Track durations for vinyl releases

[jesus2099]

@aerozol

If we suspect the timing might be different

Maybe it’s because of my not-so-representative experience, but I always suspect vinyl and cassette times to be different than CD.
But I’m really not the kind to be bothered by having my own collection releases with lots of ?:??.
For me it’s just not a media (cassettes and vinyls) with real track times.

[highstrung]

@aerozol

But how many people in this thread are really planning to time and submit a substantial amount of LP track times?

Not planning to add a substantial amount in the scope of the overall database, but the few dozen LPs I have submitted have all been in the course of digitizing them, so confirming track times is not much extra work for me.

@aerozol

Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am exaggerating* with the figure of at least 99.9% of LP/cassette releases would have their time blanked if this was implemented as a guideline.

Nobody is actually proposing to actually remove existing data. But even if that was the proposal, what would be the harm? Or to put it another way, what is the value of unconfirmed LP/cassette track times in the MB database?

I see track times primarily as an identifying mechanism, so to me this is similar to discouraging people from adding cover art sourced from random internet sites. Most of the time it matches, but sometimes it’s actually a slightly (or occasionally wildly) different version.

[IvanDobsky]

@aerozol

I know I’m the odd one out (so please don’t relentlessly @ me )

“If in doubt, leave it out” used to be a MB mantra.

Yeah, most of the time you can guess. And mostly you are right. But sometimes the guess is wrong. (See Dire Straits Brothers in Arms, Pink Floyd’s Delicate Sound of Thunder and many others)

@aerozol

have every LP or tape track timed by hand with perfect precision. But how many people in this thread are really planning to time and submit a substantial amount of LP track times?

Not what I meant when I said stopwatch. I just meant check before guess. If you listen to the Vinyl and Side A is about the same length, and Side B sounds the same then just copy\paste times. You don’t have to time every single track, just check out the total time and it soon hints to if these are edited or not.

Maybe it is more a thing with older albums that an edition that was on two vinyl was edited to fit one CD. In those cases I want to know that there are better longer edits out there on the vinyl that I have never heard.

@aerozol

My collection in particular would have the track time data, accurate as far as anybody will ever know, wiped out.

Not really. You listen to the albums and know they are the full tracks. So copy the times over.

@aerozol

99.9% track times of ?:??

Be fair - don’t exaggerate.

@ernstlx

but without track lengths. The chance of them being added later by a record owner is probably higher if no times are specified.

This… An excuse to listen to the vinyl

Just checking if I needed to @aerozol a few more times on this message. Is this like Beetlejuice? (And just in case anyone is unsure - this is supposed to be a light hearted discussion from me… I am for ever saying the wrong thing on here accidentally and don’t mean to… I just love music and its little differences. Really don’t like upsetting people I can just be rubbish with language.)

[highstrung]

@IvanDobsky

Be fair - don’t exaggerate.

I’ve told @aerozol a million times not to exaggerate!