FLAC Metadata

Where is WaveLab at with FLAC metadata? It seems to me that it can’t embed metadata into FLAC but I honestly have very little FLAC experience. I grabbed some FLAC masters from Bandcamp and when I load them into WaveLab, I can see some metadata.

I have a great preset for tagging mp3/AAC and WAV files with ID3 v1/v2 metadata which automatically comes from CD-Text and other montage info and this makes life easy.

Does anybody know if we can also tag FLAC files to be the same and fully flush with metadata, or must I use another app for that?

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You can set meta-data in FLAC with WaveLab. But not ID3v2.

Thanks for the info. I grabbed some FLAC files from Bandcamp who I would trust to do good metadata embedding. When I load the FLAC files into WaveLab, I can see some metadata but it just comes up as “File Attributes” when I look at it in WaveLab.

Is it possible to push the CD-Text to FLAC files rendered from the montage as I do with mp3/AAC/WAV already? I know it won’t be ID3v2 but I just can’t figure out what metadata field to use for tagging FLAC files in the best way.

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This is possible. You have to use so-called auto variables inside the meta-data dialog, when choosing the file format, and use the variable for CD-Text.

Right, this is what I already do, but I just don’t see what metadata field to send the CD-Text variables to. (see attachment)

For mp3/AAC/WAV I send to the ID3v2 fields, and for ISRC I send to the AXML fields.

What about FLAC? Or am I not understanding this correctly?

Justin, I think you’ll need to make a separate metadata preset for FLAC since it’s not In the metadata window you show. The FLAC metadata window should be available when you select to make a FLAC file. I guess FLAC and Ogg Vorbis use Vorbis Comments, so such a preset should be good for both. (another one outside the “normal” metadata window would be Windows Media Audio files using WMA).

I believe this shows standard mappings for the different metadata types:
http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Tag_Mapping

In addition to ID3 and the others, the tables cover RIFF INFO too.

If you do this:


you access a different dialog.

Thanks Bob and PG. I’m away for the weekend but I’ll try this more on Monday.

I don’t get a lot of FLAC requests but I’d like to know more about the metadata side and what WaveLab is capable of so when FLAC is needed, I can deliver.

One thing to remember or check is that FLAC can’t be a 32 bit float file like WAV can (at least last time I looked it up and tested it). So if you make a FLAC file direct from 32 bit float in Wavelab without dithering to 24 bit, technically you’d be truncating to 24 bits I believe. Not a huge deal, but worth testing and confirming against a truncated 24 bit WAV and a 32 bit float WAV.

For anyone running into this in later Wavelab versions, you still cannot “save” the file after editing Metadata, unles you do a Save As… and save as a Copy. However, you can edit the Metadata File Attributes in the Metadata tab.