Tag for ReplayGain

[dbfan]

Re: Tag for ReplayGain

Update is should do the same thing without reconverting to mp3

[donstrack]

Re: Tag for ReplayGain

Nope. It's still in there. The rogue "replaygain_track_gain" tag was shown in the dropdown box for single tag removal, but the tag was *not* deleted. The rogue tag is apparently not a standard tag, or a TXXX tag.

I tried all 17 files in a single album folder as a group, and a couple single files in the same folder. All 17 files have the same tag, but with different values.

Is that drop-down list built from the tags in the files selected (17 in this case), or is it presented as a list of standard tags?

I have searched the forum for some help with ID Tag Update settings, but I haven't seen anything. The Help ? does not do anything.

I want to remove these rogue tags because their values are set in about 10 per cent of the 11,000 files, and are all across the board. In these 17 files the dB value varies from +3.3 to -8.4. I've seen values as high as +/-14.7dB in some of the other files. Also, it's that I simply want to get rid of this Mediamonkey crap.

--DS

[Spoon]

Re: Tag for ReplayGain

It would not delete, simply write to the correct ReplayGain tag, which then could be deleted.

[donstrack]

Re: Tag for ReplayGain

It would not delete, simply write to the correct ReplayGain tag, which then could be deleted.

Just tried another album/folder, this one also has 17 files. Used the ID Tag Update utility -> Deletion tab, with Single Tag=replaygain_track-gain (from the drop-down list). The tag was not removed (deleted). I tired removing the tag (again) in the ID Tag Edit screen. After refreshing the Explorer view, the tag is still shown.

After opening the entire folder in MP3Tag, and after using the ID Tag Update utility, the tag does not show in the TrackGain column that reads the %REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN% tag. (I should add that using the RepalyGain plugins for both dBpoweramp and foobar2000 puts the tag in it's proper place, which is visible in MP3Tag.)

Regardless of where the data is coming from, it goes away after converting from MP3 to FLAC, then back to MP3.

--DS

[garym]

Re: Tag for ReplayGain

Mp3 to FLAC to mp3 is still a lossy to lossy conversion and should be avoided. The resulting mp3 is not the same as original mp3. Probably not audible in most cases so it is not a terrible thing to do, but not an optimum solution.

[donstrack]

Re: Tag for ReplayGain

Mp3 to FLAC to mp3 is still a lossy to lossy conversion and should be avoided. The resulting mp3 is not the same as original mp3. Probably not audible in most cases so it is not a terrible thing to do, but not an optimum solution.

I'm certainly open to other suggestions. I'm simply looking for something that works. If it wasn't for the fact that I can hear the reduction of volume from the ReplayGain, I'd simply leave the stupid tag alone. But I can hear that it's still there.

By the way, I'm converting using dBpoweraamp to full uncompressed FLAC, which is just a bit larger than a comparable WAV, also converted by dBpoweramp at the same time. But, I have noticed that the resulting replacement MP3 is about half the size as the original MP3.

I would leave it as a FLAC, but I like to be able to double-click a file in Explorer and listen to just that file. Windows Media Player in Now Playing mode does it just fine for an MP3 (that's all I use WMP for), but I can't find a Flac player for Windows 7 that is small, quick loading, and shows album art. I grabbed the Xiph and mfFLAC codecs for Windows Media Player, but they don't show the album art. I guess FLAC isn't as universal as many on the internet would have us believe. I would think that a simple, stand-alone FLAC player that shows tag information and album art for Windows (and all other platforms) would be a priority for the Xiph Foundation. It kind of makes it obvious just how small this digital audiophile community really is.

I thought of keeping my source files as uncompressed and tagged FLAC files, instead of PCM/WAV, but without album art, I may as well keep them in a Windows-native format. My folder and file naming protocol reflects the tag data, with an occasional text file in each folder for anything else that I need to keep, like a discography or lyrics. The album art is kept as uncompressed TIF files, then reduced to 500x500 JPGs for embedding in MP3s.

--DS

[garym]

Re: Tag for ReplayGain

I use foobar2000 as a player on my win7 machines. Does everything you want (shows metadata, artwork, etc.). Plays almost any kind of file including flac, and when I click on any audio file in windows explorer, it automatically opens in foobar2000. I use the basic program plus the facets component which gives me a bit more control over how things are displayed in foobar2000.

[garym]

Re: Tag for ReplayGain

I use foobar2000 as a player on my win7 machines. Does everything you want (shows metadata, artwork, etc.). Plays almost any kind of file including flac, and when I click on any audio file in windows explorer, it automatically opens in foobar2000. I use the basic program plus the facets component which gives me a bit more control over how things are displayed in foobar2000.

Edit: if you haven't discovered foobar2000 and hydrogenaudio.org, you are missing valuable resources for our small digital audio community. ;-)

My tools are dbpa for ripping and tagging, mp3tag for additional tagging, and foobar2000 for pc file playing and some other tools. I keep everything in flac and a mirror library of mp3 files for use on iThings.

[donstrack]

Re: Tag for ReplayGain

Thanks. I'll give facets a try.

I don't like how if I open a file in foobar2000, the next time I open it, the program is stuck on that file, and does not show me my entire library.

[garym]

Re: Tag for ReplayGain

Thanks. I'll give facets a try.

I don't like how if I open a file in foobar2000, the next time I open it, the program is stuck on that file, and does not show me my entire library.

There are settings so that it won't do this. I have foo bar set to open all clicked files to a temporary playlist. And with my facets setup I can easily see my regular entire library as well. About 70k files and easy to browse and search. I have facets setup to look a bit like iTunes browse screen with filetype, genre, artist, album, and date added columns.

[donstrack]

Re: Tag for ReplayGain

...I'm converting using dBpoweraamp to full uncompressed FLAC, which is just a bit larger than a comparable WAV, also converted by dBpoweramp at the same time. But, I have noticed that the resulting replacement MP3 is about half the size as the original MP3.

Well, that's a big oops. Obviously, to get a comparable file size, and quality in the MP3 file, all I need to do is set the MP3 Lame setting to maximum.

As for where this rogue tag comes from, I'm starting to see a pattern. I assumed it came from Mediamonkey, but I may be wrong. The common factor is that (I think) the files were purchased as MP3s from Amazon, and it may be a "feature" of their MP3 encoding. Over the next couple days, I'll run a test of buying a song from both iTunes and from Amazon, to see what their tags look like. But first, I want to finish this effort of removing this rogue tag, and do some other cleanup, like converting the last few remaining AAC files to MP3. In my Music/Library folder, and all the subfolders, 1-9 and A-Z, I'm at 'P' now, so a couple more hours should do it.

Thanks for all your help. I've learned a lot. Also, I've decided that I really like foobar2000 with the Columns UI component, with just the NGPlaylist. Simple and clean, with nice-sized album art. The Ctrl-F search works great to find any particular song; no need to any of the filter add-ons like Facet.

--DS

[garym]

Re: Tag for ReplayGain

I have a few amazon mp3 purchases and don't see these rogue tags.

[donstrack]

Re: Tag for ReplayGain

Going back through my purchases, and after buying an album this morning, all of the MP3s I have purchased from Amazon at least since April have the rogue tag. Maybe it's the vendor doing it and Amazon themselves doesn't know, but they all have the same "replaygain_track-gain" tag that is hidden to all, except to dBpoweramp. So, although I still dislike Mediamonkey for their bloated database, and their iTunes wannabe attitude, the rogue ReplayGain tag is not their doing.

But no worries, it only take 30 seconds to convert to uncompressed FLAC, and another 30 seconds to convert back to highest quality MP3, and all of the normal ID3 tags are preserved. And if it turns out that I need some ReplayGain applied to any of the songs, I'll simply use either dBpoweramp, or foorbar2000 to do so.

--DS