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Profile Clyde C. Phillips, III

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Message 509420 - Posted: 27 Jan 2007, 17:31:41 UTC - in response to Message 509047.  


Clyde, pardon me if I'm belaboring the obvious...do you already own music CDs? Are any / all of them ripped to a computer? You can either rip them directly with iTunes or have iTunes copy them into its music libray. When I first started using iTunes almost 4 years ago, I ripped a total of around 1300 songs from about 200 CDs. The default MP4/AAC format for iTunes is a pretty good compromise between file size and quality (and higher, even lossless, sampling rates are available). My home computer is about 4 years old and, like yours, has an 80GB HD. I've purchased 250-300 songs from the iTunes Store (total includes some *free* singles of the week). With that music library, all the standard sorts of apps & files that you'd find on a non-techie's computer (and including a 2-hour 25GB movie ripped from a digital camera that I need to finish editing one of these days), I still have around 20GB free. Of course, music files ripped at higher sampling rate (or lossless copies) would take up significantly more space.

The entire music libray fits on a three-year-old iPod with plenty of room to spare. It's a third generation model with a 20GB HD. The music takes around 6-7GB. That's without podcasts. I also have backed up critical files on it , such as Quicken data and important ongoing personal projects. I also have a 4GB iPod nano that my primary playlist, some photos, and a couple of podcasts that I subscibe to (subscribe but they're free).

HTH
Q


Thanks, Q. At first your name looked like an "O" but I saw my error today. I don't have a single music CD, just records. I don't want to go through copying scratchy 78s, 45s and LPs, and having to worry about speed, volume, etc. I did that in 1985 to tapes and it took an eternity. It would be even more expensive buying the CDs now because I would get maybe one or two songs on some CDs. And all that duplication. Plus, unless I had heard the CD I might not get the original, nostalgic copy of the song that made the charts in the first place. Or, the song might be abridged (K-Tel was an offender here). The worst thing I could do would be to buy $3000 worth of electronic songs and lose them in several years due to one problem or other. By the way, it's terrible that iTunes charges a dollar a song but only two dollars for a movie fifty times as long! I have a feeling that royalties only amount to about a nickel per song. Nowhere do I see quantity discounts on songs.

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Profile Fuzzy Hollynoodles
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Message 510435 - Posted: 29 Jan 2007, 16:36:53 UTC

iBlinds - New generation iPod accessory

About updating your iPod, there are some settings where you can decide how much it shall be sync'ed with your iTunes, when you plug it in the dock or directly in the computer.

I haven't figured it out yet, as it hasn't been necessary for me so far, but I noticed something that might be useful one day where I plugged the iPod in the dock.

I had before that put a burned copy of a downloaded cd in the tray and I had accidentally clicked yes to ripping the cd to the computer instead of no, so I got a new version, an unlocked version of the cd in my computer. I decided to ditch the locked downloaded version, as I already had burned a copy of it, so I got a "different" version of the same cd in my system instead. So when I plugged the iPod in, a message came and told me that the version on the iPod didn't exist on the computer and asked me if I wanted to keep the original version in the iPod. I decided to click no, and then I sync'ed the iPod with the new version. But I wonder if I had clicked yes, if I can remove music from my computer and keep it on my iPod?

This was my original intention with my iPod that I could save space on my computer, heck, the iPod has 60 Gb and the harddisk in my computer has 40 Gb, so sooner rather than later I will run out of space.

But I also think I can move some of the music, the videos, and the podcasts to my external harddrive, a 250 Gb, and then create paths to it via "Add to library" in iTunes. I have done that with videos placed outside the iTunes library, so why not to an another drive? Then I only have to have the external drive turned on while sync'ing with the iPod.

Of course I could read the manual and see what it says about this, but I suffer from the same illness as so many others, I don't read the manual, I play with it and see how it works.

Any suggestions?

And I have actually started to buy or download to replace my LP's. But I mostly buy new music these days, something I like now.


"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

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Profile Clyde C. Phillips, III

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Message 510493 - Posted: 29 Jan 2007, 20:25:36 UTC

Maybe what I'll have to do is buy an album or so and run it through the mill. The problem is, I still have to buy that expensive iPod in order to do this experiment. I understand that iTunes has the most tunes. Maybe I'll see what's available in the 40s, 50s and 60s and see whether Apple has them all (or at least most).
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Message 510897 - Posted: 30 Jan 2007, 14:21:10 UTC - in response to Message 510493.  

Maybe what I'll have to do is buy an album or so and run it through the mill. The problem is, I still have to buy that expensive iPod in order to do this experiment. I understand that iTunes has the most tunes. Maybe I'll see what's available in the 40s, 50s and 60s and see whether Apple has them all (or at least most).

I believe iTunes is free to download and install on your computer. It only costs money when you actually choose to download a song. So you can install it and browse thru their selections and then, if you find enough that interests you, you can buy an MP3 player. IPOD is but one of many brands available.

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Message 510912 - Posted: 30 Jan 2007, 15:37:49 UTC - in response to Message 510897.  

Maybe what I'll have to do is buy an album or so and run it through the mill. The problem is, I still have to buy that expensive iPod in order to do this experiment. I understand that iTunes has the most tunes. Maybe I'll see what's available in the 40s, 50s and 60s and see whether Apple has them all (or at least most).

I believe iTunes is free to download and install on your computer. It only costs money when you actually choose to download a song. So you can install it and browse thru their selections and then, if you find enough that interests you, you can buy an MP3 player. IPOD is but one of many brands available.


Sonbgs purchased or obtained through the iTunes Store can only be transferred to an iPod. Songs ripped from a CD may be transferred to other MP3 players (but I'm not sure if this can be done through iTunes software).

QS
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Message 510949 - Posted: 30 Jan 2007, 22:22:01 UTC - in response to Message 510912.  

Maybe what I'll have to do is buy an album or so and run it through the mill. The problem is, I still have to buy that expensive iPod in order to do this experiment. I understand that iTunes has the most tunes. Maybe I'll see what's available in the 40s, 50s and 60s and see whether Apple has them all (or at least most).

I believe iTunes is free to download and install on your computer. It only costs money when you actually choose to download a song. So you can install it and browse thru their selections and then, if you find enough that interests you, you can buy an MP3 player. IPOD is but one of many brands available.


Sonbgs purchased or obtained through the iTunes Store can only be transferred to an iPod. Songs ripped from a CD may be transferred to other MP3 players (but I'm not sure if this can be done through iTunes software).
QS

Hmmm thanks for that, I was going to download it for my IRiver.
My son told me it would work. He will get feedback here shortly!

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Message 510957 - Posted: 30 Jan 2007, 22:35:51 UTC - in response to Message 508094.  

Steely Dan is the only artist that Matt mentioned that I recognize. "Do It Again" and "Reeling in the Years", both from 1973, are the only songs that I remember from him.


I would add Herbie Hancock, otherwise the list seems pretty esoteric. BTW, Steely Dan is not a 'he' ... it is a group. Fantastic to see perform, astonishing in their perfection.
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Message 511048 - Posted: 31 Jan 2007, 2:11:00 UTC
Last modified: 31 Jan 2007, 2:11:59 UTC



>Fantastic to see perform, astonishing in their perfection.>

I'm right with you on the Dan........ they're the
only live act I've mustered the motivation to see live
in quite some time - their last 2 tours. As for being
the musicians musicians, I've got a friend who is a
real musician, and he loves them too, whereas I just
plink out stuff for my own amusement at home - current
projects Home at Last, and Aja.

Last tour with Michael McDonald was extra special when
he came out to add those high harmonies on a few tunes.

Chilling to hear it so well done.

Dave
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Message 511053 - Posted: 31 Jan 2007, 2:18:40 UTC - in response to Message 510912.  



Sonbgs purchased or obtained through the iTunes Store can only be transferred to an iPod. Songs ripped from a CD may be transferred to other MP3 players (but I'm not sure if this can be done through iTunes software).

QS


It can't but you can burn the songs to a cd, which can be played and ripped in other players. They usually lose the informations though so you'll have to add those manually.

Songs bought and downloaded from iTunes are locked and can only be shared with 4 other users/computers, where they'll have to be authorized. Read about this here.

When I want to transform a song to mp3 format, I have a program I've downloaded I can transform them in. It can only be done with un-locked songs, so if I want to transform a locked song, I burn it on a cd (which I usually do as backup), where it then is unlocked, and then I can transform it to mp3 format in that program. I have though experienced problems with taking the song from the cd directly (maybe a bug in the program? I don't know.), so I work around it by ripping the song in Windows Mediaplayer, where I then can transform it.

But play with it, there are many possibilities.


"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

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Message 511084 - Posted: 31 Jan 2007, 4:37:31 UTC - in response to Message 509087.  

One thing I've learned in life is that 90-95% of anything is crap.


Sturgeon's Law/Revelation

(Hi Matt!)

MJ (living in the home town of your former university/radio station)

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Profile Clyde C. Phillips, III

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Message 511338 - Posted: 31 Jan 2007, 20:30:56 UTC - in response to Message 511053.  



Sonbgs purchased or obtained through the iTunes Store can only be transferred to an iPod. Songs ripped from a CD may be transferred to other MP3 players (but I'm not sure if this can be done through iTunes software).

QS


It can't but you can burn the songs to a cd, which can be played and ripped in other players. They usually lose the informations though so you'll have to add those manually.

Songs bought and downloaded from iTunes are locked and can only be shared with 4 other users/computers, where they'll have to be authorized. Read about this here.

When I want to transform a song to mp3 format, I have a program I've downloaded I can transform them in. It can only be done with un-locked songs, so if I want to transform a locked song, I burn it on a cd (which I usually do as backup), where it then is unlocked, and then I can transform it to mp3 format in that program. I have though experienced problems with taking the song from the cd directly (maybe a bug in the program? I don't know.), so I work around it by ripping the song in Windows Mediaplayer, where I then can transform it.

But play with it, there are many possibilities.



Many thanks, Fuzzy (and everybody) for your help. Fuzzy, is it legal to transform locked tunes (like iTunes) into unlocked tunes where I can still play the unlocked iTunes (copied from storage CDs, etc) in case there are no more iPods, etc, 20 years from now and my iPod then breaks? Also is there any noticeable loss of fidelity when transforming an iTune into regular unlocked format?

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Message 511635 - Posted: 1 Feb 2007, 14:05:55 UTC - in response to Message 511338.  



Many thanks, Fuzzy (and everybody) for your help. Fuzzy, is it legal to transform locked tunes (like iTunes) into unlocked tunes where I can still play the unlocked iTunes (copied from storage CDs, etc) in case there are no more iPods, etc, 20 years from now and my iPod then breaks? Also is there any noticeable loss of fidelity when transforming an iTune into regular unlocked format?


When I burn cd's from iTunes to play in vehicles that don't have a connector for my iPod, they sound great. So, I would assume that they would sound well being converted back into a (higher quality) mp3.
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Message 512033 - Posted: 2 Feb 2007, 6:05:06 UTC - in response to Message 511635.  

So, I would assume that they would sound well being converted back into a (higher quality) mp3.

Once you throw out the data it is gone for good.
Whatever quality it is when you got it, that's as good as it will ever be. It could get worse, but it won't get better.
Grant
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Profile Clyde C. Phillips, III

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Message 512257 - Posted: 2 Feb 2007, 19:45:00 UTC

That makes a lot of sense. No matter how good any recording or photo is (in terms of info contained) the copy is never, never better than the original. The copier might be able to enlarge the song or print into an exabyte but the above is still true. Now it's possible that the song might SOUND better because information in the original might have been too faint to be heard but have been brought out in the copying process.
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Message 512408 - Posted: 3 Feb 2007, 0:16:48 UTC - in response to Message 511338.  
Last modified: 3 Feb 2007, 0:22:49 UTC



Many thanks, Fuzzy (and everybody) for your help. Fuzzy, is it legal to transform locked tunes (like iTunes) into unlocked tunes where I can still play the unlocked iTunes (copied from storage CDs, etc) in case there are no more iPods, etc, 20 years from now and my iPod then breaks? Also is there any noticeable loss of fidelity when transforming an iTune into regular unlocked format?


In fact, when you have finished downloading your purchased songs, a pop up asks you if you want to burn a backup cd. And since the songs on burned cd's are unlocked, I take it as Apple endorse this practice. So it's as legal as it can be.

I'm not a HiFi nerd myself, I can't hear any difference, but I know some who prefer the original mastered cd for any downloaded music or music transformed to other formats.

About transforming, I am about to rip and transform a dvd to mpeg-4 format, so I can play it on my iPod. I haven't done this before, so I look forward to see how this will turn out.

And I'm ripping it to the biggest of my external harddrives, and then I'll add the videos to the video library in iTunes, where I then suppose they'll be transfered to my iPod. I haven't finished ripping yet, 2 hours and 15 minutes of video takes it's time to be ripped. :-O


"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

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Profile Clyde C. Phillips, III

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Message 512681 - Posted: 3 Feb 2007, 17:19:32 UTC

Many thanks, Fuzzy, for the good info. Maybe I'll consider iTunes because I understand that that brand is the most ubiquitous and possibly has the greatest number of songs. Maybe I could verify the sound system of the other (main) computer by switching speakers and, then, after qualification, use its 250-gb hard drive for music storage. Before, I had had half-second interruptions of music that I had blamed on a Yamaha soundcard that has been removed. I won't tolerate anything like that even for a penny a song, let alone a dollar!
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Message 513691 - Posted: 5 Feb 2007, 19:28:33 UTC

Now, does all the above mean that I can legally download iTunes to my hard disc, burn them to a CD (I have a DVD-RW and CD-RW discs), and then record them from the CD-RW to and play them with most any player besides the iPod?
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Message 513791 - Posted: 5 Feb 2007, 23:05:43 UTC - in response to Message 513691.  
Last modified: 5 Feb 2007, 23:29:36 UTC

Now, does all the above mean that I can legally download iTunes to my hard disc, burn them to a CD (I have a DVD-RW and CD-RW discs), and then record them from the CD-RW to and play them with most any player besides the iPod?


Yes. Except that iTunes won't burn the backups on cd-rw's, only cd-r's. Believe me, I have tried. And yes, you can rip the backup cd in any player you might want. What format you rip them in will depend on the player. I only have Windows Mediaplayer, iTunes, and RealPlayer installed and I have a separate program to transform them to mp3's.

Btw, the concert dvd I bought last Friday I have now ripped to mpeg-4 movies, I can play in my iPod. I downloaded this program and bought a registration key to it, and then ripped the dvd with it. I experimented a bit, because you can rip the whole dvd as one file, but as it's a concert, I wanted to rip each song separately, and then I added them to iTunes as music videos, which means that they play in continuation of each other, so I can get the feeling of the concert. The band has built up the playlist so the concert stands as a whole. I had some problems though because when transfered to the iPod, they came over alphabetically, so I had to put numbers in the beginning of the song titles to get them in the right order. But if I decide to rip a whole movie, I might want to rip it as a whole instead of breaking it up in scenes.

You can see here how the iPod is shown in iTunes. The darker blue part of the bar at the bottom is the music videos, mostly from the dvd I ripped.


Click the pic

And here you can see the dvd with the songs. The exclamation points at each song is because I ripped them to my external harddrive, which is turned off right now so iTunes can't establish contact to them via the paths it has got to them, but as soon as I turn it on, they disappear. But they are all on the iPod.


Click the pic

My iTunes version is Danish, but you get the picture. :-)


"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

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Message 514101 - Posted: 6 Feb 2007, 15:03:19 UTC - in response to Message 513791.  


***snip***
I had some problems though because when transfered to the iPod, they came over alphabetically, so I had to put numbers in the beginning of the song titles to get them in the right order.


Fuzzy, I don't have iTunes on the work PC, but I believe that you can set the song order by way of the tags. Go to File, Get Info [or their Danish equivalents :)], and take a look through the various tabs there. I'm pretty sure there's a way to set the song order there. I beleive you also need to make sure the Album tag is the same for all of the related pieces of the concert video.

QS
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Message 514108 - Posted: 6 Feb 2007, 15:24:00 UTC - in response to Message 514101.  


***snip***
I had some problems though because when transfered to the iPod, they came over alphabetically, so I had to put numbers in the beginning of the song titles to get them in the right order.


Fuzzy, I don't have iTunes on the work PC, but I believe that you can set the song order by way of the tags. Go to File, Get Info [or their Danish equivalents :)], and take a look through the various tabs there. I'm pretty sure there's a way to set the song order there. I beleive you also need to make sure the Album tag is the same for all of the related pieces of the concert video.

QS


I work in the Info tabs with the songs, and they were fine in iTunes, but as soon as they were transfered to the iPod, they were all mixed up. But the numbering did the job, which all were done in the Info tab. They are placed alphabetically and are all mixed up in the folder, I ripped them to. I also add pictures to the audio songs, when iTunes don't have them in their library. Usually they have, but this album is so new they don't, so I searched for the album in amazon.com and downloaded the album graphics and saved them in the folder with the songs, then I added them manually. iTunes have developed a lot and now a days they do have a lot of album graphics which comes automatically after you have ripped the cd. Downloaded cd's come with graphics automatically. And for some of the most rare cd's I've just scanned the graphics and added them to the songs. This Rammstein album graphic was found on amazon.com. And I have the album here to look at, it's only in the iPod I like to have the graphics shown also.


"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

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