<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>If people want a good article for understanding the way iTunes stores</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>tracks, then look at</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to-a-new-hard-drive/">http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to-a-new-hard-drive/</a><br><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; ">I found it invaluable when moving my AV sources to a Drobo.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; ">Also, take a look at <a href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/">http://dougscripts.com/itunes/</a> (as Daniel pointed out)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; ">for various AppleScripts that do various tasks.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; ">As for Neil's original question - dunno, but what I did in the past</div><div>was to just create new versions of the archive with iTunes "Convert to" in</div><div>the Advanced menu section. Managing tracks is a headache, however.</div><div><br></div><div>One thought could be to back up the index, re-locate your library with the Advanced</div><div>tab in the iTunes Preferences, create the tracks using "Convert to" in the new archive</div><div>(you probably want the "Keep iTunes folders organised" deselected for this), and</div><div>then restore the index (to remove the references to the new tracks). Finally, rebuild</div><div>a new index for the new archive.</div><div><br></div><div>Use the ALT key to switch between archives when you sync and when you play music.</div><div><br></div><div>But read the ilounge article first before attempting this.</div><div><br></div><div>Would I do this? Am tempted now I think about it, but if you regularly get new tracks</div><div>then keeping the two archives in sync is just a hassle, so probably not. But it would</div><div>be a great way of producing an initial archive for the car, etc, without having to worry</div><div>about restoring your initial collection.</div><div><br></div><div>Golden rule... if you can, back up before this stuff... but you guys know this :)</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Terry</div><div><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Helvetica; ">_______________________________________________________________________</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Helvetica; ">Terry R. Payne, PhD. | <a href="http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/people/trp">http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/people/trp</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Helvetica; ">Dept. of Computer Science | Skype: cappuccinofreak [AIM: drcaphreak]</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Helvetica; ">University of Liverpool | Voice: +44(0)7747 110780 [Fax: +44(0) 151 795 4235]</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Helvetica; ">Liverpool, L69 3BX, UK | Email: <a href="mailto:T.R.Payne@liverpool.ac.uk">T.R.Payne@liverpool.ac.uk</a></font></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></span>
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<br><div><div>On 18 Sep 2009, at 18:08, Philip Boulain wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>Chris Andrews wrote:<br><blockquote type="cite">A useful thing to note is that if you hold "Alt" whilst starting iTunes on OS X, it allows you to choose which iTunes library you want to start it up using. You could always make a second library called "Lossy" or something like that.<br></blockquote><br>...hunh. Why isn't this stuff better documented/more discoverable?<br><br><blockquote type="cite">The application I used for converting a huge amount of files at once was Max, which gives very good quality MP3s when paired with the latest LAME encoder (as in, I converted a 160kbps AAC to ~190kbps MP3 and couldn't tell the difference on reasonable equipment).<br></blockquote><br>Yeah, Max also lets you rip a CD to multiple formats at once, and will make sensible use of your multiple cores to do this. Supports batch conversion of existing audio too, although Hugh's iTunes suggestion is probably easier if that's what you're doing. Can also automatically add ripped audio to a specified iTunes playlist. It uses LAME et. al., so you get excellent VBR MP3 and other format support.<br><br><a href="http://sbooth.org/Max/">http://sbooth.org/Max/</a><br><br>Unfortunately its metadata is Musicbrainz only, no FreeDB/Gracenote, so YMMV with how much you have to correct/fill in track names etc. Personally I've found both it and iTunes' (Gracenote?) DB to fail to have useful metadata to about equal proportions.<br><br>Steve Harris wrote:<br><blockquote type="cite">I wish the UI would do something useful with the near duplicates though, you get two entries, one for each format.<br></blockquote><br>Yeah, I often want a breakdown more like [song, i.e. composition] -> [version/arrangement] -> [recording], because I've got different songs with title collisions, rearrangements of songs (the popular approach of mangling " [radio version]" etc. onto the end of the title field offends my inner semantics junkie), and multiple recordings of the same song (e.g. CD vs LP, where neither is outright superior---in extreme cases, MIDI vs digital audio).<br><br>-- <br>| Philip Boulain PhD student | _`._ | "Study the past if you |<br>| IAM, ECS, Uni of Southampton | / K \ | would divine the future." |<br>| http://zepler.net/~lionsphil | \__-_/ | -- Confucius |<br></div></blockquote></div><br></div></div></div><br></body></html>