Hi!
When I export all flows as audio, Dorico embeds metadata. But the metadata is not really helpful in (at least some) tools that ultimately open those audio files.
For example, I have a composition with 25 flows. Some sample tokens include:
After exporting MP3 audio, we get the following metadata for flow 7:
- Title: Betrayal: A Tragedy - Assignme
- Track: 1
- Date: 2026
and similarly for flow 11
- Title: Betrayal: A Tragedy - Assignme
- Track: 1
- Date: 2026
(These are, I believe, actually stored in the files as ID3v2 tags: TIT2 == Title, TRCK == Track, and TYER == Date, although I could be wrong about how they are embedded.)
When I import these files into – for example – the Mac Music app (or the REAPER DAW, or other apps that recognize metadata), these two flows are indistinguishable by their metadata. The only way for me to reasonably import these 25 audio files into Mac Music is to import each one-by-one, changing the title and track number for each before moving on to the next.
What I would really want in terms of metadata exported from Dorico would be (at a minimum)
for flow 7:
- TALB: Betrayal: A Tragedy
- TIT2: Assignment
- TRCK: 7
- TYER: 2026
and for flow 11
- TALB: Betrayal: A Tragedy
- TIT2: Assignment #2
- TRCK: 11
- TYER: 2026
Feature Request
It would be delicious if on the File > Export > Audio dialog we could have a section that offers a configuration for mapping ID3v2.4.0 metadata frames to Dorico metadata, with sensible defaults but allowing the user to customize each mapping. (n.b. TYER was replaced by TDRC in version 2.4.0). And, optionally, to exclude writing all or some ID3v2 frames.
I’m not smart enough to know if this would apply only to MP3 exports, or if Dorico embeds metadata in the other exportable file formats, and which metadata tags are supported in the other file formats. So, for now, let’s assume this would be for MP3 exports only.
The forum doesn’t allow attaching comma-separated files to posts, so at this Dropbox link I’ve placed a plaintext CSV file proposing what Dorico tokens could be defaults for which ID3v2.4.0 frames. For example,
TPUB, Publisher, {@ProjectPublisher@}
I imagine a 3-column table-like format, with the ID3v2.4.0 frame name, followed by its description, followed by a selection box identical to what we get when we right-click in a text frame in Engrave mode to insert Dorico tokens.
For my CSV, I took the list of ID3v2 frames from the ID3v2.4.0 frame documentation here.
I also imagine a toggle to prefer flow tokens over project tokens, which would change some of the sensible defaults from, e.g., {@ProjectPublisher@} to {@FlowXPublisher@}.
In the CSV, I use “FlowX…” to mean the flow-specific token, e.g., {@Flow1Publisher@}.
At the Dropbox link, I also include a mock-up image of what an additional section on the File > Export > Audio dialog might look like.
Thank you for any time you spend considering my request! I am delighted to discuss any aspects of this.
v/r, Jim