Feedback on adding to FAQ: about Album Cover Art

[Bobcat22]

Album cover art is important to either retain or to add to an media file. The steps on how to either retain or to include album art in various file types should be contained within the FAQ and not have to hunt down in the many forums. If Audacity has not the function to do this, there should be shown a method. This needs to be resolved.

[Gale Andrews]

Album cover art is important to either retain or to add to an media file. The steps on how to either retain or to include album art in various file types should be contained within the FAQ

The loss of cover art (and lyrics) is mentioned here in the FAQ:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/fa ... .html#meta and here in the Release Notes: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Relea ... nd_Exports .

not have to hunt down in the many forums.

If it was an MP3, I would extract the image using MP3Tag or similar before import, then reinsert the image after export from Audacity. That is a lossless process (it doesn't re-encode the audio).

In fact if you are only doing cuts/pastes/joins or volume edits in MP3, it makes more sense to use a direct MP3 editor than to use Audacity, which re-encodes the MP3. Using a direct MP3 editor means that the audio quality will be preserved. Please see: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Lame_ ... tion#lossy .

If it's an MP4 then you can use iTunes or dBPowerAmp (both of which also work for MP3).

Do you have another solution to share?

This needs to be resolved.

There also needs to be a developer available who has an interest in exports/imports and metadata. There is none available at the moment.

I can add your vote for Audacity to support album art. It just gives us an indication of users who are interested in removing the limitation.

It's possible all we will do is make Audacity not discard the images, rather than add support for them, but if we move from libid3tag to taglib as planned that should be an opportunity to address this.


Gale

[Bobcat22]

Hello Gale and thank you for your comprehensive response.

FAQ topic entitled: "Why do my exported files not include all the metadata, like Album Artist or BPM?" One individual asked me about album art.

A lay person may not know that metadata is related to album art. The entitled FAQ states, "Album Artist" which I guess is the same meaning as album art. Possibly be better to state, "Album Art." Also a search on "album art" would better find topic in the FAQ.

Suggestion: Reword the FAQ topic from "Album Artist" to "Album Art".

P.S. I am willing to help document or help in anyway to assist in advancement of this project.

[Gale Andrews]

FAQ topic entitled: "Why do my exported files not include all the metadata, like Album Artist or BPM?" One individual asked me about album art.

A lay person may not know that metadata is related to album art. The entitled FAQ states, "Album Artist" which I guess is the same meaning as album art. Possibly be better to state, "Album Art." Also a search on "album art" would better find topic in the FAQ.

Suggestion: Reword the FAQ topic from "Album Artist" to "Album Art".

No, "Album Artist" is a specific tag frame containing text that Audacity doesn't fully support.

With effect from the 2.0.6 Manual, I've changed the title to "Why do exported files not include Album Artist or BPM metadata, Album Art or Lyrics?". Not perfect - it slightly implies that Art and Lyrics are not part of the embedded metadata, but I don't want to make it any longer.

I also added a couple of sentences of help to search for or extract images or lyrics, in that FAQ and in the Release Notes. I found this tag editor http://sourceforge.net/projects/idteid3tagedito/ which should be able to extract the art for most formats that support images.

Thanks for the input.


Gale

[Teduardo]

Album cover art is important to either retain or to add to an media file. The steps on how to either retain or to include album art in various file types should be contained within the FAQ

The loss of cover art (and lyrics) is mentioned here in the FAQ:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/fa ... .html#meta and here in the Release Notes: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Relea ... nd_Exports .

not have to hunt down in the many forums.

If it was an MP3, I would extract the image using MP3Tag or similar before import, then reinsert the image after export from Audacity. That is a lossless process (it doesn't re-encode the audio).

In fact if you are only doing cuts/pastes/joins or volume edits in MP3, it makes more sense to use a direct MP3 editor than to use Audacity, which re-encodes the MP3. Using a direct MP3 editor means that the audio quality will be preserved. Please see: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Lame_ ... tion#lossy .

If it's an MP4 then you can use iTunes or dBPowerAmp (both of which also work for MP3).

Do you have another solution to share?

This needs to be resolved.

There also needs to be a developer available who has an interest in exports/imports and metadata. There is none available at the moment.

I can add your vote for Audacity to support album art. It just gives us an indication of users who are interested in removing the limitation.

It's possible all we will do is make Audacity not discard the images, rather than add support for them, but if we move from libid3tag to taglib as planned that should be an opportunity to address this.


Gale

I prefer to edit FLACs with Audacity - More precise control and no loss. However, I think Audacity should include the Album art and Lyrics tags on file formats that support them. So do you know if a future release will include this? Is there a development road map somewhere?

I am currently using Audacity v2.12 which was released Jan 20th, 2016.

[steve]

I think Audacity should include the Album art and Lyrics tags on file formats that support them.

I've added your "vote" to the wiki.

So do you know if a future release will include this?

Audacity is primarily developed and supported by volunteers, so if/when a feature is developed is dependent on someone having the time and inclination to develop it. "Votes" on the wiki give some indication of what features are requested by users, but there are many more feature requests than developers.

Is there a development road map somewhere?

There's an old attempt at a roadmap here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Roadmap
There's also a list of proposals: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Category:Proposal

I am currently using Audacity v2.12 which was released Jan 20th, 2016.

Assuming that you mean "2.1.2", you have the current release version.
Audacity 2.1.3 is due for release very soon, and there is a "release candidate" (2.1.3 RC1) available for testing near the bottom of this page: https://www.fosshub.com/Audacity.html

[waxcylinder]

There's also a list of proposals: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Category:Proposal

This is probably a better organized (categorized) list of proposals: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Proposals

WC