[golddustpeak]

What is your favorite way to edit music metadata info?

TNX

[PSB Guy]

I use dbpoweramp, the same software I use to rip CDs to my Salkstreamer.

Cornelis

[Phil A]

I use MP3 Tag (it is free).  When I rip a CD I use dbPoweramp.

[TJHUB]

I use MP3 Tag (it is free).  When I rip a CD I use dbPoweramp.

Exactly this! 

[Saturn94]

I use MP3 Tag (it is free).  When I rip a CD I use dbPoweramp.

Same here.

[richidoo]

I use mp3tag, dbPoweramp, and MusicBrainzPicard for different editing tasks.

dbPoweramp allows editing a file on the fly in the Windows properties popup without opening a program.
mp3tag allows larger more complex editing tasks like custom tags, stupid long classical titles, or when no metadata is published.
Picard is great for fixing tags in large number of albums. Like when combing out a library for use with Roon.

[Rusty Jefferson]

I use MP3 Tag (it is free).  When I rip a CD I use dbPoweramp.

Same

[Sparky14]

I use TagScanner.

[glynnw]

dBpoweramp when ripping.  JRiver to fix errors I discover while playing a song.

[Mike-48]

Very much a combination of what others have said:

• dBpoweramp when ripping. I have the paid version with multiple metadata sources.
• mp3tag for fixing downloaded albums before importing them into my library.
• JRiver after files have been imported.

Of the latter two, each has its strengths. In recent versions, mp3tag allows you to save favorite actions, and I use that frequently. Its regular-expression syntax is more straightforward than JRiver, so I use it when I need to do that type of change.

JRiver is extremely powerful -- tag data can be edited just about anywhere they appear. If you've misspelled "Beethoven", you can fix that in thousands of tracks with one edit. A superb program for library management and maintenance, as well as an excellent player.

[ddps]

I use dBpoweramp for ripping.

I do most of my metadata editing on Mac OS, and use https://2manyrobots.com/yate/ for DSD files, and https://amvidia.com/tag-editor for everything else.

The latter is just so easy to use.

[Barrelfish]

Many years back I used EAC to rip CDs, "paused" after going through a couple hundred given how much time it took and never got started back up.  EAC has a new version as of earlier this year so I will need to download that and see if that motivates me to get back to ripping the rest of the collection.

Still using an old version of JRiver as it is a great player and it makes editing metadata easy.  I'll need to consider upgrading that one of these days too.

[thebrieze]

Interesting that most people are using dbPoweramp for ripping. I always thought that EAC was the holy grail of ripping software. How is it better than EAC?

[Digi-G]

I used to use EAC, but it's lately stopped working with my Windows 10.  An uninstall and reload did not help.  There's so many recommendations for dBpoweramp that I may have to check that out.

I recently started using MP3Tag and love it (after a bit of a learning curve).

[Mike-48]

Interesting that most people are using dbPoweramp for ripping. I always thought that EAC was the holy grail of ripping software. How is it better than EAC?

Haven't tried EAC for several years, maybe 5. When I did:

- dbpa much quicker at verifying correct rip (EAC did not yet have AccurateRip)
- dbpa more configurable
- dbpa more features (e.g., batch format conversions)
- dbpa simpler to use
- dbpa had access to five different metadata sources

The gap may have narrowed since. I have friends who swear by EAC. I'm still quite happy with dbpa and have no reason to switch.

[jsalk]

Interesting that most people are using dbPoweramp for ripping. I always thought that EAC was the holy grail of ripping software. How is it better than EAC?

From a blog post I wrote in 2015...

When transferring a computer program from a CD or DVD to your computer, a simple one bit error in the transfer can render the program unusable. So one would assume that since a computer can read a program CD or DVD with total accuracy, copying music from a CD or DVD would be equally accurate. Unfortunately, such is not the case.

The reason is that computer files employ very sophisticated built-in error-correction. In the process of transferring files, these protocols allow the system to identify and correct read errors on the fly, resulting in a bit-perfect copy of the original program file. Music CD’s also have built-in error correction, but this error correction was designed before CD’s became a medium to distribute computer programs and is much more rudimentary. Without the sophisticated error correction used to transfer computer files, there is simply no way to determine whether a music file read from a CD is accurate or not.

One bit errors in music files are probably not all that audible. After all, there are 44,100 samples per second in a standard RedBook CD file and it is doubtful you would ever hear a one bit error in one of those samples. None-the-less, when ripping music from a CD, the goal should be to do it with zero errors.

Most audio ripping software available today will do a good job in this regard. But, again, there is no way to know for certain if the rip was a perfect bit-for-bit copy of the original.

A NOVEL APPROACH
A program called dBPoweramp (considered by many to be the gold standard of ripping software) tackles this problem with a rather novel approach - AccurateRip. Let’s say that 100 people on 100 different computers rip the same music track. And let’s say 96 of them end up with exactly the same result. It would be safe to assume, then, that those 96 copies were bit-for-bit accurate and the others experienced errors somewhere in the transfer. If you use dBPoweramp, each time you rip a music track, the results of your rip are compared to a database of all previous dBPoweramp users who ripped that same track. If your rip was identical to the files the majority of users obtained before you, chances are your rip was accurate. If it varies from the majority in the database, the assumption is that you need to re-rip that particular track. It is a simple concept, but it is the most sure-fire strategy yet devised to insure that the copy you ripped is accurate.

- Jim

[thebrieze]

Thank Mike for the comparison, and Jim for the very detailed explanation. Will look into dbpa.

[Barrelfish]

EAC uses AccurateRip as well.  All I ever used was EAC and found it to be a great tool once configured the way I wanted but perhaps DBA is more user-friendly.

There is a new version of EAC so there is no reason not to download it (it is free) and see what is preferred.

[wilbur_the_goose]

I used to use dbPoweramp, but tend to let Roon handle everything for me these days.  I've found their metadata > my metadata.  And Roon 1.8 improved their Classical metadata, which was seen by some as a weakness.

[rmdtexas]

+1 for dbPoweramp and Roon. V1.8 definitely a upgrade on classical