I tag my mp3 files with ape2 and id3v1 tags; ape is more versatile but id3v1 is read by most hardware and software while ape is acknowledge by few programs. Generally, I want the tags to be identical, and so have foobar set up to write ape and id3v1 tags. However, sometimes the ideal amount of info in a field (such as if a song or album has a really long name) won't fit in the space allotted in the id3v1 tag. In cases like these, I want the ape tag to have the full info, and will manually truncate the name into something that fits in the space but also captures more of the meaning of the title than just cutting it after the max # of characters is reached. For example, my song title (in the id3v1 tag) of "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" is
Loneliness of Long-DistanceRun
I use Winamp to edit id3v1 tags, and it's very convenient for this.
However, if I ever edit the tags in foobar again, it kills whatever changes I've made to id3v1 tags.
* If I have foobar set to write only ape tags, it deletes any id3v1 tag
* If I have foobar set to write ape and id3v1 tags, it copies the info directly from the ape tag to the id3v1 tag, and truncates off characters beyond the max limit.

This is especially a problem because I'm adding ape tags to a lot of mp3 files that have only had id3v1 tags. I copy the info over from id3v1 to ape (using commandline with Tag), but then when I manually edit tags in foobar to get the ape tag to contain the full title or album name, I have to go back and re-edit the id3 tags to have a more nicely truncated version.

So...
Is there any way to get foobar to edit APE tags without affecting info in the id3v1 tag?

Thanks for any help here.

No.

No, one of the priciples how fb2k-tagging works is that you only have to care about the metadata, and foobar will automatically care about synchronizing tag-systems. Obviously, an "automatic-system" can never be as good in subjective scenarious as a manual system.

But as you explained, doing it manually the perfectionist-way takes MUCH more time and effort. You choosed that you're willing to spent the additional time - but fb2k chooses the other route. One of the reasons is that it was created with the thought in mind of managing file-collections of multiple ten-thousand tracks.

- Lyx

Too bad. Although I understand the reasons for that design principle. Thanks for the replies...

updated my last reply with some additional explanations.

Your hardware/software doesn't support ID3v2 ?

Because that would solve your problem nicely.

I've read some stuff in the past about id3v2 tags being problematic in some situations. I actually don't remember the reason(s) why, but I've stayed away from using them. Is there any validity in any of these reasons (to the extent that you're familiar with them), or are there no reasons to *not* use id3v2 tags?

Well they're a crappy format IMO, but if your player support them . . .

Try mp3tag... it can handle all tags (ID3v1, ID3v2 and APE) individually. What you want to achieve can be easily done with this tagging program.

You can set the READ, WRITE and REMOVE behaviour of MP3 and other formats (APE, MPC, OGG, MP4...)

The only drawback of mp3tag is, that you have to change it's behaviour through the options every time. It's not accessible through the front GUI.