Once again I’ve had cause to complain to Qobuz about selling WAV files with no metadata.
Their reply - WAV does not carry metadatas, it’s not Qobuz’ fault. The file is as it is.
*#@! Idiots !!! OK it was easy for me to get a 2nd FLAC copy & convert that, but why? its unnecessary if they did their job correctly in the first place.
I would really like to give up on Qobuz; apart from metadata, the way they present their files is not user friendly, underscored_link_artist_name_&_album_tiles always means they need reworking. When I buy a HRA or HDTracks all I do is drop them in the NAS, not so Qobuz grrrrr ggrrrr ggrrrr - idiots ,
They do love their underscores don’t they? So irritating. Like you everything goes through an editor before going into it’s final destination on the NAS. Unfortunately I’ve been able to find albums there that I’ve not found elsewhere or they’d be gone.
I don’t think this is just a WAV issue, I’ve bought FLACs from them which claim to have metadata and a booklet, but once downloaded found they had neither. I know that other people downloaded the same albums and did get metadata on some occasions. My response from Qobuz was similarly dismissive.
Yes. Downloading WAV from Qobuz is a non-starter for me. I download FLAC and then use dbPoweramp Converter for the dual purpose of converting to WAV and renaming all the files to manageable names using the handy formula option. HD Tracks was pretty rubbish as well in that respect when I used to use them. Asset was one of the few uPnP software that recognised the metadata on their files and it was often incomplete.
However, since getting my TIDAL subscription, I find I download next to nothing now. Usually just a few things from Bandcamp which are unavailable on TIDAL.
If you want good metadata then it has to be Flac really, WAV has very limited to non existent metadata properties. Never both renaming any files from Qobuz as my.software takes care of displaying them correctly regardless of their naming convention.
Orignally It did not follow the standard id3 tags like mp3 aac or flac as a result not all applications can read the embedded metadata as this is what they look for even if it’s there in a different form. Some tagging software like Bliss has managed to move to adding id3 tags but it still depends on the software reading them if that looks for id3 tags in Wavs. This inconsistency is why cds ripped as Wav with UnitiServe or the UnitiCore are generally useless for metadata outside of Naims architecture as they store the metadata in sidecar files that the database reads it’s not in the files themselves.
I do not rip with Naim devices, so lets forget that & start again.
To make it simple, I’ve always used WAV & have no difficulty whatsoever with editing, re-writing or adding missing tag fields.
It may be a chore but is there any reason not to download as FLAC/ALAC and convert to WAV preserving the metadata as far as possible using a suitable converter.
It would be nice if Qobuz played ball, but their metadata has often been a bit ropey - you wonder if they’re just provided files with poor/absent metadata by the record companies, or if they ‘roll their own’ badly at times.
Qobuz WAV downloads have included metadata in the past. Its just recently I’ve found some missing. I pointed it out before & they have apologised. My last 2 downloads had no metadata & when I polity pointed it out to them I get that offhand reply.
If I have no other vendor to choose from & against my better judgement do use them, I will in future as a matter of course download FLAC & convert to WAV.
This is a zero problem job as I use dBpoweramp Converter & it’s fast & faultless. But if a tag field is missing in FLAC its still missing in WAV, so I am always inclined to double check on all downloads & CD rips no matter where they’re from… The most common tag that gets missed is Album Artist on popular music. Classical is another story, best left for now as its getting late.
I’m sure you know but you can access downloads more than once and in multiple formats - I do so often say to compare ALAC/FLAC.
Great feature, though potentially revocable by the rights holders I guess for a given work, as I’ve seen with 7digital for example. Why Linn never allowed redownloads baffles me.
I’m not sure it’s easier one way or another to be honest and requires less thought on my part
Extra storage overhead I appreciate and I’d be better having a hi-res ‘master’ and only storing derivatives where I need them, bit hard drive space is so cheap these days.
I guess there’s also a bit of me that assumes that an MP3 or lossy AAC file might sound better from the music company (assuming they supply the files from a potentially even higher res format they won’t release to the plebs) than transcoding from the hi res format supplied.
Also, I guess it depends on your internet speeds, but a couple of clicks and the other formats have downloaded in the background with little intervention from me.
I know it might be nice - but what does it matter. I store my files in a folder structure of Artist/Album (doesn’t everyone do the same) and Serviio media library creates the indexes based upon the metadata not the filenames.
I do edit some of my metadata for correctness, additions and consistency using DBpoweramp tag editor.
I use flac so no issues. The only metadata issues I have experienced have been with .wav files some of which did not index properly despite numerous attempts (I mean numerous attempts) and even re-downloading with exact same issue. Wav metadata appears to be flaky - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t so I avoid it.
I have no idea why you’ve seen these problems Paul, maybe its Serviio, but whatever works for you to overcome it, go with it.
I don’t have such issues, other that what I list about the idiots Qobuz, & I disagree with your opinion that .wav metadata is flaky.
I don’t think the shortcomings of Qobuz downloads are anything to do with WAV. I’ve bought FLAC downloads from them with poor metadata, or even no metadata at all in some cases. I know that others have downloaded at least some if these albums, and found the metadata included, but when I contacted their ‘support’ I was fobbed off with a very blunt response that there is no metadata. Just a shoddy organisation in my experience.
I’ve not had any issues with Qobuz metadata and I’ve had both WAV and FLAC from them as I ended up moving everything to FLAC.
I used to sort the filenames out to remove the underscores but it doesn’t really matter as long as the metadata is correct so I’ve stopped bothering
