Special iTunes tags

[MrSinatra]

just fyi, i am pretty sure winamp will delete any id3 frames it doesn't recognize when editing and / or saving the tags.

[Mnyb]

just fyi, i am pretty sure winamp will delete any id3 frames it doesn't recognize when editing and / or saving the tags.

iTunes + is AAC it uses something else , do you have any experience with AAC ? and winamp ?

But it's easy enough to try , maybe i do in the evening ,I'm now own of working windows partition again on my new pc

[MrSinatra]

i'm not sure what you are asking, but i think AAC uses id3, right? if so, winamp would treat it the same, b/c its the id3 that matters, not the format.

[Mnyb]

i'm not sure what you are asking, but i think AAC uses id3, right? if so, winamp would treat it the same, b/c its the id3 that matters, not the format.

I'm thinking iTunes AAC uses something called "atoms" and not id3v hence the AtomicParsley app to deal with these things and Metaaac ( http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...5&#entry251675. )
But it is not straightforward to know most tagging or music software tries to not confuse the user but present a similar view regardless of tag scheme (or try to , it does not always work out ) .

This you link is probably interesting to you (it can be old info sorry ) you seems to have an interest in interoperability between tag systems

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...hp/t29120.html

But never the less the winamp is old well regarded app ,maybe it does the same thing for AAC I'll just try and report back later

[MrSinatra]

perhaps it is possible for AAC to do id3, and atoms, the way a mp3 can do id3, and ape, etc.

i know very little about atoms, and how winamp handles them, but what was being discussed here seemed to be the 4 char code frames in id3 that apple just throws in there without explanation. winamp until just recently used to delete TCMP frames, simply b/c it didn't recognize them. i complained loudly, and now while still not supported, they changed winamp so it won't delete TCMP (and quite a few other frames) if they already exist, but you can't see or edit them in winamp.

these apple frames though, well my guess is winamp will delete them if the user resaves the tag, assuming they are id3.

[Mnyb]

these apple frames though, well my guess is winamp will delete them if the user resaves the tag, assuming they are id3.

I think they are not id3 ,hence all special software to get rid of them .

But the easy solutions is to not use iTunes

[foxx]

Many thanks for your good advice so far.

iTunes files are even worse than I expected. Even with just a Word editor one can see that there is info written in the file which is not even visible in the special tags. I could see my name there. Well anyway, so be it. I guess one would really have to use a hex editor in order to completly clean the files. So I will refrain from taking this route and leave things as they are.

ITunes tags are definetivly not ID3 tags. Also I am not aware of any app that would write ID3 tags to aac files.

Otherwise I much prefer aac over mp3 because I really don't like ID3 tags. They simply take too long to write when I do mass changes or edits. Therefore I only use ape tags on mp3 files, but they are not fully supported by LMS. mp4 tags seem to be much smoother and are fully supported by LMS. Furthermore, the quality of the audio is better in aac than in mp3 - given the same bit rate.

[MrSinatra]

yeah, i was just off base. i thought AAC, which i don't use, could use id3 easily. thats wrong apparently, although it is possible it seems to stick them in there, (like sticking a id3 in a flac or wav)

part of the issue it would seem, is that apple doesn't make known how atoms work, and so things like atomic parsely and puddletag and so on have to reverse engineer the system to figure it out.

but you guys are on track, sorry for the noise.

[MrSinatra]

ok, sorry for this but it may be relevant...

i asked about this over at winamp, here's what they told me:

raw aac, meaning those files with the extension of AAC, DO use id3. winamp will put id3 tags or read/edit them in *.aac files that are NOT in a mp4 container.

raw acc i am told, supports IFF headers, ergo id3.

if the aac files comes from itunes, it will be in a mp4 container, and thats why it uses atoms.

i hope that all is true, and clears up any confusion. (i have not been able to verify any of it via google)

[Mnyb]

That's sounds about rigth AAC vs mp4 container , can confirm that besides your iTunes account in the tags your full name as you used when registering with iTunes is in the file so hex editor it sure is if you really want to anonymise these files, wonder if this is everything ?

make you think twice before using iTunes , if you have friends and family I can gather that files start to diffuse out to friends and family over the years/decades even if you don't actively file share .

Wonder if should wear my tinfoil hat and use the hex editor on files from other online vendors