iTunes setup tips

[bouche]

Here's a good article that attempts to clear up some confusion about variable bit rates, mp3, and importing CD's into iTunes.

[boiler]

Thanks for this bouche. Most of the CD Imports I've made into ITunes, I've used the VBR option.

I have not tried to encode with the apple lossless format yet as I am always worried about space. I've encoded (almost) all my CD's at 160kb VBR. I found this statment interesting though :

160kbs VBR

I also tried this. It makes bigger files and I couldn't hear any improvement over 128kbs VBR. 128kbs VBR sounded identical to my CDs.

Interesting. I rarley burn CD's though, only when I want something new for the car or sharing some music around. I like not having CD's around making a mess, I have my computer hooked up to my stereo with a digital connection, speakers all over the place. Total heaven.

My problem now is storage, or at least soon to be problem. Like I said, most of my (store bought) CD's, I don't care if I've converted them to MP3. For a while I was converting all my live shit to MP3 and have (temp) stopped doing this. I have decided (for the time being) that quality live recordings kept lossless is WAY better than MP3(quality over quantity). I have 1 250 gig hard drive, 70gigs of MP3's and a, well let's just say a few gigs of lossless music (listening to some sweet mostly instrumental Hendrix from 68 now, yeah baby). Space will run out, sooner rather than later, considering Azereus is running 24/7 on this computer.

Sorry about being long-winded here, but I'd be interested in knowing how others deal with this problem. I suppose I could burn to disc in the lossless format, but then I'd be back to looking after discs again, which I'm just as happy to not do. Has anyone here used DVD to store shows? If so, how were the results? Portable Hard Drives?

[mattm]

My way of dealing with space is that I bought a 250 gig external. I keep all my mp3's as well as music movies and a bunch of good movies on it.

I convert all my live shows to mp3 but burn a copy of the lossless format to dvd first so that I still have it.

This way I can fit all my music in one place, it's portable and I still have all the lossless shit backed up.

As far as the kbs go, there is a quality loss, even at 160. The rate at which this goes beyond human capable hearing is around 256kbps but most people can't tell a difference even on the 160's. Anything I convert to mp3, I do at 256 but the only real way to tell the difference is to open the file in a wav editor and look at the peaks. You'll notice, if you look careful, that at lower bitrates the peaks won't hit all the high frequency's they should. Some lows are missing too but it's harder to see those and they aren't as aparent because you need some good speakers to really hit the low tones anyway. If you really want to hear the difference, use jazz cd tunes rather than rock or recorded live tunes as they are all over the board. What is generally recommended is that mp3's not be encoded at bitrates less than 192kbs. Another general rule is to always encode high because once you've taken away from the quality by encoding, you can't get it back (ie: encoding an mp3 that's 128 to 256 won't improve the quality, just the file size). VBR means that it will dedicate more kb to the more sound intensive parts and less to the quiet parts. I prefer to encode at a steady bitrate but a good encoder like Lame does a great job at VBR.

I was also reading a review about different mp3 encoders from a guy who really knows his sound. His verdict was that fraunhofer's encoder is the best with Lame coming up a very, very close second. The other ones were ok but those two were the best. Fortunately a lot of programs use Lame (fraunhofer costs money, Lame is open source).

Unfortunately my 250gig is now pretty much full (2 gigs left) so I'm thinking about getting another one.

One more thing: If you insist on using iTunes to convert to mp3, I'd suggest grabbing this iTunes Lame plug-in or one similar to it. I only mention this because if you read around, you'll find that the built-in iTunes mp3 encoder isn't very good at all. Probably it's because Apple wrote their own mp3 encoder from scratch rather than going with one of the already established ones. Encoders like Lame are form folks dedicated ONLY to bringing you quality mp3's whereas Apple has other formats (namingly AAC) so their encoder is more of a side-project type deal. For non-picky folks it's probably fine though.

My two cents.

Edited March 15, 2006 by Guest

[bouche]

The article points out that if you use headphones more expensive than your iPod, you'll understand the quality of the iPod. Well, it IS very true. I have a set of BOSE quiet comfort II, and I attached them to my iPod. Everything I have on there sounds truely amazing to me. Little tiny in ear headphone just don't cut it.

[mattm]

I have wanted to get decent headphones for so long. Last time I went in to buy some I came out with an iPod instead but now I'm stuck with those stupid little buds of earphones that constantly try to come out and don't allow for much bass at all unless I hold them firmly in place. It's the one thing I don't like about the iPod.

I have hooked it up to my stereo, though, and it sounds beautiful through that.

Edit to add: The reason I don't buy new headphones is that I don't have the money but I'm also looking for some that are small enough to be portable yet still sound good (at least somewhat qiuet the outside sounds).

Edited March 15, 2006 by Guest

[bouche]

The BOSE ones fold up and have a case. They're sorta portable. They pretty much knock out alot of the noise around you.

[boiler]

Thanks mattm. Good Advice. I do the same as you when I convert lossless to mp3 format, 256 always. When I convert store bought CD's I usually only do this at 160. I've experimented with higher, but haven't been able to notice any difference. My speakers aren't that great either though.

Hopefully that'll change soon. I'm VERY lucky, my brother is into all the high end stereo equipment. He sells it too so eventually when It's time for me to "set it up" I'm going to be able to get some sweet equipment, at *ahem* family costs.

He's building a listening room in his basement, that has studio quality soundproofing. The thing is, he's more into $3000 turntables than digital music, so I can't really test out my music there, booo.

[bouche]

CD storage management

[Boochawan]

So here's an techno-ignorant question relating to iTunes and le iPod:

Right now I have a fair chunck of my music collection on my 18 Gig laptop. I have iTunes on there as well, which is the library my iPod "recognizes."

Now here's the dilemma:

I have a ton of more music to add which won't fit on my remaining hard drive space. I also plan on getting a new computer in the future, with much much much more hardrive space than i have now. So here's the dilemma, and the question: how can I transfer my iTunes library from my present laptop, to the new hardrive?

[Blane]

Definately check these out. AMAZING headphones for the buck. I've had mine since 2003 and they have literally been around the world and back shoved in the bottom of bags, under my ass on airplanes, etc. and have never shown signs of wear.

HIGHLY recommended.

[bouche]

here's a link for using iTunes to keep a rolling archive of your music

[MoMack]

Any other tips for non earplug headphones that are a) not too expensive and if possible not too big?

The Senheiser's look okay... how much were the fold up bose?

[bouche]

the bose headset is probably about $400.

[Alexis]

anyone use winamp to manage their ipod? i downloaded an updated version of winamp and was informed that i can do the ipod thing there...wondered if anyone had any comments