Single Album with Multiple CDs

[DanThe]

I'm going crazy trying to figure out how to scan multiple CDs as a single Album. I found a thread from 2007 and 2008 on the topic but it is long and confusing. Can anyone provide a simple step by step on how to do this properly?

Thanks

[DanThe]

Update

I was able to enter the multiple CD album using the album UPC via the iSight camera. But unlike scanning the CD itself, you don't get the track duration information or the disc ID.

The forum that I referred to yesterday was http://www.bruji.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... le+cdpedia from 2009.

It refers to inserting the CD into the drive and using Cmd+T to retrieve the duration information on the disc. This works well with a single disc album but not a multi-disc album. Cmd+T using the second disc simply overwrites the duration time of the first disc.

If there is another way to accomplish this that does not involve manually entering the duration time of the other discs, I would like to know. A good suggestion from the 2009 thread was to be able to select the disc track to be updated. This could be a menu option when a right-click is performed on the selected tracks.

I had made Connor aware of my concerns in an email support ticket regarding the disc handling in CDpedia. Hopefully this will be addressed in the next version.

[Conor]

You should be able to get more info under the gear button on the bottom right of the edit window. Sites such as Disocgs and MusicBrainz should have the duration for multiple CD albums.

The beta version of CDpedia already includes support for adding the durations read from the CD too multiple CD albums. Before using Command-T make sure to highlight the tracks that the duration should be added to, it will only add the duration to the selected tracks, as long as you select at least as many tracks as there on the current CD in the drive.

[DanThe]

Thanks Connor.

Here is the testing that I have done with the beta version.

CDs Used: Phil Collins new 2016 double CD releases of the albums Face Value and Both Sides.

Face Value
1. Loaded CD 1, highlighted the tracks of the first disc then pressed Cmd+T. The durations and the disc ID were picked up.

2. Loaded CD 2, highlighted the tracks of the second disc then pressed Cmd+T. The durations were picked up but the disc ID of the second overwrote the value of the first instead of appending it after that value.

Both Sides
1. Loaded CD 1, highlighted the tracks of the first disc then pressed Cmd+T. The durations and the disc ID were picked up.

2. Loaded CD 2, highlighted the tracks of the second disc then pressed Cmd+T. The durations were not picked up but the disc ID of the second still overwrote the value of the first instead of appending it after that value.

3. Don't ask why I did this but with CD 2 still in the drive, I highlighted the first track of the second disc then pressed Cmd+T. It did put a duration time for that track but that time was the time value for the first track on the first disc.

4. Out of spite, I highlighted the second track of the second disc then pressed Cmd+T. It did put a duration time for that track but that time was again the time value for the first track on the first disc.

It would seem like all goes well for the first album (Face Value) and CD 1 of the second album (Both Side) but not CD 2 of that same album.

I repeated steps 1 to 4 that I used for Both Sides with another double CD album in my collection and got the same results where CD 2 would not enter the track duration times for that second disc.

[Conor]

Thanks for taking he time to test and debug the beta. I have yet to repeat it, but I think it simply getting to the right combination of double CD album.

Let me rework the feature, so that it is more intelligent and requires less input from the user such as picking out the selection. As right now without the proper selection of enough tracks to fill out the incoming durations, it falls back on the old behavior of filling out from the top. It should look if enough tracks have empty durations and start from there, but that is quite more complex.

The disc ID, is a tricky situation, yo sure right hat I should keep the original CD 1 ID. But not sure what to do with the second ID, as the field was never really designed for two IDs. I could append it, but will have to check all the code that uses the disc ID, as it does expect it to be a single one. I have updated the beta to append.

[DanThe]

Hi Connor,

I'm more than happy to help out with the testing. I've imported my current DB from another so I'm testing and learning at the same time. I was reading about why the multi-value for the Artitst field was removed. Incredible how a comma can become an issue.
Let me know when you have the next beta.

[Conor]

The comma issue was very complicated and completed overlooked by me when designing version 4. We knew from user feedback that the author in Bookpedia would be an issue, as a decent number of users were using the "last name, first name" arrangement but we had to standardize for the sake Doghouse and to be able to use the comma as a multiple author separator (that came naturally to the larger majority of users). But did not see it coming in CDpedia, although I should have know with a simple import of my own music library.

It's been a long time and many version of CDpedia, it's kind of freighting when working on updates to old features. Just looking back on the disc ID and scan disc functions for duration is kind of scary. I browse the code and say, "the person who wrote this needs to be poked with a sharp stick". Then I realize it was me 7 years ago, "cancel the poking, he was young, everybody makes strange choices".

[DanThe]

The person does not make mistakes makes you wonder if there're doing anything at all.
Live and learn.