Track numbers in WAV metadata?

[hellosailor]

"If you want tagged lossless files, "
But I don't. I want to tag WAV files, specifically. You know very well that choice is sometimes made for good reason, and FLAC simply is not as standard and supported as WAV is. Let's just agree not to go there, that discussion was beaten to death long ago elsewhere.

">> why so many CDs have track breaks that simply don't match up with the tracks.
I think it has to do with the drive and your ripping software."

No, again, I meant just what I said. There are commercially pressed CDs out there, where the music segues from one track into the next, and the track is actually split in the wrong place. Track #1 may end with applause and someone announcing "thank you that was xx on the bass and yy on the drums. (silence) And now we're going to do a little something new called..." before they start playing Track #2. But the CD has been pressed, and the track split, so that the conclusion of track #1, is actually the intro of track #2. And the entire narration is in Track #2, when any idiot could tell you the credits belong in Track #1.

Not to mention, sometimes it is not narration but music tailing off and changing.

This is not "What software did you rip it with?" this is called the recording company screwed the tracks up. On an older LP release, it is clear where the tracks originally were.

Heck, for that matter there are plenty of CD's where all the metadata is IN ALL CAPS or other strange mixes, sometimes with the data missing, or contradicting itself from track to track. This is not a software problem, this is called lack of quality control.

[Gale Andrews]

It has been a year probably since I went looking for a WAV file tag editor, and at that time nothing (nothing) would do it

I've mentioned one free app that will. It's free if you don't want to encode MP3's with it.

You can edit WAV metadata in Windows Media Player Library. Select the file in the Library, right-click over a column, display/move up the columns, then right-click > Edit the contents of the column. This won't change the file's metadata itself, nor will Windows or other applications see the change.

You can also change "Contributing Artist", Genre and Album in Explorer in Windows 7 (at the bottom of the window). This does actually change the file metadata, but WMP Library carries on seeing any independent metadata you already added there

But really, just migrate to something better.


Gale

[hellosailor]

Gale-
"You can edit WAV metadata in Windows Media Player Library. ...This won't change the file's metadata itself, nor will Windows or other applications see the change."
Yes, but updating the library on one computer, isn't my goal. Updating the file itself, so the correct information moves wherever the file is, is.

WMP seems to still be the bastard child at Microsoft, it never quite gets what the other children get. After all these years I find it still sometimes rips a CD and says "unknown album unknown artist" or puts in "Track1" instead of reading a track number. The problems are infrequent and generally not reproducible, but the word "robust" would never be used to describe any part of WMP, would it?

"I use dBPowerAmp" OH! It wasn't at all clear that you use it to edit WAV tags, you just said "tags". Thanks, I'll have to try that.

I have no attachment to WMP, it just conveniently ships with the machines.

[Gale Andrews]

"I use dBPowerAmp" OH! It wasn't at all clear that you use it to edit WAV tags, you just said "tags". Thanks, I'll have to try that.

I did say "It reads LIST INFO and ID3 in WAV files". I like it because it gives you an info popup of file type information and metadata when you hover over the file, and because of the right-click-over-the-file ability to edit the metadata.

It may be too clunky if you want a polished standalone tag editor.


Gale

[hellosailor]

Well, any editor beat no editor. I've dl'ed it and if it works here, I'll be tickled pink. Like eating an elephant, I can fix the library masters one at a time, sooner or later.

[and]

How nice, integrated into the explorer. I can live with that. Looks like it works, and I'll even have the ugly option to recompress my MP3s to fit on the currently full memory card in my phone. (Oink, 64GB SDXC card, and the library won't fit in vbr-2 form.) I know, I'd do better to reconvert the WAVs but until the tags get fixed...Hey, a Norelco CaryCorder once sounded good, considering where it was playing.<G>