getting CDDB lookup for WAV files?

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getting CDDB lookup for WAV files?

I have a set of WAV files that are album tracks. I added them to iTunes using Add to Library and selecting the directory that contains the files. How do I tell iTunes to perform CDDB lookup on them?

I tried Advanced->Get CD Track Names". It says "iTunes cannot get CD track names for songs that were not imported using iTunes".

How do I tell iTunes to perform the same CDDB lookup for these files that it would do if they were tracks on a CD?

Thanks!

PowerBook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.11), iTunes 8.2 (23)

Posted on Jul 13, 2009 11:14 AM

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Answer 1

Chris CA

Level 10

82,513 points

Jul 13, 2009 11:43 AM in response to Trish Fuzesy

You cannot.
As stated, you need to RIP an audio CD with iTunes in order for iTunes - Get CD track names to work.
You can use 3rd paarty tools to do it.

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Answer 2

Trish Fuzesy Author

Level 1

11 points

Jul 13, 2009 12:58 PM in response to Chris CA

So let's see if I understand this. iTunes can take a set of tracks from a CD and query CDDB. Yet somehow iTunes cannot take the same set of tracks as files and do the same thing. Is iTunes really that limited?

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Answer 3

Jul 13, 2009 2:27 PM in response to Trish Fuzesy

No, Gracenote (which used to be CDDB which stood for CD Database) is a database of CDs, not tracks. It's able to determine which CD is which based on the things like number of tracks, length of tracks, total length of the album. How would a database "know" what individual tracks were?

Best of luck.

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Answer 4

Trish Fuzesy Author

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11 points

Jul 13, 2009 3:10 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

The tracks are not individual tracks; they're the complete set as on CD. They just happen to be in files. So the same track timings, track count, total length; they're the same. So it's not a Gracenote limitation. Is it really the case iTunes can't query Gracenote if the songs happen to be in files?

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Answer 5

Jul 13, 2009 3:18 PM in response to Trish Fuzesy

I believe the limitation is in Gracenote. However, you appear to know more about it than I.

Have you tried another app such as MpFreaker? It does a pretty good job of tagging mp3s. However, I don't believe .wav supports tagging. Any information for those files would be stored only in the iTunes database, not attached to the files, which complicates things.

Best of luck.

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Answer 6

Trish Fuzesy Author

Level 1

11 points

Jul 13, 2009 3:49 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

My guess is Gracenote has no idea whether the track timings an app sends come from CD tracks or WAV files. However, since AFAIK in this case iTunes isn't even querying Gracenote, it doesn't matter.

Thanks for the pointer to Mpfreaker. You're right that these are WAV files, though. But it does suggest a related question: does anyone know a good way to work around this limitation in iTunes? Any way to get the metadata that the Gracenote lookup provides, and put that into the iTunes library?

Thanks!

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Answer 7

Chris CA

Level 10

82,513 points

Jul 13, 2009 4:32 PM in response to Trish Fuzesy

But it does suggest a related question: does anyone know a good way to work around this limitation in iTunes?

Don't use WAV. Besides, it is simply another kludge invented by MS to destroy the universe.

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Answer 8

Trish Fuzesy Author

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11 points

Jul 13, 2009 11:08 PM in response to Chris CA

I'm not seeing a workaround there. Anyone?

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Answer 9

Chris CA

Level 10

82,513 points

Jul 14, 2009 12:19 AM in response to Trish Fuzesy

A "workaround" if you want to call it that is to not use WAV files since it does not have tags.

My previous post was partially in jest because MS (and others) did come up with the WAV format which does not have tags.
AIFF (by Apple and others) does have tags and is identical audio quality as WAV and the file on the CD.

Any other workaround ou may come up with will still not have the music tagged. If you add the info to iTunes then later decide to do something else with these WAV files, they will still not have any of that data. Same for any application since WAV files do not have tags to store that data.

Is there a reason you need WAV files specifically?

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Answer 10

Trish Fuzesy Author

Level 1

11 points

Jul 14, 2009 8:04 AM in response to Chris CA

I can provide either Sun/NeXT audio (.au) or WAV (.wav) file formats.

If iTunes is unable to perform Gracenote lookup, is there some other tool that will do so and update the iTunes database?

Thanks!

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Answer 11

PT

Level 7

20,894 points

Jul 14, 2009 8:14 AM in response to Trish Fuzesy

Trish Fuzesy wrote:
If iTunes is unable to perform Gracenote lookup, is there some other tool that will do so and update the iTunes database?

I am not aware of any such tool. You might look over in Doug's Apple Scripts for iTunes web site, but I didn't see anything initially with a quick search. Perhaps a deeper search will turn up something.
Cheers,
Patrick

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Answer 12

Trish Fuzesy Author

Level 1

11 points

Jul 14, 2009 8:56 AM in response to PT

Thanks much! Will check.

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Answer 13

Chris CA

Level 10

82,513 points

Jul 14, 2009 10:55 AM in response to Trish Fuzesy

I can provide either Sun/NeXT audio (.au) or WAV (.wav) file formats.

You could import the WAV directly into iTunes as WAV which does not have tags or you an import directly as AIFF, AAC, MP3 or Apple Lossless (which do have tags).

is there some other tool that will do so and update the iTunes database?

Gracenote is a commercial service so I don't think there are any free tools to get info from Gracenote
You can check out -> http://musicbrainz.org/
and -> http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12568
whichi use other databases.

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Answer 14

Trish Fuzesy Author

Level 1

11 points

Jul 14, 2009 11:16 AM in response to Chris CA

Chris CA wrote:

Gracenote is a commercial service so I don't think there are any free tools to get info from Gracenote

Actually, I have a paid tool: it's called iTunes. The problem is my paid tool is limited to doing Gracenote lookup only for CDs.

You can check out -> http://musicbrainz.org/
and -> http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12568
whichi use other databases.

Thanks! Will check out. Much appreciated.

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Answer 15

PT

Level 7

20,894 points

Jul 14, 2009 11:22 AM in response to Trish Fuzesy

Trish Fuzesy wrote:
Actually, I have a paid tool: it's called iTunes.

iTunes is a free download and therefore if you paid for it then you got ripped off.
Regards,
Patrick

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