Written by Dennis Bell.
SUGGESTED MEHODOLOGIES FOR MAINTAINING ACCURACY OF YOUR CATraxx AND DATA SUBMITTED TO CDDB.
SECTION 1:
| Para 1 to 6: | Example of statistics on data accuracy in authors Catraxx records. |
SECTION 2:
| Para 1 to 5: | Examination of your CATraxx tracks (song title / artist / album) data for accuracy. |
| Para 6 | Examination of your CATraxx songs in tracks view for accuracy. |
| Para 7 | Initial clean up requirements plus |
| Para 7 | Numbering convention in bottom left hand corner of Track View Screen. |
SECTION 3:
| Para 1 to 2: | Correction of Artist details in CATraxx track records view database records for single artist CD/LP’s etc. |
| Para 3 to 5 | Verify amendments to “Artists” in Tracks View against an album. |
| Para 3.a. to 3.b. | Deleting surplus track against an album. |
SECTION 4:
| Para 1 to 4 | Tracks out of sequence – correction methodology. |
SECTION 5:
| Para 1 to 2 | Compilation Albums – Clean up of “Artists” and “Song Titles – Artists.” |
SECTION 6:
| Para 1 to 4 | Albums submitted to CDDB – Verify accuracy before submission. |
SECTION 7:
| Para 1 to 3 | Albums downloaded from CDDB – Checking for accuracy in your CATraxx Database. |
SECTION 1: Para 1 to 6: Example of statistics On data accuracy in authors Catraxx records.
| 1. | The author of this paper, on retirement, decided to educate himself a little bit more about his version of CATraxx and noticed the following errors. |
| 2. | In 2000 the author had approx 700 CD’s which were either downloaded from CDDB or submitted to CDDB with the ratio being approx. 70% : 30%. In July 2006 the number of my CD’s was now approx. 1,000 with the corresponding tracks numbering approx 17,500. The current successful hit rate for downloads from CDDB is now approx 99.90%. |
| 3. | However, recently I realised that I could view all the tracks associated with my CD collection and realised that approx 6,200 lines were corrupted in some form or manner or a corruption rate of 35.4%. |
| 4. | The corruption was in the Tracks View File (View / Tracks View) and consisted of the following; |
| a. | Approx 3,000 tracks had no artist listed against them, i.e. the field was blank, representing line errors of 17.1% whilst |
| b. | Approx 3,200 tracks had |
| i. | On compilations albums the Artist (2) was “various” or “mixed” or completely blank. |
| ii. | The artist was listed under the track song and the song being vice versa. |
| iii. | The artist name was spelt incorrectly or was incorrectly recorded, eg. Bill Monroe being “1964 – Bill Monroe” which means the artist could not be located easily or would be sorted under “1964” in lieu of “Bill Monroe.” |
| iv. | The song track was listed as “artist – song title” instead of “song title – Artist” which means a song could not be readily found or |
| v. | For compilation CD’s only the song was listed in this field in lieu of under songs, “song title –(dash) artist” format. |
| 5. | Approx 285 CD’s were corrected and re-submitted to CDDB or 28.5% of my CD collection needed re-visiting and correcting. Nearly got RSI in the process but other poor souls should reap the benefit from the share wear system of CDDB. |
| 6. | The following Sections of this paper may assist other users of CATraxx to clean up their data and also suggests methodologies for ensuring that CDDB shareware data is easily checked for accuracy, both for downloads and submissions, and thus maintain the accuracy of your personal CATraxx database. |
SECTION 2: Examination of your CATraxx tracks data for accuracy.
TRACK DATABASE RECORDS – ARTISTS:
| 1. | Open your database and go to “View/Track View”. You will notice that you have three headings as “Song Title”, “Artist” and “Album” and all the individual tracks relating to your CD/LP etc being listed individually. |
| 2. | Click on “Artist” at the top of the column (grey area) where a red triangle (RT) will show and the column will either sort in descending or ascending order. By clicking on the “Artist” heading the database will change alternatively from “descending” to “ascending” order or vice versa. You may then notice as I did in my records that you have a number of lines where the “Artist” is completely blank, i.e. blank fields coming before “A” in the alphabetical sort order. |
| 3. | If you scroll down for the last of the blank artist’s fields you will notice in the far left hand bottom corner of the screen that it will tell you the number of blank artist’s fields that you have, (See Section 2, paragraph 5. c.). If you are then desirous of correcting these errors then you have two methods of doing this. |
| a. | If you notice that some of the blank artists fields relate to albums that only have one artist go to Section 3 or |
| b. | If they relate to compilation albums go to Section 5. |
| c. | Or you may notice lines where track data is incomplete where 18 tracks have been recorded against a 17 track CD. Go to Section 3. paragraph 3. a and b. (for blank / excess track) or Section 4 if tracks are out of order and you wish to correct this data. |
| 4. | Next test for accuracy of your track data whilst in “Artist” sort is to scroll down to either the alphabetical sort order of “Various” or for some compilations “Mixed” and these will show you the number of entries where compilation CD/LP’s etc were downloaded from CDDB where originally the “Artist (2)” data was incorrectly entered into the CDDB database, i.e. the specific Artist was not identified for each track on a compilation album. Go to Section 5 for a methodology for cleaning up these records. |
| 5. | You may then wish to scroll down through the alphabetical order of your artists and notice; |
| a. | Incomplete artists name or miss-spellings which then places the same artist in different areas in the alphabetical sort order. If single artist CD/LP’s etc go to Section 3 for the methodology for correcting this data or |
| b. | For compilation CD/LP’s etc, refer to Section 5. |
| c. | Songs in Artists fields and artists in song fields also refer to Section 5. |
| d. | Additionally, below the blank fields for “Artists” you may also note that the first listings of “Artists” may be sorted according to names beginning with “ (inverted comma) or ( [a bracket], etc which affects your ability to locate an artist correctly or quickly. |
TRACK DATABASE RECORDS – SONGS.
| 6. | You may now wish to sort the “Song” field by clicking at the top of the column which will now sort your songs in either descending or ascending order. You may then notice that your songs are listed as; |
| a. | “Artist – Song” format which means you cannot readily locate a song as it will be sorted by the artists name rather then the song title or |
| b. | For compilation CD’s etc that only the song is recorded which may suit you but some users prefer that in these cases the song is entered as “song title dash (-) artist”. |
| c. | Or as vice versa as per Section 2, paragraph 4. c. above, i.e. “Artist” recorded in the “Song” field. |
| d. | Or blank fields at the top of the sort order which may indicate an extra track recorded when Album data was input in CDDB – Refer Section 3. paragraph 3 to correct this error. |
TRACK DATABASE RECORDS – INITIAL CLEAN UP REQUIREMENT.
| 7. | If you are going to now clean up your Tracks Database records it is suggested that you un-tick all the ticks (left hand column) in your Tracks Record Database. This will assist in using the methodology set out in this paper when cleaning up your CATraxx Tracks Database Records. You will note that in the bottom left hand corner of your screen are some numbers. For example 9/17215/98/17215. |
| a. | The number 9 tells you the line number of the track record your cursor is on. |
| b. | 17215 is the number of Tracks Records you have. |
| c. | 98 tells you the number of records that have a red tick against them (utilisation of these ticks is advised elsewhere in this paper). |
| d. | 17215 (not known by author) but matches b. above. |
| 8. | NOTE: When cleaning up tracks against an album leave a tick against these albums for re-submission to CDDB from time to time during your clean up processes for other CATraxx users to gain from your work as CDDB is a shareware system. |
SECTION 3: Correction of Artist details in CATraxx track records view database records for single artist CD/LP’s etc.
| 1. | For Section 2, paragraph 5 a. data, i.e. |
| a. | The artist field was found to be blank in the “Tracks” records |
| b. | The artist name was spelt incorrectly. |
| 2. | In the Album view records (or if you are in Tracks view records – then View/ Albums View) double click on the appropriate CD Album line. |
| a. | Correct Artists name or verify that the Artist name is correct – save correction. |
| b. | Then whilst still in the Album Record or Album Template Record go to Track / Template |
| c. | Then Template / Assign to Tracks |
| d. | Then you should have a box come up listing all the songs on the album. In this box tick each box against each song AND IMPORTANTLY |
| e. | Un-tick the “Keep Existing” box (otherwise old data will be kept plus your amendment) in bottom left hand corner |
| h. | If you fail to action paragraph 2. e. above then redo actions from paragraph 2. a. above. |
| 3. | To verify your changes be in View / Album View which you now should be in and click on the Album just corrected and go to; |
| a. | Album / Show Tracks in Track View – The track data should now come up and check that the artist’s field should now be correct, i.e. the same artist is listed against each song. |
| b. | If there appears to be a surplus or blank track then click on the surplus track line and go to Track / Delete / Current. You will be asked to confirm the deletion. The number of tracks which are shown in the bottom left hand corner (See Section 2, Para 6. c.) should now agree with your Album. |
| c. | If the tracks consist of the number on the Album BUT are out of order or incorrectly named un-tick the tracks. Then go View / Album and go to Section 4. |
| 4. | When returning to the Album Records ( View / Album View) and you notice that the data for the Album in the bottom right hand split screen has not changed then click on another Album and back onto the Album you have just changed and you will notice that the record of changes has been refreshed / updated. |
| 5. | If you systematically correct the Tracks Records by first correcting the Albums with a single artist you will notice how quickly you start reducing the number of track errors you found in your examination of your Catraxx data as set out in Section 2. |
SECTION 4: TRACKS OUT OF SEQUENCE – CORRECTION METHODOLOGY.
| 1. | If you find that your tracks against an album are out of order then double click on the relevant album in the Album View Screen go to the “Tracks Folder” and click and drag tracks into their correct order or as close an order as possible then go to Section 5 for a methodology to do the final corrections. |
| 2. | If when dragging a track some tracks disappear then drag down the scroll bar on the right and you will find that it has gone to the very bottom of the track list. Click and drag it back to where you want it to be in the track order. |
| 3. | You may find that either you have a surplus blank track before and after you have finished – See Section 3, paragraphs 3 a. and 3. b. to see how a blank track is deleted. |
| 4. | If you find that you have tracks listed twice with the same info but one track’s data is not listed then see Section 5 methodology for final clean up, i.e. over write the incorrect track with the correct data. |
SECTION 5: Clean Up of Albums with “Various Artists” or blank data in the Tracks View Database, i.e. Artist (2) data plus Song titles.
| 1. | If you are going to clean up the data against compilation albums I suggest that you first go to View / Tracks View and place cursor at the top of “Albums” column in the Tracks list to sort Tracks by “Albums” then return to Albums by View / Albums View. Otherwise when you correct a song or artist the Track View data screen will jump to the entry you have just corrected in the alphabetical sort. If this happens then click the top of the “Album” column whilst in Tracks View data and you will find that you will be returned to the area of the album’s tracks that you are correcting. |
| 2. | With compilation albums the following will correct your song titles plus insert the artist for the particular track on your album. |
| a. | In Album View Screen click on the album to be corrected. |
| b. | Then go to Album / Show Tracks in Track View. |
| c. | All the tracks for the album will now be shown. Check the tracks count in the bottom left hand corner. This is why the suggestion in Section 2, paragraph 7 was made. If the number agrees with your album then all that is required is a systematic clean up of your data. |
| i. | For track one, un-tick it ( The numbers on the left indicate the track numbered order for the particular album). Then if changes are required then double click on the track. |
| ii. | Amend song title by having “song title – artist” in this field and correct artist by changing from eg. “various” or miss-spelling to the actual artist, then save and close. |
| iii. | If when returning to the Tracks View data you end up not in the same area where the other tracks are, i.e. with the red ticks then you have forgotten to click on the column headed “Albums” to keep you in the area of the tracks being corrected, i.e. maintaining the sort by “Album” for ease of reference and correction. If you now click on the Album Column heading it will correct this for you. |
| iv. | You will also note that due to the vast changes in the alphabetical sort for all the tracks in Track View due to your corrections that all the tracks in the database will now be shown. This is normal and is why the red-ticks are important for locating the tracks you are amending for the particular album. |
| v. | Now proceed to correct each track as per paragraphs i to ii above and un-tick as corrections are made. When you have finished you will note that the track counter in the bottom left hand corner will be zero. |
| vi. | Click on View / Albums View and you will be back to the Album View Screen. |
| vii. | Leave a tick against the album amended for re-submission to CDDB for other users of Catraxx to reap your hard work. Hope you don’t get RSI at the end of your work. |
SECTION 6: ALBUMS SUBMITTED TO CDDB – VERIFY ACCURACY BEFORE SUBMISSION.
| 1. | From the above document you will have noted, possibly in your own CATraxx data, the inaccuracy of data in your database. Therefore the following is suggested. |
| 2. | For single artist albums click on the Album after data input and go to Albums / Show Tracks in Track View and check that the Artist is reflected against each song line, songs are in order and according to the number of tracks on the CD, un-tick tracks, return to View / Album View and then submit to CDDB. If incorrect see Section 3 or Section 5 above. |
| 3. | For compilation Albums follow paragraph 2 above ensuring that an artist is shown for each track in the Artist Column and that the songs are typed in by “song title – (dash) artist” and then submit to CDDB. If incorrect see Section 5 above. |
| 4. | You may wish to note that when entering tracks for a new album and you fail to save before entering the next track – don’t worry your previous track entry was saved. Don’t enter the track again but proceed to enter the next track. But the procedures at paragraph 2 and 3 above will confirm the accuracy of your data before submission to the CDDB shareware database. |
SECTION 7: ALBUMS DOWNLOADED FROM CDDB – CHECKING FOR ACCURACY IN YOUR CATraxx DATABASE.
| 1. | In Section 1 above it was noted the number of compilation albums that after download from CDDB had the artist as a blank field in the Track View database of Catraxx or were the artists was listed as “various” or “mixed” or are a blank field. |
| 2. | Therefore, if CDDB, offers more then one choice of download, for an album check that track data is in the order of “song title – artist” and Fredrik has also advised that if you click the “More Info” button in the Match window to display the disc data for the selected CD before download that you can verify that an artists is listed against each track rather then the artists (2) of “various” or “mixed” or blank. Fredrik to confirm that you can verify that the Track Data will confirm that a CD version offered by CDDB can show that the Artist (2) field has been completed correctly. |
| 3. | However, after downloads from CDDB you will note that there is a red-tick against each track downloaded in the Track View database (View / Track View). If for example 100 tracks are downloaded for 5 CD’s there will be a count of one hundred on the counter in the Track View Screen, if you follow the methodology in this paper. It is then suggested that Section 5, paragraph 2 methodology is followed which after completing, say the 5 CD’s downloaded should result in the red-tick counter showing zero at the end of the process as you un-tick each track when verifying the accuracy of the CDDB download . |
| 4. | Best of luck in maintaining the accuracy of your CATraxx database. |
7th July 2006.
