Help with understanding recordings

MusicBrainz
1

I just recently noticed two tracks in Music Assistant weren’t getting identified as the same when I think they are. Looking at the MB info they do indeed have different recording and track IDs. Looking further I think I see a LOT of different recordings for this song but if I understand correctly there should be very few (or just one?). Should the majority of these recordings be merged?

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Yes, so it would seem. I would advise to take it easy though and exercise some caution, rather than merging the lot in one go. Here is my handy-dandy checklist for deciding whether I can safely merge recordings:

  1. Same recording name and artist
  2. Similar duration
  3. Two or more recordings sharing an AcoustID (or several)
  4. Two or more recordings sharing an ISRC
  5. Various same year editions of the same album.
  6. Various editions of the same album with no reasons to suspect clean version, remix, new recording or whatnot.
  7. Same per compilation liner notes (e.g. when the compilation says “From the album…”)
  8. Citation of curated discographies either online or in printed form
  9. I have ear checked all tracks for these 2 recordings.
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3

Also some negatives to be aware of.

  • Don’t trust ISRCs as these will be applied by record companies randomly and can swap single and album versions.
  • When comparing AcoustIDs be wary if there are only a few samples. There is a lot of bogus data that comes in via Picard. Some people match too many tracks to check in Picard and then submit acoustIDs to an incorrect match
  • Watch out for Single and Album versions. Sometimes the same, sometimes different mix.
  • Be wary of “from the album” notes as sometimes a single is swapped in instead.

Good positives for a merge:

  • Lots of compilations. They tend to all share the same copies. This is the kinda track that will be on lots of compilations.
  • AcoustIDs of remasters can sometimes give different numbers but a compare can show similarities.

Other items:

  • Comparison by ear is always the best.
  • Comparision in Audacity is a good visual check.
  • History of a band is good. Knowing if they re-recorded something.
  • Make sure you don’t catch any live versions by accident.

Best advice - if not sure, then don’t merge.

The example you show above I bet many are on compilations and ripe for merging…

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4

Thanks great advice. I will certainly merge the ones I have after doing a compare.

Edit: Yeah as I look at these further the recordings are generally a one off on a compilation album. Generally they have the same AcoustID. Same title, artist and length within 3 secs of each other. I will start to queue up a number of edits to slowly merge these together.

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A question as I continue to slowly merge these. Given MB considers remasters to be the same as the original recording how do you handle the merge of releases which hold different ISRCs. I see for this track there is GBAAA0201040 for the remaster and GBAAA8000289 for the original. Will these just get merged so there are two ISRCs? Is that the right thing to do?

P.S. I see there are already two for the main recording I am merging into and one is incorrect as it is for a Pat Benetar track so I need to fix that as well

6

Yeah, multiple ISRCs are quite common. They also can be swapped around at times by the compilation creators. Some releases you see them swap album and singles around. Other times they make up new ones for specific compilations. ISRCs are not always a perfect one to one match.

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New question. Until now I have been looking at duration within maybe +/- 5 secs. Now I have a new situation:

As far as I can tell there was only one recording of “Joy to the World” by “Three Dog Night” https://www.discogs.com/master/155274-Three-Dog-Night-Joy-To-The-World Joy to the World (Three Dog Night song) - Wikipedia

However, looking at the ISRC there appears to be the single version around 3:36 and the album version at 3:17. Would the recording ID be the same in this case? Search results - MusicBrainz

edit: Indeed when I listen to the versions I have being on the Forrest Gump Soundtrack and a Seventies Collection CD they are different but do they come fro the same recording? I am not sure?

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Stick 'em in Audacity and look at them. Maybe even play them at same time and flip between them. Often you find the single is just the album version with an early fade.

But in your example, if it is chopped 20 seconds short then that would lead to a separate recording as that is large difference. Link them by relationship as one an “edit” of the other.

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