Preserving tags when converting FLAC into MP3/AAC/ALAC

[olivierduc]

I ripped a CD into FLAC with dBpoweramp Reference (12.1) and completed the tags; the popup in Windows Explorer shows the following tags fulfilled with information: Artist, Title, Album, Track, Year, Genre, Comment, AccurateRip Disc ID, AccurateRip Result, Album Artist, Buy CD URL, CDDB Disc ID, Composer, Disc, Encoded by, Encoder, Encoder settings, Ensemble, Label, Length, Lyricist, Lyrics, Source, UPC, Album Art.
When I convert the Flac file into some other formats (mp3, mp4a Nero AAC or ALAC) with dBpoweramp Reference Converter (12.2), the popup continues to show the tag as fulfilled (except missing Album Art in mp4a AAC and in ALAC).
When I import the converted files into Apple iTunes, part of the tag information is lost: for a mp3-converted file, especially "Lyrics" field is empty (some other fields are also missing, but I do not care about them); for a mp4a-converted file (AAC Nero or ALAC, same results), especially "Comment, Album Artist and Lyrics" fields are empty. When I transfer the converted files to an ipod (nano 2G) with iTunes, the missing tags are not displaying with the player; when I transfer the converted files with another software (anapod), the missing tags do not show either.
As I have got some 12,000 flac files that I would like to convert into mp3 or aac to play on ipod, how can I do it with dBpoweramp in preserving significant tags (Artist, Title, Album, Track, Year, Genre, Comment, Album Artist, Composer, Disc, Lyrics, Album Art)?

[Spoon]

Re: Preserving tags when converting FLAC into MP3/AAC/ALAC

We currently do not support lyrics. For album art in m4a you need the latest m4a beta codec (beta section this forum).

[olivierduc]

Re: Preserving tags when converting FLAC into MP3/AAC/ALAC

Thank you Spoon for the precision,
Is there any prospects for implementing lyric tag? Just to know if I should wait for the conversion or look for another solution.
Thanks.

[Spoon]

Re: Preserving tags when converting FLAC into MP3/AAC/ALAC

It is not on our near road map.

[DrBunsen]

Re: Preserving tags when converting FLAC into MP3/AAC/ALAC

I'm interested in this as well, ever since noticing that my iPod displays lyrics from my MP3 files. The way that I currently handle my CDs it is to rip them into FLAC for archival purposes, and into MP3 for use on my iPod.

I could go ahead and put the lyrics into the MP3 files and leave the FLAC files as-is, but I'd much prefer to have the FLAC files be perfect in case I ever need to transcode them to anything ever again. Given this, it would mean that on any new CDs that I'd have to rip them to FLAC (instead of FLAC and MP3), manually put in lyrics (and album art if need be), and then transcode to MP3, but I'm OK with that.

BTW, I'm wrestling with this right now since that 32GB iPod touch is tempting me mightily. I can't afford it right now, but another big issue is that I'd be bumping into that 32GB limit with all the music that I'd want to carry on it, so I'd probably want to re-transcoded at least some of my FLAC files into 192Kbps MP3's instead of the higher bit-rates that I currently have them at.

I'd prefer to keep the archival files in FLAC rather than transcode them to Apple lossless (which would support lyrics), but then I'm guessing that I'll have to use something other than dBpoweramp in order to preserve lyrics, and I'd prefer not to since I'm kinda liking dBpoweramp a lot.

Anyways, olivierduc and I may be in the minority, but I thought I'd cast another vote for this functionality. Thanks for your consideration!


Bunsen