Converting ID3 tags in FLACs to native FLAC tags, Help me convert ID3 to FLAC native! Options

[Luna-Tick]

Hello all!

I wrote the vast majority of my CD collection to Flac and checked them with the Flac test (the -t option of Flac), they played fine and all seemed wonderful.

Sadly life is no longer roses and chocolates. Now as I come to rip the whole lot to Vorbis files, Oggenc is spewing an error that the files are 'not a supported format'. As the flacs which I have produced since moving to Ubuntu (with sound juicer) seem to work, I am starting to worry that all the files which I made from CDex are going to give me grief.

It seems that the FLAC files which were written by CDex are using ID3 tags while the ones which work are using the native FLAC tags. I get this impression from looking at the file info in programmes like XMMS.

It seems, looking at the files with Metaflac, that the files may also have the information in the files as well and if I delete the tags "metaflac --remove-all-tags" XMMS will still see all the information in the ID3 tags.

If I open the file with Easytag, it shows up as having a 'FLAC Vorbis tag' ; identical to that of the ones which work fine. This reenforces my guess that my files have both.

I have tried many programmes and am not getting very far. The closest that I came was to keep removing all, deleting and adding fields in Easytag; eventually the tag was replaced by a native FLAC tag and it then went through Oggenc without a problem. Obviously I can't do this for all the FLACs which I have.

Does anybody know of a script/programme which can (as a batch) convert FLAC ID3 tags into FLAC native tags? Or, if it is all that I need, a programme which strips off a FLAC ID3 tag?

Thanks all, it seems ridiculous to have to re-encode them all just because the tags are wrong.

This post has been edited by Luna-Tick: Aug 14 2005, 02:48

[gfngfgf]

I believe you can do this with Tag.exe (link) (hope you don't mind, SyntheticSoul)

From the Tag.txt file, you would use a command like:

CODE

Tag --removeid3v2 <files>

Note that I haven't tried this particular command myself, so I can't guarantee that it'll work the way you want it to. Best to try it on a file or two first.

[Defsac]

Mp3tag can also remove the ID3 tags, and should leave the Vorbiscomment tags intact (I suggest trying on a test copy before batch removing just in case).

This post has been edited by Defsac: Aug 13 2005, 10:29

[Synthetic Soul]

I would use:

CODE

TAG.EXE --recursive --remove --force FLAC *.flac

... to replace existing ID3v1 tags with FLAC tags - but as gfngfgf says, always best to test on some copies first. Be warned that the command I quote will work recursively - so test in a folder with no important subfolders. I have briefly tested this myself and it works.

Even though I adapted Tag from Case's original I don't use its intracacies that much - I just use it for simple tagging from the command line.

@gfngfgf

I have absolutely no problems with you linking to my website for Tag. I hold Case's last version, as well as those I've released. NB: Case's last version can also be found on RareWares I believe.

Personally I would recommend 2.0.43+, as it makes sense to be using the latest FLAC, OGG,and VORBIS libraries. It's also useful to have the -f switch, in case you begin using another application that uses it, like FLACAttack.

[Luna-Tick]

Thanks a lot, guys, you have been really useful .

I was hoping that you could point me to a Linux / Ubuntu programme but, as I only have to do it once, I suppose I could switch between the two operating systems . Please let me know if somebody finds something which would work on Linux, though!

I shall try your suggestions and let you know how I get on .

Thanks again

[Luna-Tick]

Personally I would recommend 2.0.43+, as it makes sense to be using the latest FLAC, OGG,and VORBIS libraries. 

Ah yes... I remember Windows; having to update each individual programme every time that any of the libraries change ...

[snookerdoodle]

I was hoping that you could point me to a Linux / Ubuntu programme but, as I only have to do it once, I suppose I could switch between the two operating systems . Please let me know if somebody finds something which would work on Linux, though!

You could *try* re-tagging a file with EasyTAG with the "Write ID3 files in FLAC files with FLAC tag unchecked. The little help thing says that ID3 tags will be stripped if this is not activated.

Mark

[Luna-Tick]

You could *try* re-tagging a file with EasyTAG with the "Write ID3 files in FLAC files with FLAC tag unchecked. The little help thing says that ID3 tags will be stripped if this is not activated.

Thanks for the suggestion, but it doesn't seem to work very well. I did tweak all those settings in order to get that happening, but it doesn't seem to actually change the tags unless you perform voodoo magic. I am probably doing something wrong, but as I said, I had to remove, add and change all the tags in strange orders before it would strip the ID3 tag.

[Luna-Tick]

I would use:

CODE

TAG.EXE --recursive --remove --force FLAC *.flac

... to replace existing ID3v1 tags with FLAC tags - but as gfngfgf says, always best to test on some copies first.  Be warned that the command I quote will work recursively - so test in a folder with no important subfolders.  I have briefly tested this myself and it works.

Update: This seems to work. After going into Windows and running this recursively on a test group of FLACs, I returned to Ubuntu and Oggenc seems perfectly happy .

As I say, it would be nice if Tag was available for Linux, but this isn't a perfect world . I should be able to use this method without too much grief - especially seeing as the new ones seem fine and I will only have to fix the old ones once.

Thanks a lot, people .

[iKs]

6 years late, but I found this topic while googling about oggenc and ID3 tags so I'd just like to point out that there is a tool in Ubuntu/Debian/Linux: id3v2 and or mid3v2.

It seems mid3v2 is a Python (Mutagen library) based replacement for id3v2.

CODE

[m]id3v2 -D yourfile.flac

should work.