2006-02-08 11:53 :
2.0.45 released. As well as --tocue, --tocuen and --tocuea, I have now added the --paranoid switch which will cause warnings and non-critical errors to return a non-zero return code, so that this can be picked up in a script. Thanks to R Hannes Beinert for the suggestion and patch.

2005-12-08 13:24 :
2.0.45b9: Added code to fix memory leak. Report and code kindly provided by Steve Vibert.

2005-12-08 13:24 :
2.0.45b8: Added --tocue, --tocuen and --tocuea. libVorbis 1.1.2 & libOgg 1.1.3.

2005-04-21 22:00 BST:
If you downloaded Tag 2.0.43 before 19:30 BST you may want to download it again.

See this post for more info.

2005-04-21:

Version 2.0.43 has been uploaded.

v3.98+ APE files are now detailed correctly. Also, the 10KB limit when using the -f switch has been removed.

Update: wapet has also been updated now, so that the 10KB limit no longer applies. wapet 0.5 available here.

2005-02-07:
I thought I may as well record on forum that I have updated Case's Tag with libFLAC 1.1.2. You can get it here.

It now uses libFLAC 1.1.2, libOgg 1.1.2 and libVorbis 1.1.0 - all the most recent releases.

I see from the FLAC changelog that there have been some changes relevant to VORBIS tagging, so I thought I may as well.

Original Post:
This topic explains the history of this amendment

EAC+MAC+TAG+PAR2

There is a little information, and all the downloads here:

http://synthetic-soul.co.uk/tag/

I hope someone else finds this useful as well.

wapet is also now available, with the additional -f switch.

Thanks for this. Tag is for me an incredibly useful tool and these are two valuable enhancements. I have tested both changes and in general they look good.

I have however come across one bug with the file-based tagging: I tried to load into a tag a file that contained a British pound sign (£). This seemed to work but when I then view the tags using Tag it doesn't show the pound sign. And if I load the file into foobar2000 it doesn't show that tag at all.

I did some testing and found that if I write the tag using foobar2000 it adds two bytes to the file for that character rather than one. The first byte is hex C2, the second is hex A3 which corresponds to the £ sign. So for some reason it adds that additional byte before the £ sign (but doesn't display it when viewing the tag). I also found that when Tag.exe adds a tag containing a £ sign using the -t method it also adds this additional A3 byte. So it is only the file loading method that is not doing this.

Of course I don't know that this issue is specific to £ signs, but so far that's the only character I've found that triggers it. Also I've only tested this on OptimFrog .ofr files with APEv2 tags so far, so it may not be an issue with other file or tag types.

Thanks for the feedback phwip.

I will investigate this.

I am a little confused as I let the existing Tag code deal with all the complex bits. If I may I would like to take this opportunity (as I'm sure it will come up again) to explain how the file loading bit (-f) works, in comparision to setting an absolute value (-t)

The -t switch code:

1. looks for the switch
2. checks that there is a following parameter
3. adds the whole parameter ("<tag>=<value>" hopefully) to the tags collection

The -f switch code:

1. looks for the switch
2. checks that there is a following parameter
3. checks the parameter is of format "<tag>=<file>"
4. strips out the filename (<file>)
5. checks the file exists
6. begins a 'string' with "<tag>="
7. reads through the file and appends all characters to the string in turn
8. adds the new string ("<tag>=<value>") to the tags collection

All the clever stuff is still done by Case's code - I'm just intercepting a "<text1>=<text2>" parameter, swapping it with "<text1>=<text3>", and then letting it carry on down the road.

I can only assume this is another weird side of reading character by character from the text file (as per the disappearance of any carriage returns).

I will definately try to resolve this. I'm still waiting for a competent C++ developer to give me some pointers...

I've tested this a little further with APEv2, APEv1 and ID3v1 tags, all against mp3 files this time.

If I tag using the switch -t artist=a£b and then force one of the above tag types, all of the files then correctly show the artist as a£b when viewed via foobar2000 or Tag itself. If I view the files with a hex editor the ID3v1 and APEv1 tags are both internally stored as 61 A3 62 which are the corresponding codes for a£b. The APEv2 tag is stored internally as 61 C2 A3 62.

However, if I use the switch -f artist=test.txt where test.txt contains the single line a£b then all the files show the artist as ab when viewed by Tag, and the same with foobar2000 except for the APEv2 tagged file for which foobar2000 does not see an artist tag at all. In a hex editor I see that the ID3v1 and APEv1 tags are stored as 61 62 and the 61 A3 62.

So the problem affects all three tag types although the internal storage method is slightly different for APEv2 tags than the other two.

I hope this is useful information.

I'm pretty sure I've resolved this now.

The -t switch parameters were getting converted to UTF8 from UNICODE immediately, and then passing a flag saying they were UTF8.

My -f switch parameters were passing the flag, but had not been converted.

I have stopped them setting the flag, so they are now converted to UTF8 just before they are written.

I have tried a few different file types, and ID3v1 and APEv2, and I get no problem now.

I would quite like to have a test string with more test characters than "£" - but as I am pretty sure that this was the problem I am equally sure that any similar issues would have been resolved. I don't understand enough about UNICODE and UTF8 to know offhand.

Excellent. Overcomes the problem for all the tag types I tested (ID3v1, APEv2 and APEv1). Thanks.

Good news.

I'm hoping to get chance to test out the whole cycle tonight:

EAC -> MAREO -> MAC / TAG / PAR2

I'll be interested to see how it goes... I'm sure it will go smoothly...

Thanks for your support phwip - please let me know if you find any other problems.

Edit: added link to the guide I wrote subsequently.

I thought I may as well record on forum that I have updated Case's Tag with libFLAC 1.1.2. You can get it here.

It now uses libFLAC 1.1.2, libOgg 1.1.2 and libVorbis 1.1.0 - all the most recent releases.

I see from the FLAC changelog that there have been some changes relevant to VORBIS tagging, so I thought I may as well.

Hello!

This program is really useful for creating playlists. However, I can't find a list of tag types for use with the --force <tag> command. I want to force tag.exe to read ID3v2 instead of ID3v1 as it seems to do by default. I tried --force ID3v2 but it didn't recognized the tag type.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi Synthetic Soul,

a small bug report for 2.0.42. View APE 3.98 and higher files' tags and the details field is incorrect, for example: "Details: 24 Hz, playtime 42274:53:30". The 24 Hz part is always constant.

Thanks for the much-needed updates.


Tag does not write ID3v2 tags, it only reads them.

Cheers,
CD

Please bear in mind the original program, which still accounts for 99% of this version, was written by Case. I have only added the -f switch and updated the libraries. He da man!

I believe that --force is for writing only. I don't think you can tell Tag to display the tags from a certain format, but I may be wrong.

NB: Acceptable values for --force are:

• ID3v1
  
• APE
  
• APE1
  
• APEv1
  
• APE v1
  
• APE2
  
• APEv2
  
• APE v2
  
• Ogg
  
• Vorbis
  
• FLAC
  
• Lyrics
  

Please see my response to Cutter - I have made no changes to this area. I have tested with Tag 2.0.39, Case's last version, and this reports the files as 24Hz also - which is unsurprising to me, as I have been nowhere near that code.

I don't understand enough in this area to try to explain I'm afraid. I have done a little investigation (I'm bored) and it does seem the APE header reading is a little lacking - a lot more information (e.g.: bitrate, channels) is attempted to be read and output, but only the frequency and playtime appear to make it through. On the few files I've checked the playtime is also wrong.

Edit: Thinking about it, I guess this may be because the header format has changed since Tag was last worked on by Case (April 2003). At this time I believe 3.97 was the latest version - 3.98a1 wasn't released until May 2003. Maybe someone can confirm this. Unfortunately I am not skilled enough to update the code.

Any chance of adding support for the removal of specific tags? Currently only all tags can be removed or just ID3v2 from MP3s. TIA

To remove an individual tag in Tag just use:

TAG.EXE -t COMENT= MyFile.ext

The above command will remove the COMENT tag completely from the file MyFile.ext (by simply specifying nothing after the equals sign).

If your tag had spaces you would need to use:

TAG.EXE -t "MY COMENT=" MyFile.ext

Version 2.0.43 has been uploaded.

v3.98+ APE files are now detailed correctly.

Also, the 10KB limit when using the -f switch has been removed.

The problem was, as suggested in my edit, that 2.39 knew nothing about the new APE header format.

I have persevered and, in contradiction to my post above, I was just skilled enough to make the changes.

When trying to download 2.0.43 I get a 404...

Sorry - should be there now.

wapet has also been updated now, so that the 10KB limit no longer applies.

wapet 0.5 available here.

If you downloaded Tag 2.0.43 before 19:30 BST you may want to download it again.

I discovered an issue in Case's original code that resulted in screwy bitrate values being reported on long files (e.g.: a CD image).

To resolve I changed the line:


... to:


..which correctly results in, e.g., 859 kbps, not 4294966745 kbps.

I can only assume this is some sort of overflow bug, which is why I added the (signed __int64). Maybe someone has a more elegant solution.

Sorry, I was testing on track files, so didn't notice earlier.

Right, the code overflows when the file size is over 512MB. Your solution is elegant enough, though not portable (I'm not sure if it's meant to be, but it will compile on MSVC++, but not gcc).

was gcc used to compile TAG before?

tag 2.0.43 reports the correct bitrate for APE files. Thank you, Synthetic Soul

Thanks for the confirmation Supernaut - it's good to have my code scrutinised by a competent C++ programmer. If you know any of the story behind this you'll know I don't count myself in that group.


The original source from Case has MSVC++ workspace/project files - so I think it's always been MSVC++. I'm using 6, not .NET/7 (although I have both).

Edit: also, the reason I tried (signed __int64) was that Case had used it one or two lines previous. So I guess that confirms it has always been MSVC++ only.


No problem. Ever since you mentioned it it's bugged me, but I have just really struggled working out the new APE header.

Edit: Example of improvements:

C:\DOS>tag *.ape
Tag - Automatic Tag from filename
Copyright © 2002-2003 Case. Minor additions by Neil Popham, 2004-2005
Version 2.0.43, Compiled 2005-04-21

C:\DOS\cdimage.ape
Format: Monkey's Audio 3.99 (High)
Details: 44100 Hz Stereo, 808 kbps, playtime 49:19
File has no known tags.

C:\DOS\cdimage397.ape
Format: Monkey's Audio 3.97 (Normal)
Details: 44100 Hz Stereo, 817 kbps, playtime 49:19
File has no known tags.


C:\DOS>tag-2.0.39 *.ape
Tag - Automatic Tag from filename Copyright © 2002-2003 Case
Version 2.0.39b, Compiled 2003-04-11

C:\DOS\cdimage.ape
Format: Monkey's Audio 3.99
Details: 24 Hz, playtime 1060:01:46
File has no known tags.

C:\DOS\cdimage397.ape
Format: Monkey's Audio 3.97
Details: 44100 Hz Stereo, 4294966663 kbps, playtime 49:19
File has no known tags.

Rename From Tag Then Tag From Filename


Tag From Filename Then Rename From Tag



Thanks for making such a great command line tool! The batch files above are by far the easiest way for me to tag and rename my mp3 collection! I just drop the appropriate one into my music subdirectory and run it! There are several other things you could do to....but this is the easiest. Just make sure to include your filename scheme at the TOP of the tag.cfg auto-guesser section, and change the options above to match your tag.exe location and filename scheme.

If the author would allow a way to edit tags and/or filenames using general expressions, that would be very much appreciated! (i.e. remove everything in parentheses, and everything after and including feat., ft., ft, feat, etc.). If anyone has a way to do this as of now, please fill me in! Also, could you explain what trackinc does? I thought it was an auto-track numbering switch, but it doesn't seem to do that. That ability would be very much appreciated! Thanks!

Following a request from [proxima] I have made some amendments to Tag.

It's still in beta so I haven't added it to the page yet, but I thought I'd let people know, to maybe get some feedback. You can download it here.

Thanks to [proxima] for the idea, and feedback.

I hope some others find it useful.

NB: [proxima] did ask whether Tag could amend the FILE reference to point to the audio file where necessary. This is unfortunately beyond my C++ skills (which are 50% copy'n'paste and 50% basic syntax). I am hoping that David will implement this in WavPack (as discussed in another thread) and then I can plagiarise his code. I can't believe there is no easy-looking way of using regular expressions with C/C++ (Tag really seems to be C syntax from my limited experience).

Edit: @ [proxima]: Again, thanks for your help. FYI: Since Beta 5 I am no longer using the --tofile code, so:

TAG --tocuea --recursive *.wv

... works.


Edit: Updated link to beta 9

Thanks for your work Syntetic Soul, it is really appreciated.
I'm happy you finally ended up with a successful recursive mode

@Synthetic Soul: the new switches you added return always zero even if the input file does not contain an embedded cuesheet. It would be useful for batchfiles creation if you can return "non zero" in this and the other possible failure cases.

edit: i've just found a workaround with batchfiles, i can check for filesize. You can ignore this request

I can't really return a non-zero value, as it is not an error, per se, if no cuesheet tag exists.

You can use --tocue/a/n while tagging, or any other action, so returning an error would be inaccurate in many situations.

I could report when no cuesheet tag is found, but I guess that is of no practical use.

Anyway, I'm glad that you found a workaround.

I'm sure TAG.EXE has a long and storied past, but I haven't been able to find that story anywhere. What's the reason that the writing of id3v2 tags is not supported by this tool?

Much of the story I can't explain. I am a relative noob to this forum.

My small part of the story is detailed in this thread. In essence, I wanted to embed a cuesheet in my Monkey's Audio files as part of an automated archive process. I asked Case whether he would add the functionality to set the tag from the contents of a text file and he replied that he had no interest in updating Tag. So, I took it upon myself to add the functionality. I never intended to do anything else with Tag, but although the application was popular, no-one else seemed interested in updating it further, so as libraries that Tag uses were updated I have updated my mods of Tag, in case they are relevant. I have made a few other minor amendments as and when people have requested.

I have always been confused why a competent C(++) programmer has not taken on the role.

I tend to get one or two emails a week regarding Tag. Many ask me when I will add ID3v2 tagging. Sadly, I have to tell them that I simply don't have the skills to implement such a thing. That said, Case didn't add ID3v2 tagging for a reason. He must surely have the skills to utilise the ID3lib library, so I figure that ID3v2 was never meant to be. I have always been concerned about corrupting Tag's good name, and, stupid or not, it seems to me that adding ID3v2 tagging to Tag would be sacrilegious in some way.

I know many people on the forum seem to have a low opinion of ID3v2, stating that it is a poor standard and can result in corrupted files. I can only assume Case subscribed to this thinking.

I for one would like to hear Case's story more. He was posting infrequently when I joined the forum, and seems not to post at all now (hopefully the two events were no related). On checking he was last active two days ago, but hasn't posted for six months.

Is there any way to pipe the output to a text file? Im just trying to read the artist, album and genre tags into my vb app. I could use metaflac but would rather keep tag as its such a versatile tool.

Whenever I do
tag "1.flac" --hideinfo --simple --hidenames >> test.txt

I get a blank text file

TAG.EXE --stdout *.* > report.txt

You will need at least version 2.0.44 to use the --stdout switch.

use the --nfo switch!

Edit: Ooops Synthetic_Soul was quicker. However, --nfo works with earlier versions.

Thanks guys, cant believe i missed that one!

Edit:

tag "1.flac" --hideinfo --simple --hidenames --stdout >> rep.txt

worked perfectly.

...i hope for an id3v2 writing support....
... if i'm just a good programmer, i can contibute to synthetic soul.

Tag.exe doesn't seem to be able to read ID3v2 tags written with foobar2000 0.9. Can you fix that Synthetic Soul?

Sorry, no. I just don't have the knowledge of ID3v2 or C++.

Perhaps it is time that a competent C++ programmer took on the mantle?

Damn, I really hoped tag.exe could write ID3v2!!

I use Helium as tag manager, which reads APEv2 tags, but are appearent not very good at it. If I remove ID3v2 tags and update the "year"-tag, nothing shows up in Helium. I need this to update series of files with a script gathering data from a database.... so now i'm stuck :-(

I have a small feature request. Since foobar2000 started to write tracknumber field in format MM/NN where MM is track number and NN is total tracks count, it is hard to rename tracks using tag. Is it possible to strip '/' and everything after this char from tracknumber field when renaming?

Try loading all of the MP3s whose tags you want to alter into foobar2000, selecting them and removing the TOTALTRACKS field. I have no idea how you could do this with TAG or another program, though.

Do you feel the difference between correcting Tag's functionality and modifing tag information to let Tag work as expected? I need this field, I don't want to remove it.

HMM does it pretty much the same way... (Oh and by the way - It actually supports most of the ID3v2 standard which fb2k doesn't )

Sorry, what's "HMM"?

thanks

Me too. I understand that this subject is pretty much taboo here, but tag would be so much more useful to me if it just dropped the politics and wrote ID3v2 tags...

I've got those ID3v2 tag that iTune produce with the cover and it crash when applying it to a ogg file

I agree as well, and have wanted that feature implemented since the get go and the likes of Winamp and Foobar2000 can write them so I don't see why it was never implemented regardless of "taboo, and paranoia."

Hello

Is there a reason that tag.exe does not create an extended m3u file for TAK files? I tested it with tag.exe --playlist *.tag but it did not creat an extended m3u playlist with the artist / title names.

I'm not familiar with M3U playlists, or Tag's --playlist switch, but I used:


... and created:

did you try with tak files?

Just tried. I got the header (below), but not any track info. I'll try to take a look.