Neil

Post by **sbooth** » Mon May 14, 2007 1:02 am

That particular disc may not contain an MCN encoded on it; it is not a required part of the CD-DA format.

As far as MusicBrainz not having the disc lookup information, are you able to go to http://www.musicbrainz.org and see that the disc exists in their database?

neil.baldwin · Post by **neil.baldwin** » Mon May 14, 2007 7:34 am

Thanks for the reply.

So are you saying that without MCN, Max can't get the CDDB information for the disc? How does iTunes manage it?

I'll go and check the Monkeybrainz thing right now.

Oh, "sbooth" as in sbooth.org? In that case, good job with Max - it's a great piece of software and I'm desperate to use it to re-rip all my CDs (started ripping my CDs at CBR 192kbps back in the day when storage wasn't cheap and FLAC wasn't really an option). If I could only iron out this MCN issue - I don't really want to use iTunes and Apple Lossless. Keep up the good work.

RonaldPR · Post by **RonaldPR** » Mon May 14, 2007 8:23 am

neil.baldwin wrote:So are you saying that without MCN, Max can't get the CDDB information for the disc? How does iTunes manage it?

To my knowledge, MCN and getting the information are not related.

iTunes uses a different database, Gracenote. It is a commercial database and Apple can afford the license. Max uses MusicBrainz, which is a free database. Information will be different between different databases.

Max used to use Freedb, another free database, but switched to MusicBrainz when it appeared that Freedb would end its service because of personal and business conflicts. However, Freedb still functions and I think it is better than MusicBrainz. It would be a nice feature if in Max one could choose between Freedb and MusicBrainz.

neil.baldwin · Post by **neil.baldwin** » Mon May 14, 2007 8:35 am

Just to add : I checked on the website and the disc is not in Monkeybrainz or freedb.

I can kind of accept that and don't mind contributing the information to Monkeybrainz but I think it would be nice/better if the error in Max actually told you "Could not find CDDB information" as opposed to looking like it had a physical problem with reading the disc which is how the error log reads at the moment.

Also, why not have a submit feature so you could enter the disc information and upload it to Musicbrainz/freedb from within the program? (I hoping you can't - I don't have a CD to hand to try it

)