The metadata that is stored with mp3 files is not stored when I save clips or tracks to a WAV file. What's more, I've transcribed a hundred hours of audio, dutifully filling in the title, artist, album title, genre, track#, and release date, only to find that all were lost when I saved the music itself as WAV files. So I'm left with nothing but music so far. Must re-enter all the data, and save as crappy mp3 file. Found a reference on the Net that says a BWF (Broadcast Wave File) will support metadata in some cases, but the application must support maintenance of it. I really don't care about broadcast quality, but I can't be satisfied to transcribe all my thousands of hours of (ugh!) reel-to-reel tapes to high-loss mp3 format. Got a solution out there? KP:

High loss? You can always output to custom 320Kbps which is considered CD quality. You can also use .WMA at highest quality. Just depends on what you are going to do with the files? Just play them back on a computer or mobile device?

Gary:

Hmmm. I never saw this response to my question back in May. I never, therefore, responded. I wonder what I'm doing wrong with my board access?

I expect to play most of these audio files from the desktop computer. I might cut a few CDs from selected pieces to play in the car while travelling, but the whole point of going digital was to eliminate the physical handling of the recordings, and the ability to instantly access any selection at will. "Back when", audio tape was better quality than LP records, but the serial nature of 1800 feet of mylar is laughable now. Funny how it wasn't so funny in 1965!

I've discovered that the .wav files I'm recording and saving to my hard disk SOMETIMES have the recording attributes displayed by WMP, other times it's limited to displaying the track title. I'm really not sure why the difference, but I've used the same Sound Editor and methodology since I started this transcription project a year ago. I've recorded about 70 tapes out of the target 350. Can't swear to it, but sometimes I believe the SAME track displays track data differently at different times. Is that possible?

I have Adobe's Sound Booth, and have actually used it, but find it's a huge overkill for this simple transacription project. If I could understand the variability of the data recorded with the audio, and a few other issues with SE, I could feel much more comfortable that the work I'm doing won't be wasted and need to be re-done.

Do you recommend .wma format over .wav format for this sort of archive?

Sorry I did not respond earlier. I'm tagging this thread so I'm notified of any updates to it.

Let me throw something out there.

First off,Audio cd's don't carry metadata.At least a standard one doesn't.
That's why if you insert a cd into Windows Media Player it goes out to a database to try and find the info.
If you write the disc with CD-Text some players will read it and display basic info.WMP doesn't do it natively and needs a plug-in to be able to.

You might consider using FLAC as the format.It is lossless and carries metadata.
Or like Gary said use 320 for the bitrate of the mp3's.

The only real consideration would be storage space.The less compression the larger the files.If space is not a concern then go with wav (which you've tried) or one of the higher bit rate mp3's or FLAC.If it is then use maybe the 192bitrate for your mp3's.
Given that your files are being made from a reel to reel in the first place I don't think you're going to miss much if anything that you can hear.

Yeah, well I noticed in Sound Booth analysis that the Freq Resp on 3-3/4 tapes (why, oh WHY did I ever use that speed???) is around 12Khz max. My pre-recorded 7.5 ips tapes show around 20Khz, and my "good" 7.5 native-recordings (from disc) are showing around 24Khz, as are most of my "live" recordings, as i did have a really good mic set back then. But most of those tapes are off then-brand-new LPs that I never played again. So how good is it "really"? I'd say if I can get 20Khz, I'm getting the best I can expect. Is a CD that's showing 44Khz really 22Khz per channel, or is it 44Khz per channel? Either way, it's probably fine for scratchy old 45 RPM monophonic dubs!

I don't recall FLAC as a format supported in Roxio Sound Editor. I have 1.5TB for music storage, so the space is not an issue. I thought, when I made a CD using SE2010, that it showed the title, artist, album, and artist on the display in my truck's CD player. I'll have to check that out. I don't make CD's very often, maybe I'm confusing it with a few local FM stations, which do the same thing.

So how do I get more info on FLAC and the software to create it?

One goal is to have a search tool (the native Win Vista does not do the trick) that will allow me to select by title, album, artist, year, genre. Vista Search only works with the filename, which I've chosen to be just the selection title as my standard. My current "index" of my original recordings is a greenbar computer printout that I saved from 1969, when I had most of my music entered on (*sigh*) 80-column IBM cards. The cards, and an old 9-track data tape that was current to 1978, are long gone, and now I must rely on the computer-generated content printouts I have in each box for selection identification. The Internet is an amazing resource to pick up facts on recordings I made 30-40 years ago.

This is an amazing venture into a branch of the computer industry I somehow missed, even tho my career was all computer-based.

Thank you for your help, comments, suggestions, etc. KP:



I just realized that if i retrieve one of my saved .wav files back into Sound Editor, all of the metadata I associated with it seems to be available. That means SE is storing it somewhere. Any idea where that might be? When I'm ready to convert these files to another format unsupported by SE, will I be able to retrieve all of this saved data?

Instead of using Sound Editor to rip the files try using the Home Application.Go to the Music/Audio tab and you should see RIP.
I don't have 2009 loaded anymore,I have 2010.But the 2 are pretty much the same and you should have FLAC as a choice there.
Go to Options to set the format.