1.
First
off, lets take a look at your current setup. If you are a real
iTunes power user, then you probably have a huge music library.
And a huge amount of music means a huge hard drive. I used to
have an 80 GB Maxtor drive. Maxtor is a bad choice. Never buy
one of their drives. They are cheap because they are made cheap
and like to fail. You will most likely invest a lot of time in
your music library. Get something reliable like a LaCie
if you need to buy a drive. I actually just bought the 400GB LaCie
Big Disk, but they make smaller sizes too.
2.
Now let's look at your preferences. Open
iTunes from your Applications folder. Select Preferences from the
iTunes menu bar and then select Advanced
to pull up this screen.
You need to change
your Music folder location to that external had drive. I also
recommend making an alias
or shortcut (see screen shot) of your big MP3 hard drive
and replacing the iTunes folder in your Music folder with this
alias.
So copy your music
folder to the external drive. Then make an alias/shorcut and
put that shortcut in your Music foler inside your user folder.
3.
Don't close the Preferences window yet. Click
on the Importing icon.
Change your Import Using setting to AAC Encoder.
What's AAC and why you should care? Well AAC
(Advanced Audio Coding) is a cutting-edge audio codec. AAC encoding
compresses much more efficiently than older formats like MP3 (which
iTunes still supports, by the way), while delivering quality rivaling
that of uncompressed CD audio. In fact, expert listeners have judged
AAC audio files compressed at 128 kbps (stereo) to be virtually
indistinguishable from the original uncompressed audio source.
Go above 128 kbps
if you are real picky.
AAC
vs. MP3 Bottom Line: AAC is better quality and has a
smaller file size than MP3. More music, less hard drive space,
better quality.
AAC
Drawbacks: Not fully supported on various hardware platforms
(see step four for more info).
4.
For now on only import music from CDs as
AAC files. The only draw back is that some hardware will have problems
playing back these files. For example the TiVo Home Media Option
which can playback music from your iTunes, does not yet support
AAC files. It will soon. Also not all MP3 players or DVD players
with MP3 playback can play AAC files yet. Good news if you have
an iPod. The iPod
is fully supports AAC files.
5.
So you are probably saying "Oh crap.
I have thousands of MP3 songs, what do I do now that there's AAC?" Unfortunately
you only have two options and you won't like either of them. You
can either recompress your already compressed MP3 files within
iTunes (it's not really a good idea to recompress anything if you
really like quality music). The other option is to re-encode your
CDs as AAC files.
When
you try to import a CD that you've already imported, you should
get this screen. Choose Replace Existing to replace your
old MP3 files with new AAC files. You might have to go in there
a manually delete some stuff (see
screen shot).
6.
Get
a program to automatically add artwork to your massive music collection.
There are many programs out there that can add artwork to your
music. Here's a couple for OSX:
Fetch
Art for iTunes is a small program that will fetch
album art for one or more songs using Amazon's XML interface,
allow you to preview the art that was found, and add the art
you want to iTunes. The program is controlled through the iTunes
Script menu: once it is installed, album art can be downloaded
by selecting one or more songs in iTunes and choosing "Fetch Art" from
the Script menu. Download
now.
Clutter
is a small application that lets you put music CDs on your desktop.
You can drag them anywhere, they're really windows. Line them
up neatly or put them in piles, it's your choice. Each one looks
like the real CD's cover, and double-clicking it tells iTunes
to play that CD. Think of Clutter as an alternate user interface
to your music collection. When deciding what to play next, instead
of searching through a huge alphabetical list, let your eye roam
over the covers of your favorite CDs and those you've been listening
to recently. Download
Now.
Clutter
is a pretty cool program. It works by
access Amazon.com's CD image database. For example if you are
listening to "Love Song" off of Tesla's RePlugged
Live CD, Clutter will add the album artwork to all
songs on that album. Companion programs like Clutter must
be open at the same time as iTunes. If you are feeling ambitious,
you can write a little AppleScript (Mac only) to open iTunes
and Clutter at the same time. We can send
you a script if you want one. Just drop a dime into our
Beer Fund.
7.
Back it up! You can burn about a thousands
songs onto one DVD-R disc. I recommend making Smart
Playlists by genre and burning you back ups that
way. For the screen shot example below I made a Smart Playlist where
the genre had to match Metal. You
can also make Smart Playlists a little more complicated. For example
you could make a Smart Playlist called "Wu-Tang Family" and
make the artist pull downs match: Wu-Tang, InspectahDeck, Ghostface
Killah, GZA, RZA, MethodMan, OldDirtyBastard, Raekwon, U-God, MastahKillah,
60'Second'Assassin, Power Cipher, Wise the Civilized, and Cappadonna.
You get the idea? Also iTunes 4.1 and higher lets you burn large
playlists on multiple discs without interruption. With Wu-Tang,
you're gonna need it.
8.
Don't just back up your songs. iTunes stores
all of your library's info like playlists and ratings in a file
called "iTunes Music Library". My library file is 15
mb. That's pretty big and big files that get accessed a lot, like
to get corrupted. Duplicate this file once in awhile as an additional
back up plan.
9.
Sharing is fun. iTunes 4.1 lets you share
music between Mac and Windows computers. Select
Preferences from the iTunes menu bar and then select Sharing.
Just turn on the Sharing checkbox and you are good to go. Also if
you have a TiVo Series 2 and the Home Media Option, you can share
music with your TiVo and play it trough your TV.
10.
I hope your computer is hooked up to
either your stereo system or a good set of computer speakers.
I have a old laptop and just just walk it over to the stereo
and hook it up with a RCA to Stereo Mini cable. These are
really cheap and can be bought here
or at Radio Shack. If you are looking for some really good
computer speakers, check out the JBL
Creature. Otherwise get a TiVo
with the Home Media Option and play your tunes through you're
TV
or stereo
system that way.
11. In
iTunes 4.7+ there's a function called "Show Duplicate Songs" so
take advantage of it and delete all those duplicates! The problem
with the feature is that it appears to only search for dupes
by Artist and Song Name. In my case, I have a lot of music where
I might have an album version, live version(s) and even a compilation
version of the same song. Add to the mix a healthy dose of jam
bands like Phish and The Grateful Dead and you'll really confuse
the Duplicate Songs feature. I never knew that I had nine versions
of Pearl Jam's Corduroy, for example.
12.
Last but not least, here an iTunes
Easter Egg Tip: While in the About iTunes window (Apple Menu >
About iTunes) hold down the Option key to see the credits "reverse" scroll.
Now you are a true iTunes nerd. For iTunes for Windows, you can
press the Alt key and still get the credits to reverse.
OtterBox
for iPod Mini On
the run, in the car, or at the gym, our iPods have gone with
us to the ends of the earth... except places near water. But
thanks to the OtterBox Mini you can now safely take your
iPod Mini near or even underwater.
The Torch Wicked Lasers named their new flashlight the TORCH... and for good reason. The "TORCH" is technically a flashlight. It looks like a flashlight. Operates like a flashlight. But this is no ordinary flashlight. The TORCH is so bright that its beam can ignite flammable objects as fast as fire.
Flip Mino Camcorder The super-portable, super-simple Flip Mino makes it easy to capture and share high-quality video anywhere and everywhere. And thanks to its flip-out USB arm and intuitive, built-in software, Mino lets you view, edit and upload your videos to popular video-sharing sites instantly.
Apogee Duet What if you could find a relatively inexpensive interface that could easily convert that analog signal to a higher quality digital output for all your apps? Well, the sleek, portable aluminum-cased Apogee Duet may just be the answer.
Radius Atomic Bass
Earbuds If you're looking for an inexpensive, lightweight pair of earbuds with fantastic bass, then Radius' Atomic Bass earbuds are the earbuds of your dreams.
JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser You The JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser (ba-donk-a-donk) is a custom made tank that looks like it was modeled after Jabba the Hut's Sail Barge from Return of the Jedi. Nicknamed the "Donk," the JL421 Land Cruiser made its debut in 2002 at the Burning Man festival in Nevada.
Nintendo Wii Nunchuck Controller Is a weak arm or physical stamina keeping you from taking your Nintendo Wii gaming experience to the next level? Perhaps you should look into getting the Nintendo Wii Nunchuck Controller. This accessory adds even more innovation to the next generation of gaming and does it all with less physical movement.
JBL
Creature II Speaker System What's
the point of downloading your favorite songs on iTunes if they sound
like crap on your computer's built-in speakers? The sound quality
and volume these little babies emit, much to the chagrin of my neighbors,
is truly phenomenal.
Apple TV Review You may have heard of that new Apple product, I believe it's called the, uhh, Apple TV. I understand that newspapers, other blogs, and your Aunt have already reviewed this thing, but I thought I'd add my two cents.
Mod
Your iPod Are
you a victim of the iPod's blossoming popularity? Feel like just another
pair of white headphones in the crowd? Maybe it's time you got
an iPod Mod.
H20
iPod Mini Case
H20 Audio has created a waterproof and impact
resistant case so that we can take our iPod Minis anywhere we
want… including the ocean free.
Digital
Picture Frames Why
give someone a single still framed picture when you can give them
an entire slide show? Most Digital Picture Frames can playback a
series of digital photos and videos on high-resolution screens.
JBL
Encounter Speakers In
a world of boring shelf speakers that are as fascinating
as the wires that connect them, the JBL Encounter draws people
towards it with its innovative tongue-in-cheek design and
then lavishes them with deep warm sound.
Wicked
Lasers Review What makes a Wicked Laser "wicked"? How impressive
is a military grade laser imported from China? Let's test it and find
out...
iTrip
Auto
Play your music through any car FM radio.
Copy
Music Off Your iPod Has a virus or hard drive crash wiped out your entire music
collection on your computer? No problem. Here's how to copy music off
your iPod and back onto your computer.
Erase
Your iPod Is your iPod acting funny? There are a number of things that
can be wrong with it, but this super fixsolution will
cure most problems.
Do
Not Disconnect Won't Go Away Are
you trying to eject your iPod from your computer but the "Do Not
Disconnect" won't go away? Don't worry, this is a common problem
with a fairly easy solution.
VIP
iPod Repair & Mod Service If
you need some TLC for your iPod ASAP, contact us for our special
VIP repair service. We offer general or complex repair services as
well as many customization options.
Email or 
feed.
1.
First
off, lets take a look at your current setup. If you are a real
iTunes power user, then you probably have a huge music library.
And a huge amount of music means a huge hard drive. I used to
have an 80 GB Maxtor drive. Maxtor is a bad choice. Never buy
one of their drives. They are cheap because they are made cheap
and like to fail. You will most likely invest a lot of time in
your music library. Get something reliable like a 
2.
Now let's look at your preferences. Open
iTunes from your Applications folder. Select Preferences from the
iTunes menu bar and then select Advanced
to pull up this screen.
3.
Don't close the Preferences window yet. Click
on the Importing icon.
Change your Import Using setting to AAC Encoder.
What's AAC and why you should care? Well AAC
(Advanced Audio Coding) is a cutting-edge audio codec. AAC encoding
compresses much more efficiently than older formats like MP3 (which
iTunes still supports, by the way), while delivering quality rivaling
that of uncompressed CD audio. In fact, expert listeners have judged
AAC audio files compressed at 128 kbps (stereo) to be virtually
indistinguishable from the original uncompressed audio source.
Go above 128 kbps
if you are real picky. 
4.
For now on only import music from CDs as
AAC files. The only draw back is that some hardware will have problems
playing back these files. For example the TiVo Home Media Option
which can playback music from your iTunes, does not yet support
AAC files. It will soon. Also not all MP3 players or DVD players
with MP3 playback can play AAC files yet. Good news if you have
an iPod. The 
6.
Get
a program to automatically add artwork to your massive music collection.
There are many programs out there that can add artwork to your
music. Here's a couple for OSX: 
7.
Back it up! You can burn about a thousands
songs onto one DVD-R disc. I recommend making Smart
Playlists by genre and burning you back ups that
way. For the screen shot example below I made a Smart Playlist where
the genre had to match Metal. You
can also make Smart Playlists a little more complicated. For example
you could make a Smart Playlist called "Wu-Tang Family" and
make the artist pull downs match: Wu-Tang, InspectahDeck, Ghostface
Killah, GZA, RZA, MethodMan, OldDirtyBastard, Raekwon, U-God, MastahKillah,
60'Second'Assassin, Power Cipher, Wise the Civilized, and Cappadonna.
You get the idea? Also iTunes 4.1 and higher lets you burn large
playlists on multiple discs without interruption. With Wu-Tang,
you're gonna need it. 
8.
Don't just back up your songs. iTunes stores
all of your library's info like playlists and ratings in a file
called "iTunes Music Library". My library file is 15
mb. That's pretty big and big files that get accessed a lot, like
to get corrupted. Duplicate this file once in awhile as an additional
back up plan.
JVC HA-NC250 Noise Canceling Headphones
JBL
Encounter Speakers
Software
Otterbox
for iPod Video
On
the run, in the car, or at the gym, our iPods have gone with
us to the ends of the earth... except places near water. But
thanks to the OtterBox Mini you can now safely take your
iPod Mini near or even underwater.
Wicked Lasers named their new flashlight the TORCH... and for good reason. The "TORCH" is technically a flashlight. It looks like a flashlight. Operates like a flashlight. But this is no ordinary flashlight. The TORCH is so bright that its beam can ignite flammable objects as fast as fire. 
The super-portable, super-simple Flip Mino makes it easy to capture and share high-quality video anywhere and everywhere. And thanks to its flip-out USB arm and intuitive, built-in software, Mino lets you view, edit and upload your videos to popular video-sharing sites instantly.
What if you could find a relatively inexpensive interface that could easily convert that analog signal to a higher quality digital output for all your apps? Well, the sleek, portable aluminum-cased Apogee Duet may just be the answer.
If you're looking for an inexpensive, lightweight pair of earbuds with fantastic bass, then Radius' Atomic Bass earbuds are the earbuds of your dreams.
Is a weak arm or physical stamina keeping you from taking your Nintendo Wii gaming experience to the next level? Perhaps you should look into getting the Nintendo Wii Nunchuck Controller. This accessory adds even more innovation to the next generation of gaming and does it all with less physical movement.
What's
the point of downloading your favorite songs on iTunes if they sound
like crap on your computer's built-in speakers? The sound quality
and volume these little babies emit, much to the chagrin of my neighbors,
is truly phenomenal.
You may have heard of that new Apple product, I believe it's called the, uhh, Apple TV. I understand that newspapers, other blogs, and your Aunt have already reviewed this thing, but I thought I'd add my two cents.
Are
you a victim of the iPod's blossoming popularity? Feel like just another
pair of white headphones in the crowd? Maybe it's time you got
an iPod Mod.
H20 Audio has created a waterproof and impact
resistant case so that we can take our iPod Minis anywhere we
want… including the ocean free.
Why
give someone a single still framed picture when you can give them
an entire slide show? Most Digital Picture Frames can playback a
series of digital photos and videos on high-resolution screens.
Has a virus or hard drive crash wiped out your entire music
collection on your computer? No problem. Here's how to copy music off
your iPod and back onto your computer. 
Is your iPod acting funny? There are a number of things that
can be wrong with it, but this super fix solution will
cure most problems.
Are
you trying to eject your iPod from your computer but the "Do Not
Disconnect" won't go away? Don't worry, this is a common problem
with a fairly easy solution.
If
you need some TLC for your iPod ASAP, contact us for our special
VIP repair service. We offer general or complex repair services as
well as many customization options.
