Can't edit .wav file properties

[toleolu]

I can edit file property details, i.e. title, album, artist, etc. on mp3's rendered in Reaper, but not on .wav files. I can open the properties window on the .wav files, but when I click on an item to edit, I don't get a text box. (Note: Doesn't throw any kind of an error when I try to edit the properties)

Searched the forum and online, but couldn't find anything. Hope someone might have some ideas.

Mahalo

[toleolu]

Nevermind, I found it. Appears .wav files don't allow that kind of meta data.

So it appears that I first need to render the recordings in a format that allows editing of those fields, then re-render to 16 bit .wav so I can burn them to a cd. I would assume I would want to use some lossless format for the first render, edit the properties, then do the .wav render. Does that sound about right?

Seems like a lot of trouble just to get the title to display on my cd player.

[Philbo King]

No, that won't work. Rendering to 16 bit WAV will remove the MP3 tags.

Audio CDs do not support any metadata except for a poorly defined standard called CD-TEXT, where song titles pop up on (some) CD players.

There are a number of CD burning programs that allow entering CD-TEXT data and burn it to disk. I think Nero is one of them. You can probably find a free program for this with a Google search.

If, instead, you want to have a company (such as CD Baby) print a bunch of copies, Google for the DDP, which is a standard way to upload CD data to a CD printing company. Reaper can output this type of file, but there is a lot of tedious detail work required, and one mistake can result in hundreds of copies of an unplayable CD. There are DDP checking programs that can verify the details are right.

I strongly recommend you do not use any file that was once an MP3 on a CD you want to release for sale. The MP3 format always loses some of the audio quality. Google 'lossy audio compression' to learn more.

[Happy]

Hi, you can with Audacity

I've done it Many times !

Audacity - META.png

[DVDdoug]

Hi, you can with Audacity

Yes, but metadata is not well-standardized or widely supported for WAV. It is well-supported by all of the popular lossy & lossless compressed formats.

I just did a quick test and Windows Media Player seems to read all of the metadata from a WAV but iTunes and Winamp only read some of it.

And, I'm not sure if that will be written as CD-Text. That will depend on your CD burning application.

(And, Audacity doesn't support album art with any format, but CD-Text doesn't support images either.)

Seems like a lot of trouble just to get the title to display on my cd player.

When you play a CD on your computer the player software takes a "fingerprint" of the CD, then it goes to an online database (FreeDB, Gracenote, MusicBrainz, etc.) to find a match. Of ccourse, your homemade CD is not in the database...

Some players (such as car audio players) support CD-Text. But from what I've read most CDs don't have CD-Text and none of my (hardware) CD players support it.

If you're seeing an image of the album cover when playing an audio CD, it's the image is coming over the Internet (or from a local database on your computer) because CD-Text is only text...

[Happy]

@ DVDdoug

Good for testingwith WMP, & that proves it's NOT a fault with WAV's per se, rather issues with other software that hasn't been coded to read the Metadata correctly !

[toleolu]

Been busy haven't had time to reply, but thanks to all.

This is just something I'm doing to burn CD's for playback in my truck, not a big deal, but thanks again for the info.

Mahalo

[Philbo King]

If your truck isn't too old, you might try loading up a CD with your MP3s, with the tags. Just burn it as a data disc. Many automobile CD players play MP3s just fine, and display artist & song info. A bonus, if it works: You can get 10-15 hours of music on one CD.

[Dstruct]

foobar2000 can do this too:

http://foobar2000.com/