WAV tag editor. Experts on Wave files only, please

[Pascal Hibon]

I wussed out and am now making mp3 versions of the wav files through iTunes. This has the advantage of all happening through iTunes, which means iTunes is copying the "local iTunes metadata" for the wav files when it creates the mp3 versions. The sample rate is set to 192kbps, which is considerably lower than the 1146 kbps sample rate of the wav file, but it's also a hell of a lot smaller.

True MP3's are a lot smaller than WAV files, but then again, MP3 is a compressed (lossy) format. It all depends on what is more important to you: sound quality or file size. In any case, disk space should no longer be a concern these days. Hard drives are very cheap now.

[MrSinatra]

i think most people doing lossy can do mp3 with id3, and most doing lossless can do flac with vorbis, but i can see where someone doing audio work would want to keep things in wav just for ease of handling.

so what does wav tagging? i know wavs DO support limited tagging natively, maybe that riff thing that was mentioned? audacity will allow you to edit this into wavs.

i would not try to insert id3s into a wav, i think thats a hack.

i would be interested to know what mp3tag does, if anything, with wavs, both natively and if id3 is hacked into one?

[Mnyb]

i think most people doing lossy can do mp3 with id3, and most doing lossless can do flac with vorbis, but i can see where someone doing audio work would want to keep things in wav just for ease of handling.

so what does wav tagging? i know wavs DO support limited tagging natively, maybe that riff thing that was mentioned? audacity will allow you to edit this into wavs.

i would not try to insert id3s into a wav, i think thats a hack.

i would be interested to know what mp3tag does, if anything, with wavs, both natively and if id3 is hacked into one?

I think this is why people also use tga&rename mp3tag does not support this riff chunk tagging , and that is quite common theme.
Last i tried it did not read such tags , I have however not tried to tag them "anyway" to see what mp3tag does .

[Pascal Hibon]

so what does wav tagging? i know wavs DO support limited tagging natively, maybe that riff thing that was mentioned? audacity will allow you to edit this into wavs.

The official tagging method for WAV files is a RIFF chunk called LIST (with header id INFO). There are only a handful of metadata that are supported (artist, album, title, genre, year and a few other things); the very basic stuff. MediaMonkey is one of the applications who actually support this. There is a beta version of Audacity that claims to support it but last time I tried it did not work very well (of course, it is beta software). I have no idea where the latest beta is in terms of tagging.

Then there is the unofficial way of tagging wav files. This method uses the ID3 tagging standard into a custom RIFF chunk. Although this is a method that is not defined by the wav standard it works very well and does not break the wav file (as long as the RIFF structure is respected). Software that does not support this tagging method will still be able to read and play the wav files without any issues. Tag&Rename, Dragon tagger and ddjWave (my own application) are applications who do write (and edit) ID3 tags into wav files. Audiograbber is a ripper that does this to. Since this method is not a standard, these apps may be using different names for the ID3 RIFF chunk. Tag&Rename uses �id3 � while Audiograbber, Dragon tagger and ddWave use �ID32� for this RIFF chunk. The �ID32� RIFF chunk is supported by Denon DJ. The good news is that LMS supports both RIFF names.

i would be interested to know what mp3tag does, if anything, with wavs, both natively and if id3 is hacked into one?

I haven�t looked at mp3tag so I don�t know what it does to wav files. But as soon as I find a bit of time I�ll have a look at it.

[Speckta]

If this message board had a rep function, I'd give you + rep for that last post. Very well explained.

[MrC]

The outstanding JRiver Media Center reads/writes tags to wav files which are available to SBS/LMS. Windows-only.

[aubuti]

If this message board had a rep function, I'd give you + rep for that last post. Very well explained.

It does, though I don't think it is used much. Use the little six-pointed star icon in the lower let corner of the post's "frame".

[Mnyb]

Tried the automatic tagging in winamp it changed stuff but the mystery tags remains