How to set track start ID's into any audio format, mp3, flac, wave?

[hdp_rene]

I've produced/remixed a multitrack live recording in Audition in wave format. Since the performance and audio total is more than an hour, has 18 tracks, and runs in one flow, it would be handy to add track ID's like I use to do in Audition for cd's. How do I do this for wave, mp3 flac end products? Thanks for reading and answering. Best, René

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Basically, I'm afraid you can't do this at all. CD's have a unique metadata structure that allows to to put IDs into it, but even that only marks the start and end of individual files. There are a few specialised formats that allow you to do this, and they are the ones that AudioBooks use - but the problem with this is that they all need specialised players to access the track data. In Audition, the wav marker data isn't added to the track itself - it's added at the end of the track, which is why CueListTool can edit it, without access to Audition at all. MP3 as it stands doesn't support track IDs, but there are some altered forms (M4P I think) that do - but once again, you need the appropriate player. If you want more information about this, google Talking Book Formats.

[hdp_rene]

Thank you for your info SteveG! While searching yesterday I also discovered the current marker options in Audition. But I couldn't find the info about their usage and possibilities. Do have a link? Thanks!

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Audition's marker system isn't going to help you very much - as I said, it only works with systems that use the same marker format. The only one I know of for sure is that it works with iZotope's RX series (largely because iZotope and Adobe have (or at least had...) a good relationship. The most detailed reply about what you can do with Audition's markers outside of Audition is on the CueListTool website (it's free, incidentally) which you will find here. Adobe has a page about markers too, but it fails to mention that the information only applies to marker use within Audition's wav file system. This of course prompts many people to ask why they don't work with other formats, and of course the reason for this is that the creators of these formats never included the facility to do so - nothing to do with Audition or Adobe at all. The Adobe page is here. 

[hdp_rene]

Hi Steve, now this is an answer which might help me, and others probably too, since I do have RX, until now I use it for restoration utilities only. I will jump into this the coming days and let you know about my results THANKS!!:-)

[hdp_rene]

It isn't solved yet and I don't think it will very soon. The problem is that there is no metadata definition made for this in digital audio files for mp3 flac, wave etc I wonder how companies like Sony solved this for their digital live performance releases.

[Spamhunter]

What app would you use to play this .wav file on? I would look at if the Player app has a facility to read/play from some form of ID markers & see if you can convert Audition markers to this format.

Obviously these markers couldn't communicate with the .wav to other players, unless they are more or less generic. (Like a Playlist? Or like YouTube markers?)

[hdp_rene]

Hi Spamhunter, I use a couple of audio players, but my question is not for my own use. I remastered a live audio perfomance of 65 minutes. in total which will be released worldwide.I wonder how 'official' audio companies/record labels solved this for their concert releases. The (sub) start marker thing is not implemented/written in the audio specs for these formats like it is for cd's. This question is sent out to a certain engineer at one of these big record companies. If a solution pops up, i'll write about it here. 

[hdp_rene]

After zooming with two studio guys from Nashville last week, I finally was able to solve the individual song/track ID issue for 'one physical track live recording wave file' with no 2 seconds default pause and adding all needed release info like artist name, song title, album title, composers, songwriters, and UPS & ISRC code numbers, etc. It's adding a (Hofa) DDP file. The same one as for CDs in the past. The special ITSMP file format for iTunes can be generated with this Hofa DDP app also. There is 14 days free trial version of this app but you can't save anything with it.