how to get track names AFTER importing from CD

[sborelli]

Hi, I searched but couldn't find anything on this.

I imported a load of albums in a place without an internet connection, and am now unable to get the track names without the CDs present. I've tried highlighting the tracks and clicking 'get cd track names' but all I get is an instant 'cddb information is not available...' dialogue.

Am I right in thinking I can only get CDDB track names at the same time as importing a CD?

I've just changed from WMP10 and find Itunes much better, but in WMP10 it gets track names from the internet even if you imported from CD months ago.

If this is the case, is there another piece of software which will retrospectively download the track names so I can then bring them back into Itunes?

Thanks in advance if anyone can help

SB

[honeybee1236]

Welcome to the lounge. You can use MusicMatch Juke box or go to (http://www.gracenote.com/music) and use their database to get the info directly.

Also, did you try typing in the name of the artist and CD title first? You can do this on all songs at one time by highlighting all songs and add the artist and CD title. Then see if iTunes will do the search.

[sborelli]

Thanks for your reply,

Getting the information isn't really the problem, it's that I wish itunes got names automatically even without the cd loaded, as in media player. It's a curious omission from such an otherwise excellent bit of software.

Anyway, i've found I can drag the 'unknown albums' as listed in the itunes folder into media player, it downloads all info and tags the mp3s, and then I can drag them back into itunes tagged. Which presumably is similar to what you meant re: musicmatch?

Thanks

SB

[James6447]

>I've tried highlighting the tracks and clicking
>'get cd track names' but all I get is an instant
>'cddb information is not available...' dialogue.

It's worked okay for me on several occasions.

Assuming that your connection to the Internet was working ok, my guesses are that: a) the database site was temporarily down, or b) the database just didn't have info on those particular CDs, or c) I've heard that music downloaded off the Internet (rather than ripped directly from CDs) is often missing info that the database needs to identify it

[egon0119]

You can also try this:

http://www.musicbrainz.org/

Works 99% of the time.

It's great especially for songs you have no information for.

[Mephistopheles]

As egon said, the musicbrainz tagger is most likely exactly what you are looking for. The problem with using CDDB to get info after you rip a CD is that CDDB recognizes full CD's, not individual songs. When you rip a CD, you lose all of the information CDDB uses to identify a CD, thereby preventing you from going back and tagging the information later. Musicbrainz on the other hand, uses the actual acoustical information (the sounds generated by the file) of individual songs to match an unnamed song with it's info.