Ripping CDs in higher bitrate

[harveymt]

I already have most of my cds ripped to iTunes before I got to know exactly about bitrates. Mine have been ripped at 128. I'd like to go down the DacMagic route at some point so in the mean time i thought I'd re-rip them at a higher bit rate.

Should I rip them in Apple Loseless?

Can I change the import library so I know what I have ripped rather than mix them all up with the previously ripped versions? If so, how?

The new higher bitrate versions will take up more space, this will be an issue when it comes to iPod. Do I need to rip another version at a lower bitrate or can I set iTunes to convert songs to lower bitrates when transferring to iPod?

Cheers.

 

[John Duncan]

Firstly, how big is your iPod?

 

[harveymt]

It's an old 30gb one.

 

[John Duncan]

Well that's not bad - you can get quite a bit of apple lossless on a 30gig iPod - maybe 2,000 songs or so. I only have a small 8gig touch and quite enjoy picking and choosing what to have on it.

The alternative is, as you say, to have a reduced bitrate library for iPod and lossless for best, in which case there are a few ways to do it: have all in the same library and sync the iPod to a playlist which only contains the lower bitrate stuff; create two totally separate library files, which you select when you start up iTunes; don;t create a lossless libraray at all (ie just have everything at 320k, say).

If you decide to rerip to apple lossless, if the CD database recognises the CD as being the same one you imported before (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't), it'll ask you if you want to overwrite the old one, so you can decie whether or not to keep the 128k stuff.

 

[professorhat]

Just so you know, my "Faves" playlist currently sits at 1055 songs (3 days of music apparently) and is 29.45 GB (all Apple Lossless files). Like JD though, I haven't bothered going down the separate MP3 / AAC files route and just have one small playlist with my very favourite songs in it and then let iTunes pick and choose what else goes on my iPod using another Smart playlist which only allows 9 GB of music in it from the rest.

 

[John Duncan]

yeah, I went down the road of having my whole colelction on an iPod for a while (this was an old 15gig one, filled with 128k files), and I spent half my time fast forwarding stuff I didn't want to listen to.....

 

[harveymt]

Is there a way to convert to lower bitrate when syncing with iTunes or if I want to have 2 Libraries do I have to rip everything twice?

How do I create a 2nd Library file?

I kinda like having everything on the iPod as I usually tend to listen to the same cds over and over and using Shuffle or Genius throws up stuff I've barely listened to.

 

[harveymt]

Had a quick look at Smart Playlists there. I could fill half my iPod with my favs then have a Smart playlist. Say I synced my iPod once a week would the Smart list automatically change the songs?

That may be the way to have best of both worlds.

 

[cram]

JohnDuncan:Well that's not bad - you can get quite a bit of apple lossless on a 30gig iPod - maybe 2,000 songs or so.

You won't get anywhere near that amount of lossless tracks on a 30 gig ipod. 1000 at tops I reckon.

I've been down the route of ripping at 128 then 256 then lossless. Just go to lossless then use smartlists to manage what you actually have on your ipod.

 

[professorhat]

harveymt:Is there a way to convert to lower bitrate when syncing with iTunes or if I want to have 2 Libraries do I have to rip everything twice?ÿYou can on the Shuffle, but not on the other iPods. Maybe one day Apple will let us choose that option too...harveymt:How do I create a 2nd Library file?On the Mac, you hold down the Option key as you open iTunes. On the PC, hold down Shift. You then get an option to Create Library or choose another existing Library.harveymt:Had a quick look at Smart Playlists there. I could fill half my iPod with my favs then have a Smart playlist. Say I synced my iPod once a week would the Smart list automatically change the songs?Haven't actually played around with it fully but I don't think it changes when you sync, I think you just have to edit the playlist again and it'll then refresh the list.ÿ

 

[John Duncan]

cram:
JohnDuncan:Well that's not bad - you can get quite a bit of apple lossless on a 30gig iPod - maybe 2,000 songs or so.

You won't get anywhere near that amount of lossless tracks on a 30 gig ipod. 1000 at tops I reckon.

I've been down the route of ripping at 128 then 256 then lossless. Just go to lossless then use smartlists to manage what you actually have on your ipod.

Agreed, just realised my Touch is all at 320. Doh...

 

[harveymt]

I've been busy ripping my cds in Lossless. A quick question about the DACmagic or indeed any DAC. I take it if I store my tunes on my computer hard drive, a) they'll take up a lot of room and b) I'll need to have the computer on to access them through DAC. I presume I can use an external hard drive to store them on freeing up my hard drive. I've seen stuff like the Terastation but I take it I could use an hard drive? Does it have to be a networked one or can I attach to DAC with cable?

I take it I would need some kinda of interface to actually pick and choose songs. I know there is the Squeezbox to do that but can you use a laptop running iTunes? Would save buying more kit.

Also, I currently have a CA 540 V2 as my amp. I've read people comparing lossless files and DACmagic to a £1K CD player. Is my amp good enough to take full advantage?

Cheers.

 

[professorhat]

On the access stuff, in order to access your iTunes library, you would either need to have the laptop connected up to the external hard drive (or access to the NAS on the network) which has iTunes installed and all these files in the library. The laptop would then be connected into the DAC, or you could use an Airport Express unit to stream the music to the DAC wirelessly. Whicever way, the laptop has to be powered on. Alternatively you could look at an Apple TV which allows you to store your iTunes library on its built in 160GB disk (assuming your library isn't bigger than 160GB of course) and connect this into the DAC.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

harveymt:
I've been busy ripping my cds in Lossless. A quick question about the DACmagic or indeed any DAC. I take it if I store my tunes on my computer hard drive, a) they'll take up a lot of room and b) I'll need to have the computer on to access them through DAC. I presume I can use an external hard drive to store them on freeing up my hard drive. I've seen stuff like the Terastation but I take it I could use an hard drive? Does it have to be a networked one or can I attach to DAC with cable?

I take it I would need some kinda of interface to actually pick and choose songs. I know there is the Squeezbox to do that but can you use a laptop running iTunes? Would save buying more kit.

Also, I currently have a CA 540 V2 as my amp. I've read people comparing lossless files and DACmagic to a £1K CD player. Is my amp good enough to take full advantage?

Cheers.

What speakers do you have? I do think you should look at your amp and speakers before spending another £300 or so (DAC and Airport Express for instance).

 

[Anonymous]

I'm guessing you're using a Windows machine and I don't have my Windoze machine handy at the moment, but from what I remember iTunes on Mac/Windows is near enough identical so here it goes. If you want to take control over where iTunes stores your music so you can keep the Apple Lossless files seperately, you'll first of all need to use Windows Explorer and create a folder within the Music folder called Apple Lossless or whatever you want to call it.

In iTunes, go to Preferences then click on the Advanced tab. You will see a box under the header iTunes Music Folder Location, just to the right of the box is a Change button. Click on the Change button and tell iTunes where you want it to store your music from now on. So long as you don't hit the Reset button it will keep the music you already have saved in its current location.

When I'm looking at my iTunes music library, I also prefer to have the Kind collum enabled (so for instance I have Song name, Time, Artist, Album, Kind and Bit Rate tabs) that way you can see which songs are Apple Lossless, MP3 or AAC just from glancing at your library. To do that, just right click on any of the Tab headers in your library and choose which collums you want displayed.

As for keeping 2 versions of each song for your computer/DAC and iPod that really depends. I saw you mention a 30GB iPod (they currently top out at 120GB for iPod classic) but it also depends on the size of your library - basically how many songs are we talking about. It can vary wildly, but I find most of my Apple Lossless tracks to be between say 18-35MB each - so if we say that each lossless track is about 25MB then we can guesstimate appromixately 1,200 songs will fit on your 30GB iPod. I personally don't keep seperate versions for the iPod as my music library is huge and even though AAC/MP3 songs are much smaller, they are still taking up even more space and then its just more work, besides I don't need all of my songs on the iPod as I prefer to pick various playlists and occassionally switch the playlists I have on there but each to their own - its a decision you'll obviously decide for yourself.