Okay, that's pretty sweet.

I was looking up the same stuff, from the same AMG database, but in a much more kludgy "by-hand" fashion. This is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping for. I've got to check out that product...

Is that feature only in the pay version, or is it in the free version, too?

Never mind, I looked it up myself. That's supertagging, and it's in the $20.00 version.

Still, not a bad feature to have for 20 bucks.

I have the free version, and its annoying as hell. It keeps trying to connect to the internet all the time. even just playing a song causes it to try to connect. I didn't want to register, and it doesnt like that either. It keeps trying to get me to. I don't want to be spammed by musicmatch. Does anyone that has the pay version have these problems?

Yeah, they've become pretty aggressive when it comes to getting people to upgrade. Quite a few of us are kind of upset about the amount of spam that comes up in the free version. But, I'm in QA, and nobody listens to us.

Depending on what you're doing, there are a few different reasons it'll try to connect to the internet.

Ripping - Trying to connect to CDDB
Radio - It's internet radio, so obviously
Guide or Now Playing window open - Retrieve info from AMG
Listening to MP3s - Uploading of anonymous play logs

If you really don't want it to connect to the internet, you should be able to disable all this.

Go into the Now Playing window and click the "Online" button to take yourself offline. That should stop any song info retrieving.

You are given the option to opt-in or opt-out of playlog uploads. They're used for recommendations. If you don't want this, go to Options/Settings... and at the bottom of the General tab, there's a checkbox for uploading user pref info. You might also want to disable the periodic checking for updates (right above it).

Also in settings is the CDDB tab, which allows you to disable CDDB lookup.

I know that's a lot of stuff to do, but that should hopefully stop any internet connectivity.

Never mind, I looked it up myself. That's supertagging, and it's in the $20.00 version.

Damn...completely forgot about it being a Plus feature. They've been putting almost all our good features in the Plus version. It's definitely worth the $20.

If you want to see what it's like, go do a search on Google Groups for "MUSICMATCH serial". You'll get lots of hits. Copy one of the keys and put it into the jukebox.

Now, the jukebox will give you a warning that it's an invalid key (assuming you're online). But, it'll enable the plus features for 7 days. It'll at least give you a chance to check the features out. I don't know why we don't enable the features for a certain amount of days upon install.

It was a free version that came with my HP notebook, so maybe the options were different. I didnt see the option to disable the playlogs, I just got sick of it and uninstalled. Maybe ill give the new full version a try per other recent post.

Sean

I removed the version that came with my HP Notebook as well. Whatever you do, DON'T do the Recommended install - do the Custom. If you do it this way, you can automatically turn off a lot of the "features" without having to go through menus. I have CDDB turned off too becasuse I am usually not connected to the net. So when I do want CDDB info, I just hit the "refresh" button instead of waiting 30 seconds for it to time out when I am NOT connected.... I really don't want song recommendations, so I turned that off too.

I have registered, and I don't get any emails or spam. (just be sure not to check the box asking for email offers)

For Tony...

In reply to:

---

Is CDNow's database any easier to use than the one at allmusic.com in this respect?

---

I'd say no. But, sometimes it has details that aren't yet complete at AMG. The info at CDNOW is often very sketchy and you have to watch what you cut and paste. I know that for a couple of compilations I borrowed from my brother they had 3 distinct entries for each. All of them slightly different. A few of them with incorrect data (verified at AMG).

I have a handful of compilations I want to fix up like this, but it's not one of my priorities right now. I have a minimal number of compilations when compared to full-length original releases.

Bruno

Straight from the on MP3/Tag Studio's page:

Q: Will I be able to totally remove all the advert related files from my computer as soon as I register the program?
A: Yes! As soon as the program is registered, all the advert related files can safely be deleted from your system. You will get detailed instructions about how to do this together with the other registration info. Once you have registered the program on your computer, a special file will be created. In the future you can then download special totally advert-free versions of the program from the website that will work only if you have such a file.

Q: It's not enough for me to be able to remove the advert components after registering the program, I don't even want to install an adware-enabled program on my computer. If I register, can I have a totally adware-free install package?
A: Sure! Just send me a mail right after registering the program, and you will get instructions on how to acquire such an install package.

(Hmm... should I slap Tony for not reading a FAQ entry? Or is he going to complain that the FAQ wasn't easy enough to find, since it's under "Contact info"? Sorry, Tony... just couldn't resist!)

Also, as for whether the files stick around... I have the registered version and Ad-aware, so I can't say for certain, but I believe they are removed completely. Magnus is pretty good about respecting people's wishes.

Damm, that is AWsome! This just became the topitem on my Xmas wish list..only wish I had this a year ago.

One thing that I found http://allmusic.com wasn't good at was track listings for CD Singles. It would list them, but not give any detailed track info. I think for now, I will use AllMusic.com for most of my searching and CDNow.com to fill in the blanks.

This MusicMatch Deferred Tagging and Look-up..... well.... it kinda stinks. You'd think that a track titled "track 05" by James from the album James would fetch the title of the 5th track rather than giving me 4 random tracks to choose from... Good thing I have allmusic.com bookmarked!

Personally, I use a tool called Dr. Tag and I find it to be INCREDIBLE. I paid for this shareware. Its awesome and well worth the price. It does all the things you guys have mentioned, plus it has a few other cool tricks up its sleeve for converting filenames to ID3 and visa versa.. Check it here:

http://www.asterius.org/

-steve

You'd think that a track titled "track 05" by James from the album James would fetch the title of the 5th track rather than giving me 4 random tracks to choose from.

I completely agree. I already reported this to the guy who programmed the lookup. He told me that he hadn't even thought of using the track number as a lookup criteria. I told him why I thought it was important, and he said he'll look into implementing it soon. I'll forward on your comment as incentive to get it in.

I love the internet.

I know this isn't a MusicMatch forum, but I noticed with the old version of MusicMatch, cancelling a recording session deleted any unfinished tracks. Now, the track is left on the hard drive, even if only a small percentage of it was recorded. This has caused me to miss a few tracks because I see the file in the right folder and assume that the song was finished.....

And what about:

"Stop adjusting the volume

Perfect volume, all the time. Volume Leveling keeps steady volume applied to all your music, eliminating volume spikes or dips from track to track. And with the freedom to transfer your music to portable MP3 devices or CD, you'll enjoy perfect volume everywhere."

Careful - that 20 bucks will only get you upgrades for a limited period. I've run foul of this already.

Careful - that 20 bucks will only get you upgrades for a limited period. I've run foul of this already.

How is this different than any other piece of software you buy? If I bought Windows 95, it doesn't mean I get Windows 98 or 2000. If I buy Photoshop 5, it doesn't mean I get Photoshop 6.

Volume leveling is just a fancy name for normalization. We have a process where the jukebox can analyze the mp3 files and append a little piece of data about the peak volume to the ID3 tag. Then, when you turn on volume leveling, it reads this and normalizes the volume accordingly. You can also apply it when you burn CDs or transfer the MP3s to a portable device.

I haven't really played with it too much myself.

And as I've stated a million times, normalization will not make your songs sound at the same volume. Most CDs are already normalized, and so any normalization routine will not alter the song. Only by altering the dynamics of an recording can you make it seem to be at the same volume level as a different recording.

So, in a sense, the text copy which describes the feature (quoted earlier in this thread), assuming that it's really just normalization, is false advertising.

I wouldn't want any software altering the dynamics of my music files. Maybe some compression applied to the output would be okay. - so I prefer Musicmatch's approach. Compression changes the perceived volume or average output volume, but not the max output. So, I would have to think that it is not false advertisement.

What is true advertising? Making tracks the same volume level or making them "seem" the same volume?

Isn't it true that not all tracks are normalized to 0db?

Isn't it true that not all tracks are normalized to 0db?

CDs that are not normalized are quite rare. It's a standard part of mastering a CD.

Note that they are usually normalized to 97 or 98 percent of 0db. For making two differently-produced albums sound like they're at the same volume, a few percent isn't going to make a difference. Detailed discussion here.

Careful - that 20 bucks will only get you upgrades for a limited period. I've run foul of this already.

You can have lifetime free upgrades for $49.98 ($19.99 + $29.99) (if we are still discussing MusicMatch ).

Note that they are usually normalized to 97 or 98 percent of 0db.

I don't know the exact number, but we normalize on the fly to something like 90-95% of 0db.

As SE_Sport_Driver said, we don't actually alter the MP3 file (other than the ID3 tag).

Hi Tony.

I have to disagree with you on the normalization issue to some extend.
First let get a simple fact straight: A sine wave form that is going the full 16bit range .WAV files offer (i.e. using 100% amplitude) will appear to be of different volume depending on the frequency. That is why some normalization software tries to work on the "power" of the sounds instead of their amplitude like most of them do.
Now, I checked 10 randomly picked CDs out of my collection of 50 (well, I have more on MP3, but those were already normalized while ripping). Only 5 of them (all containing (only) songs that were first published within the last 3 years) where showing 95%-98% maximum amplitude, the rest varied from 75% to 90%. (Yeah, I love my plextor, couldn't have checked this fast without it.) Getting more investigative, I checked another 10, but the picture was about the same. Only those CDs that contained recently produced songs where normalized like you say (to about 95-98%). Those CDs that contained older songs (from 60s to mid 90s), even if they were produced lately (e.g. a sampler with irish folk (first published 1972), remastered 2000) varied from 70% peak amplitude to 99% peak amplitude.

In most cases, I wouldn't want to change the recorded volume anyway, as they mostly match the music (slow classic being more silent than Rock'n'Roll), expect for some occasions (empeg in car or on parties).

cu,
sven

That is why some normalization software tries to work on the "power" of the sounds instead of their amplitude like most of them do.

At that point we're getting into different definitions of normalization.

The official definition is to increase the volume of the waveform until its maximum peak is just short of clipping (regardless of the frequency). In that statement, you're referring to a different thing.

Regarding the percentage of CDs that weren't normalized, I was basing my "percentage" on my meager collection of about 200 major-label CDs. Everyone's collection is going to have a different percentage. I, too, have noticed that things like folk music sampler CDs (and other CDs that don't have an extremely large press run) tend to be more likely to be not normalized.

My main point is that even when two differently-produced pieces of music are equally normalized, they will still sound like they are playing at radically different volumes. Normalization won't make all your songs sound like they are at the same volume if they are produced differently.

How is this different than any other piece of software you buy? If I bought Windows 95, it doesn't mean I get Windows 98 or 2000. If I buy Photoshop 5, it doesn't mean I get Photoshop 6.

It's different cuz it is not obvious (or wasn't) when you first order. I wasn't slating it, it was just a reminder to make sure people go for the right option.

I have to disagree about your argument, though. Paint Shop Pro doesn't push you to upgrade to the lastest version every time you log onto the web. There is no warning on MusicMatch when you upgrade that you've already hit your limit and that from that point on you'll get annoying messages. And, take the empeg, you don't have to pay for the latest software upgrade for that, do you?

And, take the empeg, you don't have to pay for the latest software upgrade for that, do you?

I don't think it's fair to compare firmware upgrades to software upgrades.

Also, could you give me more info on the "limit" you're talking about with MusicMatch? If you've bought the Plus version and entered your key, you shouldn't be getting any nag screens, unless you're using a pirate key.

We haven't yet implemented actual checking for using old keys in newer versions (although it's coming soon), so you should be able to use your older key (from as far back as 4.x) in the new 7.0.