>| Why should I have to title my MD tracks when the titles have already been
>| entered and uploaded by someone else in CDDB?
>
>1. The tracks on the MD may not be exactly the set and sequence of an album
> listed on the CDDB.
>2. The tracks may not yet be listed in the CDDB.
>3. The person who provided the titles to the CDDB may have made mistakes in
> information or in typing.
(The titles shown on the CD case may even be wrong and mislead the typist. I
have a couple CDs like this.)
>4. The person who provided the titles to the CDDB may have entered them in a
> format that differs from your preference in some varying or unpredictable
> fashion, such that the editing changes cannot be pre-coded into your
> title transfering software.
>5. You might have made your own mix or edit, or your own microphone
> recording, or your own computer-composed tune, so the track couldn't
> possibly be in the CDDB.
That's a good, helpful list of points.
Titling of MD mixes is not solved by CDDB, but I use CDDB-downloaded titles
automatically when I create an MP3 CD. This titles appear in my Rio Volt
player, though I did not type them in anywhere.
Poor ID3 tagging (typos, wrong titles, no titles, capitalization, poor
conventions for artist/filename/directory structure) is a perrennial annoyance
and an issue for hi-fi/"archival" MP3 CD traders. MD titling is such an
undeveloped technology that these issues have barely arisen; it would be a
nice improvement to get *any* electronic titling, rather than the common
"track 18".
There are major problems with MP3 hi-fi album trades: gaps inserted by the
player between live tracks; glitches; artifacts/poor compression; various
titling problems.
When I buy a CD (with only $0.25 going to the artist, by the way), I feel
stupid for not acquiring the album via MP3 CDR trade.
When I do MP3 CDR trades, I feel stupid for not simply ordering the CD online
(to save time and get guaranteed high quality).
When I do MD trades, I can only feel stupid for wasting time -- quality is
almost guaranteed to be high, if the copy is from a pressed CD.
>| MD does titling in the most stupid, boneheaded, manual, tedious,
>| time-consuming way possible.
>
>Apparently, Mr. Hoffman, you have only a portable MD recorder and don't know
>how titling is on decks with full remotes, let alone on a deck with keyboard
>input. I find titling on portables to be as bad as you say, but it's not
>the only way to title a MiniDisc.
I am referring to my Sony home deck with dedicated letter buttons -- so
tedious and time-consuming that I quickly gave up titling MDs; and portables
are even more difficult and time-consuming for entering titles. The former is
very tedious, the latter utterly ludicrous (though better than nothing).
A keyboard port solves one complaint, CDDB downloading of titling solves
another, and inherent preservation of titling across digital copies would
solve another. Thus there are several improvements needed in MD titling
before it can begin to compete with the superior ergonomics of MP3 titling.
>| MDs are a dead-end for trades and each time you do copy an MD you lose the
>| titling ...
>
>There are ways to transfer titles from MD to MD. For example, many Sharp
>portable recorders have the Name Stamp feature that copies the disc name and
>all track titles from any recordable MD to any other with the same number of
>tracks, and the Sony MDS-W1 dual MD deck can copy titles between discs. If
>the tracks are at the same addresses, in many machines one can clone the
>entire TOC, titles and all.
It's good that companies are going beyond the MD standard to help MD titling
catch up with MP3 titling (which is inherently preserved via ID3 tagging).
I'm glad MP3 is putting the heat on MD and inspiring it to work toward better
titling approaches. I hope such improvements become standard and continue; I
hope that the best features of MP3 and MD are combined across the industry.
>Yes, another layer of ATRACking is introduced (unless you have pro-grade
>equipment that can transfer bit-for-bit in the ATRAC domain). In normal
>personal copying you won't have too many generations and the effect will be
>negligible, but it is a drawback for trading.
-- Michael Hoffman
http://www.amptone.com/audio
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