Fix incorrect MP3 timings?

[Shawn]

I've noticed that the timings are off on some of my MP3 files, for example a song that's 3:42 will show as 28 minutes or something equally ridiculous. Not sure what caused the problem and I haven't been able to reproduce it.

The question is now what's the easiest way to fix it? I know how to change almost all the other information aside from the song length on MP3 files.

Thanks,

Shawn

[aparxa]

The song length is not a tag (title, artist...) but is automatically generated by the audio player (winamp etc...). I think the only way to fix that is to reencode

the mp3 file.

[WD45]

I have a Sun Ra track from emusic that says it is 728 hours long. It is not. That would be a good cost per minute, if so.

[Daniel A]

Are these MP3s in VBR (variable bit rate)? The so called "header" which contains timing info might be missing or damaged. There is software which can recontruct the header. Years ago I used VBRfix for this, and - as I can recall - it worked on a faulty CBR file once as well. I found this link in a Google search, but have not tried this version, so usual disclaimers apply.

[WD45]

Are these MP3s in VBR (variable bit rate)? The so called "header" which contains timing info might be missing or damaged. There is software which can recontruct the header. Years ago I used VBRfix for this, and - as I can recall - it worked on a faulty CBR file once as well. I found this link in a Google search, but have not tried this version, so usual disclaimers apply.

I know the Ra track is a VBR, so that is probably where the trouble lies.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I had that happen when I used the wrong ID tag command in EAC while ripping a VBR mp3. VBRfix did not work either. I had to re-rip the files.

[Shawn]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll probably just re-encode the files since there aren't that many of them. I did a couple test rips last night and was unable to reproduce the problem.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

BTW, the ripping command that I use now (that does not produce timing errors) is: -V 2 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d --ignore-tag-errors

That last one is a good one to know. If you stick in a CD and the pre-defined genre isn't recognized by the LAME encoder, it barfs. Using --ignore-tag-errors stops this. FWIW, a lot of the stuff we rip has "odd" genre tags, mainly because people don't have any idea how to classify it.

Kevin

[Shawn]

Found a fix!!!!

I use Foobar 2000 and noticed that under the Utilities menu there was a selection for "Fix MP3 VBR Header". I tried it on a few files and it corrected the problem!

Kevin,

Thanks for the ripping command, I'll give that one a shot.

Edited May 2, 2008 by Shawn