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Topic: Idiosyncracies in APE format? (Read 5268 times) previous topic - next topic
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Idiosyncracies in APE format?

A quick scenario, if I may:
I'm looking at buying a Cowon J3 PMP, and had a quick hands-on where I could try out a few files of music I'm familiar with in various audio formats.

It handled MP3, WMA and FLAC without any apparent problems.  All well and good.  But then some APE files it played, and others it simply refused as "not a valid file".

I'm wondering if there are aspects of APE I'm not familiar with, and if someone can suggest why this occurred.  Of course it's always possible the idiosyncracies are in the player, but I can't just assume that;  as for the APE files, I tested the copies on the micro-SD card I used for the test.  They all play fine in foobar2000, and convert to other formats with no reported problems; they all open without incident in Audition 3.0; and they all passed the validation test in Monkey's Audio at 100% - both the ones that played, and those that didn't.  Monkey's Audio reports they're all version 2.99 of APE, at normal compression, so I can't put it down to version discrepancies.

I've searched these forums and the internet in general, but haven't found anything that would shed light on this.

Can anyone suggest aspects I haven't looked at that might make sense of this?

In some ways it's academic, because if they play in other formats like FLAC then I'll simply convert them.  But I'm trying to learn, as well.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Idiosyncracies in APE format?

Reply #1
Check tag types.
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Idiosyncracies in APE format?

Reply #2
I knew there was something I forgot to mention!   

Thanks for the thought, hlloyge.  I did check those in foobar 2k (and yep, I have it set so it writes ID3 version 2.3, not 2.4).

Though (again trying to learn), would  the wrong tags actually stop the files from playing ?
Or just from being grouped in the correct album/genre/artist/whatever ?

Idiosyncracies in APE format?

Reply #3
I knew there was something I forgot to mention!   

Thanks for the thought, hlloyge.  I did check those in foobar 2k (and yep, I have it set so it writes ID3 version 2.3, not 2.4).

Though (again trying to learn), would  the wrong tags actually stop the files from playing ?
Or just from being grouped in the correct album/genre/artist/whatever ?


If there are ape files, there should be ape tags.
And yes, you could expect all sorts of mockups.
Try removing the tags and playing them.
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Idiosyncracies in APE format?

Reply #4
I knew there was something I forgot to mention!   

Thanks for the thought, hlloyge.  I did check those in foobar 2k (and yep, I have it set so it writes ID3 version 2.3, not 2.4).

Though (again trying to learn), would  the wrong tags actually stop the files from playing ?
Or just from being grouped in the correct album/genre/artist/whatever ?


APE files should be tagged with, wait for it, APE tags.

ID3 tags on APE files will 'break' with a few apps I've tried, maybe with your hardware too.

Idiosyncracies in APE format?

Reply #5
Monkey's Audio reports they're all version 2.99 of APE

I hope you mean 3.99.  IIRC there were compatibility issues between different versions of Monkey's Audio.

Idiosyncracies in APE format?

Reply #6
Moneky's Audio files are tagged with APEv2 tags, not ID3.
Try to remove the tags from the files that won't play on Cowon, and see if your player can play them. Then you'll be sure that the tags are making trouble.

Cheers

EDIT: I didn't refresh the page before posting... hlloyge already suggested this
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Idiosyncracies in APE format?

Reply #7
OK, I've learnt something, thanks everyone.
(Yep, Greynol, quite right, 3.99 not 2.99.  The latest version of Monkey's Audio.)

I'll see if that makes a difference, then.

Idiosyncracies in APE format?

Reply #8
Hmmm.  I'm running Monkey's audio 4.06, and under Options I don't get the "Tagging" options shown in the Help files.

Is there a trick to this?  Some plug-in I haven't installed?

I can't find any settings relating to tags at all, and can't find anything about it on the MA website.

Thanks for any help.

Idiosyncracies in APE format?

Reply #9
Get mp3tag and remove the tags from one file.
See if it plays.
If so, you have some work to do retagging your files.

http://www.mp3tag.de/en/