Author Topic: AAC files are blank in MusicBee library  (Read 5886 times)

SurfRat

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Hi,

I am a new user trying out MB. I have a lot of AAC files that have been ripped from Shoutcast streams. The artist and title info is embedded into the file. 
Winamp, MediaMonkey can read this info and it is visible in their music libraries (TagScanner too). MB shows the file in the library but all the columns are blank except for song duration.

Is there any way to get MB to show this info...

The file has ID3v2 tag information.

Winamp reports the following info:
Format: AAC
Header found at: 212 bytes
MPEG-4 AAC
CBR 128 kbps
Profile: LC
44100Hz Stereo


Thanks

SurfRat.

Steven

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aac files are normally raw music data without any tags and its possible you are just seeing the artist/ title derived from the filename in the other players.
However could you PM me a link to a zip of one of the files so i can have a look

SurfRat

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I had a look at one of the files in a hex editor and the ID3 tag has been prepended to the file. I will PM you a link to one of my files....

Zak

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I had a look at one of the files in a hex editor and the ID3 tag has been prepended to the file.
I think you've just identified your problem. AAC files don't usually use the ID3 tags that MP3s have - they use a different form of tag. WinAmp and MediaMonkey might have a work around for it, but MusicBee is probably (and not entirely incorrectly) recognising the file as "off spec".
Bee excellent to each other...

SurfRat

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Just noticed that when one of my AAC files is played in MB the Now Playing list Title has the Artist and Title in it. I guess it is showing the filename.

I would think that reading the ID3 tags should be fairly straight forward as this is what is happening for standard Mp3's. The files were generated with Streamripper.

Steven

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SurfRat

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Wow, super impressed with your response.

I have tested your patch and it works very well. I now have my Artist and Title info in my music library.

Since I started using MB a few days ago I have been adding artwork to all my tracks. When I try this with my AAC files I get the following error "Validation failed after attempt to save file - the changes have not been saved"

I also tried running MB as an administrator with the same result. My guess is that you are doing validation of the file which fails as its not a Mp3 file. I think this would work if the validation was skipped or modified to deal with Aac files.

Steven

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SurfRat

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Ignore this... It did not work.

"Just did a "Paste Artwork" and it worked. Looks like it is just the validation that is stopping it from working. "
Last Edit: June 08, 2014, 10:00:30 AM by SurfRat

GoodWill41

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Hi SurfRat!!

As Steven and Zak have already told you, AAC files are raw audio stream data and haven't any ability to be tagged like MP3 files.

If you want to write tags to AAC files you first have to move such files into a mp4 container using e. g. mp4box (command line utility) or if you want a GUI for that then use e. g. My MP4BoxGUI. By moving each AAC file into a mp4 container the file gets what is called atoms (comparable with the mp3 tags). And now you have the ability to tag those files: writing Artist, Title, Composer, Artwork, etc. into them.

BTW: By moving those AAC files into a mp4 container the file extension has to be changed to mp4 or, if you prefer, m4a.