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Removing ID tags


Hardbopjazz

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Although I have a few months to I have my BFT, I am having one hell of a time removing the ID tags of some of the tracks. No mater what I do all the information remains. One track I don't understand how it is possible, is a LP rip. How could windows ID this tune and artists.

How do the rest of you remove ID tags so not to give anything away?

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I used Goldwave to remove the tags on my first couple of BFT's. Since it was $40 program when I boughty some time ago you wouldn't want to pick it up just for that, I use it primarily for editing and cleaning up vinyl rips. For my current BFT I used a free program but I am a little embarrassed to say I don't remember which one. I think it was id3remeover.

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I wish I could tell you. I've downloaded several free tag editing programs and not one of them seems to be able to permanently alter my tags. I have a few music files where I accidentally pasted in an Excel spreadsheet into the album's artwork area via Windows Media Player. Now, no matter what I do to the tag, these files have this embedded into it. It's funny when I play one of these tracks in my car and a bunch of numbers show up in the artwork window. Wayne Shorter's "Ju Ju" will forever be 12.24731 12.4322 12.75443 to me. :)

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No idea how this stuff works ... I've had other see partial tags on my files (and vice versa) when I was sure I'd removed all there was (using a programme called tag&rename, not freeware, I think, got it from a friend many moons ago). Might be more helpful to overwrite all tags with nonsense (and for those who play the files on some MP3 player, use a sensible album title and correct numbering, of course) rather than emptying them (there are various fields in the background like "album artist", in addition to regular "artist", never got all that stuff, but I guess I'm too old to bother ;))

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Thom Keith is the co-coordinator of the Blindfold Tests this year with me. Thom is handling any and all technical issues. I suggest that you send Thom a Private Message, Hardbopjazz. I have found Thom to be very responsive and helpful to all of the Blindfold Test presenters this year.


I am at a loss on how a LP I ripped to my computer is being picked up after I split the tracks. This isn't going from digital to digital.


All 8 trakcs are identifed correctly. I did't change the file name to the tune's name, but windows' media player got it right n all 8.

I have actually read about this before. Computers pick up the exact length of the songs and can identify an album by the exact sequence of songs with particular timings. So an album with songs of the lengths 2:21, 3:04, 4:34. 2:19, 3:45, 3:32, 2:58, 6:44 could mean John Coltrane's Giant Steps to the computer. I just made that up, those are obviously not the correct song times for that album.

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I am at a loss on how a LP I ripped to my computer is being picked up after I split the tracks. This isn't going from digital to digital.

All 8 trakcs are identifed correctly. I did't change the file name to the tune's name, but windows' media player got it right n all 8.

I've had this happen many times with LPs I've CD-rd on a stand alone machine. When I transfer to the PC the record is often identified. I think the programme that tries to identify tracks can work things out by the number of tracks and the track length. Very few records can be exactly the same.

Edited by A Lark Ascending
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Well my BFT is up next and I am putting finishing touches on the tracks and programming. My sources are a combo of tracks extracted from commercial CDs, CDRs, vinyl transfers I've made, and commercially purchased MP3s/FLAC files.

The process I used last time, and expect will work again this time, is to take each file and copy/paste into a new wav file in Goldwave. I trim the ends and save, under the tracks BFT name such as BFT133-001. (This requires that I decide on tracking as I go.)

I then play the final version in my media players, and also burn a CD and play that on the PC. Right now all I can report is that VLC is showing the correct BFT names in the playlist. I can't check Windows Media Player until I convert to MP3s, because it doesn't recognize wav files.

But so far, so good. And this system worked fine last BFT too.

Edited by Dan Gould
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I think I have it licked. I used a program called Audacity and opened the files in that and resaved them and I am not seeing the ID tags.

There may be a problem with Audacity if you are using it for mp3 files. If you open an mp3 file and re-save it as an mp3 file, I am almost positive that it will compress an already-compressed file. The only way I've gotten good results using Audacity is to rip to .wav files, open & edit in Audacity and then "Export" to VBR Q1 mp3.

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I think I have it licked. I used a program called Audacity and opened the files in that and resaved them and I am not seeing the ID tags.

There may be a problem with Audacity if you are using it for mp3 files. If you open an mp3 file and re-save it as an mp3 file, I am almost positive that it will compress an already-compressed file. The only way I've gotten good results using Audacity is to rip to .wav files, open & edit in Audacity and then "Export" to VBR Q1 mp3.

Correct, as usual. ;) You need mp3 audio editing software like mp3DirectCut. It features basic editing functions, including a tag editor, but it doesn't re-encode the mp3 file.

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I think I have it licked. I used a program called Audacity and opened the files in that and resaved them and I am not seeing the ID tags.

There may be a problem with Audacity if you are using it for mp3 files. If you open an mp3 file and re-save it as an mp3 file, I am almost positive that it will compress an already-compressed file. The only way I've gotten good results using Audacity is to rip to .wav files, open & edit in Audacity and then "Export" to VBR Q1 mp3.

Correct, as usual. ;) You need mp3 audio editing software like mp3DirectCut. It features basic editing functions, including a tag editor, but it doesn't re-encode the mp3 file.

I was saving as WAV and then using another program to put it back to MP3.

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I think I have it licked. I used a program called Audacity and opened the files in that and resaved them and I am not seeing the ID tags.

There may be a problem with Audacity if you are using it for mp3 files. If you open an mp3 file and re-save it as an mp3 file, I am almost positive that it will compress an already-compressed file. The only way I've gotten good results using Audacity is to rip to .wav files, open & edit in Audacity and then "Export" to VBR Q1 mp3.

Correct, as usual. ;) You need mp3 audio editing software like mp3DirectCut. It features basic editing functions, including a tag editor, but it doesn't re-encode the mp3 file.

I was saving as WAV and then using another program to put it back to MP3.

I am confused... so you're opening an mp3 file in Audacity and then saving it off as a wav file then opening that wav file and re-encoding it back to mp3 with a new tag? If that's what you're doing, that's not good either.

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I am at a loss on how a LP I ripped to my computer is being picked up after I split the tracks. This isn't going from digital to digital.

All 8 trakcs are identifed correctly. I did't change the file name to the tune's name, but windows' media player got it right n all 8.

I've had this happen many times with LPs I've CD-rd on a stand alone machine. When I transfer to the PC the record is often identified. I think the programme that tries to identify tracks can work things out by the number of tracks and the track length. Very few records can be exactly the same.

Perhaps but I just slipped into the disc drive Greg Hatza's CD In My Pocket from 1995 - pre-tags, I do believe - and VLC Media player identified it as something called Float Away With the Friday Night Gods. I guess the ten tracks match perfectly, but this ain't that.

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I am at a loss on how a LP I ripped to my computer is being picked up after I split the tracks. This isn't going from digital to digital.

All 8 trakcs are identifed correctly. I did't change the file name to the tune's name, but windows' media player got it right n all 8.

I've had this happen many times with LPs I've CD-rd on a stand alone machine. When I transfer to the PC the record is often identified. I think the programme that tries to identify tracks can work things out by the number of tracks and the track length. Very few records can be exactly the same.

Perhaps but I just slipped into the disc drive Greg Hatza's CD In My Pocket from 1995 - pre-tags, I do believe - and VLC Media player identified it as something called Float Away With the Friday Night Gods. I guess the ten tracks match perfectly, but this ain't that.

I just looked up both In My Pocket and Float Away With The Friday Night Gods (the group's name is Marah) on Amazon. They both have 10 tracks each. It would be wild if the timings match up!

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Well I just let the audio software read off the times and compared them to the CD tray card. Every track, in order, is spot-on or within at most 2 seconds. So I can only conclude that the software actually does say "close enough" and decides this must be that.

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Why do I need to reach out to Thom? Does he have a method that works?

I will ask him. Thanks.

He does. Also, since the Blindfold Tests began, we have always had a Blindfold Test coordinator, a go-to person for all questions. When Jeffcrom stepped down, that job was split into two jobs. I am the go-to person for scheduling, and Thom is the go-to person for all technical matters.

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