Tag mapping

[iangrant]

I just noticed that CD Ripper writes certain tags into FLACs with spaces, e.g. ALBUM ARTIST SORT, despite writing the related tag without, e.g. ALBUMARTIST.

I think that the variant without spaces is generally wider supported, or at least it's what I want in my files, so I have used the Tag Processing DSP to map Album Artist Sort to ALBUMARTISTSORT and then delete the Album Artist Sort tag when ripping.

However, I also use dBpoweramp to convert my FLACs to MP4. As I understand it, there is less confusion about tag names in MP4 because they are not so free-form as Vorbis comments in FLACs. Hence, if I want the album artist sort information in my converted MP4s, do I now have to use the Tag Processing DSP in reverse when converting, e.g. map ALBUMARTISTSORT to Album Artist Sort? Because if I don't, presumably dBpoweramp doesn't know what to do with ALBUMARTISTSORT when it converts, right?

[Spoon]

Re: Tag mapping

It is the issue of FLAC not having a standard, for advanced fields programs do their own thing...

[iangrant]

Re: Tag mapping

It is the issue of FLAC not having a standard, for advanced fields programs do their own thing...

I know, that's not the point. The salient issues are thus:

1. Do I have to use the Tag Processing DSP in reverse as I described if I want the MP4 equivalent of album artist sort in my MP4s that are converted from FLACS where the tag is ALBUMARTISTSORT?
2. If dBpoweramp uses no spaces for ALBUMARTIST, why doesn't it also use no spaces for, e.g., ARTIST SORT?

[dbfan]

Re: Tag mapping

Internally we use with spaces, there. Is no special code for flac, so it gets written as is. You would have to use dsp effect if storing in any different to what dbpoweramp is expecting

[iangrant]

Re: Tag mapping

Internally we use with spaces, there. Is no special code for flac, so it gets written as is. You would have to use dsp effect if storing in any different to what dbpoweramp is expecting

Okay, thanks. What's the reason behind some tags having spaces and some not in dBpoweramp? I think there should be some internal standardization. Currently it will write COMPOSERSORT, ALBUMARTIST without spaces (since CD Ripper shows Album Artist with space and ComposerSort without, it seems that spaces are not always used internally by dBpoweramp), but ARTIST SORT and ALBUM ARTIST SORT with spaces.

[Spoon]

Re: Tag mapping

Just happened that way, internally it should not matter what we use, if FLAC creates a standard we will follow it.

[iangrant]

Re: Tag mapping

Right, but they (FLAC/Vorbis) won't create a standard - it's free-form by design is their opinion, I think?

It doesn't matter what you use internally, but some consistency for writing out to FLACs in particular would be nice. This should be doubly important to you now that you develop Asset as well, because now it makes sense to support in Asset what is written out in dBpoweramp; you're a consumer of tags and no longer just a producer, if you see what I mean. Hence if dBpoweramp writes ALBUM ARTIST SORT for FLACs, Asset should be able to make sense of this. Thus, it seems logical to decide on or adopt some conventions at this point. You could do worse than follow MusicBrainz's lead: http://wiki.musicbrainz.org/Picard_Tag_Mapping
See also the supported tags in Squeezebox Server, which is quite flexible, except not that it reads ARTISTSORT without the space, but not with (although this document may not be up to date):

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/SlimServerSupportedTags