Tagging AIFF

[srclose]

I have begun using a Mac Mini, iTunes, MAX ripper, and CoverScout to rip

uncompressed AIFF files to play 24/96 through Empirical Audio Off-Ramp

Turbo. MAX interfaces with MusicBrainz but I don't know what software to

use for tagging. I want to avoid FLAC or other compression. Is there tag

software that works with MAC, MusicBrainz, and AIFF?

 

[TheRocker]

Srclose, sorry for a late reply on this, I see you are using Max.

I thought Max would tag its output files using info from freedb (I think?) when it ripped from CD? This works for me, ripping straight to FLAC, I don't currently use AIFF so I don't know for sure on that format.

You may still have to edit some of the metadata though, none of those online databases are perfect.

 

[Thunktank]

I am just starting to get into Computer Audio so I am in the position of not having any files to convert but lots of CD's to rip. I would prefer to use AIFF as it is supported by Itunes(and rips quickly) but when I rip using Itunes it does not seem to add tags, not a problem in Itunes as it maintains it's database on folder name and file name, but when I access the files with other software Ie Foobar then all I see is a long list of files with no tags.

Is AIFF a format that accept tags?

If not what would you recommend as an alternative?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Paul

 

 

[Bones13]

I just finished going through this. As it stands, the AIFF format does not formally have metadata storage. Especially in the MAC world, where I live, the few tagging utilities either don't support AIFF files, or say they do, but don't.

 

iTunes does obviously do some tagging of AIFF files as you rip them, but the majority of the data is kept linked to the file in the music database. As I understand it they, as does everyone else push the metadata into the file in a non-standard fashion. (there is no "standard" fashion.

 

MAX for MAC, and dbPowerAmp for Windows, will do your ripping, and tagging, but both take a bit of work to get that set up right.

 

AIFF and WAV are similar in this respect I think.

 

I was never happy with the results I had trying to tag AIFF files on my MAC, and went back to ALAC, especially since I could not tell the difference between ALAC and AIFF files. AIFF takes about 3 times the storage space.

 

When I download hirez files in FLAC, I convert them to ALAC. I use iTunes, and PureMusic.

 

I was trying AIFF to be able to consider a player like the Auraliti, which does not use the ALAC files.

 

Just my opinion of course, just because I could not make it happen, does not mean you cannot.

 

[Erwin S]

I don't understand your issues with AIFF on a Mac, since AIFF is an Apple format?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIFF

 

I switched over to AIFF about a year ago and I use mostly XLD to rip. If the album is to obscure to be known to the database XLD is using as a resource, I try iTunes, mostly succesfull. If I look up the file with Finder, the album cover is always properly attached, just as I learned it here.

 

BTW, AIFF does not occupy three times the space of ALAC, more like 1.75 times on average. CD's are 1411 kbps, same as AIFF. ALAC from a CD is like 600 up to 1100 kbps.