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Topic: Command Line Tagger For M4A and/or AAC (Read 12162 times) previous topic - next topic
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Command Line Tagger For M4A and/or AAC

I'm looking for a CLI tagging tool that can handle mp4/m4a and preferably aac too. The catch is that I'm looking for a "FREE" tool that supports adding custom fields (non standard nero or itunes tags).
The best I've found so far is neroaactag which does support adding custom tags through the -meta-user switch, but the problem with it is that it has some known bugs, is only free for personal use (i'm looking for something that is preferably free for non commercial distribution) and it does not support aac (adts) formats.
On the other hand, Tag (by case/synthetic soul) is free, supports custom tagging of aac (with ape2), but not mp4/m4a.

Also, I've came across some other tools, but faced the following problems:

- AtomicParsley (only supports standard tags or custom 4 chars "atom" fields).
- mp4box (same as above).
- mp4tags (really old and only supports standard tags).

If anyone knows something different regarding the mentioned tools, or if you can suggest other options, please don't hesitate to reply.
Thanks.

Command Line Tagger For M4A and/or AAC

Reply #1
I have searched and come to the same conclusions as you. I need it for m4a tagging in caudec. neroAacTag can't delete tags, and while it accepts replacing some, it returns an error with others, for some mysterious reason.

Command Line Tagger For M4A and/or AAC

Reply #2
If anyone knows something different regarding the mentioned tools, or if you can suggest other options, please don't hesitate to reply.

I don't know whether it serves your needs but have you already tried FFmpeg?

Command Line Tagger For M4A and/or AAC

Reply #3
I don't know whether it serves your needs but have you already tried FFmpeg?

Yes, but no luck with the -metadata switch. But if anyone knows some other way to do it with ffmpeg, it'd be great...

Command Line Tagger For M4A and/or AAC

Reply #4
Did I post in the wrong place, or are there really no tools?
I'd settle for anything (open source or not) at this point that can handle mp4/m4a custom meta fields other than neroAacTag.

Command Line Tagger For M4A and/or AAC

Reply #5
As for ID3 in ADTS, probably you could use any ID3 tagger, but I don't recommend tagging ADTS.
If you are willing to write some script, you can try mutagen (Python library).
It can edit ID3, or moov.udta.meta.ilst in MP4. Custom tag (----:com.apple.iTunes:...) seems to be supported.

As for neroAacTag, it seems to write moov.udta.tags as well as more common moov.udta.meta.ilst of iTunes. These two boxes share mostly duplicated content like v1/v2 tags of ID3. However, you have to be more careful than the case of ID3, since many softwares don't know about moov.udta.tags of Nero.
When you edit some tags in mp4/m4a files formerly tagged by neroAacTag, moov.udta.tags can remain untouched. In short, artist field in moov.udta.meta.ilst can be "foo", but in "moov.udta.tags" it can be "bar" after edits.
Many will show artist as "foo" in this case, but fb2k will show "bar" (fb2k seems to give higher priority to moov.udta.tags of Nero). Quite annoying.
I don't know the spec of moov.udta.tags. At least cover art type (front/back or something) seems only supported by moov.udta.tags, and there might be more differences.

Command Line Tagger For M4A and/or AAC

Reply #6
Oh, and I have to mention of ID32 box, that can store ID3v2 tags as the name implies. I don't know how many software use it, but it seems AtomicParsley takes care of it.
AtomicParsley has an option --foobar2000Enema, which is explained as "Eliminates foobar2000's non-compliant so-out-o-spec tagging scheme", but actually it just means Nero style moov.udta.tags that I mentioned in the previous most.

Command Line Tagger For M4A and/or AAC

Reply #7
Quote
AtomicParsley (only supports standard tags or custom 4 chars "atom" fields)

This is not correct, since atomicparsley actually supports custom tags.
You could use something like the following:
Code: [Select]
atomicparsley foo.m4a -o bar.m4a --rDNSatom "your custom value goes here" name=yourCustomFieldName domain=com.apples.iTunes

For details, read
Code: [Select]
atomicparsley --reverseDNS-help

Add to previous posts:
Microsoft seems to use moov.udta.Xtra in addition to moov.udta.meta.ilst of iTunes.
It seems that ID32 box is at least used by Sony music service named "Mora" in Japen (sorry I didn't know that even if I'm a Japanese  ).

Command Line Tagger For M4A and/or AAC

Reply #8
Quote
AtomicParsley (only supports standard tags or custom 4 chars "atom" fields)

This is not correct, since atomicparsley actually supports custom tags.
You could use something like the following:
Code: [Select]
atomicparsley foo.m4a -o bar.m4a --rDNSatom "your custom value goes here" name=yourCustomFieldName domain=com.apples.iTunes

For details, read
Code: [Select]
atomicparsley --reverseDNS-help

I don't have these options. I got AP from http://atomicparsley.sourceforge.net/, and I don't have the --rDNSatom option nor the --reverseDNS-help guide... What gives?!


Command Line Tagger For M4A and/or AAC

Reply #10
I don't have these options. I got AP from http://atomicparsley.sourceforge.net/, and I don't have the --rDNSatom option nor the --reverseDNS-help guide... What gives?!

That one seems old. Try here: https://bitbucket.org/wez/atomicparsley/
Win32 binary at:
https://bitbucket.org/jonhedgerows/atomicparsley/downloads

Thanks a lot nu774, you've been a huge help, +1 for Japan!!!

BTW, I'm also looking for a command line tag reader that automatically handles the major tag formats (id3v1, id3v2, mp4/itunes, ape, ape2, flac, vorbis, etc..) in the major audio containers (mp3, mp4/m4a, adts, flac, ogg, wav). The closest I've come is ffmpeg (through its sister tool ffprobe) which automatically reads and maps tags of various types and formats to a set of application defined fields (i.e. Album Artist in id3v2 = TPE2, and in iTunes = aART => both get mapped to album_artist tag in ffprobe). The problem is that ffmpeg doesn't read all tags, it misses many non-basic ones in various formats, and almost never reads 'comment' tags. So is there a universal tag reader out there?