This is a big issue and we many wasted hours with it to finally that SA does not overwrite the metadata. It adds tags with MacBrainz IDs to your files. So it was not a disaster as we worried…
The wrong metadata that you see in the screenshots is what AS displays in its library.
Nevertheless, the modification of the files had other harmful consequences. For instance, users with online automated backup will have to pay the I/O bills for uploading TBs of modified files to the cloud.
Foobar and Roon use MusicBrainz Ids too. If AS adds incorrect Ids than this will affect Foobar and Roon (and other music players) too. As said, I spent hours with MusicBrainz Picard to avoid adding the wrong MusicBrainz Ids.. And now without me even knowing or without asking for my permission AS, adds all those wrong/incorrect IDs, basically undoing my work and affecting my whole music system. Also AS does not give me the chance to undo the changes AS made (which it could have done if the changes where put in its own database instead of in my files).
So yes, for me this is a big disaster/deal 
I understand now.
I’m not a Roon or Foobar user so I could not know it.
Actually, it is worse than changing the metadata without asking your permission. Damien stated on this thread that the files are not affected and the changes are written only to the database of Studio.
He was mistaken and he misled us.
Agreed, I don’t understand how Damien could claim that the files where not affected. It is clearly established in this forum that AS adds a MusicBrainz ID to the music files. Lots of people have shown/proven this by now. Maybe this is a bug and not intentional, but he still could be more transparent about this whole situation. At the moment the silence on Audirvana’s part is overwhelming. Even in the newest AS update (1.1) there is no mention about anything (also not in the release notes), except for an info box (with a vague text) next to the ‘analysing’ part.
He made this claim before this fact was established by the members of this forum.
I read it and I thought that there’s no reason to worry. Otherwise, I would have never loaded 11K files to AS. I would have loaded just copies of few albums in order to check the sound quality of the player.
Would any lawyer around give a legal perspective on this matter (without charge, please… 
)
I am using a Mac and use Yates and Metadatics (from Apple Store). I am opening my files in Metadatics and I see the tag added from Music Brains as many of you have discussed. I am selecting the tag for multiple songs and removing. I do not want Audirvana adding entries to my music without permission. I will not be using Audirvana Studio until the system adds data to it own database. I will continue to use 3.5 for now.
What really makes me mad is the unnecessary time/effort on the users’ part to identify and correct erroneous information being added! I spent some time going through my files correcting silly edits like artists names being repeated or having some random names added to the original artists (very inconsistently I might add) only to find that AS likes to undo my correction with the same erroneous edits again! That was it for me once I realized this. I’m not going to waste any more time fighting this thing that keeps reverting back despite my manual corrections. Really going to need ths automatic “analysis” to stop before I would consider continuing.
I’m using Yate.
I could not find a way to remove these MusicBrainz tags that Studio added.
How do you manage to remove them? With Metadatics?
I am afraid that for most, the shortest way to deal with this is to overwrite the files from our backups.
This is dependant on Damien offering very soon a solution to opt out from this sorry mess…
I add the files to Metadatics and select the side bar on left and it shows the entries. I highlight all music files, then double click on the music brain entry I remove and press ok. it gets removed. then save the batch you are working on. I am adding files to metadatics by file alphabet as I have 75 thousand files of ALAC, AIFF and DSD. not all got contaminated. I saw what was happening with I ran my Carbon Copy Cloner. BTW Audirvana Studio did not come close to finishing and I stop it cause I was taking so long “Analyzing”. so when I did the back up I saw many files were being updated on backup. that’s when I got on the forum. thanks everyone for discussing the issue.
The problem is that my NAS backup program runs every day. So my backup is affected already. The same for my Cloud backup. I know I am repeating myself ( ), but if Audirvana would have asked for my approval first, this never would have happened.
I can not overwrite my files, because they are backed-up by the fact that they are stored on a RAID-1 drive.
I have another copy of the files, but the tags were never updated on this copy.
Other users with online backup have the same problem. The modified files were automatically uploaded to the servers on the cloud.
Going to add this. These are my files, I have spent years getting the metadata correct with great album covers etc. So don’t add to my files without permission. I might decide ok, but this is my choice.
Thank you mglover.
So as I suspected, it’s something you can do with Metadatics.
We were many to try with Yate, but it’s impossible.
I will consider buying Metadatics.
I was mostly interested to check the sound quality of Studio, its library management was of little interest for me.
So from the start, I loaded only a small part of my library. I thought that 11K files are enough to check the application.
I could not agree with you more. I also have spend uncountable hours to shape my own metadata and adding or removing MusicBrainz Ids.
I don’t mind Audirvans doing some sort of analysis (Roon does the same), but I expect Audirvana to respect my data integrity. All the changes made by Aurdirvans should be local to Audirvana (in its own database).
It is like someone walking into your house without asking and re-arranging your furniture without your permission, Basically that is an invasion of your privacy.
If you used Audirvana previously, did Audirvana add any Replaygain metadata in your files?
If so, did you complain then?
I mean, Damien’s intention cannot be to antagonise his user base.
So, this is a case of well intentioned mistake. It does not absolve Damien, but it puts things in a more appropriate perspective.
As for the matter of Backups, real backups are always “snapshots” to which you can refer to when the need arises.
Most cloud services have files version history facility allowing to roll back, effectively corresponding to a snapshot backup on an external hard drive.
Although I have much empathy for their inconvenience, I am unable to find of a reason why Damien should be held responsible for the way people have configured their NAS, or cloud storage facility.
I can remove the MusicBrainz tag in Yate.
I’m using a Logitech keyboard that has a right mouse button. Under the UD tab, when I right click on the MusicBrainz tag, I get a pop-up menu that includes Edit and Delete options.
On a normal Mac keyboard, hold down the option key and click on the MusicBrainz Recording ID tag to see this men
Regards, D
you were smart to only use a small part of your library. I may do the same for now I am in “repair” mode. Yes I know I am being particular but I was actually angry yesterday as I have worked hard for years on my music and don’t want it touched without permission.