For most of my booklets that’s not the worst thing they’ve experienced. For new ones I will try to be carefully, but if I don’t, I would end up devastating my CD archive again. I like to have all in digital form.
An hour ago I found my ordered Billie Eilish CD in my post box. That was quite a surprise as I paid € 9.50 for tracked shipping from Germany…
Of course I scanned and added it instantly. Easy. Though 11 releases it shared the DiscID with one of them. The related Discogs release has a matching Mastering SID and a slightly different Mould SID, both 94xx - that’s from Austria. Lets say a true European release.
Don’t think I could do any better. You have done a fine job on the scans and uploads. I’ve already abandoned my scan and am now using yours. Thanks for sharing
Also note - already the CueTools addon for EAC is downloading your cover when ripping…
Again I managed to spent hours for one cd, although the release was already added, but it had strange features. Push the Sky Away (limited edition)
The Mastering SID is LK97 (not in list), on the same side a mirrored code is visible: IFPI 9R100 (2400dpi scan added)
On the other side (printed front) another mirrored code appears: IFPI 9R101 (4800dpi added)
I could have scanned with 9600dpi but 4800 took long enough and I tried instead different angles…
The best are added to MB. Sorry for the dirt. I tried to clean it but put even more scratches to it.
I need a microscope!!!
EDIT: the strange codes appear on the accompanied DVD. I packed it away now. It’s absolutely unnecessary!
For something that is only slightly more cost than a CD - it is surprisingly good. This cheapo one is just 640x480 - but it is showing just a couple of letters of the matrix info at a time. This is a cool little toy! I also bought it to attach to my phone for when I am out in the woods.
All kinda of neat little bits to it. The bright white LED is adjustable on the cable (like a volume control) so you can change the lighting levels. Magnification is also a physical dial.
As to dust - well, this will turn the dust into rocks!
And once dirty itself it’ll be harder to clean than a glass plate. I’ve seen it on the 4800 dpi scans. The dirt resisted all cleaning attempts. But the problem with scans - it takes time til you can see it under different angle… or a higher resolution, and so on…
The trouble is that the plastic is so soft that attempts to clean usually just add more scratches. I have a microfibre cloth here to keep the scanner polished. Generally avoid ever touching my CDs and so religious on that that most of my disks are clean as they day they were purchased. In fact, MB is often the reason I have opened some booklets for the first time in 30+ years!
The same microfibre cloth or the cloth from my glasses will be used to polish off thumb prints from the CD.
If a disk is bad I’ll get the washing up liquid out and some warm water. Always remembering to clean a CD “like spokes on a wheel”. Never polish in a circle as you’ll make bad scratches. When a scratch is 90 degree angle to the laser playing the CD it is ignored. If the scratch follows the path of the laser you have trouble! (Just like with vinyl really)
Worst are those old PDO disks in the double fatbox cases with the evil foam!! The Horror!! Melted foam nastiness eating the CDs! ARGH! Lost a Monty Python disk that way. Just nothing could be done to separate foam from CD. Others I have caught before the main rot kicked in.
I’m gonna pull some of my oldest rotten\rusty CDs out later and look at them closer with that microscope…
Don’t point a microscope at the scratches as they will only get scarier! Scratches are not too bad for a CD when they are still low numbers of them.
I started repairing my Packaging type dilemma and ended up with Encore Series and and the release country issue. As there were some US shows with US release country I didn’t change that, only added XW where it was missing. But then there were European Tour releases with release country US too.
I changed to XW and threw some Encore CDs on the scanner (4800dpi, one scan with 9600dpi!).
I added 3 scans to the respective releases: (I promise, it’s the last time, I talk about Encore Series! ) Summer 2003: 06.11.03 Dallas, TX The Warm Up Tour – Summer 2007: 20/06/07 Eden Project · England Back to Front Winter 2014: 08.12.14 Aberdeen, UK
For Summer 2003 Mould and Mastering SID belong to Crest National, Hollywood, CA
My Warm Up Tour CDs have no visible Mould SID (up to 9600dpi) and an unknown Mastering SID. Printed beneath the Mastering code is the same Company name as before - Crest National … eventually another plant?
On Back to Front CDs no Mould or even Mastering SID is visible, on none of them.
I ordered more Encore Series CDs and @IvanDobsky’s microscope…
These CDs will not be re-released and are only available as long as on stock. Even some shows listed to be sold, are no longer available, but you have to attempt to buy it to find out. Some of the shows are not even listed (sold out some time ago). But there will be a digital release of all shows on bandcamp!!!
But first I have to buy a few more CDs to document the physical releases. Or, I have the feeling I will have to …
EDIT: LR66/67/68/69/70 are mastering codes of a plant acquired by Crest National, also California. So they are at least manufactured in the US. But probably I should set them XW too.
EDIT 2: Or better British indeed? Probably all shows after the first one were sold and shipped from the UK. Maybe all physical releases should be GB. The digital releases will be XW.
Careful with getting too large… there is a stage where you are not really gaining anything but file size. I stick to 600dpi as that is usually still larger than the screens in my house.
I think you are coming to a sensible point here. Ultimately Peter has these CDs stacked up in his garage in the UK and sends them out in the post when they are ordered. Distribution from the UK. With the California printed CDs it would not surprise me if separate printing press is involved for the Americas to cut down on shipping costs.
Leave it with your “best answer for now”. And if you suddenly come across a large stack of USA disks with different artwork then you have a different puzzle for another day.
Oh, and you didn’t really want me to look at the Summer 2003: 06.11.03 Dallas, TX because I’ll just point out your forgot to rotate an image again…
I didn’t upload these. It was only to make sure not to miss anything. In general a 600 dpi scan shows the Mould SID pretty clear.
There was no separate release, those from IFPI registered plants are all made in USA. But there’s one more thing I remembered lately. There the second “label” printed on all Encore Series CDs - themusic.com. This American distributor themusic.com covers the American market, while Realworld does distribution in the UK and Europe. This collaboration goes back to the first Encore Series. So it will be best to set all CD releases to US+UK releases.
This will not happen. I had correspondence with Realworld support. There was only one production line for each show and the artwork is the basic layout for each tour with date and place stamped on the front for each individual order. So every CD cover is at least a little bit different from any other.
I can remove it completely. There’s another image uploaded - 600dpi, cropped, rotated. It’s not necessary to rotate this one.
No, I think I wasn’t very precise. On every single cover and medium are both label names printed. All CDs are from the same manufacturing plant. Realworld and themusic.com share distribution and thus I think this will be 2 release events of the same release. But of course themusic.com should be added as second label.
When I scan something I want it to be the only scan anyone will ever need, for all screen sizes into the far future. The Internet Archive then generously offers downsized versions for us.
What do you think would be a resolution to achieve that?
I do the scans with 600dpi now. I started with 1200dpi, but that’s more than a minute scanning time with my scanner. Only the hubs I do with a higher resolution.
Hahaha - yeah I love you and your 60MB PNG images. Or are you the guy with the 120MB images? Great when downloading a boxset with 20-30 scans. Picard hates it and sits there and sulks for 30mins as I only have 200mbps broadband.
As you say - “only scan ever needed” - so that means you are at least cropping them properly unlike some lazy editors. Thank you.
Absolutely happy for your work - but it is funny to see Picard freak out due to me always downloading “all artwork”. One day Picard will catch up and handle that kinda stuff better.
I look at my 50" TV screen where art is dsiplayed. And I look at the biggest resolution monitor I have available in the house. And a 600dpi scan is above those by some way. 600dpi is the max at Discogs. And it is a recommended standard here.
IMHO 1200dpi and above just adds a ton of storage that isn’t needed. For a HUB it is different as the image will get zoomed and cropped.
But I also see the logic of PNG images. Even though I stick with 80% jpg images as that adds efficiency to most covers as generally they tend to be a similar colour.
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