The Naim Hard Disk Player and Music Server Database Alan Ainslie Naim Audio Southampton Road, Salisbury, SP1 2LN, England [email protected] Abstract Art is used to give the user a local database within which Music Servers have traditionally stored music in music can be selected for play. association with a database to allow retrieval of music at an Album level. While this is in accordance with the 2. Current Situation great majority of commercially available databases it is The shortcomings of the current state of the art of certainly not the manner in which a normal user selects cataloguing ripped CDs fall into several categories. music from conventional storage. Virtual music collections where the data representing the Music Servers, therefore, generally fall far short of the music is stored, but where there is no physical carrier requirements of serious listeners of Classical Music, create a new problem for cataloguing. Initially the Jazz, and Compilation albums. industry responded with several commercial databases offering cataloguing at an ALBUM level: A better solution had to be developed before Music Servers and Hard Disk players attain ubiquity in the ARTIST (SINGLE ARTIST FOR THE ALBUM) market alongside conventional sources such as CD ALBUM players. GENRE And within the selected album simply: This paper demonstrates how information at Track level with Naim Extended Metadata can give a user SONG experience beyond the convenience of conventionally will identify any individual track. selecting a CD from the shelf. Powerful database processing and search mechanisms deliver an intuitive This is the situation, supported additionally with Cover user interface for both the casual user as well as the Art that has been used by the various free or subscribed dedicated musicologist, whether playing music from the databases for a number of years. Hard Disc or simply playing a CD album in real-time. 1. Background ALBUM LEVEL TRACK LEVEL Traditionally, physical vinyl record and CD collections Searchable Searchable have been stored on shelves with spines visible. The Artist Y Song Y content of the spines reflects the marketing endeavours Album Y of the record company on the one hand and also serves Genre Y to indicate contents of the single disc or album for Cover Art selection by the user. Selection of an album quickly offers additional information as soon as the album is While this situation will work for simple Albums where removed from the shelf, as track information is readily the Album title is unambiguous and the Artist is the same visible along with other information relating to artists and for all tracks, the system immediately fails for the specific recording. compilations, where there are many possible artists individual to each track in the album. In order for a Music Server or Hard Disk Player to match Virtually all Classical music is assembled onto an album or surpass the convenience of selecting discs from a as a compilation, and therefore it is implicit that the collection on a shelf, a database internal to the Server current situation fails with classical music. has to be constructed to match the ripped disc. 2.1 International releases may be different The only unique identification for the disc relates to the Albums may well exist in several versions in different properties of the data on the disc: number of tracks, territories. These may have a different track makeup or track lengths, total play time etc. Information contained different Cover Art, even the same tracks but in different on the CD sleeve is not known to the Server. order, or differing track lengths due to editing refinements in later releases. The combination of tracks, track times etc. is possibly unique, but not always guaranteed to be so. At the time 2.2 Gapless playback of ripping the Server will interrogate one or several on- Albums may be designed for continuous play. The line databases in order to match the disc being ripped concept of ‘tracks’ being merely to identify location on with a managed and maintained database. The relevant the physical disc. E.g. Opera, or Pink Floyd: The Wall. database entry is downloaded, and together with Cover www.naimaudio.com - 1 - 24th April 2008 2.3 Multi Discs section 4 ensure a comfortable user experience. The full Albums may be part of a multiple disc set amount of AMG metadata is actually downloaded: nothing is discarded. This gives scope for additional 2.4 Data Tracks functionality in response to market sentiment. Albums may contain material additional to playable music – data tracks etc. The basic engine for the Naim Hard Disc Player and Music Servers is provided by Digital Fidelity and is 2.5 Metadata isn’t always correct based around a powerful XML database application. Integrity of data is paramount. Mistakes in data entry Further specialised functions ensure that the sound mean that user-submitted databases are not generally quality achieved is well in advance of industry standards. reliable. 5. The Naim Extended Music Database 3. Requirements Correctly creating a database that will be effective for The requirements for a reliable database from which to Compilation CDs requires that the search fields operate identify ripped CDs are summarised below: at both ALBUM level and at TRACK level. 3.1 Correctly identifying and allowing free searching The search fields proposed in the Naim Music Server within ARTIST, ALBUM, GENRE, SONG CDs. and Hard Disc Player are: - 3.2 This is adequately covered by the available ALBUM LEVEL commercial databases with one important shortcoming. Album Title Unless the data is edited or subject to some verification Album Artist 1 process the shortcoming the incorrect metadata could be Album Artist 2 displayed, resulting in end-user frustration. Album Genre 3.3 Correctly identifying and allowing free searching TRACK LEVEL within Compilation CDs, including virtually all Classical Track Title and many Jazz CDs. Work Track Artist 1 3.4 There are several types of compilation disc to be Track Artist 2 found in a typical CD collection, including: Track Artist 3 Track Artist 4 Classical Same composer, various works, various artists The concept of Artist includes: Classical Same orchestra or artists, various composers, various types of music Artist or Group or Soloist or Conductor Classical Same type of music, various composers, Composer various artists. Orchestra or Group Sampler Various unrelated tracks, various unrelated artists. Naim introduces the concept of PEOPLE for all Artists, Sampler Same artists, re-allocation of tracks from Composers etc, to avoid users having to manage failed other releases searches due to incorrect recollection of the precise Sampler Same record label but various artists and Artist attribute. tracks There is therefore within The Naim servers and Naim 3.5 Correctly identifying and allowing free searching Hard Disc Players the concept of PEOPLE SEARCH. within multiple disc sets. Providing that there is sufficient cross checking and binding of discs in a multi-disc set then the situation is as above. Multiple discs can be ALBUM LEVEL combined into a single playing experience using the DISPLAY SEARCH server Create Playlist function. TITLE Y Y ARTIST NAME Y Y PEOPLE 4. The Naim Solution PERFORMER / Y Y SEARCH The solution devised by Naim is creating a database ORCHESTRA internal to the server populated by data from AMG GENRE Y Y among other databases, with sophisticated internal COVER ART Y processing of the downloaded database entries. AMG provide data at both Album and Track level. TRACK LEVEL Importantly the database is manually edited: from both TRACK COUNT DISPLAY SEARCH submissions from Record Companies and from User TRACK TITLE Y Y Submissions, manual database editing creates a master WORK / PIECE / Y Y database, which initially promises to meet the specific MOVEMENT requirements of Naim as below. COMPOSER Y Y PERFORMER / Y Y PEOPLE Additionally the database is configured by Naim to be SOLOIST SEARCH self-optimising and various user tools as detailed in CONDUCTOR Y Y www.naimaudio.com - 2 - 24th April 2008 6. Search 7. Browsing The Search path for the user makes no distinction between search at Album or Track level other than when searching for an ALBUM title. The distinction is at the point of returning the results to the user. The rationale is that the end user will not be constrained by the physical CD boundaries of the original disc, which are purely an artifice introduced by the Record Company. The Naim user is therefore free of the constraints of the physical CD when searching. The user searches allow both BROWSing and SEARCHing. Within any of the menu categories sub-lists of album Browsing allows survey and selection from lists, in the Titles, Track names, Composers names etc. allow the manner of browsing a selection of CDs on a shelf, user to quickly drill down to the required selection. however they may be organised. Additionally there is the capability to Browse the metadata associated with 8. Searching Playlists. Searching is text entry based. Permits searching for At any stage of the Browse process the Album or Track specific text in album titles, track titles, performers, or selected can be simply added to a new playlist with a people. single click. All Browsing and Searching leads to track information: at that stage the corresponding full album SEARCH PATHS information is available including Cover Art. Search At any stage the View can be toggled from being list SMS Text Show tracks Play track or All based to having a highly