Changing Meta Data (Properties) information on Music Files (.Wav)

[TroyLinux]

This post is especially for music appreciators who like to catalogue their music and for People who put out music,

I have a situation where I've made some tracks for an album and I want to put in the Meta-Data (Properties) such as album, Artist, Track number, Date, Genre etc.

In Windows, this was easy and there were tabs to do this in "Details" when you right clicked the file.

I don't see that ability in Linux and wondering how people deal with this?

Perhaps there is an online website where I can do it or some software?

Any advice much appreciated.

Thank you

T

 

[JasKinasis]

From having a quick play on my system, I only have PCmanFM-qt and Dolphin installed on my Ubuntu Studio laptop. Right-clicking on a .WAV in PCmanFM-qt and selecting properties does not show any tagging information.
See screenshot below;

However, right-clicking on a .WAV in Dolphin (KDE's default file-manager), I can see it does support tags in WAV files. There is an option to add tags in the main right click menu AND in the details tab of the properties page.
See the following screenshots:
Right click menu in Dolphin:

Details tab of property page in Dolphin:

NOTE: In the Dolphin images above, the icons for the .wav files aren't there, only the file-names. That's because I'm using dwm as my main WM and it doesn't play properly with Dolphin on KDE5. There is a workaround to fix that issue, but I haven't got around to fixing that yet. I only installed Ubuntu Studio on my laptop last week and haven't finished setting up my preferred dwm environment yet.
But everthing works properly in the Ubu Stu's default KDE/Plasma X11 session.

If your distros file manager doesn't allow you to change the properties of .WAVs to add metadata, you could perhaps try installing Dolphin, or switch to using a KDE/Plasma desktop session. Without looking at other desktop environments, IDK which other file managers have a similar ability. Also, I'm not sure if the WAV tagging capability of Dolphin is a default behaviour or if it's been added by a plugin/extension. I've only just switched to Ubu-Stu from Debian and I've been using dwm and pcmanfm for years, so IDK what's in a stock install of Dolphin in KDE/Plasma

Otherwise, if you don't want to change your Desktop or your file browser, then perhaps you could try using an application like Kid3, a QT based desktop application which allows you to add tags to audio files. I've never actually tried tagging .WAV files in Kid3, but from a quick look, it only appears to support ID3v2 tags in .WAV files.

Screenshot of kid3 below.

Kid3 is pretty nifty. You open it to a directory containing music files. Then you can select multiple files and then set the tags that are common to all of the selected files in one go, like the Artist, Album, Year and Genre . Then you can individually select files and edit the more song-specific tags like the song Title and Track number tags.

Once you've added your tags, you simply select save in the main menu and all of the files in the directory will have the tags embedded in them.

Final notes:
.WAV is quite an old format. Tags aren't commonly used in .WAV files.
.WAV files can hold meta data, but it only supports very limited tags. It can hold ID3v2 tags, but most applications that process .WAV do not recognise embedded ID3 tags in .WAV because again, they're not commonly used.

Formats like MP3, OGG, MP4 (or M4a) and .WMA are better suited to tagged metadata, but they are lossey files. Or if you want something lossless like WAV, then FLAC or AIFF are better. Of the two, FLAC supports more types of metadata, is compressed (in a lossless way) and is open-source, whereas AIFF is a proprietary Apple format and is uncompressed and typically has larger file-sizes.

 

[GatorsFan]

Audacity has a metadata editor - with your file open click on Edit the scroll down to Metadata Editor - like @JasKinasis has stated WAV is an old format MP3 or WMA is more compatible for tagging, if you are looking for a lossless codec the FLAC is best

 

[KGIII]

I have a situation where I've made some tracks for an album and I want to put in the Meta-Data (Properties) such as album, Artist, Track number, Date, Genre etc.

EasyTag.

 

[dos2unix]

I can do it in VLC.

 

[TroyLinux]

From having a quick play on my system, I only have PCmanFM-qt and Dolphin installed on my Ubuntu Studio laptop. Right-clicking on a .WAV in PCmanFM-qt and selecting properties does not show any tagging information.
See screenshot below;
View attachment 29167

However, right-clicking on a .WAV in Dolphin (KDE's default file-manager), I can see it does support tags in WAV files. There is an option to add tags in the main right click menu AND in the details tab of the properties page.
See the following screenshots:
Right click menu in Dolphin:
View attachment 29168
Details tab of property page in Dolphin:
View attachment 29169

NOTE: In the Dolphin images above, the icons for the .wav files aren't there, only the file-names. That's because I'm using dwm as my main WM and it doesn't play properly with Dolphin on KDE5. There is a workaround to fix that issue, but I haven't got around to fixing that yet. I only installed Ubuntu Studio on my laptop last week and haven't finished setting up my preferred dwm environment yet.
But everthing works properly in the Ubu Stu's default KDE/Plasma X11 session.

If your distros file manager doesn't allow you to change the properties of .WAVs to add metadata, you could perhaps try installing Dolphin, or switch to using a KDE/Plasma desktop session. Without looking at other desktop environments, IDK which other file managers have a similar ability. Also, I'm not sure if the WAV tagging capability of Dolphin is a default behaviour or if it's been added by a plugin/extension. I've only just switched to Ubu-Stu from Debian and I've been using dwm and pcmanfm for years, so IDK what's in a stock install of Dolphin in KDE/Plasma

Otherwise, if you don't want to change your Desktop or your file browser, then perhaps you could try using an application like Kid3, a QT based desktop application which allows you to add tags to audio files. I've never actually tried tagging .WAV files in Kid3, but from a quick look, it only appears to support ID3v2 tags in .WAV files.

Screenshot of kid3 below.
View attachment 29170
Kid3 is pretty nifty. You open it to a directory containing music files. Then you can select multiple files and then set the tags that are common to all of the selected files in one go, like the Artist, Album, Year and Genre . Then you can individually select files and edit the more song-specific tags like the song Title and Track number tags.

Once you've added your tags, you simply select save in the main menu and all of the files in the directory will have the tags embedded in them.

Final notes:
.WAV is quite an old format. Tags aren't commonly used in .WAV files.
.WAV files can hold meta data, but it only supports very limited tags. It can hold ID3v2 tags, but most applications that process .WAV do not recognise embedded ID3 tags in .WAV because again, they're not commonly used.

Formats like MP3, OGG, MP4 (or M4a) and .WMA are better suited to tagged metadata, but they are lossey files. Or if you want something lossless like WAV, then FLAC or AIFF are better. Of the two, FLAC supports more types of metadata, is compressed (in a lossless way) and is open-source, whereas AIFF is a proprietary Apple format and is uncompressed and typically has larger file-sizes.

Thanks JasKinasas
I'll look into both of those options.

When you say Kid 3, which of these applications do you mean?
Thanks Again
T

 

[TroyLinux]

T

Audacity has a metadata editor - with your file open click on Edit the scroll down to Metadata Editor - like @JasKinasis has stated WAV is an old format MP3 or WMA is more compatible for tagging, if you are looking for a lossless codec the FLAC is b

Thanks for that. My music editing software exports in Wav or AIFF only so don't want to take the file back through Audacity as the quality of the recording suffers. Ideal would be to alter the file properties once created.

I've checked and it's not a permission issue, so not sure why I can't get in a change the details on these files.

 

[KGIII]

I can do it in VLC.

Indeed. You can also do it with Audacity. I suggested EasyTag because it also supports adding album art, which Audacity does not do.

 

[TroyLinux]

From having a quick play on my system, I only have PCmanFM-qt and Dolphin installed on my Ubuntu Studio laptop. Right-clicking on a .WAV in PCmanFM-qt and selecting properties does not show any tagging information.
See screenshot below;
View attachment 29167

However, right-clicking on a .WAV in Dolphin (KDE's default file-manager), I can see it does support tags in WAV files. There is an option to add tags in the main right click menu AND in the details tab of the properties page.
See the following screenshots:
Right click menu in Dolphin:
View attachment 29168
Details tab of property page in Dolphin:
View attachment 29169

NOTE: In the Dolphin images above, the icons for the .wav files aren't there, only the file-names. That's because I'm using dwm as my main WM and it doesn't play properly with Dolphin on KDE5. There is a workaround to fix that issue, but I haven't got around to fixing that yet. I only installed Ubuntu Studio on my laptop last week and haven't finished setting up my preferred dwm environment yet.
But everthing works properly in the Ubu Stu's default KDE/Plasma X11 session.

If your distros file manager doesn't allow you to change the properties of .WAVs to add metadata, you could perhaps try installing Dolphin, or switch to using a KDE/Plasma desktop session. Without looking at other desktop environments, IDK which other file managers have a similar ability. Also, I'm not sure if the WAV tagging capability of Dolphin is a default behaviour or if it's been added by a plugin/extension. I've only just switched to Ubu-Stu from Debian and I've been using dwm and pcmanfm for years, so IDK what's in a stock install of Dolphin in KDE/Plasma

Otherwise, if you don't want to change your Desktop or your file browser, then perhaps you could try using an application like Kid3, a QT based desktop application which allows you to add tags to audio files. I've never actually tried tagging .WAV files in Kid3, but from a quick look, it only appears to support ID3v2 tags in .WAV files.

Screenshot of kid3 below.
View attachment 29170
Kid3 is pretty nifty. You open it to a directory containing music files. Then you can select multiple files and then set the tags that are common to all of the selected files in one go, like the Artist, Album, Year and Genre . Then you can individually select files and edit the more song-specific tags like the song Title and Track number tags.

Once you've added your tags, you simply select save in the main menu and all of the files in the directory will have the tags embedded in them.

Final notes:
.WAV is quite an old format. Tags aren't commonly used in .WAV files.
.WAV files can hold meta data, but it only supports very limited tags. It can hold ID3v2 tags, but most applications that process .WAV do not recognise embedded ID3 tags in .WAV because again, they're not commonly used.

Formats like MP3, OGG, MP4 (or M4a) and .WMA are better suited to tagged metadata, but they are lossey files. Or if you want something lossless like WAV, then FLAC or AIFF are better. Of the two, FLAC supports more types of metadata, is compressed (in a lossless way) and is open-source, whereas AIFF is a proprietary Apple format and is uncompressed and typically has larger file-sizes.

I was able to download Dolphin - When I added the tags in the details screen, there is no option to go into the tags and input the data (eg, album name, date of release, etc). Am I misinterpretting what you're proposing there?

 

[KGIII]

Thanks for that. My music editing software exports in Wav or AIFF only so don't want to take the file back through Audacity as the quality of the recording suffers. Ideal would be to alter the file properties once created.

Audacity lets you export the file as .wav at the highest qualities. At least it does here.

 

[deb_user]

Audacity will import/export almost any file type with no loss of quality. Once a file is digital, the quality won't be changed by editing, unless it's exported at a lower quality.

 

[JasKinasis]

I was able to download Dolphin - When I added the tags in the details screen, there is no option to go into the tags and input the data (eg, album name, date of release, etc). Am I misinterpretting what you're proposing there?

Sorry - after reading your replies and taking another, closer look - it turns out I was completely mistaken about the tags feature in Dolphin/KDE.
I thought it was to do with editing ID3 tags on audio files. But apparently not.

A quick bit of duckduckgo-fu regarding tags in Dolphin/KDE yielded this:

Using File Tagging Feature in KDE's Dolphin File Manager

Want to organize files by tagging them? You don't need third party tools for that if you are using KDE. Here's how to use the built-in tagging feature in Dolphin file manager.

itsfoss.com

It appears that KDE/Plasma has the ability to assign tags to any types of files. You can then use KDE's search tools to search for files by tag, rlistather than solely using more traditional search data.
When I was composing my original response, I should have tested the tags feature, rather than assuming and making an ass of you and me (ass u me / assume).

So Dolphin does NOT support directly editing tags in audio files. Sorry about that. But if an audio file does have tags, then dolphin does display them in the details tab of the file-properties dialog.

Thanks JasKinasas
I'll look into both of those options.

When you say Kid 3, which of these applications do you mean?
Thanks Again
T

The two main packages are kid3-qt and kid3.
I think kid3 might install a ton of extra KDE dependencies. So if you're not running kde, then kid3-qt would be a better bet, because it's a standalone qt application.
Whichever of the two you install, the kid3-common package will be installed anyway, because that contains common functionality used by all of the kid3 applications.
And kid3-cli is a terminal only way to use the functionality in kid3-common.

So I'd say that kid3-qt is probably the better bet if you're not on KDE. Surprisingly, despite being a terminal wizard, I haven't really used kid3-cli. I always tag my music files in kid3's GUI, so I'm less likely to mess up any of my music files.

As the others have stated, VLC, Audacity and Easytag will work. Personally I prefer kid3 because you can edit the tags for multiple files at once and speed up the process if you're dealing with a lot of files. I'm not familiar with @KGIII 's recommendation of EasyTag. I'll have to take a look at that.

Sorry again for the mix up with the tags in Dolphin. I should have tested that more before making my initial response. I just right clicked on a .wav file and saw 'tags' and assumed that's what it was for!