My understanding of tags are still a bit premature, but tag information is suppose to appear when you right click on the audio file and click on summary right? If so, then how do I add tags to my flac files if i were to to rip with EAC and encode to flac within the program?

I am currently using the following for "Additional command lines option":

--best %s -T uberstandard=FLAC -T comment="uberstandard flac" -T description="uberstandard flac" -T title="%t" -T artist="%a" -T date="%Y" -T genre="%m" -T album="%g" -T tracknumber="%n"


Thanks.

Well, no, not exactly. The information that appears when you choose "Summary" from "File Properties" in Windows is the OS interpreting the tags. It may be representative of the tags, but it is not necessarily an accurate view of the tags of a file. AFAIK it works on most MP3s and WMAs only.

FLAC stores tags differently than MP3 and WMA, so Windows doesn't know how to display it. Nevertheless, it appears that you are adding tags correctly (this is a judgment from a cursory glance). To view tags for virtually all tag standards, use the audio player foobar2000.

How do I use Foobar to confirm that the tags are in the right place?

Right click over a track, "Properties".

They should be on a small square on the left.
You can add new fields if you feel like it, and edit existing fields, too

I thought Flac tags are very hard to edit?

Edit: The tags does appear in the properties when accessed by foobar. Just wondering what do you guys put in your flac tags. If you guys can list some possibilities, that would be great!

I use only the basic: Album, Tracknumber, Artist, Tracktitle and Year.

Nothing else for me, not even comment... hmm, maybe that could be handy...

Mentioned somewhere else on this board:
Matroska, ID3, Vorbis, APE, RIFF and Dublin Core Tag Frame Reference

completely off topic i know
so just ignore it
i'm getting familiar with lossless compression
so i have to read a lot
and my eyes happened to catch Mono's signature
wow never believed to come across Aldous Huxley
congrats m8 !!

I think this probably comes from the fact that FLAC stores the tags at the beginning of the file (for streaming purposes I believe), and therefore updating tags can take a little time, as the file needs to be almost totally rewritten to accommodate the new data at the beginning of the file. Lossless files that use APE tags take less time, as APE tags are stored at the end, and therefore less (very little) rewriting is required.

FLAC tags are just as easy to edit as any other lossless file though.


If you don't know what tags to use I would suggest just sticking with ALBUM; ARTIST; TRACKNUMBER; TITLE; and GENRE, until you do have a preference.

If you rip to an image (the full CD in one file) rather than separate files it may be worth investigating the CUESHEET VORBIS tag and the FLAC CUESHEET block.

This rewriting only occurs when the size of the tags exceeds the padding in the metadata block (4K by default). For me at least, this almost never occurs and tag writing/altering is instantaneous.

HI, I also have a quesiton I don't understand about FLAC tags. I have ripped my cds into individual tracks in both FLAC and MP3. I am a stickler for wanting a lot of info in the tags including the composer and "encoded by" field. However is it correct that FLAC does not offer these fields???

I rip with EAC and the FLAC tag only shows the basic fields of Artist, Title, Album, TRK# and Comments. Also when I try to edit the tag in WinAmp" those are the only fields that appear in a FLAC. File.

My question is: Is there a way to add the fields I want (like all the ones found in mp3 files)? and then have them appear in say WinAmp when I press the "Info button?

All replys greatfully thanked, but please keep your answers as simple and non-techno as possible.