Apple lossless stuttering!

[jstigwood]

Hi All,

I recently bought an Ipod 32G Touch, 2nd edition. All music ripped to 320kb MP3's in Itunes.

Ripped a few CDs in Lossless (about 10) and noticed that on the Touch the tracks stutter through out. Did a web search it appears to be a known problem. Switching off the Autolock fixes it!

Is there a way of ripping in lossless on Itunes But Transfering to an Ipod Touch at a 320KB rate.I want to Keep everything from this point onwards in lossless as I am going to stream using a Airport express to my AV amp.

Any Ideas ????...... Everything would be great if Apple would be able to fix this problem!!!!!

 

[Binman]

From what I know you have 2 options. You can have 2 libraries in Itunes, one for Lossless and one for 320kb. Rip all your music Lossless in Itunes. Then open Itunes while holding down SHIFT key. This will let you create a second library. Import your Lossless into this new libarary and convert it all to 320 using Itunes. You can then choose which libary to open by holding down the SHIFT key when opening Itunes. - One for your Airport streaming, other for Ipod. Bit messy as you will need to manualy add Lossless tracks to your lossy library and convert.

Or you can use MediaMonkey which lets you 'convert on the fly' when syncing an ipod. (This is from memory, but I think its true, but you would need to check it supports apple lossless)

 

[John Duncan]

No, wish there was, would save me having a library full of duplicates. Would be the one thing they could add to iTunes which could make it better.

Thanks for this though, I was wondering what the stuttering was - I thought it was wifi trying to connect......

 

[jstigwood]

Ah yes !! I had read about this!

Yeah seems a bit of a pain.... I guess it maybe the only option! Sort it out Apple!!!

to be fair, I not locking the ipod is not a show stopper for me. I take it to work and just have it on my desk. I have a Creative zen stone for gym and cycling.... (more where you would need the lock!)

I know people can hear the difference between looless and 320KB, I have not done any tests on my set-up yet, so it maybe well to just stick with 320KB, > more space on Ipod touch, not much difference in audio, able to Use all the features of teh Touch and not worry!

 

[John Duncan]

Yeah I think lossless for the Touch is a bit over the top tbh unless you're using 100 quid 'phones - am running 320 on mine and it's fine.

 

[jstigwood]

Yeah I agree there......

I would have to create a second library then for my lossless stuff to be streamed!!!

maybe I wont though if i can only tell a slight improvement. Another thing is I was going to get a DacMagic which I would get more from a Lossless file than a 320KB MP3.... but just how much more detail!

 

[professorhat]

You don't have to have a separate library. As John's pointed out in another post, you can create a Smart playlist which is created by bitrate.

 

[jstigwood]

Perfect!

The only Problem there is that that will only work for the MP3's. Because Lossless can range between 900KB and over 1000KB, and you can not select Apple Lossless.

90% of my music is at 320KB, however I am looking to Grow it using lossless.

Edit: .>>>>> I guess keep the "smart Playlist as the Touch Stuff" then the normal "Music" Folder can be whatever is in the now and any new stuff ripped as lossless.

I will still have to rip the CD twice!

Plus... Itunes is 256KB, and my cd's were 320KB, Smart Playlist will not you set one up for 256 and 320. You get a conflicting error

 

[John Duncan]

My 'lossless' playlist is set up "Kind Contains Lossless". My 'not lossless' is "bitrate less than 321kbps"

And you can convert in bulk - set your ripping rate to mp3 320, then select all your lossless files and right click "create mp3 [or AAC or whatever] version". Don't forget to set back to lossless....

 

[professorhat]

Yup, I haven't converted any of my lossless files as yet (only just got them all re-ripped from all my CDs), but setting Kind to "Apple Lossless" in the smart playlist settings has put them all in here. Looking at my bitrates, I've noticed some of my lossless songs are actually in a bitrate of less than 320Kbps - these seem to be huge long tracks so I'm guessing they've got long periods of silence in them before playing a "hidden track" (stupid pretentious artists!!). So this is something to be on your guard for. John, does not setting Kind to "MP3" get all your MP3s? I can't tell as I haven't converted mine yet and don't really want to look into this as yet!

 

[John Duncan]

professorhat:
Yup, I haven't converted any of my lossless files as yet (only just got them all re-ripped from all my CDs), but setting Kind to "Apple Lossless" in the smart playlist settings has put them all in here. Looking at my bitrates, I've noticed some of my lossless songs are actually in a bitrate of less than 320Kbps - these seem to be huge long tracks so I'm guessing they've got long periods of silence in them before playing a "hidden track" (stupid pretentious artists!!). So this is something to be on your guard for. John, does not setting Kind to "MP3" get all your MP3s? I can't tell as I haven't converted mine yet and don't really want to look into this as yet!

Well, "MPEG Audio", yes - but that doesn't cover AAC or iTunes-bought stuff, so I went with bitrate - just checked and none of my lossless stuff is less than 321, so shouldn't be too much of a problem. THough thinking about it for more than two seconds, I suppose I could have been logical and used "Kind Does Not Contain Lossless"! D'oh......

 

[jstigwood]

So....

I create a Smart Playlist

I set it to 321KB or less is added.

This can be my "I Touch" Library Effectively.

If I rip a Cd in Lossless, How do I get that to be added to that Palylist?

 

[professorhat]

JohnDuncan:I suppose I could have been logical and used "Kind Does Not Contain Lossless"! D'oh......
Yup, that makes sense - think I'll follow your lead on that one - nice one!

 

[John Duncan]

The same playlist or a different one? Either way, add a filter condition to the playlist saying "Kind/Contains/Lossless"

Or do you mean how do you convert it to a lower bitrate? See instructions above - set ripping bitrate to 320, right click/create AAC [or whatever] copy - then you have a lossless copy and a 320 copy

 

[professorhat]

I think John's new improved method makes sense:

1. File > New Smart Playlist...

2. Set Match the following rule as "Kind" "contains" "Lossless" and make sure Live updating is ticked and OK. This will automatically populate this playlist with your lossless tracks so you can call it Lossless Music (or whatever you like!). Any new lossless tracks will automatically be added to this playlist.

3. File > New Smart Playlist...

4. Set Match the following rule as "Kind" "does not contain" "Lossless" and make sure Live updating is ticked and OK. This will automatically populate this playlist with your non lossless tracks (be they MP3, AAC or whatever) so you can call it iPod Music. Any new MP3 / AAC tracks will automatically be added to this playlist so you can set your iPod to sync with this playlist.

 

[jstigwood]

ok,

So I Have my so called IPod Touch Playlist. I Rip a CD in Lossless. I then select all the Tracks and "Right" click on them and go to create MP3 (setting the ripping back to 320KB right?) the remembering to go back to Lossless!

with the Playlist set to "Live Updating" it should put them in that Play list. so in the main Music Folder how do you get rid of the new 320KB MP3's you have just created.....?

Do you just create another Playlist exclusively for lossless.......?

Edit: Just saw your post Professor! Thanks........

 

[professorhat]

Yes, the main music folder will show everything, you can't get around that. So you need two smart playlists, one for lossless and one for iPod music.

 

[John Duncan]

Yeah, switch to 320, right click/create [ ] copy, switch back to lossless

You can't get rid of them in the main music folder, you'd need two libraries, as mentioned above. So yes, create a 'lossless only' smart playlist.

 

[jstigwood]

Ok, That kind of seems logical.

Will give it a go tonight!

Thanks Guy's for your help.

 

[professorhat]

No worries buddy. Helped me out too as I wasn't sure before JD's logic kicked in

 

[jstigwood]

One last thing...

I guess you can just Sync that "ipod touch" smart playlist? and the Album art work etc should all be recognised ok?

regards,

Jimmy

 

[professorhat]

Yup, that should be it.

 

[Xanderzdad]

I have tried the "hold down shift" trick whilst starting iTunes and on my PC this doesn't seem to do anything different to normal. Is it a Mac only trick?

The only alternative is to manually edit the preferences to reflect a new folder for the music, import the lossless and then convert to 320kbps.

It would mean doing this after every batch of CD's is ripped.

 

[John Duncan]

Xanderzdad:
I have tried the "hold down shift" trick whilst starting iTunes and on my PC this doesn't seem to do anything different to normal. Is it a Mac only trick?

The only alternative is to manually edit the preferences to reflect a new folder for the music, import the lossless and then convert to 320kbps.

It would mean doing this after every batch of CD's is ripped.

It's "alt" with a Mac, I'll try it on Windows later.

 

[John Duncan]

And 'shift' works for me on windows.......