Load album title, artist name(s) and song title from CD in to VB6 program

[Jim Yab]

I have no code and need a starting point for writing it. First, can it be done? Second, I need an example.
I have many CDs, both commercial and those converted from cassette and vinyl disks, that I am storing information (not the music) in my Music Library program. Typing in the data is time consuming. The CDs list most of the information on the recording - Album name, artist name(s) and song titles. If I could automate storing that information it would save me a lot of work. I can always add the remainder as an update.

[Frinavale]

If you are storing the music as MP3's, then I suggest reading the MP3 header information to retrieve the information about the songs.

You'll have to choose which version of MP3 you want to support and do the necessary research to determine how to read the header information...

Once you read the information you need into your application, you could write store it however you want to.

But it's a good place to start :)

-Frinny

[Jim Yab]

If you are storing the music as MP3's, then I suggest reading the MP3 header information to retrieve the information about the songs.

You'll have to choose which version of MP3 you want to support and do the necessary research to determine how to read the header information...

Once you read the information you need into your application, you could write store it however you want to.

But it's a good place to start :)

-Frinny

Where do I find the MP3 reading you refer to? I would like to look at the information. It may get me started.
To my knowledge all music on commercial CDs are WAV and not MP3 format. The conversion program that I use automatically saves those musical files from the cassettes and vinyl records as WAV files. I do not know anything about MP3 files since I have not needed it.

[Frinavale]

Check out this OReilly chapter on MP3s.

You will be most interested in the information about the "Header"...spec ifically the ID3 Space information.

For the ID3 specifications check out id3.org.

I think there is something similar for wave files because when I create wave files using audacity I am given the option to supply information about the artist, year etc. for the track.

I did a project on MP3s in college which is why it is the first thing that came to mind when I read your post...but see if you can find something like the ID3 tag for wav files.

-Frinny

[Frinavale]

According to this wiki article on WAV Files:

... WAV files can be tagged with metadata in the INFO chunk ...

It's worth checking out :)

Your program will have to retrieve data based on the type of ID3 tag (there's 2 versions currently) or the metadata in the WAV file.

:)

-Frinny

[Killer42]

Just a note. I'm no expert, but I'm fairly certain music CDs do not store the music in either WAV or MP3 format. That just happens to be the format output by your conversion program.

Also, it's possible (sorry, I don't know how) to obtain the ID number from a commercial CD and look up the details on an internet database. A lot of ripping programs do it (includng Windows Media Player), so it shouldn't be too hard to find out how.

[Frinavale]

When you use something like media player to rip the music into some sort of digital format, it creates the ID3/metatdata tags in the process. So, I'm sure that it is stored somehow on the disc itself, I don't know what the format is though.

You might be able to find information about this if you research it online. But if you can't find anything, than you could always use a tool like media rip the CDs into MP3s so that you will have the information available to your program.

[Jim Yab]

Reading your comments and searching the internet I have learned quite a bit, but not enough to answer my question. From the CD player that I have, I know the album name, artist and song titles display. I just don't know how to access them for my program. I am not interested in ripping the songs. It is the CDs that I currently have that I want to access. I appreciate your efforts.

[Jim Yab]

The more I learn the less I know about this question of mine. I know some of my music CDs display the information and some do not. I know that the conversions I made were WAV files and saved to the CD, but are not WAV files on the CD. It seems all of the information that I have seen to date refer specifically to MP3 files. If I have to go over many of the music CDs with a program to force/create the display of the titles then I have to type in that information. That is what I am trying to avoid doing. I may look around for a while, but it seems I cannot save myself from a lot of typing. Each of your messages have been helpful in my deciding to vacate the search. I am thankful and appreciate the time you took to comment. Thank you for educating me on the subject.

[Killer42]

To be honest, I think that researching ripping programs may be the only way to find what you want (unless you can convince Sony etc to divulge the details).

I'm not saying you need to rip your CDs to MP3s or whatever. Merely that the information on how to get hold of the data encoded on the CD is most likely to be found in the discussions of ripping software. After all, these program have been created to extract that data - it's what they do with it that differs from your goal.

According to the Red Book (CD standard) entry on Wikipedia, you can get the whole specification directly from Sony, but involving big $$$ (though that was apparently in 2004).

Hm... did a little further digging which may be of interest. Here's an excerpt from the Wikpedia article on CDDB, a popular Compact Disc Database...

The need for CDDB is a direct consequence of the original design of the CD, which was conceived as an evolution of the gramophone record, and did not consider the audio tracks as data files to be identified and indexed. The audio CD format does not include the disc name or track names, so a supplemental database is needed to supply this information when discs are used with modern media systems.

P.S. If you Google "cd database" you'll find plenty of software to create and maintain a database of your discs - some of it commercial, probably some free.

[Jim Yab]

To be honest, I think that researching ripping programs may be the only way to find what you want (unless you can convince Sony etc to divulge the details).

I'm not saying you need to rip your CDs to MP3s or whatever. Merely that the information on how to get hold of the data encoded on the CD is most likely to be found in the discussions of ripping software. After all, these program have been created to extract that data - it's what they do with it that differs from your goal.

According to the Red Book (CD standard) entry on Wikipedia, you can get the whole specification directly from Sony, but involving big $$$ (though that was apparently in 2004).

Hm... did a little further digging which may be of interest. Here's an excerpt from the Wikpedia article on CDDB, a popular Compact Disc Database...

The need for CDDB is a direct consequence of the original design of the CD, which was conceived as an evolution of the gramophone record, and did not consider the audio tracks as data files to be identified and indexed. The audio CD format does not include the disc name or track names, so a supplemental database is needed to supply this information when discs are used with modern media systems.

P.S. If you Google "cd database" you'll find plenty of software to create and maintain a database of your discs - some of it commercial, probably some free.

Thank you for your comments. I have given up on the search for the answer. I have many vinyl disks - 45, 33 and 78 rpm recordings and cassette tapes - which I converted into compact discs. Those are the ones that I had hoped could be accessed and entered into the input page of my VB6 program. I have resigned myself to typing in all data and not look for short cuts, since they do not appear to exist.

[Killer42]

Thank you for your comments. I have given up on the search for the answer. I have many vinyl disks - 45, 33 and 78 rpm recordings and cassette tapes - which I converted into compact discs. Those are the ones that I had hoped could be accessed and entered into the input page of my VB6 program. I have resigned myself to typing in all data and not look for short cuts, since they do not appear to exist.

You may still be surprised at what's possible.

There are apps which let you hold up your phone to the the radio, for example, and they'll tell you the name/artist of the song that's playing.

Although probably more effort than it's worth for this, it may be of interest to check out how they work.