# Internet data on music CDs



## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

I've ripped most of my CD collection into Windows Media Player, letting it fill in the CD and track details itself. In nearly every case I have had to edit this data because it is inadequate, wrong, or completely bizarre. I have just ripped a CD of Scarlatti sonatas and it has excelled itself. Of the eleven track titles three are in Chinese but the remaining seven are:

To the sky
Walk
Defeat
Why me?
For good
Weakness
Sit in the sun
Track 11

I don't know what Scarlatti would have made of it. Where does this stuff come from?


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Can you post the the Chinese ones? I'm interested in seeing what they say.

A number of classical discs I import are tied to Japanese metadata. I just replace it all. Unless, of course, the composer and works were named in Japanese to begin with. Then I keep it as is for the aesthetic value.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I have a Russian classical choral CD that Windows Media Player populates with titles from a punk rock album. Often one CD of a two CD set will not have track titles or will have the same titles and then over write the first disk ripped. 

You can edit the info and search for the proper album and change track titles more easily before actually ripping.

Really don't get why the titles can't be embedded in the disc in the first place.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Florestan said:


> [...]
> Really don't get why the titles can't be embedded in the disc in the first place.


CD Text is written in a 'special area' of the disc. Maybe there isn't enough room there for much data. ?


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

When you insert a CD the media player creates a ID code from the length and number of tracks. This ID can then be used to lookup the CD in an online database such as CDDB or freedb. The ID code should be unique to a particular CD release but often two different CD releases will generate the same ID that is why you are getting wrong results. There is no particular connection between the Scarlatti and the Chinese CD, it's just coincidence of track length. Embedded CD Text would certainly make things simpler but it seems to only be sporadically used.


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## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

Mahlerian said:


> Can you post the the Chinese ones? I'm interested in seeing what they say.


Unfortunately the original is now overwritten. But I confess I'm not sure about the Chinese. You must understand that by tradition the British lump all overseas peoples into the one category of 'furriners'. I've looked at some of the remaining bits of internet-supplied exotic script on my other CDs and Google reveals they are all Japanese. From memory I think the Scarlatti was also Japanese. Not sure this will render properly but here's one:

ラクリメ－ダウランド歌曲の投影ｏｐ．４８

which Google translates:

Projection op of Dowland songs - Lachrymae. 48

By chopping it down character by character I've found Lachrymae is ラクリメ, which is at the beginning of the line not the end. I've learned something!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I am still waiting for the embeddable chip that goes in your ear or somewhere and lets you select music with your mind and hear it in your head like full live concert, and is powered off the electricity in your body. Wouldn't that be wonderful to be able to listen to music while at a boring office meeting and nobody knows?


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Chris said:


> ラクリメ－ダウランド歌曲の投影ｏｐ．４８


Definitely Japanese. Perhaps you wanted to learn a bit more?

*ラ*クリメ－: Lachrymae (the dash at the end elongates the vowel)
ダウ*ラ*ンド: Dowland (both this and the preceding are spelled out phonetically; I've bolded the "la/ra" syllable that appears in both)
歌曲: Song(s) (the first character means song/to sing, the second means "piece of music")
の: particle that attributes what follows to what precedes it
投影: projection (the first character means to throw, and the second means shadow, so very literally, to cast a shadow)

Google Translate is actually okay for things like this, but try running through a whole paragraph and it mangles it very quickly.


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## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

Mahlerian said:


> Definitely Japanese. Perhaps you wanted to learn a bit more?
> 
> *ラ*クリメ－: Lachrymae (the dash at the end elongates the vowel)
> ダウ*ラ*ンド: Dowland (both this and the preceding are spelled out phonetically; I've bolded the "la/ra" syllable that appears in both)
> ...


I should have thought of coming to TalkClassical last year when I needed some Japanese translation. My CD of Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne (28 in Occitan, 1 in French) does not have texts or translations so I set about looking for them on the internet. Not so easy. I managed 28 but the last one, called *By the Bridge of Mirabel*, I could only find on a Japanese concert program. Original Occitan is:

Jou l'pount d'o Mirabel
Cotorino lobabo,
Jou l'pount d'o Mirabel
Cotorino lobabo.

Bengèrou o possa
Très cobolhès d'ormado,
Bengèrou o possa
Très cobolhès d'ormado.

Jou l'pount d'o Mirabel
Cotorino plourabo,
Jou l'pount d'o Mirabel
Cotorino plourabo.

From the concert program:

ミラベルの橋の上で
コトリノは洗濯してた
ミラベルの橋の上で
コトリノは洗濯してた

そこへ 通りかかったのは
そこへ 通りかかったのは
三人の着飾った騎士
三人の着飾った騎士

ミラベルの橋の上で
コトリノは泣いていた
ミラベルの橋の上で
コトリノは泣いていた

This is what Google made of the Japanese (Google Translate doesn't do Occitan):

On the bridge of Mirabel
Kotorino had been washing
On the bridge of Mirabel
Kotorino had been washing

I was there to Torikaka~tsu
I was there to Torikaka~tsu
Knight dress up the three
Knight dress up the three

On the bridge of Mirabel
Kotorino was crying
On the bridge of Mirabel
Kotorino was crying.

Thanks Google, but that middle verse is not right.

I posted a request on a site called StudentRoom which has a languages section. After several months a Japanese speaker spotted it and kindly provided this:

ミラベルの橋の上で
On the bridge of Mirabel
コトリノは洗濯してた
Kotorino was washing (ie doing the laundry)
ミラベルの橋の上で
コトリノは洗濯してた

そこへ 通りかかったのは
Passing through there (ie happen to pass by)
そこへ 通りかかったのは
三人の着飾った騎士
Were three dressed up knights
三人の着飾った騎士
(for some reason the Japanese song made it AABB while the original song in Occitan is ABAB)

ミラベルの橋の上で
On the bridge of Mirabel
コトリノは泣いていた
Tokorino was crying
ミラベルの橋の上で
コトリノは泣いていた

I've just thought of a question. The Japanese translator and Google have both put *On* the bridge of Mirabel but the CD insert has the title as *By* the bridge. Can you confirm *By* is correct. You don't do laundry *on* a bridge....


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Chris said:


> I've just thought of a question. The Japanese translator and Google have both put *On* the bridge of Mirabel but the CD insert has the title as *By* the bridge. Can you confirm *By* is correct. You don't do laundry *on* a bridge....


I'm sure that the original says "by" (you're right that it makes more sense that way), but the Japanese version does actually say "on" (the character 上, above, as contrasted with 下, below). The problem is that "by" is difficult to render quite so succinctly and idiomatically in Japanese.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

when I ripped *this CD* from the library all the titles were in Japanese! I tried changing them but they were stubborn and stayed that way so it's always a surprise when I click on any given track.


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## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

Mahlerian said:


> I'm sure that the original says "by" (you're right that it makes more sense that way), but the Japanese version does actually say "on" (the character 上, above, as contrasted with 下, below). The problem is that "by" is difficult to render quite so succinctly and idiomatically in Japanese.


There is a charity shop just down the road which a couple of weeks ago had not one but two Teach Yourself Japanese books. I am sorely tempted.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Chris said:


> There is a charity shop just down the road which a couple of weeks ago had not one but two Teach Yourself Japanese books. I am sorely tempted.


It's a fascinating language, but it can be difficult to get started, because the grammar and writing system bear very little resemblance to English.


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## Sudonim (Feb 28, 2013)

Mahlerian, this may be a question more appropriate for a PM than a public post, but others may be curious as well. I've noted before that you can read Japanese (and Chinese too?). How is it that you've come to know this/these languages?

(If it's because you're a spy, you can reply in a PM. )


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Florestan said:


> I am still waiting for the embeddable chip that goes in your ear or somewhere and lets you select music with your mind and hear it in your head like full live concert, and is powered off the electricity in your body. Wouldn't that be wonderful to be able to listen to music while at a boring office meeting and nobody knows?


There are some folk who have that capability...and then are escorted into clinics for close observation.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Sudonim said:


> Mahlerian, this may be a question more appropriate for a PM than a public post, but others may be curious as well. I've noted before that you can read Japanese (and Chinese too?). How is it that you've come to know this/these languages?
> 
> (If it's because you're a spy, you can reply in a PM. )


Nothing quite so interesting, I'm afraid! :lol:

A combination of classes, in-country experience, work experience, and self-study, that's all. (And I can only read Chinese so far as it resembles Japanese, kind of like the relationship between Latin and a Romance Language.)


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