How to tag your entire sound library - Metadata Editing in REAPER

Metadata is embedded information about the recording to tag, categorize, and describe it for easier searching by keywords.
Professional sound libraries for audio post production have been tagging their files for decades but its a lot less common for music libraries to have any tags. I think this needs to change.
Your sound library might be filled with great sounds but if you can't get to them easily, you're unlikely to use them.
In this tutorial I'll show you how to read and write metadata into audio files inside REAPER.
00:00 - Intro
00:11 - What is metadata and why is it important
01:26 - Reading metadata from source properties
02:48 - Reading metadata from media explorer
04:03 - Show source properties from media explorer
07:16 - Write or edit metadata in bulk in Media Explorer
09:54 - Adding metadata in Media Explorer column
11:31 - Updating databases to read new metadata
11:46 - Write metadata when rendering
14:43 - Add metadata with Batch Converter
Link to blog post reaperblog.net/2021/11/metada...
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[@vexphoto]

Dude, the world needs more people like you.

[@leonardocalvo]

Thanks Man, you are a genius!!! I apply the batch converter to reassign metadata and is was very useful

[@derekbarlas8092]

This is super helpful. I'm a Reaper user and am embarking on cleaning up and organizing the Metadata on thousands and thousands of samples.

[@markaytonthelustybard1249]

thanks Jon! - I've been meaning to do this for so long.. thanks for the inspiration :)

[@DThompson55]

I just started trying to organize my smallish (3600) sample set this week. I wish I'd watched this blog earlier. I was doing linux command line stuff, which helped, don't get me wrong, but it took a lot more thought and effort than I needed to do apparently.

[@honeysucklecat]

I’ve been wondering about this

thanks for help.

[@WilsoundMedia]

07:16 super useful, thanks so much!!

[@DarkSideofSynth]

"My own sound library... it's a fucking mess!".
Well, that's the most relatable sentiment, ain't it?:))))

[@gavinjackguitar3482]

Hey Jon, Is there a way that I can add ISWC codes to the metadata in reaper? I can only see how to add ISRC but I've heard that it is a good idea to add ISWC codes as well.

[@marceloribeirosimoes8959]

Beautiful!
Maybe a good file renamer (like Rename Master) and good metadata (tag) editor could help, too.
I'm not sure, just wondering if there's the fastest way the get this job done.
But for a Reaper feature, that's awesome, for sure.

[@marceloribeirosimoes8959]

@Tim Rideout Thanx, Tim. I totaly agree about Jon and his videos...

[@ct_imagery4863]

Great help here. Question ... I have a large WAV sound library (50,000+ files) that has perfect file descriptions in the BWAV description metadata field but the files are just named with sequential numbering. Dumb. I'd like to batch rename the files with the BWAV file description metadata field. Will this program do that? Thanks!

[@kernelxsanders]

13:56 when you say metadata wasn't visible because it isn't a file attribute, does this include data like "artist, album, genre, etc" if I'm rendering an album or song? Or will info like that show up in iTunes or the desktop file explorer? Maybe you were just referencing the description info?

[@leightaft7763]

It’s a fuckin’ mess.
Lol. Sums up mine too man!

[@ChrisKluepfel]

I`m working on a soundlibrary right now using the UCS for naming and alike. Does a standard exist for soundlibraries? Like only use BWF in conjuncion with UCS? TBH i just used "common" in the export Metadata and the UCS renamer has put the right wildcards in.

[@ctattanmusic]

If the metadata is in the source properties do I still need to add it to markets for making the ddp?

[@landonfinnerty2391]

I wanted to know about song Metadata, author, title etc, what needs to be filled in on recordings

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Artist, album, titles, etc. same process really

[@marceloribeirosimoes8959]

Passing for a second time...
Please, do you know how to add some user-made tags like "trend", and "model", so we should create tags like on Cosmos sample browser?
I know we can type that data on any text field but, you know, it could be cool to add a tag field for "music production"...

[@TheREAPERBlog]

User tag columns were recently added

[@marceloribeirosimoes8959]

@@TheREAPERBlog Oh, wow!
This is absolutely great!!!
Thank you very much!!!!

[@marceloribeirosimoes8959]

@@TheREAPERBlog BTW, metadata editors like Mp3Tag can't read some data info.
Even if I "create" fields with the same names as those columns on Reaper.
I hope it helps all those trying to organize samples not to lose their time and effort...
Thank you for the video and for answering me.

[@WilsoundMedia]

11:17 one percent better today and one percent better tomorrow, that might be the purpose of every human being

[@claritywindowcare8744]

first

[@pekkyas]

you legend!

[@c0ns1d1ne]

Uh-oh, shouldn't have watched this video. Obsessive tendencies kicking in hard...

[@c0ns1d1ne]

LOL, there goes my life. 🤣