MusicBrainz vs. FreeDB

[sbooth]

I'm in the process of changing the FreeDB support in Max over to MusicBrainz. I have never really used MusicBrainz before, but as can probably be expected, it offers different types of data than FreeDB. I've noticed the following main differences:

• MusicBrainz does not contain any genre information
• MusicBrainz does not contain any composer information
• The release dates are broken down by country

Is the lack of downloadable genre/composer information something that concerns people?

[davebarnes]

No.

1. I have found that genre info is not very accurate for jazz albums.

2. The composer data on freedb is worthless most of the time. I usually take composer info from the liner notes and manually enter it for each song into FLAC files usinig Tag and into AAC (mp4) files using iTunes.

,dave

[Mike1]

Is the lack of downloadable genre/composer information something that concerns people?

With many of my CDs I've found that Freedb isn't likely to have this information either - at least, it might have "genre" and might get it right; it probably won't have "composer".

I haven't used MusicBrainz and so can't comment on it. But if the only drawback is lack of information for those two fields, I think there's no problem, because I don't think anyone can count on them being populated correctly, or at all, with Freedb.

[shanecavanaugh]

That would be no problem for me. freeDB didn't really have a consistent genre taxonomy nor would the composers usually correct. If I did use them, I'd trade them for Musicbrainz's preciseness.

[wynlyndd]

Genre is so subjective and the freedb taxonomy such a horrible mishmash, that unless genre comes from a more semi-authoritative source (like allmusic even though I question some of their choices as well), I'm not missing anything. I don't often make playlists based on genre.

As for composer, I don't currently have tons of classical or baroque style music in my collection aside from a few favorite pieces. As I hope to purchase more eventually, this might become an issue but in the meantime, I am sure my uptake of this style of music will be slow enough a few more handwritten tags are probably no big deal.

[sbooth]

MusicBrainz support is in there!

Currently only querying is supported; submission and PUID generation for file conversion will be supported at some time in the future.

[shanecavanaugh]

Awesome. Any plans to implement Musicbrainz in Tag?

[sbooth]

Awesome. Any plans to implement Musicbrainz in Tag?

Once the PUID support is better, I will add MusicBrainz support to Tag. For now the libmusicbrainz API doesn't even have interfaces for PUIDs (only the older TRMs).

[chicken]

hi there. I just joined this forum but have been a Max-user for at least a year now. I just downloaded Max-982 and neither MusicBrainz or FreeDB will work when I insert a CD. Is anyone else having this problem?

cheers

[sbooth]

hi there. I just joined this forum but have been a Max-user for at least a year now. I just downloaded Max-982 and neither MusicBrainz or FreeDB will work when I insert a CD. Is anyone else having this problem?

Are you able to query MusicBrainz by pressing the button in the toolbar? (You might have to delete your preferences file to have it show up.)

[chicken]

hi there. I just joined this forum but have been a Max-user for at least a year now. I just downloaded Max-982 and neither MusicBrainz or FreeDB will work when I insert a CD. Is anyone else having this problem?

Are you able to query MusicBrainz by pressing the button in the toolbar? (You might have to delete your preferences file to have it show up.)

i think i messed up the query settings what are the proper settings for MusicBrains again?

cheers

[Nils]

i think i messed up the query settings Embarassed what are the proper settings for MusicBrains again?

I think it's
Preferred server: mm.musicbrainz.org
Port: 80
Username and password: your own or blank.

Hope that helps,
Nils

[shanecavanaugh]

Can Max grab the year information for albums and individual tracks?

[sbooth]

Can Max grab the year information for albums and individual tracks?

This is something I am trying to figure out. MusicBrainz stores release dates by country, so I'm not sure how to determine which one to grab. However, as best I can tell there are no dates for tracks, only for albums.

[Nils]

This is something I am trying to figure out. MusicBrainz stores release dates by country, so I'm not sure how to determine which one to grab...

I've been thinking about this, and I've come up with a proposal. Because Max only handles dates in the YYYY format, not YYYY-MM-DD, I think things becomes slightly easier. Anyway, this is what I've been thinking, there are four possible situations:

(1) There is no release date set on MB -> Max doesn't need to retrieve anything.
(2) There is only one release date set -> Max retrieves the year.
(3) There are multiple release dates but they all have the same year value -> Max retrieves any of them, because they all yield the same year.
(4) There are multiple release dates with different year values -> three possibilities (I think):
- a Pop up a window asking which date to choose
- b Have a preference option in the 'Musicbrainz' panel for which country to choose by default
- c Choose the earliest date listed.

The other thing I thought of was to make the 'Year' field a popup the same way the 'Genre' field is. That way the user could just choose the release date they wanted.

Just my two cents,
Nils