Tagging multiple composers

[Munich_Andy]

Hi all,

I got a challenge when trying to tag multiple composers for a file. I started with MP3 files without any tagging and copied / pasted the composers from an existing (FLAC) file (tried both Windows Explorer / Right Klick / Edit ID-Tag as well as PerfectTunes)

In PerfectTunes or Edit ID-Tag, I see the following (as expected)

Annette Humpe; Ernst Ulrich Deuker; Frank Jürgen Krüger; Hans-Joachim Behrendt

In foobar2000 and also in my SONOS system, I see the following

Annette Humpe/Ernst Ulrich Deuker/Frank Jürgen Krüger/Hans-Joachim Behrendt

Where am I going wrong?

Thanks for your support,
Andy

[mville]

Re: Tagging multiple composers

You are not going wrong.

Different applications display different multi-value tag separators, for different file formats.

[Munich_Andy]

Re: Tagging multiple composers

Thanks for your fast response, however.... So far, when I manually entered multiple composers separated by "; ", both foobar and Sonos interpreted them correctly (and showed them the same way as PerfectTunes). I got 1000s of files (ripped from CD, not manually tagged) where multiple composers (or artists) are read consistently between PerfectTunes, foobar and Sonos???

[mville]

Re: Tagging multiple composers

I don't know for sure as I never edit tags in foobar2000, only in Edit ID-Tag and MP3Tag. For example, the dBpa Edit ID-Tag multi-value separator for flac is '; ' and in MP3Tag is '\\'. If you don't enter the correct separator, you won't get multi-value tags, but a single tag containing the data entered.

It gets more complicated as the separator can be different, for different file formats.

You would have to check in the foobar2000 help or forums for multi-value tag editing and the relevant separator(s). If you find out, maybe you could post the answers here.

[mville]

Re: Tagging multiple composers

Another thing to consider here, as you are editing mp3 files is the ID3 version you are using, ID3v2.3 or ID3v2.4 as I believe, the also differ in their support/handling of multi-value tags.

... I realise this is not helping you much and may be confusing you more, but it is quite complex and complicated, especially when you edit in more than 1 application, hence why I only edit in the 2 apps and only edit my flacs, which I then convert to mp3 using dBpa.

[Munich_Andy]

Re: Tagging multiple composers

Hi mville, maybe I wasn't clear with my problem, so let me try again. I only tag via dBpa or Perfect Tunes; using foobar (or the Sonos system) just to display the tags.

So far, I was ripping CDs, entered multiple values separated with "; " and all was good and displaying correctly everywhere.

No I moved on to mp3's that I got from all over the place, typically without any metadata at all. I right-click a file so that the dBpa editor opens, tag them with "; " as separator and save. dBpa (or PefectTunes) shows composers correctly as entered (foobar shows it flagged as Id3v2.3 - this seems to be dBpa's default).

When i look at the metadata in other tools, such as foobar, the "; " between the composers is gone and replaced with "/", so it's just one long string, rather than 4 composers as expected in the above example (while dBpa still shows what I entered)

Last but not least, I tried to copy and paste the 4 composers from another file that's behaving properly (FLAC, though) into the mp3 file (with dBpa editor) and still get the same outcome - "; " is gone and replaced with "/" when I look at the tag in foobar or Sonos.

So yes - it is complicated and complex and I'm at the end of my wisdom...

[mville]

Re: Tagging multiple composers

I moved on to mp3's that I got from all over the place, typically without any metadata at all. I right-click a file so that the dBpa editor opens, tag them with "; " as separator and save. dBpa (or PefectTunes) shows composers correctly as entered (foobar shows it flagged as Id3v2.3 - this seems to be dBpa's default).

When i look at the metadata in other tools, such as foobar, the "; " between the composers is gone and replaced with "/", so it's just one long string, rather than 4 composers as expected in the above example (while dBpa still shows what I entered)

Yes and this is exactly what I get. In foobar2000 you get a single ID3v2.3 tag with '/' and not '; '. I am saying that this is the correct behaviour of foobar2000 based on it's default settings for ID3v2.3.

Now, I am happy with this single tag behaviour, because I only use mp3 files in iTunes and an iPod Classic which do not support multi-value tags. I decided long ago therefore, not to investigate further the use of multi-value tags for mp3 and how to edit them in different applications, because I have no need.

If you want multi-value tags for mp3 files in foobar2000, as I suggested in post no. 4, you will have to check with the foobar2000 forums for advice on configuring foobar2000 settings correctly, to achieve this. It may also require the use of ID3v2.4 and not ID3v2.3 for more comprehensive multi-value support. If you check the foobar2000 forums, you will see quite a few threads with the same issues/confusion that you describe here.

It becomes more even complicated because for flac and vorbis comments, the behaviour is different. Using '; ' creates multi-value tags consistently in dBpa and foobar2000 and the '; ' is not changed to '/' in foobar2000.

[Munich_Andy]

Re: Tagging multiple composers

I think I'm getting your point now - or at least getting closer...

I had another idea and edited the tags within foobar, replacing the offending "/" with "; " and saved. As a result, dBpa editor, PerfectTunes and foobar all showed the composers as multiple values, separated by "; ". Yay!!!

As next step, I re-imported those files into my Sonos system... which wasn't impressed at all and still shows the composers as ONE string, separated by "/". And I was even more surprised when I realized that I couldn't find any of the FLAC files when searching on the Sonos just for ONE composer (while the files should have multiple composers). Long story short - your statement that iTunes/iPad doesn't support multi-value tags also seems to hold true for Sonos, which I never noticed before.

I guess I'll call it a day then, have a glass of wine and reconsider my options....

Thanks once again, mville, and if anybody else has a great idea regading Sonos multi-value tagging please let me know!

[mville]

Re: Tagging multiple composers

I had another idea and edited the tags within foobar, replacing the offending "/" with "; " and saved. As a result, dBpa editor, PerfectTunes and foobar all showed the composers as multiple values, separated by "; ". Yay!!!

Be careful not assume the tag is a multi-value tag.

dBpa Edit ID-Tag and foobar2000 are just displaying data. The problem is that as end-users, we don't really know if the tag is a true multi-value tag or just a single tag, when it contains:
Annette Humpe; Ernst Ulrich Deuker; Frank Jürgen Krüger; Hans-Joachim Behrendt