Wav to Flac using Dbpoweramp

Most WAV files do not have tags imbedded in them, although some do use extensions for limited tagging. The software player you are using is probably maintaining the tags separately. If you simply use dBpoweramp to convert the files, new tags will be added from the database that dBpoweramp uses. Presumably, the artist, album and track information will be obtained from your existing folder and file names. If you have a lot of custom tags, like for classical music, you will probably have to re-enter them. You can get a free version of dBpoweramp and give it a try. That will probably give you the best idea of how the process will work.

Note that dBpoweramp has a "batch mode" which will convert all the the files/CDs without you having to do each one individually.

What player software are you currently using?

dBpoweramp can also tell you what tag information is in a file. You just select the file with Windows Explorer, click on properties and there is a option to see the tags. I think this may be in the version you have to pay for. But, if you are doing a lot of tagging, it is very handy.

From reading your post, it looks like you already have dbPoweramp. Also, if I'm reading correctly, you are not sure what tags are. Tags are information that gets attached to an audio file to describe it. (Artist, Title, Year, Album, ets). Tags are also called metadata. It seems simple, and it is, but can be very frustrating if you are not aware of certain things. The biggest problem that people have with tags is confusing them with file names. Like most people you probably have a music folder. Inside that folder is probably folders labelled with artists. Inside artist folders, albums. You get the idea. Thats not, necessarily, what you see in the library view of whatever music player you happen to use. There can be big differences between what you see in your library and what you see in your file system. I know from experience that it can drive you crazy if you are not aware of what is going on.

I will stop here for 2 reasons. 1. You may already know this. If not, I will be glad to continue. 2. You need to decide what you want to do. Some people hear differences between different music file types. Not just from lossy to lossless, but differences between different lossless files like WAV and FLAC. In your case, flacs are much easier to tag but I know some prefer WAV for sound quality. I suggest you experiment to see if you want to change to flac or another file type fist. That will effect what you have to do with regards to tagging your music. Also, some people prefer different music players. It will be good to know what music player you will be using, as well.

Zd542 - thanks for correcting me, very politely, on the fact that the OP already has dBpoweramp. The only question is whether he has the free or full version.

I find using dBpoweramp to see what tags are actually in the file to be very useful. Before I starting using it, I was, as you state, confused about what tags were in the file and what were in the player software.

Thank you for the excellent responses! I do have the full version of dbpoweramp. Zd542 you are exactly right in what I am seeing. The file in which my music is stored and the way windows media player contains the info is very different and it does drive me crazy. WMP has a lot of music in an unknown folder. It is confusing.
My plan will probably be to move to an Apple Mac mini with attached additional memory, connected asynchronously via usb to my DAC as a front end, using wav files.
Right now I stream from a laptop wirelessly to a Pioneer N50 which connects via optical to my Esoteric DAC. The sound quality is very good but selection of music (via N50 smartphone app) is best through the music file rather than through WMP, because of the problems above, which is not ideal.
I suppose I am really most concerned that by ripping to wav I have lost tags? If I convert to Flac or another format using Dbpoweramp, will any lost tags be recovered? Will the mess in WMP be cleared up with Flac vs wav? I also want to use other formats for the car and ipod etc. (btw - I have made no manual tag corrections)