Tagging recommendation Options

[flipik]

hello everyone,

sorry for asking n00b question, but did a search and havent found satisfying up-to-date answer.

I have a large music collection, build around LAME, MPC and FLAC files. Because long time ago I wanted to stick to as few tag types as possible I decided to use:
MP3: IDEv3 & APEv2 tags (storing metadata & replagain info)
MPC: APEv2 tags (storing metadata & replaygain info)
FLAC: none (just filename scheme), I used it only for archive purpose

From that time a lot has changed. MPC is obsolate, FLAC is more widely used (big storages in PCs and portable players) and there was a lot of improvement to LAME. Compatibility issues with some tag types are solved. I also bought more quality equipment (portable player and earphone are top quality with lot of storage and now I am buying new HiFi equipment for my living room).
As I have a lot of free time now, I decided to consolidate my music collection, what means:
- get rid of any other formats than MP3 and FLAC (compatibility)
- reencode any poor quality files (low bitrate, poor quality encoder) to make it more suitable for my equipment

Priorities:
I want to stick to standards and compatibility as much as possible, so I won't have to reencode or retag my collection with future's SW and HW.
Replaygain is MUST for me.
I want to tag and replaygain FLAC files as I use them more and more (cheap storage, better quality).
I also want to store album art for my music (for use with Media Centre software), but want to store it separately from my music folders.
Taking all this into account, I want to keep as much simplicity as possible.

Questions:
1. what tag types to use (and not use) with MP3? (need metadata and RG)
2. what tag types to use (and not use) with FLAC? (need at least add replaygain info, but preferably also metadata)
3. what principles do you consider as 'best practice' regarding album art storage?
Bonus question:
Those who owns HiFi equipment: what LAME setting do you use (this is more poll than proper question)

thank you very much for answers, and again sorry for n00b questions,

regards,
f.

Few info:
I use mostly foobar, amarok and banchee players. Will also start using media centre softwares very soon.
I prefer open and free platforms (so wont definitely buy any apple hardware in near future and dont need support it).

This post has been edited by flipik: Nov 6 2012, 20:58

[rohangc]

The common answer to your first two questions is that you should adhere to the Foobar2000 encouraged tagging standards which should standardize your tags.

Now, to answer the questions themselves:

1. what tag types to use (and not use) with MP3? (need metadata and RG)

Use ID3v2.3 tags. You can enable these in Foobar2000->preferences->Advanced->Tagging->MP3->"Write ID3v2.3 tags (more compatible)."
Also enable "Map TPE2 to Album Artist (More compatible).

2. what tag types to use (and not use) with FLAC? (need at least add replaygain info, but preferably also metadata)

Use native FLAC tags and use FB2K for tagging. This should automatically ensure compatibility.

3. what principles do you consider as 'best practice' regarding album art storage?

Personally speaking, I embed the best quality album art (large sized files) in my FLAC files, but resize them to a smaller resolution before embedding them into my lossy files after transcoding.
You can store any image as album art in the metadata. The exact size of the images to embed in your lossy and lossless files is really up to you.

[flipik]

Use ID3v2.3 tags. You can enable these in Foobar2000->preferences->Advanced->Tagging->MP3->"Write ID3v2.3 tags (more compatible)."
Also enable "Map TPE2 to Album Artist (More compatible).

I use mp3tag for tagging, but as far as I know, it is mapping AA to TPE2 already, so that should be fine I guess.
Is there any point of using ID3v1 tags anymore?

Use native FLAC tags and use FB2K for tagging. This should automatically ensure compatibility.

mp3tag stands to write 'vorbis comments' to FLAC files. according to FLAC FAQ, those schould be identical to FLAC tags. Is that safe way to go or sticking with f2k makes any difference?

You can store any image as album art in the metadata. The exact size of the images to embed in your lossy and lossless files is really up to you.

Well, I would like to store album art outside music folders (and files). I was thinking about dedicated folder for album art, using some filenaming scheme like: %artist% - %album%.jpg , so programs can load those pictures and show them with music. Does it make any sense, or there is better way to go ?

f.

This post has been edited by flipik: Nov 7 2012, 14:52

[skamp]

Is there any point of using ID3v1 tags anymore?

None that I can think of.

mp3tag stands to write 'vorbis comments' to FLAC files. according to FLAC FAQ, those schould be identical to FLAC tags. Is that safe way to go or sticking with f2k makes any difference?

Yes it's safe, and no it doesn't make a difference (fb2k write vorbis comments, which it is supposed to).

Well, I would like to store album art outside music folders (and files).

The "standard" is a file in the same directory as the tracks from the album, named either 'cover.jpg' or 'folder.jpg'. You're gonna have a hard time getting players to display album art that is in a different directory (not sure about fb2k though).