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The Naim Hard Disk Player and Music Server Database
Alan Ainslie
Naim Audio
Southampton Road, Salisbury, SP1 2LN, England
alan.ainslie@naimnet.com
Abstract
Music Servers have traditionally stored music in
association with a database to allow retrieval of music at
an Album level. While this is in accordance with the
great majority of commercially available databases it is
certainly not the manner in which a normal user selects
music from conventional storage.
Music Servers, therefore, generally fall far short of the
requirements of serious listeners of Classical Music,
Jazz, and Compilation albums.
A better solution had to be developed before Music
Servers and Hard Disk players attain ubiquity in the
market alongside conventional sources such as CD
players.
This paper demonstrates how information at Track level
with Naim Extended Metadata can give a user
experience beyond the convenience of conventionally
selecting a CD from the shelf. Powerful database
processing and search mechanisms deliver an intuitive
user interface for both the casual user as well as the
dedicated musicologist, whether playing music from the
Hard Disc or simply playing a CD album in real-time.
1. Background
Traditionally, physical vinyl record and CD collections
have been stored on shelves with spines visible. The
content of the spines reflects the marketing endeavours
of the record company on the one hand and also serves
to indicate contents of the single disc or album for
selection by the user. Selection of an album quickly
offers additional information as soon as the album is
removed from the shelf, as track information is readily
visible along with other information relating to artists and
the specific recording.
In order for a Music Server or Hard Disk Player to match
or surpass the convenience of selecting discs from a
collection on a shelf, a database internal to the Server
has to be constructed to match the ripped disc.
The only unique identification for the disc relates to the
properties of the data on the disc: number of tracks,
track lengths, total play time etc. Information contained
on the CD sleeve is not known to the Server.
The combination of tracks, track times etc. is possibly
unique, but not always guaranteed to be so. At the time
of ripping the Server will interrogate one or several online databases in order to match the disc being ripped
with a managed and maintained database. The relevant
database entry is downloaded, and together with Cover
Art is used to give the user a local database within which
music can be selected for play.
2. Current Situation
The shortcomings of the current state of the art of
cataloguing ripped CDs fall into several categories.
Virtual music collections where the data representing the
music is stored, but where there is no physical carrier
create a new problem for cataloguing. Initially the
industry responded with several commercial databases
offering cataloguing at an ALBUM level:
ARTIST (SINGLE ARTIST FOR THE ALBUM)
ALBUM
GENRE
And within the selected album simply:
SONG
will identify any individual track.
This is the situation, supported additionally with Cover
Art that has been used by the various free or subscribed
databases for a number of years.
ALBUM LEVEL TRACK LEVEL
Searchable Searchable
Artist Y Song Y
Album Y
Genre Y
Cover Art
While this situation will work for simple Albums where
the Album title is unambiguous and the Artist is the same
for all tracks, the system immediately fails for
compilations, where there are many possible artists
individual to each track in the album.
Virtually all Classical music is assembled onto an album
as a compilation, and therefore it is implicit that the
current situation fails with classical music.
2.1 International releases may be different
Albums may well exist in several versions in different
territories. These may have a different track makeup or
different Cover Art, even the same tracks but in different
order, or differing track lengths due to editing
refinements in later releases.
2.2 Gapless playback
Albums may be designed for continuous play. The
concept of ‘tracks’ being merely to identify location on
the physical disc. E.g. Opera, or Pink Floyd: The Wall.
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2.3 Multi Discs
Albums may be part of a multiple disc set
2.4 Data Tracks
Albums may contain material additional to playable
music – data tracks etc.
2.5 Metadata isn’t always correct
Integrity of data is paramount. Mistakes in data entry
mean that user-submitted databases are not generally
reliable.
3. Requirements
The requirements for a reliable database from which to
identify ripped CDs are summarised below:
3.1 Correctly identifying and allowing free searching
within ARTIST, ALBUM, GENRE, SONG CDs.
3.2 This is adequately covered by the available
commercial databases with one important shortcoming.
Unless the data is edited or subject to some verification
process the shortcoming the incorrect metadata could be
displayed, resulting in end-user frustration.
3.3 Correctly identifying and allowing free searching
within Compilation CDs, including virtually all Classical
and many Jazz CDs.
3.4 There are several types of compilation disc to be
found in a typical CD collection, including:
Classical Same composer, various works, various
artists
Classical Same orchestra or artists, various
composers, various types of music
Classical Same type of music, various composers,
various artists.
Sampler Various unrelated tracks, various unrelated
artists.
Sampler Same artists, re-allocation of tracks from
other releases
Sampler Same record label but various artists and
tracks
3.5 Correctly identifying and allowing free searching
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
combined into a single playing experience using the
server Create Playlist function.
4. The Naim Solution
The solution devised by Naim is creating a database
internal to the server populated by data from AMG
among other databases, with sophisticated internal
processing of the downloaded database entries.
AMG provide data at both Album and Track level.
Importantly the database is manually edited: from both
submissions from Record Companies and from User
Submissions, manual database editing creates a master
database, which initially promises to meet the specific
requirements of Naim as below.
Additionally the database is configured by Naim to be
self-optimising and various user tools as detailed in
section 4 ensure a comfortable user experience. The full
amount of AMG metadata is actually downloaded:
nothing is discarded. This gives scope for additional
functionality in response to market sentiment.
The basic engine for the Naim Hard Disc Player and
Music Servers is provided by Digital Fidelity and is
based around a powerful XML database application.
Further specialised functions ensure that the sound
quality achieved is well in advance of industry standards.
5. The Naim Extended Music Database
Correctly creating a database that will be effective for
Compilation CDs requires that the search fields operate
at both ALBUM level and at TRACK level.
The search fields proposed in the Naim Music Server
and Hard Disc Player are: -
ALBUM LEVEL
Album Title
Album Artist 1
Album Artist 2
Album Genre
TRACK LEVEL
Track Titl e
Work
Track Artist 1
Track Artist 2
Track Artist 3
Track Artist 4
The concept of Artist includes:
Artist or Group or Soloist or Conductor
Composer
Orchestra or Group
Naim introduces the concept of PEOPLE for all Artists,
Composers etc, to avoid users having to manage failed
searches due to incorrect recollection of the precise
Artist attribute.
There is therefore within The Naim servers and Naim
Hard Disc Players the concept of PEOPLE SEARCH.
ALBUM LEVEL
DISPLAY SEARCH
TITLE Y Y
ARTIST NAME Y Y
PERFORMER /
ORCHESTRA
GENRE Y Y
COVER ART Y
Y Y
TRACK LEVEL
TRACK COUNT DISPLAY SEARCH
TRACK TITLE Y Y
WORK / PIECE /
MOVEMENT
COMPOSER Y Y
PERFORMER /
SOLOIST
CONDUCTOR Y Y
Y Y
Y Y
PEOPLE
SEARCH
PEOPLE
SEARCH
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6. Search
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.
Browsing allows survey and selection from lists, in the
manner of browsing a selection of CDs on a shelf,
however they may be organised. Additionally there is the
capability to Browse the metadata associated with
Playlists.
At any stage of the Browse process the Album or Track
selected can be simply added to a new playlist with a
single click. All Browsing and Searching leads to track
information: at that stage the corresponding full album
information is available including Cover Art.
At any stage the View can be toggled from being list
based to having a highly visible im age of the highlight ed
album Cover Art as well as a scrollable list.
BROWSE PATHS
Browse
Music
Browse
Artists
Browse
Tracks
Browse
Genre
Browse
Composer
Browse
Conductor
Browse
Performer
Albums Show
Artists Show
Show
Track and
Album
Info
Show
Albums
Show
Albums
Show
Albums
Show
Albums
Tracks
Albums
Play
Show
Tracks
or Album
Info
Show
Tracks
or Album
Info
Show
Tracks
or Album
Info
Show
Tracks
or Album
Info
Play
Album
or Track
Show
Tracks
or
Album
Info
Track
Play
Album
or Track
Play
Album
or Track
Play
Album
or Track
Play
Album
or Track
Play
Album
or
Track
7. Browsing
Within any of the menu categories sub-lists of album
Titles, Track names, Composers names etc. allow the
user to quickly drill down to the required selection.
8. Searching
Searching is text entry based. Permits searching for
specific text in album titles, track titles, performers, or
people.
SEARCH PATHS
Search
All
Tracks
Search
All
Albums
Search
All
Artists
Search
All
People
SMS Text
entry
SMS Text
Entry
SMS Text
Entry
SMS Text
Entry
Show tracks
or Album Info
Show Tracks
or Album Info
Show
Albums
Show Tracks
or Album Info
Play track or
Album
Play track or
Album
Play track or
Album
Play track or
Album
Searching
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Search within Track Titles, Albums, and People is
by SMS text entry.
Returned search results are displayed as list;
directly analogous to selecting a CD from a shelf.
Alternatively the VIEW can be toggled at will to
show Cover art to replicate the experience of
rummaging for a disc among many others on a
coffee table.
9. Playing the selected music.
Having made the selection, then using the extended
metadata in the database the appropriate fields are
populated for the user to view and further control
playback using the transport controls.
10. Shortcomings of the AMG Database and the
Naim solutions
10.1 Regional variations in albums
Discs may be issued with regional differences in tracks,
track lengths, or other anomalies. The AMG database is
currently USA centric. However, there is in place a
mechanism to optimise the database for regional
variations.
Should a Naim Server receive a less than perfect match
from AMG, the secondary lookup of an alternative
database is used. This will certainly not have the depth
of track level metadata, but will at least provide basic
disc identification. This information is automatically
submitted to AMG. At this point both the Server and
AMG record the situation.
Repeat occurrences, to a level of three similar incidents
from different servers, prompts AMG to physically locate
a copy of the errant disc for subsequent manual editing
of the database to take account of the regional
variations.
The Naim Hard Disk Player or NaimNet Server, at 03.00
hrs (default but can be changed) will automatically check
with AMG for any subsequently amended AMG lookups,
and in due course will correct all incomplete local
database records.
10.2 Album not known
If the album is recognised on other databases the n the
process as in 5.1 ensures AMG optimisation and
correction of the local server database. Should there be
no match at all then there are a number of tools which
allow the server user to create a manual database entry.
This is fed into AMG for use when a similar situation
arises elsewhere, and is subject to the same edit rules
for 3 occurrences. As of the end of January, 2008, the
AMG solution’s data coverage was approximately 11M
pop music albums.
10.3 Multiple AMG returns
In many cases there are a range of possibilities for AMG
matches. Logic internal to the Naim Server, subject in
itself to ongoing optimisation, makes intelligent selection.
In the event of equal weight of selection, a user selection
is offered.
By using the available sleeve notes the us er can refine
the selection. Feedback to AMG refines the central
database for future enhanced accuracy of lookup.
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11. Conclusion
Naim have addressed the major shortcomings of Music
Servers so far offered to the market, and in so doing
have created a totally new concept in convenient
playback of archived digital music.
Searching for material is often quicker than finding the
Album in a well organised music library, while the
profound level of information displayed by the Hard Disc
Player while playing music rivals the CD sleeve notes for
convenience and sheer user delight.
Multiple control interfaces make the most of the
metadata available according to the type of user and
application.
The benefits of the extended metadata and convenient
operation even extend to CD Albums which have not
been archived to Hard Disc: simply loading a CD in
Player mode brings up the extended metadata and cover
art on a variety of interfaces direct from the online
database.
Naim’s HDX is powered by the DigiFi™
platform; leading edge software
technology licensed from
DigiFi Ltd of London
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