MP3/FLAC to AAC - ID3v1/ID3v2 tags lost

[RobNC]

Hello,

I have Win7 x64 Ultimate on an AMD x4-940. I installed dBpoweramp 14.2, installed these codecs: AAC, m4a (Nero AAC) Release 10, m4a, m4b, FLAC v14 (FLAC 1.2.1), ID Tag Update, FLAC decoder, etc. A copy of everything is below. Check for updates shows no updates available.

If I open the MP3 with WinAMP, it shows Basic Info, ID3v1, ID3v2 and APEv2 populated correctly. The FLAC file, it shows Basic Info and Advanced information correctly.

When I convert the MP3 or FLAC to AAC via right-click and convert or batch convert to AAC (quality 0.65 ~250kbps VBR Forced HEv2 , the ID3v1 and ID3v2 fields are EMPTY. The Basic Info tab shows the same as the MP3/FLAC, and the APEv2 information is populated.

When converted to m4a (NERO AAC), WinAMP doesn't show any ID3 tag information (there is no tab), so perhaps m4a doesn't support embedded tags.

Is this a known bug? Note that I had to manually download the Nero AAC plugin from Nero's website, extract and move the files to the folder below:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Illustrate\dBpoweramp\encoder\AAC (Advanced Audio Compression)

Thanks!
-Rob

Codecs Installed:
Encoders (write)  

[aac to m4a]  
.m4a  
[Arrange Audio]  Release 3
[Audio Info]  
[Calculate Audio CRC]  
[Channel Split]  Release 1
[ID Tag Update]  Release 3
[Length Split]  Release 1
[m4a Optimize]  
[m4a to aac]  
.aac  
[Multi Encoder]  Release 4
[ReplayGain]  Release 2
[Tag From Filename]  Release 1
AAC (Advanced Audio Compression)  
.aac  
Aiff  Release 11
.aif  
Apple Lossless  Release 14
.m4a  
Bwf Mp2  Release 6
.wav  
Dalet  Release 4
.snd  
FLAC  Release 14 (FLAC 1.2.1)
.flac  
m4a Nero (AAC)  Release 10
.m4a  
m4b (Audio Book)  
.m4b  
Monkeys Audio  Release 10 (Monkeys Audio v4.06)
.ape  
Mp2  Release 6
.mp2  
mp3 (Fraunhofer IIS)  Release 2a (Fraunhofer IIS v4.0.3)
.mp3  
mp3 (Lame)  Lame 3.98.4
.mp3  
Musepack  Release 7 (SV7 mppenc 1.16)
.mpc  
ogg vorbis (aoTuV SSE)  R5 aoTuV b6.02
.ogg  
ogg vorbis (aoTuV SSE3)  
.ogg  
ogg vorbis  Release 21 (Ogg v1.2.2 Vorbis V1.3.2)
.ogg  
Optim FROG  Release 2 (OptimFROG v4.6)
.ofr  
Test Conversion  
tooLame mp2  Release 3
.mp2  
Wave  Release 14.2
.wav  
Wave64  Release 1
.w64  
WavPack  Release 8 (using WavPack 4.60)
.wv  


Decoders (read)  

Advanced Audio Compression Decoder  
.aac  
Aiff Decoder  
.aif, .aifc, .aiff  
CD Decoder  Release 14.2
.cda  
Dalet Decoder  
.snd  
FLAC Decoder  
.flac  
m4a / mp4 Decoder  
.m4a, .m4b, .mp4  
Monkeys Audio Decoder  
.ape  
mp3 Decoder  Release 14.2
.m2a, .mp1, .mp2, .mp3, .mpa, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpga, .mpx  
Musepack Decoder  
.mp+, .mpc, .mpp  
Ogg Vorbis Decoder  
.oga, .ogg  
OptimFROG Decoder  
.ofr, .ofs  
Wave Decoder  Release 14.2
.bwf, .wav  
Wave64 Decoder  
.w64  
WavPack Decoder  
.wv  


Install on Demand  

Windows Media Audio 10  .wma
Real Audio (Helix) (read only)  .ra
Midi (read only)  .mid
Shorten (read only)  .shn

[LtData]

Re: MP3/FLAC to AAC - ID3v1/ID3v2 tags lost

Winamp shows tags on the mp3 files before conversion, correct? If you convert to a format besides AAC, such as FLAC, do the tags carry over?

[RobNC]

Re: MP3/FLAC to AAC - ID3v1/ID3v2 tags lost

Winamp shows tags on the mp3 files before conversion, correct? If you convert to a format besides AAC, such as FLAC, do the tags carry over?

Thanks for your inquiry. I don't see tags in FLAC if I double-click on the name while playing in WinAMP. That tells me that FLAC doesn't support ID3v1 / ID3v2, WinAMP doesn't support FLAC tags, or it's showing up as the "Basic Info" (which has always shown up). My problem with the tags is that when I'm playing the AAC files on my phone, it shows "artist unknown" as there is no tag information.

If I convert the MP3 to Monkey's Audio, and then double-click the name in WinAMP, it then shows what looks like a tag but it doesn't specifically say ID3v1 or ID3v2 and there are options for "save tag" and "remove tag"

If I convert to OGG Vorbis SSE3, some of the tag information is shown in WinAMP but it only shows up in the "Basic Info" tab. Ironically, the year is changed to 0000 but other fields are fine.

Presuming there's something wrong with the tag (Gracenote), is there a tool you'd recommend to check the tags for corruption,etc.?

Thanks,
-Rob

[LtData]

Re: MP3/FLAC to AAC - ID3v1/ID3v2 tags lost

Try this: http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

[RobNC]

Re: MP3/FLAC to AAC - ID3v1/ID3v2 tags lost

Try this: http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

Thanks, the ID tags (ID3v1 and ID3v2) were able to be read by that program without any issues. Either the problem is in dBpoweramp or the AAC encoder from Nero.

[Spoon]

Re: MP3/FLAC to AAC - ID3v1/ID3v2 tags lost

AAC has no tagging standard, you are better with m4a which is a wrapper around aac with tags.

[RobNC]

Re: MP3/FLAC to AAC - ID3v1/ID3v2 tags lost

Thanks for your message. After doing some digging, indeed it seems that many folks have implemented ID3 tags for AAC files but there's no real standard way of doing it (unlike m4a). Here's what WinAMP says. When it says "supports" that doesn't mean standard it just means that WinAMP has chosen a particular means to implement it but it isn't a standard. Here are some useful links I found:

Codec comparison (listening)
Comparison of Audio Codecs (technical)