Cannot Edit Track Length Anywhere

MusicBrainz
1

Hi,
For some reason the album ‘My Heroes Have Always Killed Cowboys’ by ‘A Day in Black and White’ is missing track lengths on 3 of 5 of the songs. The track lists are available on Discogs, and are also represented on the mp3s I have downloaded. Unfortunately I do not have the actual CD.

I do not seem to be able to change the track lengths on any of these songs. I have searched through the forum and through the help, yet I can’t quite seem to understand the rationale behind being unable to edit either the release or the track, particularly considering there is no discid associated with it.

I cannot edit in the Release,
https://musicbrainz.org/release/67f08a5b-931d-48dc-b9fa-944b51d1cfa6/edit

and there is no option to edit Track length on Recording
https://musicbrainz.org/recording/d68a24ea-cd73-47e7-8409-c3931f0383ef/edit

I’m not quite sure what I’m missing; is anyone able to point me in the right direction?

Thanks :slight_smile:

2

Do you get some kind of error if you try to change the track durations? I seem to be able to do it (though I haven’t clicked “Enter edit” yet because I don’t want to make a wrong edit).

Recording durations can’t be edited by design, they are by definition the average of all linked track durations.

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3

On the right where the times are listed you can just over-type the question marks. In the below image I just clicked on the ?:?? and typed 1:23

image

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4

Also, the length on recordings is derived by averaging the length of all of the tracks it’s related to, so there’s no direct way to edit that.

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5

This is extremely embarrassing; thank you everyone for the help.

As both mfmeulenbelt and IvanDobsky suggested, the track lengths are editable! I was trying to edit it using the edit button, or on the edit tab rather than directly clicking on the question marks for the track length.

Thanks again and apologies for missing such a simple action.

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6

Nothing embarrassing about asking a question. Quickest way to learn. The GUI is trying to put so much on screen to allow us to change that it does take some getting used to.

It is also worth investigating the Track Parser button as that lets you copy and paste track lists with artists and times included.

Also have a look at Picard as it has a plugin that pairs up with the Track Parser. Look for the plugin that will “Copy Cluster to Clipboard” as this is in the format ready for the Track Parser. Handy when you have a lot of track times to set by no CD.

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7

@thismusic if you don’t know what Track Parser when @IvanDobsky is talking about Track Parser this is what he is talking about. the link will give you some info on how it works

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8

Where on earth did that old page come from? :smiley: That is VERY odd looking and VERY out of date. (At least 8 years old according to the bottom line) @thismusic be careful reading that page as MB is now much MUCH simpler to use than that out of date page.

This is a much more up to date page which describes the current interface as you’ll find here at MB today
https://musicbrainz.org/doc/How_to_Add_a_Release

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9

thanks @IvanDobsky for adding a newer link. i found it with a google search just before bed

10

Next time just look at the top of the page when in the main MusicBrainz database. There is a link for documentation up there. :wink:
image

Easier and more trustable than google.

3 Likes