metadata on wav file incomplete

[rcobb63]

I am using Audacity 1.3.12 on Windows/XP. I enter the metadata for a wav file on export and when I import the file and open metadata editor the tags for the Album Title, Track Number, and Genre are missing. Is it something I am doing wrong? Thanks, Ron

[steve]

Audacity holds metadata per project, not per track. If you import a track into a new project the metadata in that file should be imported, but metadata from subsequent imported files will be ignored. When you Export the project, the metadata that is held for the project will be applied to the exported file.

This of course only works within the scheme of metadata for the file types being used and you will notice that there are variations in metadata support between different programs. Audacity uses a generic form of metadata that should be compatible with most other programs, but there will be some variations depending on what other programs you are using.

[rcobb63]

I use the following sequence:
1) I use CDex 1.51 to "rip" a CD, saving the tracks as individual files on disk.
2) I "Import" one file (track) into Audacity 1.3.12 and make any edit changes required.
3) I "Export" the file adding the values in the "metadata" tags and click OK. A value is added to each tag.
4) After the "Export" has finished I "Close" the file (which also shuts Audacity down).
5) I restart Audacity and "Import" the same file (track) again and start the "Metadata editor".
6) The "tag" values for "Album Title", "Track Number", and "Genre" are empty/blank. The other "tags" still have their values.
Shouldn't all of the tags still have their values?
Thanks, Ron

[gzepplin]

Hi Ron,
I am not expert, in fact only started using Audacity this week, but I may be able to make a suggestion.

"4) After the "Export" has finished I "Close" the file (which also shuts Audacity down)."

If you go to Edit Menu > Preferences, click on "Interface" and un-tick the option "Closing last...."; it should help.

Regards,
GLM

[rcobb63]

Thanks, just what was needed. Great not needing to keep restarting Audacity.
Ron

[gzepplin]

Hi Ron,
I belive you may still be searching for a reply, if not pls ignore this reply.

I record Radio Programs and then generate Audio CDs from it. I have only been using Audacity for 4 days, so the suggestion below may not be the quickest/best, etc.

I import the mp3 file, create labels where I actually write the track name. Then, I add "project/overall" metadata via the File Menu > Open Metada Editor. Once you have done that the tags are added to every track. Of course, you want a different track name for every track. For that you need to add it when you do the Multiple Export. But every other tag is populated in the exported WAV file.

When I open the exported WAV files in Audacity, it shows me the tags. Also, the file name has the track name.

Did it make sense? I hope so.

GLM

[rcobb63]

GLM; Thanks for the reply. I have also only been using Audacity for a few days. I don't know why what I am doing isn't working. I think Audacity should be saving all of the tags but is is only saving some of them. I'm not sure what "Labels" would do but I will give them a try.
Ron

[Gale Andrews]

I use the following sequence:
1) I use CDex 1.51 to "rip" a CD, saving the tracks as individual files on disk.
2) I "Import" one file (track) into Audacity 1.3.12 and make any edit changes required.
3) I "Export" the file adding the values in the "metadata" tags and click OK. A value is added to each tag.
4) After the "Export" has finished I "Close" the file (which also shuts Audacity down).
5) I restart Audacity and "Import" the same file (track) again and start the "Metadata editor".
6) The "tag" values for "Album Title", "Track Number", and "Genre" are empty/blank.

As Steve said, the different file formats have different degrees of support for metadata. WAV has the least support of any of the built-in formats supported by Audacity. If you export FLAC, OGG, AIFF and MP2/MP3, close or exit Audacity then re-import the exported track, all the fields in Metadata Editor should be populated, but for WAV, "Album Title", "Track Number", and "Genre" will be empty. If they are not, then you did not close or exit Audacity.

"Album Title" and "Track Number" are not supported because tbey are not valid RIFF INFO data, "Genre" is not supported because our current tag library does not support it. See:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/WAV#Metadata

I suppose we "could" grey out the unsupported fields when exporting WAV but that isn't a high priority. I have however documented the limitation in the Manual since it wasn't mentioned there.

"Labels" are used to split a long file single file into separate album tracks (still within the one Audacity track), then export files for those tracks all at once using Export Multiple.

Using Export Multiple will not export any extra metadata, but if you imported your files all at once into separate Audacity tracks and then used Export Multiple to export those tracks all at one go, that might save you some time. It could be a time saving even if the files already had metadata, as long as that metadata (other of course than for Track Title) was the same for each file. If the metadata for the files was different (as on a compilation CD), you would lose the metadata for all the files except the last imported one. It's only in Audacity 1.2 that the metadata for the first imported file is kept and the metadata for subsequent files discarded.

About all you can do is settle on a player application that supports adding tags in its own format for tag formats other than the ID3 standard. Winamp or iTunes will let you do this. This means iTunes will see its own tags in WAV files and Winamp will see its tags in WAV files, but iTunes will not see the Winamp tags and vice-versa.



Gale

[rcobb63]

Thanks for the explanation. Guess I thought if Audacity was importing and exporting the same file it would keep the info but if the metadata is not exported it can't be imported. Great software product, keep up the good work!!
rcobb63