Adding additional metadata fields

[wdesbrow]

I am a newbie and have just ripped my first three CD's to a NAS drive. In addition to the 5 or 6 metadata fields that DB automatically populates I added one called "Comment" and completed the field. It worked fine but I expected/assumed that additional field would show up on all subsequent CD's -- waiting for me to fill it in. It did not. How can I add it as a regular feature for all future rips? Many thanks.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Adding additional metadata fields

I am a newbie and have just ripped my first three CD's to a NAS drive. In addition to the 5 or 6 metadata fields that DB automatically populates I added one called "Comment" and completed the field. It worked fine but I expected/assumed that additional field would show up on all subsequent CD's -- waiting for me to fill it in. It did not. How can I add it as a regular feature for all future rips? Many thanks.

Sure. There are a number of ways to do this, but the easiest is to set the tags you want in CD Ripper defaults. Click on the "Options" button at the top of the page. That'll open a settings window. Scroll down to Metadata and click on Options....the pop-up has all sorts of settings, but if you scroll down, you can checkmark the tags that you always want added to your rips be default.

[wdesbrow]

Re: Adding additional metadata fields

Thanks much

[wdesbrow]

Re: Adding additional metadata fields

I went back again and under OPTIONS and WRITE ID tags, most of the boxes are checked as a default, I assume, but in the metadata box in the bottom-most right adjacent to the album art box, the majority of the boxes checked under OPTIONS -- including the field I want to re-populate ("Comment") do not re-populate (?). What could I be doing wrong?

thank you.

w.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Adding additional metadata fields

I went back again and under OPTIONS and WRITE ID tags, most of the boxes are checked as a default, I assume, but in the metadata box in the bottom-most right adjacent to the album art box, the majority of the boxes checked under OPTIONS -- including the field I want to re-populate ("Comment") do not re-populate (?). What could I be doing wrong?

thank you.

w.

A couple things. First, be aware that in the inclusion of some tag fields is codec-dependent....not every audio codec & tagging format will use every one of those listed fields.

But the more important thing to keep in mind is that empty fields are not included. In other words, the COMMENT field may be checked in your program defaults, but if there's no data for it, that tag will not be written. dBp can only (automatically) populate those fields for which it finds information in the online databases, and COMMENT is not usually one of those...it's more of a "user field." That metadata box you refer to, adjacent to the album art box, just shows those fields common to the entire album (notice things like TRACK and TITLE are not shown there). To add a COMMENT for a whole album, you would write it in the box in the upper right-hand corner. If there are other tags you always want to add...information not obtained from the databases...the ID Tag Processing DSP is probably your best bet. Have you had a look at that yet? It's a powerful tool for customizing your tags.

[wdesbrow]

Re: Adding additional metadata fields

Hi BrodyBoy: Sorry ... still struggling with this. I just ripped a new CD. When I click on the top right of the window that shows the tags, the field changes but will not permit me to add anything. When I go to ID tag processing DSP I tried using two of the tabs at the top the phrase "ID TAG PROCESSING" shows up in the window for the DSP tab but nothing is added to the window that shows the other tags.
What I am trying to do is simply add a tab/field that perhaps says "Origin" ... so I can keep track of who owns which physical CD's. So I would like "Origin" and a blank field next to it in the tag window for each rip.

Thanks again for your help.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Adding additional metadata fields

Hi BrodyBoy: Sorry ... still struggling with this. I just ripped a new CD. When I click on the top right of the window that shows the tags, the field changes but will not permit me to add anything. When I go to ID tag processing DSP I tried using two of the tabs at the top the phrase "ID TAG PROCESSING" shows up in the window for the DSP tab but nothing is added to the window that shows the other tags.
What I am trying to do is simply add a tab/field that perhaps says "Origin" ... so I can keep track of who owns which physical CD's. So I would like "Origin" and a blank field next to it in the tag window for each rip.

Thanks again for your help.

I'm a little unclear exactly what you're clicking and how you're trying to proceed, but I think I get what you're trying to do. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you are attempting to customize CD Ripper's main window with your own user-created, fillable field. That's not possible. There are ways to add your own tags, but not to customize the ripping window with your own fields.

Here's a workaround. In the ID Tag Processing DSP, on the "Map" tab, you can map the COMMENT tag to your new "ORIGIN" field.



Then on the next tab, "Deletions," set the DSP to delete the COMMENT tag.

Here's how it works: You write in CD Ripper's COMMENT window the data for your ORIGIN tag...presumably your name or someone else's. When you rip, that data will be written to the ORIGIN tag, and then the COMMENT tag will be deleted. (This is because the ID Tag Processing's DSP operations occur in the order of the tabs, so Map first, then Deletions, etc....) Of course, this particular approach only works if you don't otherwise need the COMMENT tag. If you are already using that tag for something else, there are other solutions, but they get a little more involved. We can jump off that bridge if/when we come to it....

[wdesbrow]

Re: Adding additional metadata fields

I set up the Comment and Origin boxes, as above; then under "Deletions" tab added "Comment." But when I go back to add my name in the "Comment" box DBPA won't allow me to write in anything. What am I doing wrong?

BTW, ideally I would simply like a new field to re-populate for each album without it being filled in. I don't particularly care whether it's called "Origin," "Comment," or something else.

Thanks much for staying with me on this.

[mville]

Re: Adding additional metadata fields

In addition to the 5 or 6 metadata fields that DB automatically populates I added one called "Comment" and completed the field. It worked fine but I expected/assumed that additional field would show up on all subsequent CD's -- waiting for me to fill it in. It did not. How can I add it as a regular feature for all future rips?

You can't customize the metadata window at the bottom-middle of the CDRipper window.

IIRC, I requested this ability years ago and it is an another extremely frustrating omission in CDRipper. As has been mentioned in other threads, IMO, CDRipper needs a serious overhaul in regards to the area of data entry.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Adding additional metadata fields

I set up the Comment and Origin boxes, as above; then under "Deletions" tab added "Comment." But when I go back to add my name in the "Comment" box DBPA won't allow me to write in anything. What am I doing wrong?

BTW, ideally I would simply like a new field to re-populate for each album without it being filled in. I don't particularly care whether it's called "Origin," "Comment," or something else.

Thanks much for staying with me on this.

I understand what you want....but again, while you can add extra user-defined tags, you cannot customize the CD Ripper user-interface with your own dynamic fields. That's just not possible, hence the suggested workaround. *

I'm not sure what could be blanking the COMMENT box. I did a test run on that approach (before I posted it) to make sure it worked and had no problems. See what happens if you don't delete the COMMENT field in the ID Tag Processing DSP. You should end up with both the ORIGIN and COMMENT tags, filled with the same data you entered. I don't know if the delete has anything to do with the problem, but what the heck!...one way to find out.

As a side note, I'll take this chance to suggest what I always do about "ripping protocols." Personally, I always make metadata review/edit/refine in a dedicated tag editor a part of my workflow, on every rip. If it were me, that's where I would add any of my own user-fields. In mp3tag, the editor I use, you can easily customize the user-interface exactly as you describe. Then you can not only fill that tag if and when you want, but you can actually see all the fields and their data...a much more fool-proof and intuitive approach, IMO. (I agree with mville. I think dBp is overdue for a UI update that accommodates better data entry. Unfortunately, the new OSX version and all of its issues, as evidenced by the rash of posts here since its release, make me rather pessimistic that our Windows version will get that kind of attention any time soon.)

* There are other ways to approach this in dBp. So we can go there, if need be, but I think the map-and-delete approach is easiest if you don't otherwise need the COMMENT field.