iTunes does not see my home recordings as separate items.

[ukuleleman]

Hi folks,

I'm new here today and this is my first post.

I have lots of stuff recorded in local studios with various vocal quartets as well as stuff done on my 4 track and eight track recorders, my problem is that when I try to download them into iTunes (all now on CD) it does not see them as individual recordings (even when the album title and song info is on the original disc as in studio recordings and some of my home recorded stuff),

The result is that I record the first album without a problem and give it a title, then, when I download the second album it simply adds it to the first, so that the first track of the second album starts with the next number after the last track of the first ie the last track of the first album is say 14, the first track of the second is 15.

More to the point I cannot give the second album it's own name and the only way to access it is bring up the first album and select track 15.

I am sure this is because they are not 'Professional' recording even though they were made in pro studios, the titles do not appear in any search lists.

Can any of you guys help me load my non commercial CDs into iTunes in such way that I can access them as individual recordings and not just a giant list of everything that I have recorded in my lifetime.

For the record I might add that I think the whole iTunes programme is counter intuitive and a complete pain in the nether regions to navigate, but I will put up with it since it is one of very few things that get me down about my Mac Pro.

Sorry to be so longwinded about this question, I hope one of you guys has the answer.

Regards. Ukuleleman.

 

[BlueRevolution]

In iTunes, select the offending songs, go to File -> Get Info, and set a unique disk number/disk name.

 

[ukuleleman]

In iTunes, select the offending songs, go to File -> Get Info, and set a unique disk number/disk name.

Thanks for that Blue, I'll give it a whirl and let you know how I fared.

Regards,

ukuleleman.

 

[ukuleleman]

Progress

'Blue',

Your suggestion does work, but I found that the best way to do it is to set up a new 'playlist' before I even put the CD in the computer, then, when I have put the CD in and all the titles/blanks have come up I give the song titles if they are not appearing, then Highlight all the tracks and drag them into the prepared folder, of course, they have not yet been downloaded to iTunes, but the act of dragging them into the folder starts the download process and they download into the folder so that I now have a list of folders with one album in each.
However, it does not solve the problem of all the tracks being lumped together as if it was one giant CD with hundreds of tracks, I simply named this folder 'All Tracks' and have to keep it because if I delete a track from 'All Tracks, it deletes from the CD folder as well, a complete PITA but if you know about it you can handle it.

 

[BlueRevolution]

Sorry, but how is that the "best way"? The way you are importing the files, iTunes is forced to use your file naming convention rather than its own, which is why you can't delete files from that folder. If you let iTunes import, your stuff will end up in the right spot and you won't have to worry about it.

You can also rename tracks and albums prior to importing.

 

[ukuleleman]

The 'Best way' ?

Hi Blue,

It seems that you are telling me that iTunes does everything correctly to begin with, in which case I should not have any problems, but I still have what appears to be an 87 track CD in there which consists of all the CDs I have loaded so far.

Am I wrong to expect that if I insert a CD and tell iTunes to download it and then insert a second CD that both CDs should be separate items?

Sorry if I offended you by not saying that your advice solved my problem, but it didn't, no offence intended.

 

[BlueRevolution]

Yes, you offended me greatly.

When you insert a disk that iTunes doesn't recognize, it names it something like "Unknown Album" or whatever. (Don't have anything to test it on at the moment.) When you browse through the media library, it shows all songs from "Unknown Album" by "Unknown Artist". If there are a number of songs from this "album", all will be shown.

By naming your album prior to importing, you will avoid this problem, and be able to find the music you're importing down the road. Follow me?

 

[-tWv-]

Correct^^^^ iTunes just puts all the songs that have the same album name together so they are easily identifiable. But the problem is that when you import some cds, they don't transfer the song name and album name with them, which makes them all group into one untitled "album." This organization system works great for albums that have names, just not so great for when you are trying to sort out different cds that you have imported. I would definitely name them before you import so you don't have to go back through and find which song is which, as this takes forever.

 

[ukuleleman]

Yes, you offended me greatly.

When you insert a disk that iTunes doesn't recognize, it names it something like "Unknown Album" or whatever. (Don't have anything to test it on at the moment.) When you browse through the media library, it shows all songs from "Unknown Album" by "Unknown Artist". If there are a number of songs from this "album", all will be shown.

By naming your album prior to importing, you will avoid this problem, and be able to find the music you're importing down the road. Follow me?

Yep, got that, I appreciate your time, thanks a lot.

 

[ukuleleman]

Correct^^^^ iTunes just puts all the songs that have the same album name together so they are easily identifiable. But the problem is that when you import some cds, they don't transfer the song name and album name with them, which makes them all group into one untitled "album." This organization system works great for albums that have names, just not so great for when you are trying to sort out different cds that you have imported. I would definitely name them before you import so you don't have to go back through and find which song is which, as this takes forever.

Thanks for your input, I'll name those little buggers before I import