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how are you keeping your music collection

B

bluebird3

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 29, 2013
233
0
Still trying to organize/learn this software but....

I have about 500? CDs and sure I can import all of them into my iTune music on my Mac, but that would take up a lot of space. I can save them on to an external storage but for this purpose, when importing music for the first time into your Mac, Do you click or unclick "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" on preferences ? Also, on import settings, do you normally use "MP3 Encorder" or "Apple Lossless Encodoer" \recommendation ?

What about Greatest Hit Album under ONE band or artist ? It often get mixed up on an album that has multiple artists in it if it has guest players in the album, then some get thrown out of the song list, or automatically goes to "completion" category instead of one artist greatest hit album.... how do I fix this ?
 
Copy to iTunes when adding to library is only for adding already ripped music you've downloaded elsewhere.

Just set the encoder to AAC and at least 192Kbps and it will rip CDs straight to your iTunes library as it encodes them. MP3 is a much less efficient codec than AAC. Lossless can create very large file sizes that consume lots of space. Uncompressed (16bit Stereo CD audio at 44.1Khz) consumes around 10Mb per minute while a lossless file may only be half that or more depending on the complexity of the music.

You need to edit the artist/album info of the files in iTunes with get info. Their annoying feature of splitting an album into multiple albums by artists featuring artists is as worthless a feature as defaulting to album view at every possible opportunity.
 
I use the AAC Encoder, at 320kbps. You're looking at albums being 80 to 120MB, and in rare cases 140MB. It's going to be less than 100GB for 500 CDs.

You want to uncheck "Part of a compilation" under "Options" in Get Info.

The main artist should be under "Album Artist", while the featured artist should be under "Artist". You would include the main artist in there too.

Someone a few months ago suggested to use Smart Playlists, and I'm going to have to suggest it to you aswell. You will really benefit from making different categories for albums, greatest hits, and the like. With 500 albums, just having them like that will drive you crazy.

For example - You'd setup a playlist to include greatest hits by setting it to look in the comments field for "greatest hits", and in the Get Info page, you'd add that to the comments field.

I'd set one up for regular albums too.

There is a box you can tick to show those in the album cover or list view too.

I'm redoing mine at the moment too, heh.
 
bluebird3 said:
Still trying to organize/learn this software but....

I have about 500? CDs and sure I can import all of them into my iTune music on my Mac, but that would take up a lot of space. I can save them on to an external storage but for this purpose, when importing music for the first time into your Mac, Do you click or unclick "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" on preferences ? Also, on import settings, do you normally use "MP3 Encorder" or "Apple Lossless Encodoer" \recommendation ?

What about Greatest Hit Album under ONE band or artist ? It often get mixed up on an album that has multiple artists in it if it has guest players in the album, then some get thrown out of the song list, or automatically goes to "completion" category instead of one artist greatest hit album.... how do I fix this ?
Click to expand...


How to encode: Never use MP3. AAC is better and lossless is the best quality. Don't worry about space 1TB costs less then $100. Your entire collection of 500 CDs will not fill even 1TB If space is limited on your iPod then you can set it to convert lossless to AAC when the songs are transferred. Lossless keeps ALL the bits and is just lie having the real CD.

Labeling and sorting: You can edit the meta data if you don't like what iTunes put in there for you. Notice there are "artist" and "album artist" fields. I use the first for whatever is on the front of the CD and the later for what I file it under. Mostly they are the same.
 
Jessica Lares said:
I use the AAC Encoder, at 320kbps. You're looking at albums being 80 to 120MB, and in rare cases 140MB. It's going to be less than 100GB for 500 CDs.

You want to uncheck "Part of a compilation" under "Options" in Get Info.

The main artist should be under "Album Artist", while the featured artist should be under "Artist". You would include the main artist in there too.

Someone a few months ago suggested to use Smart Playlists, and I'm going to have to suggest it to you aswell. You will really benefit from making different categories for albums, greatest hits, and the like. With 500 albums, just having them like that will drive you crazy.

For example - You'd setup a playlist to include greatest hits by setting it to look in the comments field for "greatest hits", and in the Get Info page, you'd add that to the comments field.

I'd set one up for regular albums too.

There is a box you can tick to show those in the album cover or list view too.

I'm redoing mine at the moment too, heh.
Click to expand...

everybody is recommending "AAC", I just changed it on the setting... but now I am thinking what if I wanted to burn CD? or to USB flash memory stick to take it to a car or to use it to connect to other devices? "AAC" is ok with iPod I take it.... Please correct me if I am wrong but if I did not import the music in mp3 format originally, I won't be able to burn CD/USB memory stick in MP3 format ? (to put as much song as I want, etc).

Ok, will explore the smart play list, I guess after importing the original cd/album, I will have to go change names,etc in iTunes in order for all the songs to be in order... well that kinda sucks. I lost many tracks in each albums and not sure where they went.....

----------

BTW any good CD/DVD burner for a rmbp ? I know these days, a lot of folks do not even bother with those, but go complete digital. (iTunes music purchase, Amazon purchase, etc). but I still got tons of CDs.
 
bluebird3 said:
everybody is recommending "AAC", I just changed it on the setting... but now I am thinking what if I wanted to burn CD? or to USA flash memory stick to take it to a car or to use it to connect to other devices? Correct me if I am wrong but if I did not import the music in mp3 format originally, I won't be able to burn CD/USB memory stick in MP3 format ? (to put as much song as I want, etc).

Ok, will explore the smart play list, I guess after importing the original cd/album, I will have to go change names,etc in iTunes in order for all the songs to be in order... well that kinda sucks. I lost many tracks in each albums and not sure where they went.....
Click to expand...

RE: Burning... iTunes will handle it on demand, don't worry. You can also change the settings later on, then right-click and convert them to MP3.

I've never thought about the AAC and MP3 thing being a conflict on other devices.
 
Jessica Lares said:
I've never thought about the AAC and MP3 thing being a conflict on other devices.
Click to expand...

well, there was once I was trying to put as many song as I want on a CD but it did not fit because it was in larger format.... and could not change the format to MP3 before I burned the CD. So, I had to import the original CD with MP3 format import setting then burn the CD again....... it was few years back tho.
 
I keep my archived music collection "as downloaded" -- in mp3 format.

I have never downloaded an AAC file (from Apple or elsewhere), and never will.
 
Fishrrman said:
I keep my archived music collection "as downloaded" -- in mp3 format.

I have never downloaded an AAC file (from Apple or elsewhere), and never will.
Click to expand...

What an achievement. You steal your music in a poor quality format, presumably rip CDs in the same inferior codec too and actually seem proud of that fact :rolleyes:
 
I rip mine to ALAC to a drive hanging off my AirPort Extreme. For archiving, I would never recommend using anything less than lossless.
 
Jessica Lares said:
I've never thought about the AAC and MP3 thing being a conflict on other devices.
Click to expand...

It doesn't seem to be a problem. I've been using AAC since iTunes first added support for it (I think that was in 2004) and haven't had any problems with playing them on other devices, including "dumbphones" of the era. There are bound to be *some* devices that don't support AAC but the best solution is to test them, rather than use a fallback format "just in case".

In hindsight I should've quoted one of bluebird3's posts as that's really who my message was directed to :)
 
barkmonster wrote above:
[[ What an achievement. You steal your music in a poor quality format ]]

Have you ever considered that some Mac users might purchase their music from sources other than Apple/iTunes?

When I purchase something, it's from amazon.com, which supplies 256k bitrates and often has prices (for classical music packages) that beat Apple's...
 
I keep my iTunes library on a JetDrive. I have the 64 GB version right now, but a 128 GB one is coming out in a few weeks and I'll probably end up upgrading. It's more than fast enough, even for 24bit/96kHz music.
 
Uofmtiger said:
I rip mine to ALAC to a drive hanging off my AirPort Extreme. For archiving, I would never recommend using anything less than lossless.
Click to expand...

This is what I do, but instead I save it to my NAS box. I have a master folder that has all my music it in ripped in ALAC format. If I want to rip that music into a lossy format, I tend to use AAC. I have a few MP3's but I stopped ripping to that format a long time ago.

I have over a terabyte of music (1300 cd's) most not all ripped in ALAC. I am going back an re-ripping all my original rips that I did in MP3 to ALAC.

As far as the physical CDS, I have the jewel cases, in the garage and I have two DJ boxes (1000 per box) and each disk is numbered. I then have my CD catalog software pointing to each slot in the DJ box for quick reference and locating.
 
rhett7660 said:
This is what I do, but instead I save it to my NAS box. I have a master folder that has all my music it in ripped in ALAC format. If I want to rip that music into a lossy format, I tend to use AAC. I have a few MP3's but I stopped ripping to that format a long time ago.

I have over a terabyte of music (1300 cd's) most not all ripped in ALAC. I am going back an re-ripping all my original rips that I did in MP3 to ALAC.

As far as the physical CDS, I have the jewel cases, in the garage and I have two DJ boxes (1000 per box) and each disk is numbered. I then have my CD catalog software pointing to each slot in the DJ box for quick reference and locating.
Click to expand...
Interesting. We have a similar amount of CDs and I back the hard drive with my iTunes library up to a Synology NAS (this gives me access when my mac mini is off (via DS Audio).

Right now, I have all of my CDs (inside their jewel cases) in storage boxes you can buy at Lowes. I have bought some storage wallets (so I can remove them from the jewel boxes and move the boxes up to the attic from our walk in closet), but I plan to make that a winter project.

I should mention that I have all of my music backed up to Crashplan in case of an emergency.
 
Uofmtiger said:
Interesting. We have a similar amount of CDs and I back the hard drive with my iTunes library up to a Synology NAS (this gives me access when my mac mini is off (via DS Audio).

Right now, I have all of my CDs (inside their jewel cases) in storage boxes you can buy at Lowes. I have bought some storage wallets (so I can remove them from the jewel boxes and move the boxes up to the attic from our walk in closet), but I plan to make that a winter project.

I should mention that I have all of my music backed up to Crashplan in case of an emergency.
Click to expand...

Yup the QNAP has a iTunes program on it also that I use when my media box is shut down.

I have two of these for the CD's:

http://www.meritline.com/1000-discs-aluminum-diamond-black-cd-case---p-36083.aspx

and one of these for my DVD's

http://www.meritline.com/600pcs-aluminum-cd-box-sliver---p-22063.aspx

I use the following software:

CD's:
http://www.collectorz.com/music/cd_...cd collector&gclid=CNC1sdik_8ACFQWUfgodnioAgg

DVD's:
http://www.collectorz.com/movie/

The price was kind of high, but now that they have mobile apps, I dig it.

Both of these are saved to the cloud so if I ever loose the main computer they are on, they are backed up.

The cd's and dvd's are in a closet hidden away. The only thing I really have showing now are my LP's!
 
rhett7660 said:
Yup the QNAP has a iTunes program on it also that I use when my media box is shut down.

I have two of these for the CD's:

http://www.meritline.com/1000-discs-aluminum-diamond-black-cd-case---p-36083.aspx

and one of these for my DVD's

http://www.meritline.com/600pcs-aluminum-cd-box-sliver---p-22063.aspx

I use the following software:

CD's:
http://www.collectorz.com/music/cd_...cd collector&gclid=CNC1sdik_8ACFQWUfgodnioAgg

DVD's:
http://www.collectorz.com/movie/

The price was kind of high, but now that they have mobile apps, I dig it.

Both of these are saved to the cloud so if I ever loose the main computer they are on, they are backed up.

The cd's and dvd's are in a closet hidden away. The only thing I really have showing now are my LP's!
Click to expand...
So do these allow you to upload and store the full movie, and if so, does it handle DD, DTS, DTS HD, DD HD, etc?
 
I too advocate a lossless format. The only reason for the poor quality compression that most of us have grown accustomed to is due to the high cost of storage, a decade ago. It is no longer a factor, and the time you spend converting CD's is worth far more than the few extra dollars for a hard drive to contain it. Your music will forever sound better, and you can always opt for AAC compression temporarily for portable devices, but keep the lossless files on your computer. In the future, even large library of lossless files will easily be handled by your phone. Buying used CDs is legal, far cheaper, and higher quality than downloading music.

Once you get used to listening to lossless files on a quality system, you'll find it irritating to listen to inferior compression. Do yourself a favor, and do it right the first time.
 
i recommend to just import all of them as apple lossless. this should take up around 350GB. that doesn't matter. you can then convert all of them into something like a 256kbps aac at once if u want them portable.

and make a backup with timemachine. never delete the apple lossless. with a backup u can then sell the cds. for maybe 20 bucks.
 
I recommend Apple Lossless also.

I have ripped my CD in Lossles. As my 160 Gb ipod could not hold all those files, I had also encoded them in mp3 and used a smart playlist for the sync.

But then came Apple Match. My wife is able to access our complete music library but she was seeing all songs two times. That was very annoying as when she played an album it would play two times each track.

So i had to delete all those mp3. That is not easy as it sound as you have to check first if a rating was put on those and if they were part of any playlist.

So I would advise against having two format of the same song in itunes.


As ripping all those CD will take time, ensure to have an backup on a HDD that you keep in a remote location. You do not want to lose all that work in case of fire. It is so easy to have a copy of it.
 
1200 CDs all kept physical on my shelf. And Ripped into my iTunes at Apple Lossless.

I mainly play from spotify, but sometimes things aren't on there so i either play the CD on my CD Deck or play from my iTunes into my Amp/HiFi.
 
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