I’m trying to figure out the best / easiest workflow to use to rip a cd, encode and tag the files. I’ve been trying to get this sorted out for a long time. I’m not sure if I’ve missed something, but it seems to be hard.
I rip my cds with EAC. I used to use the old freedb database as the metadata provider. Now I’m using EAC version 1.6 and it has the ‘musicbrainz’ plugin metadata provider. I create wav files and then encode to flac or mp3.
The standard set of tags are stored in cue by EAC and then used in encoding, but extra tagging is done in Picard and updated into the flac or mp3 files.
To do the tagging in Picard, I have to find the CD in Musicbrainz. I don’t understand why the information captured in EAC can’t be used by Picard to lookup the information automatically.
For example, EAC calculates discid and stores it in the cue file as a REM statement. This could be passed through as a tag in the file and then used to lookup the CD in Picard. Today, EAC’s plug-in doesn’t allow me to pick the correct CD from the list even when the specific CD is in Musicbrainz. Then I have to re-pick it in Picard. Isn’t here an easier way? It seems that things don’t flow.
I Rip to FLAC with EAC, set the files names, make the folders, using the MusicBrainz\CUETools lookup.
But then I discard any tags and let Picard do better tagging after looking up the CD in Picard.
I don’t bother with CUE files as I use KODI and it is happier with properly tagged FLACs. I do generate rip logs with EAC as these are handy to check the quality of the rip and can act as a stand-in to generate the discID again if needed.
EAC’s tagging is only basic, this is why I let Picard replace everything EAC added. Though I keep EACs filenaming and folders as my Picard is not allowed to rename files.
Other tweaks I make sure EAC does is to strip out unicode hyphens\dashes\apostrophes\etc for the file names to keep punctuation characters in filenames basic ASCII.
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A pre-step that often happens with a new or unusual CD is I start with Picard and upload the discID and add the new Release to the database. I fill out the Release data, add the artwork. This then lets me return to EAC and suck in that new data for the fresh rip. Finishing full circle in Picard.
Thanks. It was reading the Picard flow that caused me to ask the question about the flow
I notice that EAC adds a discid to my cue files and it is also I think available as a variable supplied to the encoder.(%ctdbid or something similar). Musicbrainz also has a discid for a physical cd.
Are they the same? they appear to be different lengths…
if not, is there anyway to use the eac discid and to calculate the musicbrainz discid?
then, it could be use it to lookup the cd in musicbrainz?
Was trying to keep the reply short. I use the new built in MusicBrainz EAC Metadata Plugin to get tag data that matches the CD. Previously I used the CUE Tools DB Metadata Plugin.
I find the built-in plugin does have problems with things like dates as it expects a four digit year and can’t handle a full date. I usually have to type my own year into the box.
It is not needed if you have an EAC log from the rip. Just drop the log on this page and it will calculate the DiscID from the ToC in the log.
A CUE file is too old and basic for my needs. I don’t really make use of them. The FreeDB discIDs inside them are very different to the ones MusicBrainz uses. I think they also lack detail and have more clashes.
As long as you have kept your EAC logs, you don’t need the freedb DiscID in the CUE. I have returned to rips without a CD and dropped the logs into that website, and then pushed the found release back to Picard to work on the tagging. And yes, that also works on Enhanced CDs and discs with pregap tracks and other oddities
Edit: Linky on how to search those freedbIDs. Freedb discid translation That page also explains some of the differences.