ADR-0038: The Turntable’s Album Is the One the Track Is On, and the Original One, Not a Time Since the Last

Context

On 2026-10-18, the first evening on the home Pi (CHG-0028), The Dark Side of the Moon was played, lifted, and Animals put on 52 seconds later. The recognizer named “Pigs On the Wing, Pt. 1” and then “Dogs”, which are right. The stand kept Dark Side’s rainbow look for both, because both were reported as on The Dark Side of the Moon.

The driver did that on purpose. It keeps the first album named on a side and gives it to every later track by the same artist, until ten minutes of silence, for two reasons that are real:

• Turning a record over is silence too, and the second side must keep its sleeve.
• The recognizer names a box set or a compilation for some tracks: on the bench, a track of Chicago Transit Authority came back as a box set. Taken at its word, the cover changes in the middle of a side.

But a time cannot tell a record turned over from another record by the same band put on, and its owner does not accept a rule that has to be waited out. The same evening shows a second fault: Dark Side’s first track came back with no album, and the catalog found The Dark Side Of The Moon (50th Anniversary) [2023 Remaster], whose sleeve is not the one on the shelf.

The owner’s rule is simpler, and the catalogs can follow it:

“Pigs on the Wing” is for sure Animals. And always prefer original albums over compilations and box sets.

Asked on 2026-10-19, Deezer’s track search put Animals first for “Pigs on the Wing” and “Dogs”, and The Dark Side of the Moon first for “Time”, each ahead of remixes, live albums and A Foot in the Door; and it lists an album’s tracks. MusicBrainz says what kind each album is (studio album, compilation, live, remix, demo) and named Animals as the one studio album among nine for “Pigs on the Wing”. But its search for “Time” returned 25 live recordings before Dark Side: it is good at classifying, not at finding.

Options considered

Keep the rule, with a shorter time. Turning a record over and changing it take the same minute. Any time is wrong for one of them.

Ask the owner’s collection only (ADR-0022). It has each pressing’s track list and is exactly right when it has the record. It does not always: the owner’s Discogs lacks some Pink Floyd today, Animals among them.

Believe the recognizer every time. Right for Animals; wrong for the box set, and wrong when it names no album at all.

Name the album by what is on it. Keep an album only while the tracks heard are on it; otherwise take the original album the track first appeared on.

Decision

For a track heard on the turntable, nowplayd names the album in this order, and no rule anywhere depends on how long it has been quiet:

1. The owner’s collection (ADR-0022, unchanged): the record in it whose track list has this track. Its pressing, and its sleeve, are the ones on the platter.
2. The record already playing, if its track list has this track. This is what keeps a side’s sleeve across a flip, and across a track the recognizer files under a box set: “Time” is on Dark Side, so Dark Side stays. It is checked against the track list, not assumed.
3. The original album the track is on: of the albums the catalogs say have it, the first studio album, in the order of first release. Not a compilation, a box set, a live album, a remix, a demo, a single or an anniversary edition, when an original exists. An edition points at its original: The Dark Side Of The Moon (50th Anniversary) [2023 Remaster] is a reason to ask about The Dark Side Of The Moon. The recognizer’s own album is asked about too, and not when its own track list rules the track out: that is the album of the record before, carried over. Beside the catalogs’ albums it counts only if it is an original, and is ranked by its date with theirs; when the catalogs have none, it is the one asked about. The catalogs can leave out the record itself (2026-10-29, below).
4. If none can be found: the recognizer’s album, and then the catalogs' cover search as today.

• The driver stops choosing albums. It reports the recognizer’s answer as it came, an empty album included. Deciding needs track lists and catalogs, which are nowplayd’s (ADR-0022’s collection, ADR-0027’s counted clients); the driver stays “a WAV in, a name out” (ADR-0021).
• Finding and classifying are different catalogs. Deezer is asked which albums a track is on, and for an album’s tracks; MusicBrainz is asked what kind of release each candidate is and when it first came out. Either may be replaced; the rule is the order above, not the services.
• A track list is fetched once an album and kept, as covers are, so a side costs one lookup and the tracks after it cost none.
• The artist must be the artist, not a name that contains it: “The Machine Performs Pink Floyd” lists “Speak to Me / Breathe” too, on a tribute album.
• Matching titles is forgiving: “Pigs on the Wing 1”, “Pigs On the Wing, Pt. 1” and “Pigs on the Wing (Part One)” are one track; “(2018 Remix)”, “(Live)” and “- 2011 Remaster” are not part of a title.

Consequences

• Changing records works at any speed. Animals after Dark Side is Animals from its first track.
• A flip keeps its sleeve without a timer, as long as the record’s track list is known. When it cannot be had (the catalogs down), step 3 still names the original album, which for a flip is the same one.
• The cover is the original’s. The 50th Anniversary sleeve is not shown for Dark Side; the 1973 one is, unless the owner’s collection holds the anniversary pressing, which then wins by step 1.
• More calls, counted. About two lookups per new album (candidates, then kinds) and one track list, cached; none for the tracks after the first. Within MusicBrainz’s one-call-a-second rule.
• An original that was never released as such is missed. A track that only ever came out on a compilation is named by the compilation, which is correct.
• A live record on the platter is named by its studio original unless it is in the collection. Accepted: step 1 is the owner’s way to say otherwise.
• ADR-0026’s ten-minute memory goes, from the driver and from its README.

What would settle it

Asked of the live catalogs on 2026-10-19, before it was deployed: “Pigs On the Wing, Pt. 1” and “Dogs” heard as Dark Side named Animals; “Speak to Me/Breathe” with no album named The Dark Side of the Moon; “Time”, Dark Side; Meddle (2016 Remaster), Meddle; Chicago’s track filed under Original Album Series, Chicago Transit Authority; Hysteria and Waiting for the Sun as themselves. The first tries found three faults the tests then took in: Deezer finds nothing for “Pt. 1” (it is asked again in plain words), a name containing the band’s is a tribute, and MusicBrainz answers 503 when asked quickly (it is asked once more, and spaced further).

Tested on the host, with recorded catalog answers: Dark Side then Animals within a minute names Animals; a flip of Dark Side keeps it; “Time” named under a box set keeps Dark Side; “Speak to Me” with no album names The Dark Side of the Moon, not the anniversary remaster; a track only on a compilation names the compilation.

On 2026-10-29, on the backend Pi: Journey’s “Wheel in the Sky”, heard on Infinity, was named Alive in America, a live album, and the stand lit from its cover. Deezer lists the track on live albums, best-ofs and the 2008 re-recording Revelation, and never on Infinity; the recognizer’s album was not asked about, because the catalog had others. It is now asked about beside them, as an original only, and Infinity (1978) is named. Tested on the host with the catalogs’ answers of that day, then heard on the turntable the same night, pushed to the backend Pi as 4e51363: Infinity named in 3.4 seconds (named_by=original), and the stand lit from its sleeve.

On the turntable:

• Dark Side side one, then Animals, without waiting: the stand changes from the rainbow to Animals’ sleeve on its first track.
• A record turned over: the same sleeve on the other side.
• A record not in the collection lights with its original sleeve: Journey’s Infinity, 2026-10-29.