Re: [SoX-users] Comment ID3 tag not read

[SoX NG <so...@fa...>]

On 23/04/25 15:30, Nicolas Graner wrote:
> it seems that SoX cannot read a "Comment" ID3 tag in an MP3 file, even
> though it can create one. Is this a known issue?


Thanks for reporting this. Yes, reading comments turns out not to work

in all versions of sox based on 14.4.2 because Comments are encoded

in a different way from all other tags and 14.4.2 handles them all the 
same way.


Mans Rullgard made the right fix for it on 22 May 2017, but no one's

ever made a release on sox.sf.net since 14.4.2 in Feb 2015, so most of the

software distributions have not caught up with anything new.


Unfortunately, the code fix was applied after a major rewrite of

the ID3-handling code, which is also tangled up with his DSD/DSDIFF format

driver and it cannot easily be applied to any other version based on 14.4.2.

You'll only find it in the versions from the few distros who took the 
deep plunge

and based on their SoXen on a snapshot of the sox.sf.net unstable 
development

branch in 2021: ArchLinux, Artix, CRUX, FreeBSD, Gentoo, Mageia, NixOS, 
OpenBSD

and Pisi Linux. However, caveat emptor!, because the unstable 
development branch

also has many new bugs that weren't in 14.4.2 and even fails some old 
CVEs that 14.4.2

passed. Maybe it's just as well a release was never made, despite all 
the good new stuff!


Your best bet is sox_ng but I only managed to extricate the DSD/ID3 tangle

in January 2025, so it will appear in the next new-feature release of sox_ng

(14.6.1) on 18th May 2025.


In the meantime, if you have a Unix you can


git clone https://codeberg.org/sox_ng/sox_ng

cd sox_ng

autoreconf -i

./configure --with-ffmpeg

make

sudo make install


and if you want the commands to be called "sox" "soxi", "play" "rec"

as well as "sox_ng" "soxi_ng" and so on, configure --enable-replace


If instead you're forced to use Windows and are in a hurry

I may be able to whip up a .exe of its current state,

something I have to face by 18th May anyway.


     M


http://martinwguy.net