Can't get custom tags to work

[Muberos]

Hi All,

I'm using Vinylstudio Pro 15.0.2 to digitize my LP collection. I record each side of the LP as a single file on one PC, then transfer them to another PC for splitting into individual DSF tracks and then tagging with MP3Tag

I have been trying to have some fixed custom tags added to every album I create, but they are not appearing in the tracks when saved.

As an example, one of the tags I created is called CATEGORY and I have set the default to DSDV but when I save the tracks and look with MP3Tag, it isn't there.

Have I misunderstood the use of custom tags? or am I missing a step somewhere? I have ticked the option to include custom tags on the save tracks dialog and added them via the custom tag editor, but cannot get them to be saved in the tracks.

Any suggestions would be most welcome!

[Indy33]

You might check into a software company called JThink, they have two programs for meta data. They are SongKong and Jaikoz.

It uses Music Brainz and Discogs, can do acoustic matching and a complete library at once. It does cost £50 / $67 for the pro version.

https://www.jthink.net/songkong/index.jsp
.

[Muberos]

Indy33, that's not the problem I'm having. I can tag the files just fine using MP3Tag, but I was trying to use the custom tag feature of Vinylstudio to populate some tags when I save the tracks after splitting them.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Maybe MP3Tag isn't reporting the tags.  We definitely put them in there.  Can you send me a file to check?  You can upload it here:

https://www.dropbox.com/request/ZrBhjT9uyg6opnRF0lgP

[Muberos]

Thanks Paul,

I have uploaded a saved file from the album, along with some screenshots showing the custom tags (5 in total) that I tried to include. I have also shown a screenshot of the file tags as reported by dbPoweramp which doesn't see any of the custom tags. If I add the tags manually using MP3Tag, then they are shown OK.

Cheers,
John

[Muberos]

Paul,

For comparison purposes, I have uploaded another file in which I have added the custom tags manually using MP3Tag. Also a screenshot of the tags by dbPoweramp.

Thanks

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

OK, I can see the problem now.  DSF files use ID3 tags for tagging purposes, and tag names are limited to 4 characters.  Any tags longer then that, VinylStudio ignores (maybe it should tell you this!).

If you add longer tags in dBpoweramp, they are not stored in the file but instead (I assume) in dBpoweramp's library somewhere.  So, long story short, stick to 4 character tag names and you should be OK.

Why didn't VinylStudio warn you?  Well, custom tags can be applied to other file types which don't have this limitation, but maybe we should try harder.

[Muberos]

Thanks for the info Paul.

I use MP3Tag for tagging, I was only showing the output from dbPoweramp to illustrate the problem.

I use JRiver as my main file player and I notice when you do a tag dump, the ID3v2.3 tag (which has been placed in there by MP3Tag) indeed shows the user defined tag as 4 characters, of the form "TXXX (tagname)" I've sent another screenshot.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

OK, it looks like there has been an amendment to the spec since we wrote our code to shoehorn in longer tags.  I'll look into it.

(Either that or we missed it)

[Muberos]

Thanks Paul

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Update: this is now working here and will be fixed in the next version, due out soon.

[Muberos]

Great news! Many thanks Paul.