lists most of the tags I've used or heard of. My question: is there an official list of tag names, so that different players will recognize the tags I include in my ripped tracks? Does that list use the "official" names?
Context: I currently use dbPoweramp to rip CDs (to flac, fwiw) and mostly handle the metadata. Its tag processing is a bit awkward, however - a product of incremental design probably. CDRipper has 3 places where tag values can be set, and in a fourth place you can choose which tags are written to the file. The main place where tags are set is from the metadata popup which searches for tags from the usual places. But the tags and tag names there are fixed, while other tags can be added in a separate pane on the main window. These tag names are not fixed, but also must be filled in manually.
I otherwise like dbpoweramp so don't want to switch right now at least, but would like to be sure that I'm using tag names that are standard or at least widely recognized.
That depends on the file format which in a way implies the tag format.
You find the tag format specific names in the documenation section that you already linked.
As you say that you rip your files
please note this from the documentation:
Please note that fields of VorbisComments (used with FLAC, OGG, SPX) and of APEv2 tags are not mapped internally by Mp3tag but are displayed with their actual name unless they use a user-defined field mapping.
I also use dbpa to rip and mp3tag to manage all my metadata. Rarely do I encounter any issues.
That reference page for the Tag Field Mappings lists not only the common names used in mp3tag for easy reference, but also the more cryptic official names used by the different platforms.
Thanks - that's helpful. The players that I use seem to be able to figure out the tags as well, and tag names are the one thing that's easy to make global changes on - I use the metaflac program to export and import metadata from a .flac file, with sed/awk scripting to change/rearrange values.
With CDRipper, I'm stuck with "Album Artist" instead of ALBUMARTIST because it's hardwired but should I ever move away from dBpoweramp, I can easily change that.
On a semi-related topic, does anyone have recommendations for programs that will pull metadata from the usual sources for an album you've already ripped? Like most people, my tagging choices have changed since I first started ripping data from CDs, and it would be nice to go to a directory where I've ripped an album and have that program pull the latest/greatest web metadata and compare it to what I have, and then allow me to update the existing metadata with new or edited tags.
Neither of the dBpa programs do this, nor does mp3tag, at least not that I've figured out. Maybe picard?
This would seem (to me ;-)) to be a straightforward enhancement, and a big improvement on manual updating each album.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but it's not due to the tag structure of Vorbis comment tags since they can have ALBUM ARTIST or ALBUMARTIST or both. But tagging software may apply their own mappings and restrictions, which seems to be the case here with the dBpoweramp CD Ripper (as @dhs suggests).