Comments field in Metadata Editor

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

On all versions of Windows, Audacity’s Metadata Editor saves information entered in the ‘Comments’ box under the field names COMMENTS for FLAC files and COMMENT for MP3s. None of the other software I use (foobar2000, Mp3tag, Traktor) recognise the COMMENTS field in the FLAC file; they all require the COMMENT format.

As VorbisComments do not appear to include an official syntax for this field, is there any chance of offering an option to alter it in Audacity? Having to use Mp3tag to reformat the field is not an ideal solution.

Or am I missing something obvious?

2

I can confirm the problem, but for both FLAC and OGG (which has the same problem) you can still add a freeform field with the following tag:

Comment

then add the Value, then MP3Tag and Foobar2000 will recognise it. This works even though “Comment” is not in the recommended Vorbis Comments specification.

So in Metadata Editor, just type “Comment” (without quotes) underneath “Comments”. Press the “Add” button if you need to add an empty tag field.

This also works if you export using the Audacity Command-Line encoder. An example command would look like:

"C:Program Files (x86)FLACflac.exe"  -T "ARTIST=Qun" -T "COMMENT=cool" - -o "%f"

I’m not sure if changing the tag name to “Comment” in Metadata Editor would harm other formats, or if we can define it differently for different formats. I or someone may take a look, but it isn’t a priority given there is a workaround.


Gale

3

Thanks for your helpful reply. For the time being, I’ve modified foobar and Mp3tag to remap the COMMENTS field. (I gave up trying to use FLAC files in Traktor a while back; quite apart from the comments problem, it corrupts the date/year field and Native Instruments have refused to fix it.)