I was recently trying to fix the tags on a bunch of MP3 files that I had been tagged names like "Track 01" by my encoding software, and I came across an interesting thing.

The files seemed to be tagged at the beginning of the file, so the id3 editors I tried could read/write the new tags (to the end of the file as I found out when I ran "strings" on them :), but emptool, JEMplode (Under Linux) and Emplode (under windows) only read the tag that was at the beginning of the file.

I finally had to strip the first 128 bytes off of every file with 'dd'. Is there a more sane method of dealing with this?

Thanks
-scott

I finally had to strip the first 128 bytes off of every file with 'dd'. Is there a more sane method of dealing with this?

Yes. Just use the newest version of WinAmp, and edit the tags in there. It will allow you to choose which tags you want to keep (the V2 tag at the beginning of the file and/or the V1 tag at the end of the file).

You can also use MP3Trim to just unconditionally strip the V2 tags (just open then save the song in MP3Trim).

You could also locate a mass-tag-editor program which allows you to do these sorts of things in batch mode.

Note that your tecnhnique of hand-mangling the start of the file will probably mess up certain MP3 player software. It might even confuse the Empeg. So I would recommend finding a proper solution.

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Tony Fabris

I finally had to strip the first 128 bytes off of every file with 'dd'. Is there a more sane method of dealing with this?

Under Linux you can use id3lib to edit or strip the tags (both v2 at the beginning and v1 at the end).

Borislav

I have also used a program called v2strip under FreeBSD (I think it also works under linux) which is supposed to remove all v2 frames. I guess according to the ID3v2 spec the tag can be anywhere in the file, but most software expects them at the beginning (or is it end?) of the file. -Mike

Thanks for all the feedback. I was using "id3ed" and "easytag" under Linux, both of which seem to only support v1 and v1.1 tags at the end of the file.

I'll try some of the utils mentioned here and see if that helps.

Stripping the 128bytes off the head of the file didn't seem to affect it playing on XMMS or on th Empeg unit, but it's nice to have a real solution. :)

thanks again
-s