Need script/functionality to make entering SACD releases easier

MusicBrainz Style
1

When entering SACD releases there are several levels of complexity.

1 Trivial: Pure SACD and SHM-SACD releases
Doesn’t have a CD layer, so tracks/recordings only need to be entered once.

2. Intermediate: Stereo Hybrid SACD
Has a CD layer and a stereo SACD layer. SACD layer track lengths can be slightly different than CD layer, usually when pauses are not added to tracks.

a) When editing an existing release with only one layer
Most common is an existing layer marked as “Hybrid SACD”. Often a DiscID is already attached to such a layer/medium. Existing medium than needs to be marked as "Hybrid SACD (CD) layers. Next, a new medium “Hybrid SACD (SACD layer)” will be created and the existing tracks can be cloned from the CD layer. The recordings to be created need to be matched to the existing stereo recordings.

Can the cloning step and the subsequent matching step be automated via script?

b) When adding a Hybrid stereo SACD from scratch

  • Create CD layer as Hybrid SACD (CD layer) with new recordings (or match recording. of other existing release if possible).
  • Submit edit
  • Edit again and create new layer as outlined under a). Match recordings.

It would be great if the initial edit and the subsequent cloning could be automated to avoid several edits.

3. Expert: Hybrid SACD with Stereo and Multichannel (MC) mixes

  • MC will never share recordings with stereo, new recordings are obligatory
  • Recordings should not have the number of channels in the title, but in the disambiguation /comment instead
  • That means having to go through several steps: First adding the new MC tracks or layer but without the channel layout. Complete edit. Next edit recording comments and add channel info. Edit release again and add channel info to track title.

Any script to help here would be welcome.

4. Highest difficulty: MC Hybrid SACD with classical content
Additionally to all the edits outlined above, track and recording artists need to be entered correctly. For a SACD release this is a multi-step process that really requires preparation and concentration.

2

Do you think we should add the SACD layer separately if it shares the same recordings?
In such cases we can just have a single Hybrid SACD medium, IMO, with DiscID.

But if you want to create a second medium with same recordings, you can edit the release and, in Tracklists tab, click Add medium: Existing medium and find and use the first medium by searching the same album by filling out artist, album name and track count.

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3

Discussion about layers vs. tracks HERE as you know.

In this particular case, a new medium is necessary IMHO to avoid having all tracks blocked by DiscID for the CD layer. The SACD tracks may have slightly different track lengths, those couldn’t be accounted for with DiscID present.

To explain:
I’m in the process of converting all Stereo SACD tracks to WAVPACK. Hybrid Stereo SACDs are not packed with the highly efficient DST compression in 95% of cases, thus WAVPACK saves me almost 50% space when creating backups. The SACDRipper software has an option to exclude pauses during the ripping process, which I apply. The result is a pure track length which is often more correct than CD DiscID generated from rips. CD ripping software usually has several options to append, prepend or omit pauses, thus resulting in several - but all valid - DiscIDs.

For full disclosure, I also apply a function to omit one “frame” when ripping SACDs to avoid clicks which are common during file based playback. The difference in length is in the range of less than a millisecond and should never contain music. So I still consider SACD track lengths (from correctly ripped tracks, not printed track lengths) the most correct for any given recording.

4

Ok then I told you above, one way of adding your duplicate medium using the same recordings, in almost one click :wink:, without the need of any additional scripts.

1 Like
5

Oh right… my brain has completely blanked out the other tabs of “Add medium” until now… thanks for the pointer :slight_smile:

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