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AIFF Encoding and Tagging: Best Practices
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AIFF Encoding and Tagging: Best Practices

Beatlogik 4:09 PM - 13 August, 2015
I'm tracking a lot of vinyl right now for digital DJ use, both with Serato and CDJs (organized through Rekordbox).

My signal chain: Turntable>PreAmp>HD Omni Interface>Protools HD

Export to interleaved AIFF >Tag in iTunes>Tag in MixedinKey>Import into Serato & Rekordbox

Everything works as expected in iTunes and Rekordbox, I'm able to tag everything and they translate between the 2 programs; but when I import into SDJ none of the tags transfer over, just the name of the physical file in the Song column.

I've experimented with different bit rates and sample rates, but the problem has not been solved. After downloading a few AIFF files from Beatport for testing, they work as expected in SDJ. The metadata is viewable in SDJ and even editable in iTunes and MixedinKey and the changes are reflected in SDJ.

Beatport encodes it's AIFFs as 16bit/44.1 files, I've emulated this with the exports from ProTools as interleaved AIFFs. Is there a step I'm missing here? Surely Protools yields an industry standard AIFF file, no?

On a side note, Key Data is not translating in Recordbox as well, but Artist, Song, Album are all working.

Can anyone comment on their methods for encoding AIFFs to ensure tagging compatibility in SDJ? I know that SDJ library management has it's pitfalls, but I'd like to replicate the results I get when importing Beatport AIFFs

Thanks!
 6 8:17 PM - 13 August, 2015
The problem is in the tagging of the file with iTunes. You have to designate a tag version that is best supported by SDJ.

nm
Beatlogik 8:24 PM - 13 August, 2015
Quote:
The problem is in the tagging of the file with iTunes. You have to designate a tag version that is best supported by SDJ.

nm


I'm not sure if this is the issue at hand as MixedInKey is writing to the 'Key','Comment' and 'Group' tags. MIK is, to my knowledge, the most recommended key tagger for SDJ by the Serato staff.
DJMark 11:28 PM - 13 August, 2015
Quote:
Beatport encodes it's AIFFs as 16bit/44.1 files, I've emulated this with the exports from ProTools as interleaved AIFFs. Is there a step I'm missing here? Surely Protools yields an industry standard AIFF file, no?


You may want to encode to "ALAC" aka "Apple Lossless" for your active library, which would not only save some space (with no audio quality loss) but also should give better support for tagging.

You also would probably have better and more consistent results doing all the tagging outside of iTunes before adding the songs to your library. I use Media Rage for that purpose. I've always found iTunes very flaky for tagging...it may not be putting tags in the audio files themselves, but storing the metadata in separate little files. That's long been known to produce irregular results in Scratch Live and SDJ.
Beatlogik 11:55 PM - 13 August, 2015
Quote:
Quote:
Beatport encodes it's AIFFs as 16bit/44.1 files, I've emulated this with the exports from ProTools as interleaved AIFFs. Is there a step I'm missing here? Surely Protools yields an industry standard AIFF file, no?


You may want to encode to "ALAC" aka "Apple Lossless" for your active library, which would not only save some space (with no audio quality loss) but also should give better support for tagging.

You also would probably have better and more consistent results doing all the tagging outside of iTunes before adding the songs to your library. I use Media Rage for that purpose. I've always found iTunes very flaky for tagging...it may not be putting tags in the audio files themselves, but storing the metadata in separate little files. That's long been known to produce irregular results in Scratch Live and SDJ.


I've had my ups and downs with tags from iTunes translating to Scratch Live and SDJ like all of us ;) Although MixedInKey should be writing flawlessly.

iTunes aside, what is puzzling me is when I download a batch of AIFFs from Beatport and run them through MIK alongside my AIFF exports from ProTools, MIK analyses without error but only the key, comments, and grouping tags from the Beatport files translate to Serato. iTunes reads both as expected.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to encode my own personal AIFFs so they behave like Beatport's. ALAC is a great wrapper although it's not supported on Pioneer's CDJs, and I'm looking for cross-platform compatibility.

Anyone out there encoding & tagging their own music in AIFF for Serato that can share their process?