Importing old songs on my computer to my new iPod

[passthejonch]

Hi i just bought a 900 mhz ibook and a 15gb ipod
now, I had a bunch of songs on my old PC that i wanted to put into my ipod, so i burned them on a CD and put them into my ibook, but now I don't know how to put them in my iPod so can listen to them on it.

I tried opening mac hd > users > music > itunes > itunes music

and then creating a folder called "Other" to dump all my previous mp3s in, and hope that the iPod would automatically include them in its next sync, but it didn't.

 

[Daveman Deluxe]

In iTunes, go to File > Import... in the dialogue box that follows, find the MP3 files you want to import. You can select more than one by shift-clicking on the first one and then the last one.

Welcome to the wild and wacky world of Mac users.

 

[holy MAC!]

it's it sooooo hard?

 

[stoid]

the iTunes library is not just whatever files you have in the iTunes music folder. the mp3's can technically be located all over the place as the library is actually just a bunch of alias references piled into one big directory text file, therefore simply dropping the mp3's into the folder won't put them in. Also, I would sugget converting them all to AAC as it is half the size of mp3. You'll probably have to let it run overnight with 900 mp3's, but definitely convert before you organize all the files because any playlists you create will need to be re-created once you convert to AAC.

yay 300 posts, I'll get that 'tar yet!

 

[Horrortaxi]

You do lose some sound quality converting mp3 to AAC. You might not be able to hear it, which would be a good thing, but it's there. It's very similar to the difference between CD and vinyl. If you want to convert to save space, experiment on a couple of songs and see if you can hear/tolerate the difference.

 

[Gus]

You can also just drag and drop all of the files from the CD to the open iTunes window. It will import all of your songs for you. Just check under Preferences in the iTunes app for the encoding you want.

Regards,
Gus

 

[passthejonch]

alright thanks guys! i got it working

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Originally posted by stoid
the iTunes library is not just whatever files you have in the iTunes music folder. the mp3's can technically be located all over the place as the library is actually just a bunch of alias references piled into one big directory text file, therefore simply dropping the mp3's into the folder won't put them in. Also, I would sugget converting them all to AAC as it is half the size of mp3. You'll probably have to let it run overnight with 900 mp3's, but definitely convert before you organize all the files because any playlists you create will need to be re-created once you convert to AAC.

yay 300 posts, I'll get that 'tar yet!

Hi,

this is really the very first time that I hear that AAC is saving space in comparison to MP3. In every publication it was very clear that they need exactly the same space but have a better sound quality.

By the way - how do you convert MP3 to AAC ? Can this be done with iTunes ?

And another question - can you mix AAC and MP3 format on the iPod or not ?

Cheers
CmdrLaForge

 

[Blackstealth]

MP3 > AAC

I've found albums to take up 10's of Mb less if encoded with AAC - it makes a world of difference if you're using one of the original 5Gb iPods...

By the way - how do you convert MP3 to AAC ? Can this be done with iTunes ?

Select the songs you want to convert in iTunes, then click on 'Convert Selection to AAC' on the Advanced menu. But the quality will be better if you re-rip them directly from CD to AAC

And another question - can you mix AAC and MP3 format on the iPod or not ?

Yes, quite happily.

 

[Daveman Deluxe]

Originally posted by CmdrLaForge
this is really the very first time that I hear that AAC is saving space in comparison to MP3. In every publication it was very clear that they need exactly the same space but have a better sound quality.

You don't save space per se. The point is that you can get the same aural fidelity out of, say, a 128kbps AAC file as you do a 192kbps MP3 file. As a result, you can save disk space and get the same sound quality.

 

[mislabeledstar]

Another huge plus to AAC is that it can store up to 5.1 surround soun in the encoding.

Check out this article (http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7895) for more ACC/MP3 info.

 

[Horrortaxi]

Re: MP3 > AAC

Originally posted by Blackstealth
Select the songs you want to convert in iTunes, then click on 'Convert Selection to AAC' on the Advanced menu. But the quality will be better if you re-rip them directly from CD to AAC

Before you do this, make sure your encoding preference is set to AAC (it's the default in iTunes 4). If you have it set to encode as mp3 or aiff the advanced menu will say 'convert selection to aiff'.