Decoding the TRAKTOR 4 binary data inside a PRIV tag

General Discussion
1

I just add this free little online tool for all the people interested what the DJ-Software "Traktor" saves inside his proprietary binary chunk inside a PRIV id3 tag.

If you save the few available metadata tags for a mp3 file in Traktor, it looks like this:

Traktor 4 - Metadata
Traktor 4 - Metadata955×374 66.2 KB

Especially the fields Comment 2 and Cat. No. can't be found as standard ID3 tag and are therefore not readable by Mp3tag.

If you analyze such a track with the help of this online tool:
https://hellricer.github.io/2021/05/05/decoding-traktor4-field.html
you can see what Traktor copies from the original standard id3 tags and save inside his own proprietary binary chunk in a PRIV tag:

image
image1177×1167 22.3 KB

Important hint:
The above tool does NOT UPLOAD your track to any website. Everything is processed in the own local browser.

I would be interested to know why Traktor doesn't use the standard fields and mix it in it's own not that easy readable format.

2

This is interesting, but, unfortunately, not useful.

Now - if, as well as being able to READ the PRIV4 tag, we could WRITE it (or, even just an indicator that there IS info in the PRIV4 tag) to an empty tag in the MP3 file, then it'd be useful... :+1:

3

This will not happen anytime soon, because of the proprietary (not public) structure of this PRIV tag.
native-instruments.com does not seem to be interested in allowing third-party tools to manipulate their "own" id3 tag.

You may have already read it: "As you might have noticed, there is a check sum. And sure enough, changing even a single byte causes Traktor to completely ignore the data."
The necessary chechsum function has not been reverse engineered yet.

4

Not write to the PRIV4 tag - write to another vacant tag, to indicate that the PRIV4 tag has bee populated by Traktor.

Then, we could tell (outside of Traktor - in iTunes, or MP3Tag, for example) if a file has already been analysed in Traktor.

5

Yes, that would be nice.

BTW: There is no such frame type name as PRIV4. Frame type names according to the id3.org standard are only 4 characters long and without any numbers. (There are a few frame names with a number at 4th - not 5th - position.)

7

Hey @LyricsLover, good stuff! I am working an app which helps for better organization of tracks, etc.

Do you know whenever the color category is included in the tags?

8

Where do you see a "color category" in the TRAKTOR metadata?

Anyway: You would need to check that with a music file with embedded metadata from a current TRAKTOR version.