So I think I messed up - WAV files and metadata question

Question

So I think I messed up - WAV files and metadata question

I decided it would be a fun christmas present for my parents to digitize their entire CD library. My Dad was a bit stubborn about the idea of converting any of his CD's to a lossy format, and since I thought .WAV would be the easiest lossless format for him to use going forward with iTunes, I've spent the past few months importing close to 600 CD's in .WAV. I did this on my Mac using his external HD, the plan being I'd bring the HD over to his house after I was done and just add all the files to his iTunes library (for convenience). I went over today, with everything converted, and tried adding all the music to his PC. As I'm now very aware, only the track names appeared in his iTunes library, no Artist, no Album, no Genre, no Year, nothing. 😟

I did a good bit of digging on this tonight (which I probably should have done months ago), and it's now clear to me metadata is not stored on .WAV files. So there's nothing there. I'm wondering what you all think would be the best approach to create said metadata.

1.) My iTunes library currently shows all of the information for each track, which was a bit misleading now that I think about this. Is this only stored in MY iTunes library? Is there any way to push it into the file? I.E. converting everything within my iTunes? I tried converting one of the .WAV files to Apple Lossless and then re-adding it to iTunes, but it appears none of the metadata was transferred. Why does my iTunes library show all of metadata tags but the files themselves do not have anything associated in the Finder?

2.) Is this possibly a Mac -> PC problem?

3.) Is there any third-party-type resource that could potentially help me with getting the metadata to stick?

4.) My last resort would be to manually enter all the info/metadata by hand one album at a time (after converting the entire library to another format). I guess this might be the only way I can fix this - I really couldn't find anything that seemed like an easy fix. At this point, I don't care about the file type/extension. It seems I picked the absolute worst file type for this STUPID present lol.

Any help is much appreciated! Thanks

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on May 1, 2016 10:54 PM

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Answer 1

Limnos

Level 10

411,169 points

May 1, 2016 11:08 PM in response to poorrichardmarx

Nothing will get the metadata to stick to WAV. WAV simply isn't capable of storing tags. The closest you could come would be incorporating all the information in the file name and then have him use some method (not clear what machine he uses) to extract this to show data.

Using almost any format except WAV should enable tags. The data as you surmise is stored in your iTunes Library.itl file. Converting to AppleLossless with your computer's iTunes should include the data in the tags (have never tried it myself as I do not have any WAV format files).

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

272,743 points

May 2, 2016 4:35 AM in response to poorrichardmarx

I agree with Limnos, converting the WAVs to Apple Lossless in your copy of iTunes should embed the data that iTunes has in the database to the lossless copies. I've just tested it here and the lossless file generated retains metadata when it is removed from the library and added back. After converting you can delete the WAVs to free up space. If needs be work in batches.

I have a Windows script for applying details from the file path, but it isn't as good a solution in this instance. Its real use is for when there is no existing database that has the information that needs to be applied to the tracks, but that data can be captured from the path.

tt2

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