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Topic: MIDI tags disappearing during playback (Read 577 times) previous topic - next topic
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MIDI tags disappearing during playback

I don't know if this belongs here or in the foo_midi thread, but it may involve other 3rd party components like External Tags, so I'm putting it here.

I have a small collection of MIDI files. They are tagged (possibly with external tags? I don't know!), but all of the tag information disappears during playback, including ReplayGain information. The tags reappear when playback is stopped. I have tried moving both the MIDI decoder and External Tags to different orders and places in the decoding list (top, bottom, etc. for both) and it seems to make no difference. This happens with all of my MIDI files I have tried, and doesn't affect any other formats, including PSF and UMX synthesized formats. What could cause a problem like this, and how can I fix it?

Possibly related, I have a few MIDI files that refuse to save tags, and sometimes they will be tagged then lose the tags when I restart foobar. This issue has been going on for a very long time, across multiple clean installs.

**EDIT**
foobar2000 64 bit v2.2 preview 2024-03-21
foo_midi 2.9.2.0
foo_external_tags 1.5.14
Think millionaire, but with cannons.

Re: MIDI tags disappearing during playback

Reply #1 –
I think I fixed it. Shift+right click on all of my MIDI files, "Tagging > Rewrite file tags" seems to have done the trick.
Think millionaire, but with cannons.

Re: MIDI tags disappearing during playback

Reply #2 –
I believe there's some tagging support natively with MIDI files. But you can easily know if External Tags is involved, the Details tab of the properties dialog will show tag type as external.

Re: MIDI tags disappearing during playback

Reply #3 –
Thank you! The MIDI files read "apev2 db". I see in a UMX track that it says External Tag (APEv2). I wonder what the db means in the former...
Think millionaire, but with cannons.

Re: MIDI tags disappearing during playback

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Case on
I believe there's some tagging support natively with MIDI files. But you can easily know if External Tags is involved, the Details tab of the properties dialog will show tag type as external.
Not to my knowledge. The MIDI streams are interleaved. The end of the file, where tags usually live, is just the end of the interleaved data. Any annotations are implemented via a special MIDI event that can be processed by a MIDI client. The concept of tags as we know it from digitized music files is IMHO not possible.

That's possibly why Kode54 originally used external APE tags. I left that functionality as it was.

Re: MIDI tags disappearing during playback

Reply #6 –
The MIDI file format defines several ways to store metadata including Title, Copyright, Track names, Lyrics and so on, but it is not safe to modify these things without having any background knowledge about the origin of the files. For examples, some games relies on some of these values to decide how a file should be looped.

MIDI files also allow storing arbitrary binary data via SysEx. Some hardware synthesizers have a LED display and SysEx can be used to draw animations on the display. SysEx can also be used to activate some brand/model specific messages to activate some special commands to control the synthesizer.

Knowing the MIDI file spec (e.g. https://midi.org/specs) alone is not enough to safely modify the data in a MIDI file, one needs to understand what the file is used for. So better keep the MIDI files read-only and use an external database to store additional metadata.

Re: MIDI tags disappearing during playback

Reply #7 –
Good to know. Thanks!

I guess it's too late for these files, as I've already tagged them. Seems to be working now, at least, and they aren't used by any games.
Think millionaire, but with cannons.