Possible Bug with raw export always containing ID3 data

Audacity Help Forum GNU/Linux
1

Hi all,

Before explaining, maybe it’s me being daft in not knowing how to disable ID3 data
at the end of a raw export.
(Hence the title of this post containing the word “possible”).

O.S.: Debian 10
Audacity Ver: 3.1.3

I work on some audio then want to export as raw PCM, say for a player or other embedded device that has no concept of ID3 tags.
No matter what I try, Audacity always exports the raw PCM data followed by some (limited) ID3 data at the end.

I know this is not a problem for say MP3’s or even WAV (although I prefer the BWF specs),
or even when re-imported into Audacity, but it creates a loud short click when played on anything that is not ID3 “aware”.

Surely raw means just that, only “raw” PCM data, no header, no metadata, nothing.

Is it me just not knowing how to disable it or is this a legit bug?
Does it happen on later versions?

To test for yourself, create some audio, music, noise, anything then export as raw PCM.
Open that file in a hex editor and look at the last 52 bytes.
It is not visible on Audacity as it chucks away this data when re-importing, but it’s there.

UPDATE:

After some sniffing around, it seems like if you import any audio (mp3, wav, etc) and it has ID3 data, then that data will not be stripped but is passed on in the raw export.

2ND UPDATE:

Found a work around, adds a bit to the workflow but it’s useful.
Before importing any audio to a project that I know that I will be exporting to raw,
will first “sanitise” that audio with id3v2 (available in most repos) and problem solved.

So I will just treat it as a mild irritation versus a bug. :slight_smile:

2

Correct.

That is not happening for me with either Audacity 2.4.2 or Audacity 3.6.1.

In Audacity 3.1.3, the Metadata Editor does open on Export, but there is no sign of metadata in the exported RAW file:

Screenshot_2024-08-27_22-26-31
Screenshot_2024-08-27_22-26-31881×730 37.1 KB

3

That is very strange.
Here is my export viewed in the hex editor.

HEX-VIEW
HEX-VIEW992×400 118 KB

4

It’s possible that my test files implement metadata differently from yours. Perhaps you could make a small audio file that exhibits this problem.

5

OK, give me a few days to check all permutations like importing content with metadata versus
without and then exporting to various formats.
Will also try with just creating audio directly in Audacity without importing anything.

One thing I did forget to mention, actually completely forgot until now, I’m using the
AppImage version of Audacity 3.1.3 (audacity-linux-3.1.3-x86_64.AppImage).
Do you think that perhaps that has any bearing?

6

One thing that I forgot to mention is that the current version of Audacity is 3.6.1. If the problem is a bug in Audacity 3.1.3, it may now have been fixed.