Top 40 Music on CD Forum : Projects https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/ Copyright (c) 2006-2013 Web Wiz Forums - All Rights Reserved. Fri, 01 May 2026 12:42:26 +0000 Mon, 27 Oct 2025 16:14:06 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Web Wiz Forums 12.07 360 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/RSS_post_feed.asp?TID=9546 <![CDATA[Top 40 Music on CD Forum]]> https://top40musiconcd.com/forum//images/Top-40-Music-on-CD-Forum-Logo.png https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/ <![CDATA[Projects : PopArchivist wrote:BJhami75...]]> https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=67451&title=projects#67451 Author: bjhami75
Subject: 9546
Posted: 27 October 2025 at 4:14pm

Originally posted by PopArchivist PopArchivist wrote:

BJhami75 --

My Hot 100 project that I am working on encompasses three different areas. I call it the jukebox project. Basically matching Whitburn's annual listings of each year as well as Classic Hits of each year. Edtop40 inspired me, where he stopped at the Top 40 I kept going past it all the way down to position 100.

1940-1959 The goal is to have an accurate assembly. This era is full of incorrect versions, re-recordings etc and low quality usenet stuff. It is also largely ignored unless your name is Glenn Miller or the Andrews Sisters or you like the arrival of Elvis Presley and Rock N Roll.

1960-1974 The "mono" era I like to call it merging into the stereo era. This is by far the hardest era of the Hot 100 because of the 700 plus hits each year in the 60's and the mono 45's being harder to come by the lower you go digitally. Probably will take many years to finish it accurately at high quality.

1975-2024 Taken me about 5-6 years now but have an accurate assembly of the 1975-2024 Hot 100 era minus a few promos in 1975 and 1976 that have to be ordered. The 2005-2009 era had Itunes hits only and were most challenging to find. The CD area was easier because well it made CD so it was already digital.

Hopefully one day I can be done and rest lol. A lot of people on this board have made it possible to get this far...

Wow!  Sounds like you've been busy. 

I think it's great you're working through 1940-1959 as part of your project.  It does seem that era has been somewhat ignored.  I've only dabbled in that era.  My parents were really into Swing, and I remember some of that great music from them listening to it.  I also love the late 50s rock and pop.  I may have to pick your brain sometime to find the correct versions of the tracks I'm collecting.

Brad
]]> Mon, 27 Oct 2025 16:14:06 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=67451&title=projects#67451 <![CDATA[Projects : BJhami75 --My Hot 100 project...]]> https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=67426&title=projects#67426 Author: PopArchivist
Subject: 9546
Posted: 23 October 2025 at 12:14am

BJhami75 --

My Hot 100 project that I am working on encompasses three different areas. I call it the jukebox project. Basically matching Whitburn's annual listings of each year as well as Classic Hits of each year. Edtop40 inspired me, where he stopped at the Top 40 I kept going past it all the way down to position 100.

1940-1959 The goal is to have an accurate assembly. This era is full of incorrect versions, re-recordings etc and low quality usenet stuff. It is also largely ignored unless your name is Glenn Miller or the Andrews Sisters or you like the arrival of Elvis Presley and Rock N Roll.

1960-1974 The "mono" era I like to call it merging into the stereo era. This is by far the hardest era of the Hot 100 because of the 700 plus hits each year in the 60's and the mono 45's being harder to come by the lower you go digitally. Probably will take many years to finish it accurately at high quality.

1975-2024 Taken me about 5-6 years now but have an accurate assembly of the 1975-2024 Hot 100 era minus a few promos in 1975 and 1976 that have to be ordered. The 2005-2009 era had Itunes hits only and were most challenging to find. The CD area was easier because well it made CD so it was already digital.

Hopefully one day I can be done and rest lol. A lot of people on this board have made it possible to get this far...

Edited by PopArchivist - 23 October 2025 at 12:21am]]> Thu, 23 Oct 2025 00:14:17 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=67426&title=projects#67426 <![CDATA[Projects : Thanks for the comparison tips....]]> https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=67421&title=projects#67421 Author: bjhami75
Subject: 9546
Posted: 22 October 2025 at 8:20pm

Thanks for the comparison tips.  Greatly appreciated!  

I do use Audacity, but mostly for editing and some analysis.  But I like your idea of using it to isolate the fade, normalize it, and then listen from there.  My A/B comparisons are currently done on my DAP with headphones using ReplayGain to normalize.  It's a little awkward sometimes to A/B between tracks.  Using Audacity to isolate the fade will certainly help a lot.

Brad


Edited by bjhami75 - 22 October 2025 at 8:23pm]]> Wed, 22 Oct 2025 20:20:11 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=67421&title=projects#67421 <![CDATA[Projects : Glad my library has been an inspiration!...]]> https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=67420&title=projects#67420 Author: crapfromthepast
Subject: 9546
Posted: 22 October 2025 at 7:34pm

Glad my library has been an inspiration!

For me personally, having lyrics in the tags has been the bane of my existence. When I search for title and/or artist, having those words in the lyrics gives a ton of false positives. As a result, I've deliberately deleted all the "lyrics" fields in all the files I've ever accumulated. It's just me; your mileage may vary! :)

When you're doing comparisons, here's a tip: listen carefully to the fades. I often make my selection based on sound quality in the fade (if the high end disappears, it's usually a symptom of added noise reduction). All other things being equal, I'll choose the file that has the longest tail on the fade.

Pro tip: If you're working in Audacity with multiple files open, you can select all (CTRL-A), then make the tracks all the same volume (with everything still selected, Effect > Volume And Compression > Loudness Normalization > Normalize perceived loudness to -16.0 LUFS, leave the stereo channels button unchecked, check the dual-mono button. The exact numerical value isn't really important, but -16.0 LUFS seems to work nicely.)

Your files will all be the same volume, which is perfect for an A/B test. If you want to trim the opening silence, select the first few seconds of all the tracks simultaneously, then Effect > Special > Truncate Silence, then I made up some numerical values that seem to work well enough: threshold -40 dB, duration 0.1 seconds, Truncated Detected Silence, truncate to 0.01 seconds, check the truncate tracks independently button).

If you want to focus on the fades, select the last few seconds of the song (after the fade has started), and repeat the Loudness Normalization steps from above, using the same settings and numerical values. You can repeat this as often as you like until you're left with dithering noise.

Have fun!

And if you *really* want to get into the weeds, rename the tracks before you import them, so that the filename starts with the copyright date, then includes the album name, and (optionally) artist and title afterward. That puts everything in chronological order by release date, from top to bottom on the screen.

Edited by crapfromthepast - 22 October 2025 at 7:36pm]]> Wed, 22 Oct 2025 19:34:10 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=67420&title=projects#67420 <![CDATA[Projects : I just ran across this thread...]]> https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=67414&title=projects#67414 Author: bjhami75
Subject: 9546
Posted: 22 October 2025 at 2:01pm

I just ran across this thread and really enjoy reading about the various projects.  My current project started around 2003 when I got my first iPod and downloaded iTunes. I started to develop a "Portable Library" given the limited storage available on those early devices.  I had less than a thousand 128 kbps mp3 tracks but used the iPod constantly for travel, workouts, parties, etc.  I eventually upgraded to newer generation iPods with more memory, added more tracks, and re-ripped to 320 kbps mp3s. 

About 6-7 years ago I decided to re-rip my Portable Library once again to go lossless (FLAC), move to MusicBee, and find the best sounding (to my ears) versions of the tracks that I could.  Like most of you, I'm looking for tracks that are as close to the original release as possible.  During this ongoing quest, I became aware of this site and the great work that you all have done.  It has been very helpful.  In fact, I'm currently comparing my tracks to Ron's Hot 100 Library.

In addition to finding good quality tracks, I'm updating track metadata to document the pedigree of each track (rip source, original release information, mono/stereo, etc.) and for smart playlist generation.  I'm a big playlist listener.  I use metadata such as year, genre, sub-genre, and mood to generate most of my playlists.

I've also started updating the album art for each track.  I'm trying to collect the original release versions of the album art/picture sleeve/45 label.  There are some wonderful album art sites out there, but I find that many of them are not of the original release and/or have been cropped.  To me, cropping the artwork is the same as shortening a song.  So, I've taught myself photo editing to correct these images. I've been pretty happy with the results so far.

Finally, I started embedding lyrics into the track files.  While it sounded like a cool idea at the time, it has become a real pain.  The vast majority of on-line lyrics are just wrong.  Everything from misspellings, to missing words, to missing or out of order sections. It took me over 5 years to develop the correct lyrics for my Portable Library. And now I'm starting to experiment with synchronized lyrics.

My Portable Library is still relatively small now, around 4,500 tracks, but it continues to grow. I mentioned on another thread that I think I should be done with this project in 2137.  


Edited by bjhami75 - 22 October 2025 at 7:02pm]]> Wed, 22 Oct 2025 14:01:06 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=67414&title=projects#67414 <![CDATA[Projects : Indy500 wrote:Raise your hand...]]> https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=57300&title=projects#57300 Author: LunarLaugh
Subject: 9546
Posted: 02 February 2021 at 1:59am

Originally posted by Indy500 Indy500 wrote:

Raise your hand if you've ever spent an
entire day reconstructing the Frankenstein that is
Chicago's "Beginnings"?

Part of my 1970-1971 45s project.

Not an entire day, but I did manage to re-create the edit
in about an hour but I was pretty well versed in editing
software by the time I got around to that one. I used the
LP mix on the old Chicago Greatest Hits CD as my source
(the remastered CDs from Rhino and the remixes the band
has put out just didn't sound too good).]]> Tue, 02 Feb 2021 01:59:29 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=57300&title=projects#57300 <![CDATA[Projects : Raise your hand if you&#039;ve...]]> https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=57295&title=projects#57295 Author: Indy500
Subject: 9546
Posted: 01 February 2021 at 6:35pm

Raise your hand if you've ever spent an entire day reconstructing the Frankenstein that is Chicago's "Beginnings"?

Part of my 1970-1971 45s project.]]> Mon, 01 Feb 2021 18:35:36 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=57295&title=projects#57295 <![CDATA[Projects : I don&#039;t know if I&#039;d...]]> https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=57294&title=projects#57294 Author: Hykker
Subject: 9546
Posted: 01 February 2021 at 4:25pm

I don't know if I'd consider myself a "collector" per
se, more just a guy with a lot of records/CDs. Other
than an interest in promo copies, and liking to have
what were the hits, I don't really have any special
interest. I've been at the right place at the right
time on several occasions, and have ended up with
several radio station libraries (both vinyl & CD) that
were destined for the dumpster.

As far as projects go, this winter's project has been
to update the database I keep of compilation/VA LPs
and CDs. It was more than just a bit haphazard as to
what got entered, especially songs that appeared on
multiple collections...some got entered some didn't.
Plus I've been a bit lax at entering stuff in the past
few years, so it's about time to get caught up.

Originally posted by EdisonLite EdisonLite wrote:

My above post brings up another
topic. What genres are the most represented and the
least represented on CD? I'd say disco is probably the
most represented on CD


Never really gave that much thought, though it would
seem that rock (especially what's now considered
classic rock) is one of the better-represented genres.
]]> Mon, 01 Feb 2021 16:25:27 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=57294&title=projects#57294 <![CDATA[Projects : What is demand and what labels...]]> https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=57290&title=projects#57290 Author: AutumnAarilyn
Subject: 9546
Posted: 01 February 2021 at 1:30am

What is demand and what labels can get the rights to
is the stuff that has been issued on cd. Soul/disco
was slow to get reissued but once the mid 90's came
around, it exploded!

About 90% of the titles I've searched for have been
put on cd in the soul/disco genre. The stuff that I'm
missing is mostly indie stuff. The best known soul
artist under representing on cd is probably Jerry
Bulter. I have 25K titles, hits, and comps in this
category.

I must say I have nothing in the wants list for hard
bop jazz and I'm about 6,000 titles deep. Later
spriritual/free jazz has been tough to get in all
formats. Rights, small labels, and obscurity all play
in to that.

The 50's hardbop doesn't require royalty
payment if issued in the EU. As long as you stay away
from the 20 albums on 8 cd labels, you are okay. Fresh
Sounds from Spain does a nice job of reissuing this
era as well as Mosaic in the US.

Edited by AutumnAarilyn]]> Mon, 01 Feb 2021 01:30:32 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=57290&title=projects#57290 <![CDATA[Projects : PS - I meant to say this earlier...]]> https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=57273&title=projects#57273 Author: EdisonLite
Subject: 9546
Posted: 31 January 2021 at 12:29pm

PS - I meant to say this earlier in response to these posts. For those of you who this applies to: When you were buying CDs in the '80s, and if an older you told you, "You'll throw all these CDs away some day!", would you ever have believed him/you? :)]]> Sun, 31 Jan 2021 12:29:36 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9546&PID=57273&title=projects#57273