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Topic: What's the mystery with tagging WAV files? (Read 39952 times) previous topic - next topic
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What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

I really have tried searching online, and everyone seems to agree that it is impossible to tag a WAV file with any standard information. Not to argue about what "tag" means...but if you rip a cd with Windows Media Player, WMP embeds artist, track number, track title, and other information apparently in the head of the wav files. Other tools embed it in the tail of the file, so there are at least two conflicting ways to do this. And my attempts to use a hex editor and do it the hard way haven't been pretty, or effective.

So, what does it take (don't say "impossible" because it obviously is done by WMP) to enter the artist, title, track, etc. information in a WAV file in a way that both WMP and other tools will recognize it?

Are there really NO TOOLS AT ALL that can do what the clunker from Microsoft has done for so many years?

What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #1
There is no mystery. The specification allows for storing of data chunks either in the beginning or the end of file. However, most application use either the first or the second approach.
There is also a list of standard chunks defined by few specifications.
Most audio editors use (limited list of) chunks for storing metadata in wavs, just because they work mainly with wav files as a source.
Most audio players do not support wav chunks.
If you want to see an intelligent autio player/organizer, which support chunks in the beginning and the end of file, as well as UTF-8/system codepage switching, which treats the wav "tags" in the same way as all other tag formats, try MusicBee.
~~

What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #2
Audacity can write WAV files with INFO tags. dBpowerAMP Music Converter can do this too.

What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #3
This is probably baseless speculation, but are you certain WMP doesn't simply store that info in its database, not the WAV files?

What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #4
Audiograbber also had the ability to store tags for its ripped WAVs, but its for its own use for future encodings.  IIRC the tags are appended at the end of the WAV. Other software may have trouble of playing these WAVs with tags.
"Listen to me...
Never take unsolicited advice..."

What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #5
By the way: WMP 12 writes 'LIST' chunk first, then 'fmt ' chunk. Both Audacity and dMC do the opposite: 'fmt ' chunk first, then 'LIST'. Probably that's why WMP cannot read tags from these files.

(usual advice: use lossless formats with proper tagging support)

 

What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #6
Thanks, all. I will look at some of those suggestions but can tell you that WMP does indeed store info in the WAV file, at the top of the file. And it does not recognize anything that Audacity (1.2.x, the non-beta version) stores in WAV files, unless there's some option I haven't found yet on that. More to follow.

What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #7
In case of WMP11:
Only when ripping a CD to WAV a couple of RIFF Info Tags are written.
You can't change them afterwards.
The tags are:
IART (artist)
INAM (title)
IPRD (product)
IGNR (genre)
ITOC (?)
ITRK (track number)

Don't know if this is changed in WMP12 as I stopped using WMP
TheWellTemperedComputer.com

What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #8
Audacity can write WAV files with INFO tags. dBpowerAMP Music Converter can do this too.

While Audacity and dbPoweramp "claim" to write ID3v2 and INFO tags, none of them are recognized by Windows Media Player.  I have had the same problem for years and I have tried 100's of tag editors - NONE of them work for WMP recognition.  Once you add a wav file to WMP library and update the information in the library, it will show up in the player but that is ONLY because the info is now a part of the wmp database - NOT in the wav file itself.  Transfer the wave file to another machine, and the tag information that you thought was there is gone.  If you are looking for a way to add album or artist tag information to wav files (and NOT to any database) for WMP, it does not exist.  All claims to the contrary, dbPoweramp, Foobar2000, JRiver Media, AudioShell, Metadata Touch, BSI32, (the list goes on and on) DO NOT WORK as claimed for WMP tag recognition of wav files.

What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #9
A likely explanation was already given:
By the way: WMP 12 writes 'LIST' chunk first, then 'fmt ' chunk. Both Audacity and dMC do the opposite: 'fmt ' chunk first, then 'LIST'. Probably that's why WMP cannot read tags from these files.

(usual advice: use lossless formats with proper tagging support)

By "lossless formats" I'm pretty sure he specifically meant compressed lossless formats...

...or am I being redundant?

...or am I just being tedious?

...or??? (that one is for AJ )

What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #10
In case of WMP11:
Only when ripping a CD to WAV a couple of RIFF Info Tags are written.
You can't change them afterwards.
The tags are:
IART (artist)
INAM (title)
IPRD (product)
IGNR (genre)
ITOC (?)
ITRK (track number)

Don't know if this is changed in WMP12 as I stopped using WMP


In the MiniDisc era TOC meant Table of Contents. It was written to disk when Ejecting or powering off the device.

Maybe ITOC is also some table, but don't know what exactly.


What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #12
ITOC (?)
FWIW (and I know this is an old thread that someone has dragged up) I didn't find that one when I was creating this...
http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Tag_Mapping (but I've added it now)
...and it's not here either...
http://age.hobba.nl/audio/tag_frame_reference.html
...BUT Spoon mentions it, and describes the format, here...
https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php...torage-of-CDTOC

Cheers,
David.

What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #13
You might be interested to know that  SongKong Automated Tagger now supports Wav (and Aiff) reading and writing, and Ive blogged about it here.

In summary it reads information from ID3v2 and LISTINFO chunks, but where the values for a field are different ID3v2 takes precedence. Whilst making modifications it writes to the ID3v2Tag chunk and then ensures the changes are reflected in the LISTINFO chunk (where LISTINFO supports the field) and then writes both chunks

What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #14
That's all very nice, but..
A. Why would anyone use wav files instead of lossless compressed files,
B. What players would recognize these tags, and
C. Why would anyone use wav files instead of lossless compressed files?

What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #15
For any player that want to be taken serious by audiophiles wav tag support is a must. The established sense is decoding stresses the CPU and sounds worse therefore. Even aif and wav is claimed to sound different.
The internet does no good to more and more things.
I lately installed foobar the first time in a while and found the wavs i created had these silly tags.
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #16
That's all very nice, but..
A. Why would anyone use wav files instead of lossless compressed files,
B. What players would recognize these tags, and
C. Why would anyone use wav files instead of lossless compressed files?

Im not sure what the demand for Wav is but there is certainly demand for Aif, for example its one of the most requested enhancements for this project http://ideas.blisshq.com/forums/21939-blis...63-aiff-support. And these tags are recognised by mainstream players such as iTunes, Media Monkey ectera.

What's the mystery with tagging WAV files?

Reply #17
Im not sure what the demand for Wav is but there is certainly demand for Aif, for example its one of the most requested enhancements for this project http://ideas.blisshq.com/forums/21939-blis...63-aiff-support. And these tags are recognised by mainstream players such as iTunes, Media Monkey ectera.

AIFF is pretty easy since it's Apple's format.  So if iTunes supports ID3v2.2 tags in an "ID3 " chunk, everyone else can confidently go along with it.