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iTunes 4 and Rendezvous
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That's just the browse function that has already been mentioned. It is totally uncustomizable unless you want to go through several thousand tags.
Well, I have a different opinion of most of this stuff, so here we go.
Rendezvouz is definitely a cool idea that I might use every so often, but not something that I need to have
AAC is a boon for those who will never share their mp3's with anyone who has a PC or doesn't have tons and tons of mp3's already encoded and want to keep things uniform.
That being said, as of now I am using the LAME MP3 encoder witht the iTunes-LAME 1.0.4b AppleScript bridge. The quality from a LAME encoded MP3 is GREAT, if the settings are used correctly.
But, being a command line encoder makes things difficult because of the AppleScript I use. iTunes sometimes will crash when the LAME encoder references iTunes for the ID3 tag information.
Basically, to cut to the chase, I want Apple to put its money where its mouth is and support open source, and in particlular open source MP3 encoders in iTunes. I want to be able to use the LAME command line encoder directly in iTunes without having to mess around with an AppleScript.
Or if I so desire, I want to be able to switch on the fly to using the open source OggVorbis audio encoder that I could build on my machine. Or, as so many want, switch to using the AAC codecd from Apple.
Basically, I want options in the next version of iTunes. And, almost as important, I want SPEED. iTunes is very slow on my iBook 500/320MB and takes up too much CPU.
I never use visualizations and I couldn't care less about them. I want iTunes to be fast, use less CPU, and actually have options for those of us that want to have the best audio quality along with compatibility.
Also, to continue my ranting, I would like iTunes to be able to use something to take AIFF off of a CD and not just copy it over like it does now. There are programs such as Exact Audio Copy for Windows and cdparanoia for Linux that check the audio from the CD by going over it multiple times and fixing any pops of skips in it. Apple could do this, there are already programs that do it for other systems. Soon enough, cdparanoia will be ported to OS X and we will be able to use it in the command line to rip CD's into AIFF or WAV or whatever formet we want, then encode into MP3's using another encoder. But, similarly to the LAME MP3 issue, I want to be able to do this in iTunes.
Now, I want to dispel the fact that I just hate iTunes. I really, really like iTunes. But, it could be so much better than it is now. It crashes for no reason and hogs CPU. I love the library idea and how playlists work. I have tried Audion and it is on the right track. It supports different codecs allows people to change how it looks. But, it just isn't the same as iTunes.
As a discriminating Apple lover, I believe that iTunes could and SHOULD be better. The things I have mentioned would not be miracles if they were implemented. The technology exists. Apple just needs to use it.
THE END.
Rendezvouz is definitely a cool idea that I might use every so often, but not something that I need to have
AAC is a boon for those who will never share their mp3's with anyone who has a PC or doesn't have tons and tons of mp3's already encoded and want to keep things uniform.
That being said, as of now I am using the LAME MP3 encoder witht the iTunes-LAME 1.0.4b AppleScript bridge. The quality from a LAME encoded MP3 is GREAT, if the settings are used correctly.
But, being a command line encoder makes things difficult because of the AppleScript I use. iTunes sometimes will crash when the LAME encoder references iTunes for the ID3 tag information.
Basically, to cut to the chase, I want Apple to put its money where its mouth is and support open source, and in particlular open source MP3 encoders in iTunes. I want to be able to use the LAME command line encoder directly in iTunes without having to mess around with an AppleScript.
Or if I so desire, I want to be able to switch on the fly to using the open source OggVorbis audio encoder that I could build on my machine. Or, as so many want, switch to using the AAC codecd from Apple.
Basically, I want options in the next version of iTunes. And, almost as important, I want SPEED. iTunes is very slow on my iBook 500/320MB and takes up too much CPU.
I never use visualizations and I couldn't care less about them. I want iTunes to be fast, use less CPU, and actually have options for those of us that want to have the best audio quality along with compatibility.
Also, to continue my ranting, I would like iTunes to be able to use something to take AIFF off of a CD and not just copy it over like it does now. There are programs such as Exact Audio Copy for Windows and cdparanoia for Linux that check the audio from the CD by going over it multiple times and fixing any pops of skips in it. Apple could do this, there are already programs that do it for other systems. Soon enough, cdparanoia will be ported to OS X and we will be able to use it in the command line to rip CD's into AIFF or WAV or whatever formet we want, then encode into MP3's using another encoder. But, similarly to the LAME MP3 issue, I want to be able to do this in iTunes.
Now, I want to dispel the fact that I just hate iTunes. I really, really like iTunes. But, it could be so much better than it is now. It crashes for no reason and hogs CPU. I love the library idea and how playlists work. I have tried Audion and it is on the right track. It supports different codecs allows people to change how it looks. But, it just isn't the same as iTunes.
As a discriminating Apple lover, I believe that iTunes could and SHOULD be better. The things I have mentioned would not be miracles if they were implemented. The technology exists. Apple just needs to use it.
THE END.
Re: Smart Visuals
Yaknow, I think this degree of intelligence is already built into some of the visualizations, that is, bar counting at least, because the algorithms tend to change every four bars. It is slightly smarter than just a colorized wave form already.
What could be smarter is in addition to this, that some pattern recognition is applied to certain frequencies, so the bass for example, can be separated out and given its own visualization algorithm.
Also, switching between different visualization algorithms, such as from the built in, to WhiteCap, to whatever, from song to song, would be nice.
Yaknow, I think this degree of intelligence is already built into some of the visualizations, that is, bar counting at least, because the algorithms tend to change every four bars. It is slightly smarter than just a colorized wave form already.
What could be smarter is in addition to this, that some pattern recognition is applied to certain frequencies, so the bass for example, can be separated out and given its own visualization algorithm.
Also, switching between different visualization algorithms, such as from the built in, to WhiteCap, to whatever, from song to song, would be nice.
The end of the iPod maybe.
Because that technology may not exist in the decoding chip at the heart of the iPod as is, which is one reason iTunes hasn't been more open earlier, with different compression formats. I have a feeling you might not be able to take advantage of AAC encoding on any iPod but the NEW model they have planned for this reason.
By the way, if you want software to remove skips and pops from vinyl, buy that software, don't try to wish it into iTunes, which is an MP3 encoder and librarian, a jukebox, not an audio editing application.
Actually, as said before in this thread, ALL iPods are able to be updated via firmware to use different audio formats.
Quote from CJYetman
"Upgradable firmware enables support for future audio formats"
at http://www.apple.com/ipod/specs.html"
So, they all should be able to use any audio format Apple sees fit.
And, I am not looking to remove skips and pops from vinyl, but from scratched CD's and otherwise imperfect CD's. The reason I complained about it is that the software exists and is open source and FREE. Again, Apple could make iTunes SO much better, but haven't yet.
Is the only reason you want folder browsing because you don't want to edit your id3 tags? Because I don't see how what you are asking is better than the current arrangement. I have 10,000+ songs, all with proper ID3 tags, and iTunes organizes them well.
He wasn't talking about skipping vinyl. He was talking about a skipping CD player, which happens quite often in my experience. Most PC (Win/Linux) ripping tools allow "digital error correction" which is essentially double-(or more)-reading of every bit of data to make sure the player is getting the right data off the disk.
As it is, iTunes will generate MP3s with skips and pops in it. Mine certainly has (although not recently, so I can't attest that iTunes3 hasn't fixed this) ... on a G4/733 with the Pioneer DVR-103 as data source (ie, just as shipped from Apple).
I noticed that this was quite common when I first got the machine (running iTunes 1.1 then), and switched over to using a PC to do my ripping since then. Recently, though, I've ripped a few CDs directly on my Mac without any noticable skips and pops, so maybe Apple has already set digital error correction as an unchangable option in iTunes.
Well, within the processing power of the iPod's processor. Some have said that the Ogg Vorbis encoder is still too processer-intensive to work on the iPod's processor reliably.
Sometimes you want to customise the display without actually moving the songs on the hard drive or changing there tags. Another thing is if I only have 300 albums on the computer I don't want a list of 3,000 plus songs I just want it to show me the albums in the library. Not in browse window.
iTunes has NEVER ripped an Mp3 with a typical digital skipping or hanging you might hear with a real time CD player, and my CD collection is fairly well abused. I used to never put them back in their jewel case, use them as coasters, and at one time stored them by stringing them like beads on a coathanger. I'm using iTunes 3 now, the majority have been ripped with iTunes 2 or newer, never ripped before the iPod was available. And I would blame this on the CD mechanism anyway if it did happen. Since most CD data drives are meant for reading data, they are usually better about getting real data out of a disc in a healthy form.
I as well have never had skipping on CD's put I have had, on multiple CD's, pops that really detract from the listening experience.
This is why I want the digital error correction available from an open source project like cdparanoia.
This usually eliminates this problem and usually creates a cleaner sounding rip from the CD.
This is why I want the digital error correction available from an open source project like cdparanoia.
This usually eliminates this problem and usually creates a cleaner sounding rip from the CD.
I have never had trouble burning CDs with iTunes. What I want
most is a PC itunes. I know that I shouldn't be saying anything,
because people will say that if it is so important to me, that I
shouldn't have switched in the 1st place. Well, I just want a
decent music organizing program for my PC. The closest thing
is WinAmp, which sucks horribly after using iTunes for so long.
most is a PC itunes. I know that I shouldn't be saying anything,
because people will say that if it is so important to me, that I
shouldn't have switched in the 1st place. Well, I just want a
decent music organizing program for my PC. The closest thing
is WinAmp, which sucks horribly after using iTunes for so long.
Why you would want to go to the trouble of moving songs or changing tags to do this is beyond me. You can search AND sort on several criteria, and the extra tags help. And to create a special 'display' of only certain songs, create a playlist, if you don't want to play with the comments tags (by the way, editing the tags goes faster if you use the next button within the info window, if you have a lot of sequential changes you can't change as a batch)
Did you know you can show Browser for any playlist? Command B. It tends to only be the default for the main library window.
if you need a list of the albums, rather than merely being able see sort and change them, which I think iTunes handles fine, you can save such a view as a text file using AppleScripts, or by other means. One thing I used to do is drag and drop the iTunes folder over an open BBedit document. This pastes the folder and file heirarchy of the nested finder folders as text, which you could then edit to only the artist and album names by cutting lines with three tab characters (the artist would have maybe one tab, the album name two tabs, and the songs three, sorta like that)
I might like to be able to reduce the playlists themselves to a smaller heirarchy of nested folders, but there is no real inability to manage songs in any form because of the browse and search and sort functions of iTunes, in my opinion.
And the playlists associated with a library can differ under OS X, according to whatever user is logged in.
Re: ITunes Recording
I think there is a simple solution to what you're looking for: Quicktime Pro - $30, Quicktime Broadcaster - free, and if you want a Griffin iMic for recording - $35.
Broadcaster can take a live input and broadcast or record as mp4.
I've never used an iMic but i have a griffin powermate and it works very well.
I think there is a simple solution to what you're looking for: Quicktime Pro - $30, Quicktime Broadcaster - free, and if you want a Griffin iMic for recording - $35.
Broadcaster can take a live input and broadcast or record as mp4.
I've never used an iMic but i have a griffin powermate and it works very well.
Thankyou but I did already know of and use all of the features that you mentioned. I guess it's my own pet pieve about the lack of options that it gives you. I just hate it when they make you do it one way there way. It's so Microsoft.
If you can only see it as one limited way, lacking options, just seems like you may not be using the available flexibility to the fullest. Most people expressing your complaint have brought over habits from earlier MP3 rippers and librarians that have taught them to store heirarchically by album in folders, because that is the only way they could organize, and get upset when that same exact situation is not spoonfed to them by iTunes, although you can browse and sort by the similar criteria, it just isn't the default. It's a bit like people complaining that the OS X finder is not OS 9s finder.
I have 21,370 songs in iTunes at the moment, and the lack of a nested folder view, if that is what you are seeking, doesn't bother me in the least. The browse window serves that purpose, and any playlist can be a browse window. Search and sort takes care of pretty much any other way I might want to organize or seek songs, artist, albums, etc. If you don't want to see song titles in the browse window, you can reduce the list of songs to only four being visible. And search on its own is usuall faster than flipping open nested folders.
I have known people that miss the album paradigm so much they have created playlists by artist or album, which I think is the height of redundancy, and also tends to point out that they really haven't figured out how to use iTunes yet.
Yeah, I'm not all that keen that I have a lot of playlists I would rather not scroll through, just as you have a lot of songs you would rather not scroll through, or that I have thousands of songs ripped in MP3 when AAC might sound better for the same amount of storage space, but I am not about to go back and rerip my collection. There is always room for improvement. Life is tough. You try to think outside of the box you imagine you are crowded into, and you might find a bit more elbow room. There is more than one way to skin a cat.
At this point, I welcome any discussion of iTunes 4 and Rendezvous. What makes iTunes less than ideal in a lot of my friends homes is, their computers are no where near their stereo system, or they may want to pump music throughout the house, so they end up spinning CDs, playing DJ all night, just like they have for the past 15 years, when they could set iTunes on autopilot and spend more time dealing with people at the party, if they could only get the tunes to the room they want them to be in. People get stuck in old habits Maybe something else, a less expensive consumer device, will be created that can take advantage of Rendezvous in this way. I tend not to want to use my iPod in this fashion at a party, because it could walk home with someone too easily.
Thank you for your input. There are certainly ways that I could use iTunes other then the way I want to. That is the point though. There is a certain way I want to use it and it won't let me. Apple use to offer numerous ways to do everything. Since OSX came out I'm now stuck to do things in one particular way. Very Microsoft like. Though I will never switch and the stability and useability is still better it is one step closer to the dark side. I do believe that OSX and the Apps are very early in there development with the main goal of simply making them useable attained. From this point on out I think we will see feature after feature added and we will have a much more familiar Apple experience that we all know, love, and crave.
Now about your friends unable to get there music to there stereo. Why don't they just go to Radio Shack and get a 2.4GHz audio/video transmitter?
Re: Re: ITunes Recording
I have Quicktime Pro and Broadcaster...neither will record to MP3. Quicktime Pro does not have a "Record" button and it and Broadcaster will not save/export to MP3.
As for the USB iMic...they have software that will do exactly what I want, (record directly to MP3 with variable input gain adjustment), however, it is only for the iMic! I have an Onkyo USB Digital Audio Processor...you are telling me that I have to buy different hardware to do simple MP3 recording? Please see my original article.
Still looking for a simple recording solution on the Mac...
soulbeat
I have Quicktime Pro and Broadcaster...neither will record to MP3. Quicktime Pro does not have a "Record" button and it and Broadcaster will not save/export to MP3.
As for the USB iMic...they have software that will do exactly what I want, (record directly to MP3 with variable input gain adjustment), however, it is only for the iMic! I have an Onkyo USB Digital Audio Processor...you are telling me that I have to buy different hardware to do simple MP3 recording? Please see my original article.
Still looking for a simple recording solution on the Mac...
soulbeat
Where Stereo? There Stereo. Here answer.
When someone invented a gizmo for taking what would be the audio signal coming out of USB for USB speakers, and making it available via RCA jacks, I asked them a similar question- why don't you make it a wireless transmitting device so it can be fed to existing stereo systems.
Their answer was, basically, that the sound quality would suck.
Besides that spectrum is getting fairly crowded with airport and cordless phones already. I don't know if Rendezvous will help provide a solution or not, with what Philips is cooking up, but it would be nice to view iMovies, Quicktime, and listen to iTunes and watch its visuals on the honking big Home theatre system, without having to move the mac closer.
Sorry you can't bend your will to the way iTunes wants to do things, especially as I can find several ways I can easily bend iTunes to my will, to solve your apparent dilemma. Use Adium, or MusicMatch, or SoundJam if you aren't happy. Or ask someone to write a hack allowing you to not see the song listings at all by allowing it to be checked off in view options.
I'm not saying that I will not use it the way it is. I'm also not saying that it isn't probably the best MP3 player option out there. I just wish they would give the end users more options. Now that they have the base programming done I believe we will be seeing more options for all there programs including the system.