FLAC files and music metadata problem

[Covenant]

When I first got my current Cowon S9, I used the Ogg encoded music and had no issues with the player sorting albums correctly, picking up artist/album names, and so forth.

Since switching to FLAC, all this information seems to have dissapeared. The Cowon shows Unknown for the artist/album for most of my music, and cannot organise the albums correctly from track 1 to the last track, instead just sorting them alphabetically by track name.

Can anyone give me some insight into how to fix this?

 

[krmathis]

..and the FLAC files contain this metadata (tags)?
If not, then use a tag editor to fix them.

 

[xbox2xbox]

i can always remember what's on my cd...
XD

 

[Covenant]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krmathis /img/forum/go_quote.gif ..and the FLAC files contain this metadata (tags)? If not, then use a tag editor to fix them.

I have no idea, how do I check? And can you reccomend me a tag editor?

Quote:

i can always remember what's on my cd... XD

Gee, what a helpful post. Its a case of progressive music being played out of order, more than displaying what track I'm listening to

 

[Aaron5604]

Media Monkey I know tags FLAC information correctly, unlike some out there. Plus, the album art it grabs is of high quality coming from Amazon.

Now, it will (at times) auto. tag files incorrectly so you'll have to manually fix those errors individually. But, for being a free app. in this case, it works quite well over all for tagging FLAC, or any other audio codec.

 

[Cowon_1]

Make sure there is No id3 tags attached to the flac file..if there is delete them.

I use mp3tag for this.

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Covenant /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have no idea, how do I check? And can you reccomend me a tag editor?

You don't mention which OS you run.
But I find this one to be quite nice: Tag from sbooth.org

 

[Covenant]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krmathis /img/forum/go_quote.gif You don't mention which OS you run. But I find this one to be quite nice: Tag from sbooth.org

Sorry, I'm running Windows XP.

Quote:

Make sure there is No id3 tags attached to the flac file..if there is delete them. I use mp3tag for this.

So there's a different kind of tag involved with FLAC files, then? I would have assumed that if it had an 1d3 tag a portable player would be more likely to read it properly.

 

[Aaron5604]

FLAC uses vorbis comments for tagging purposes, rather than ID3.

 

[Covenant]

I've been playing around with mp3tag and Media Monkey, and can't figure out how to get either of them to write vorbis comments.

They can both remove 1d3 tags fine, and download album art and whatnot, but I cant get them to write vorbis comments. The auto-tag feature of Media Monkey just writes 1d3 tags, and I cant find the settings option to change it.

Edit: Ok, figured out how to add vorbis comments with Media Monkey. I removed the Id3 tags with mp3tag, then auto-tagged an album using Monkey, and it created the right kind of tags. I also selected save album art to folder and to tag where possible.

The album then shows up in the Cowon S9's album list, but under "Artist="artistname"" as the album name. And tracks still are not ordered correctly. In addition, the album art doesn't show up.

 

[Covenant]

So as things stand atm, I can get albums to recognise in FLAC for the S9, but still cannot get it to sort them correctly or display album art, although mp3tag assures me I'm using FLAC (FLAC) tags and not 1d3.

Also, the S9 seems to be displaying album names incorrectly, displaying a "Artist=artistname" field in place of just the artist's name.

Can anyone give me some ideas of what to try next? Is there different versions of Vorbis comments, perhaps, and the S9 can only correctly read an older (or newer) version?

 

[Aaron5604]

As I was saying earlier, actually -- back in post #5 -- regarding Media Monkey

When programs aren't syncing your tags correctly, it's usually because metadata wasn't loaded properly. All info. MUST be symmetrical, otherwise it ends up looking all messed up w/ most programs. Media Monkey (at least the free version) is particularly bad at this, sorry to say. Its source for tagging isn't the best apparently because it doesn't always import like you expect it to each time.

So, for starters -- I would go back and double check and make sure all information that was imported is exactly identical w/ every other song on that album, w/ the exception of both the file name and song title.

To do this, just highlight every song and right click, then scroll down to properties. RE-type all that information left to be edited, and then click OK.

If you're still having issues, you might see if you're experiencing these same kind of problems else where, just to see on whether your S9 is the culprit, or the actual files themselves.

For example:

I'll use both Winamp 5.54 and Foobar 2K to confirm first before uploading to any external device, just for time saving purposes.

 

[Covenant]

Ok, problem has now been resolved.

I contacted the retailer who sold me the S9 and asked their advice, they directed me to this thread: FLAC tag info problem - iAudiophile.net Forums

Which had some good Cowon-specific tag troubleshooting advice. Turns out, my S9 wasn't reading the tags correctly simply because I was retagging/correcting the FLAC files on the device itself, rather than on my computer.

I found why the FLAC files were being mistagged with ID3 tags originally, as well. My command line options for tagging FLAC in EAC were incorrect, which I fixed up. I then re-ripped an album as FLAC, downloaded album art, copied it to the S9 and it worked properly.

 

[iriverdude]

Quote:

My command line options for tagging FLAC in EAC were incorrect,

Post them please. I use

-8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=%e" %s -o %d

 

[Covenant]

This is what I have currently that seems to work:

-T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

I decided to leave the compression level at default (5) and keep the string as simple as possible.