[SOLVED] Alternative for Asunder's CDDB entry?

[Kirara]

Up until last week I was able to use Asunder's CDDB function to retrieve disc information from freedb.freedb.org.

Out of a sudden it stopped working and upon some research I now realize that it was supposed to stop working already a few months ago!
I now fail to find an alternate CDDB server entry to make the disc info function work again.

My questions would be:
Is there a dedicated replacement server/port available I could use? If yes, which one?

If possible I'd very much prefer to keep using Asunder.
If there's no solution however, what would be a good and simple replacement for Asunder?

Thank you very much.

[mshmm]

The changelog for Asunder 2.9.6 shows that the default CDDB server has been changed to gnudb.gnudb.org http://littlesvr.ca/asunder/releases/ChangeLog. You can enter this in Preferences -> Advanced in place of freedb.freedb.org.

[Kirara]

Superb! Thank you so much! (^.-)b

[mshmm]

You're welcome

[OunceofCommonSense]

I have set gnudb.gnudb.org in preferences under CDDB server for port 8080. I have not been able to get it to recognize disks I have (Santana,Bryan Ferry, Sam Roberts). This was never a problem in the past. Is there another step I need to make

[Kadaitcha Man]

Is there another step I need to make

Yes. You might like to click the link at the top of the page. You can't miss it, it's in red and says...

Forum rules
Before you post please read how to get help

Pay particular attention to items 2 and 5.

[Kirara]

I have set gnudb.gnudb.org in preferences under CDDB server for port 8080. I have not been able to get it to recognize disks I have (Santana,Bryan Ferry, Sam Roberts). This was never a problem in the past. Is there another step I need to make

Well, according to gnudb.org it should be port 8880 instead of 8080.
(see https://www.gnudb.org/howto.php)

However, since yesterday for me too, it doesn't work anymore even for well known titles.

[OunceofCommonSense]

Is there another step I need to make

Yes. You might like to click the link at the top of the page. You can't miss it, it's in red and says...

Forum rules
Before you post please read how to get help

Pay particular attention to items 2 and 5.

This seems to be a common problem that both me and the OP have I don't think I have contravened the rules. Posting in a new thread just dilutes the response. However if I have acted inappropriately I will start a new post or look elsewhere

[Rivcuban]

Geez, after Kaidacha's post I feel like I'm walking on eggshells. Wouldn't using the right port be part of accessing the alternative for CDDB? Anyway, I went to Advanced and changed and changed the CDDB server to gnudb.gnudb.org and it still doesn't work. My firewall is set to allow incoming traffic. Any suggestions? Thank you.

[OunceofCommonSense]

@Kirara

Trying out Fre:ac https://www.freac.org/ right now. It appears to tag the songs correctly and uses both Large and Small caps correctly (K3B and RipperX only seem to use large caps). Option of using CDParanoia is there and it will Rip various formats including FLAC. It must use a different database for identifying tracks. Quite like it

One Caveat: I had to use Snap for install, always just installed deb files

[Kirara]

... Wouldn't using the right port be part of accessing the alternative for CDDB? ...

Yes, definitely.


@OunceofCommonSense
Thanks a lot for the hint!
I agree concerning your caveat.
I'm going to wait for a few days to see whether the CDDB access issue is something general which soon will be fixed.
Otherwise I will give Fre:ac a try.


As for Asunder, just out of curiosity: do you guys use the version from Mint's software manager (2.9.2-1) or the one from the software's website (2.9.6)?

[OunceofCommonSense]

I have used fre:ac for about 5 albums and it is working very well. It is much more feature rich than Asunder and includes filters (noise reduction, channel converter, pitch controls....) and many other settings that can be tweaked . It has 4 settings for CD Paranoia

[all41]

@Kirara

Trying out Fre:ac https://www.freac.org/ right now. It appears to tag the songs correctly and uses both Large and Small caps correctly (K3B and RipperX only seem to use large caps). Option of using CDParanoia is there and it will Rip various formats including FLAC. It must use a different database for identifying tracks. Quite like it

One Caveat: I had to use Snap for install, always just installed deb files

It is also available as an AppImage which needs no installation. 16.5mb
Yes it seems to work well and rips to flac in about 2 minutes.
I love AppImages and I think fre:ac is pretty nifty.
I read this thread to help and you and you helped me instead! Thanks

[OunceofCommonSense]

@Kirara

Trying out Fre:ac https://www.freac.org/ right now. It appears to tag the songs correctly and uses both Large and Small caps correctly (K3B and RipperX only seem to use large caps). Option of using CDParanoia is there and it will Rip various formats including FLAC. It must use a different database for identifying tracks. Quite like it

One Caveat: I had to use Snap for install, always just installed deb files

It is also available as an AppImage which needs no installation. 16.5mb
Yes it seems to work well and rips to flac in about 2 minutes.
I love AppImages and I think fre:ac is pretty nifty.
I read this thread to help and you and you helped me instead! Thanks

I was a little confused how one went about installing via AppImage. I tried Gedebi installer. How does it work? Thanks

[all41]

@Kirara

Trying out Fre:ac https://www.freac.org/ right now. It appears to tag the songs correctly and uses both Large and Small caps correctly (K3B and RipperX only seem to use large caps). Option of using CDParanoia is there and it will Rip various formats including FLAC. It must use a different database for identifying tracks. Quite like it

One Caveat: I had to use Snap for install, always just installed deb files

It is also available as an AppImage which needs no installation. 16.5mb
Yes it seems to work well and rips to flac in about 2 minutes.
I love AppImages and I think fre:ac is pretty nifty.
I read this thread to help and you and you helped me instead! Thanks

I was a little confused how one went about installing via AppImage. I tried Gedebi installer. How does it work? Thanks

No installation required.
Download the AppImage and put it where you intend to keep it.
Right-click it and choose Properties, then under the Permissions tab check the box to allow execution.
Then just click the file to run it.

[Kirara]

That's pretty nice with these AppImages all41, didn't know about them before.
Looks to be like some equivalent to portable apps which I was using under Windows.

As for Asunder, it seems to work again. Probably DB-server related issue, who knows.
Anyway I'm back on track again so to speak.

Thanks again or the info on fre:ac, I'll definitely give it a try.

[SunWorks]

I just installed the following new settings for Asunder and it's had no problem ripping three different albums. Might try some orchestra CDs later, to see how it works on different styles.
Glad to have Asunder back working.

Am currently running Linux Mint Cinnamon 19.3 (64 bit)
Asunder v 2.9.2

Server: gnudb.gnudb.org
Port: 8880
(Do NOT check "Use an HTTP proxy to connect to the internet")
Server: 10.0.0.1
Port: 8080

Screenshot of settings attached.

Asunder_2020-07-15 16-41-10.png (24.48 KiB) Viewed 14570 times

[midtempo]

@Kirara

Trying out Fre:ac https://www.freac.org/ right now. It appears to tag the songs correctly and uses both Large and Small caps correctly (K3B and RipperX only seem to use large caps). Option of using CDParanoia is there and it will Rip various formats including FLAC. It must use a different database for identifying tracks. Quite like it

One Caveat: I had to use Snap for install, always just installed deb files

I was a bit confused about the fre:ac alternative. Fre:ac is both a music database and a music application, and they can be used separately.

The fre:ac application is actually an alternative program that can rip like Asunder can. It is available as a Linux download in the Snap store. You can use this instead of Asunder if you wish. Fre:ac has many customizable options.

I actually prefer Asunder for its simplicity though and its ability to get the job done right. If you want to stick with Asunder, you can actually use fre:ac's database to tag files as an alternative to FreeDB or GnuDB. A quick trial shows that Fre:ac's tag database appears to be more accurate than GnuDB's. Here are the proper settings to do that:

[Kirara]

Nice, thank you very much. Definitely worth to give it a try.

[OunceofCommonSense]

Asunder is good for basic ripping, but after using FRE:AC for a little while I find it does other useful functions, such as converting FLAC files to MP3 and noise reduction on recordings.