Advice on iTunes Settings for the BIG RIP.

I'm doing this very same thing. I finished the "O" cds today. I have about 375 CD ripped.

You simply set iTunes to rip to Apple Lossless (ALAC) and set it to use "error correction."

I don't have any MP3s, but you do. So, you'll want to move all your non-ALAC files out of your library. Just create a new folder for MP3, move all your non-ALAC files into that folder and start anew to record in ALAC format to your music folder. Delete your library (but not the files) before you begin anew with the ALAC ripping.

You need to review the album art, titles and such every few CDs. I rip about 5 CDs and then review them in iTunes. All LIVE CDs you want to set to gapless and the CDs like Sgt Peppers that you know are gapless well.

When iTunes flunks on your Album Art, simply go to Amazon and find the listing for the CD and copy the large jpg file to your computer and apply it to the CD with the missing art.

That's about all there is to it. Just keep your MP3 files away from your ALAC files. As to ripping in ALAC being slow? I've not noticed it. It takes about 3 mins to rip a CD and the resultant file is usually about 500 megs.

From what I’ve been reading Apple Lossless is the way to go. Can I get some advice regarding how to configure other settings in iTunes? Space between songs?

I agree with using the Apple Lossless format. Other than choosing the format and the location for your files, iTunes doesn't have many other configuration choices when importing (ripping) a CD. E.g., you can't adjust the space between song.

Most people would want to use the 'Keep iTunes music folder organized' setting in Preferences\Advanced\General. Under Preferences\Advanced\ Importing, I use error correction, just to be safe.

I would recommend turning on 'Create file names with track numbers.' Some people, including me, have run into occasional problems with iTunes losing track of the location of music files. The music files are still there, but the iTunes Music Library file, which is a directory file, winds up with bad information about where to look for the files. When this happens, you get a little explanation mark next to the track listing in the iTunes window, and it's always a great mystery. I have found that this strangeness does not occur if I make sure that setting is turned on.

After importing your tunes, I would select them all, choose Get Info, and check Gapless Album. It would have been better if Apple had turned Gapless Album on by default.

Also, I have some shared music and MP3s… the sound levels are different for some of these songs…I want to avoid that in ripping my CDs so that if I use the shuffle feature all the songs will be in the same ballpark with respect to volume.

No control over this in iTunes. iTunes does have a playback function (Sound Check) that attempts to balance the volume of different tunes. I have found this deleterious when playing back over a good system.

I’ve read that Apple Lossless is ‘reversible’ insofar as one can convert the Apple Lossless files to AIFF files (or to other lossless formats). Can I get a conformation on this

Yes, this is true.

I read somewhere that when ripping to Apple Lossless takes considerably more time than ripping to AIFF, and that when ripping to Apple Lossless iTunes does this in two steps: FIRST rips to AIFF and then converts it to Apple Lossless. I also read that to save time some folks rip to AIFF in iTunes, and then set their library to do a batch conversion to Apple Lossless overnight. Can someone shed some more light onto how this latter is done?

In my experience, it is not at all true that importing with AL takes more time than with AIFF. To me, the two-step process would be cumbersome and a waste of time. Test it out yourself. If you really find you want to do the two-step, it's quite straightforward; if you need help, just ask again.

How best to organize these three file formats in iTunes? One music library? 3 separate music libraries? It would be nice to have all the music accessible in one lump so that I could access them all with the shuffle feature for background listening.

I would suggest two separate music libraries, one for hifi listening and one to manage your music for portable listening. I'd store all your Apple Lossless files in one music folder and all of your lossy files (AAC and MP3) in a different music folder. (You'll need to become familiar with the iTunes Music folder location setting in Preferences\Advanced\General. This setting dictates where future imported files will be stored. It has no effect on the location of previously imported song files.)

So, the basic order of business would be first to start building your hifi (Apple Lossless) iTunes library, and then to create a second iTunes library for portable listening and populate that with AAC files converted from the Apple Lossless versions. You would sync your iPod with this second library.

To create your portable, lossy library, quit iTunes, then start it up again with a new, empty library.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iTunesMac/7.1/en/2607x.html
Set the music folder location for this library to a new location. Import your Apple Lossless music files to this new library (make sure 'Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding...' is turned off), then use the 'Convert selection to AAC' command in the Advanced menu to make AAC copies of the originals for your portable library. After that, you can delete the Apple Lossless versions from this second library. If you need more tips on this phase, just holler. Once you get the hang of it, it's quite easy.

The files that are already in AAC or MP3 format can be added to your portable library in straightforward fashion.

Hope this helps.

When iTunes flunks on your Album Art, simply go to Amazon and find the listing for the CD and copy the large jpg file to your computer and apply it to the CD with the missing art.

Good tip. I've had a question regarding this that I've yet to be able to find an answer for, so I'll try posting it here: On many of my CD's that don't show up any artwork (I've gathered as much as I could automatically from Apple, and the rest scavenging from Amazon or elsewhere on the net) there is a message in the artwork window where you'd normally drag your artwork to reading "Artwork not Modifiable". I read on one chat site that it was because the file was imported as a WAV file, which is indeed the case with my files. BUT there are many WAV files in my library where I DO have artwork for the CD which was automatically acquired through Apple. If I Apple can tag the WAV file for artwork, why can't I?!

Marco

Jayboard, when you pull down the menu for Itunes "preferences," go to "advanced," then look at "burning." There you have a menu selection for creating gap times between songs. I set my default to no gap. Otherwise, tracks that flow into the following one on the original mix don't play correctly.

Photon, As far as I know, those settings only affect how tunes are burned to a
CD from files on your hard drive, and Love gas was asking about ripping files
from a CD to the hard drive.

The issue you describe concerning tracks that flow from one into the next
was a significant annoyance in older iTunes, but Apple implemented gapless
playback in iTunes several versions ago, so that annoyance has disappeared.

BTW, to noone in particular, the Gapless Album setting iTunes makes
available in Get Info is poorly labeled, since when you're playing through an
album, iTunes always plays the cuts just as they were recorded on CD,
without the momentary gap that appeared in old iTunes, whether or not the
Gapless Album box is checked.

What the Gapless selection does is override any Crossfade setting, if you have
Crossfade turned on, if and only if you are playing an album straight through.
The Crossfade setting will still apply if you're playing shuffled tracks or a
mixed playlist. If you have Crossfade turned off, all cuts play gaplessly,
regardless of whether you've checked the Gapless box.

There's no penalty to turning Gapless on for every single track in your library,
unless you really do prefer to crossfade the consecutive playback of songs in
an album rather than playing them as they were recorded on CD.

04-14-07: Photon46
Jayboard, when you pull down the menu for Itunes "preferences," go to "advanced," then look at "burning." There you have a menu selection for creating gap times between songs. I set my default to no gap. Otherwise, tracks that flow into the following one on the original mix don't play correctly.

Photon46, yes the preference setting you cite above does control the time gap between songs when you are BURNING a CD from your Music Library. Though it has no affect for either IMPORTING songs to the Library or playing back the songs in your Library. In iTunes 7 there is no option for customizing the length of the song gaps for music playback (from the usic Library)...I wish there was.

The Gapless Album setting that Jayboard mentions is an option not to include the very small gap iTunes places between songs by default. If you select it there will be a truley 0 sec gap during playback. This is targeted at live performance, classical, and DJ mix recordings.

Whoops my post directly above was posted at the same time/after Jayboards second post. so I was referencing Jayboards 1st post. Seems like we are saying the same thing.