Anyone know WMA?

Eric, thanks (again) for the info. Following your instructions has been easy to modify tags in iTunes (thanks!), but I am still not 100% sure on the quality rips I get from EAC. This is what I get:

0) I checked under Edit/Preferences/Advanced/General that the option "Copy filesto iTunes Music Folder" is unchecked
1) Everytime I rip any CD with EAC, it creates where I designated (with EAC) a folder with the name of the Artist and the CD Title. In it, it leaves (for each song) two files .WAV (which I request in EAC not to delete so far) and .ALAC (which I request to be saved with this extension name)
2) While iTunes "translates" the wav file into iTunes, it creates an "iTunes" folder where it saves also the tracks on MPEG4 (I have no idea why and whether they are Apple Lossless) with tags and all.
3) So I am left with two files created by EAC: WAV and ALAC and another file created by iTUnes.
4) The tricky thing is that if I double click on the alac file, iTunes start but it will not play the file. Both files, MPEG4 and Alac, are the same sizewise, which makes me believe that the Mpeg4 is in fact Apple Lossless, but I am still not sure
5) Finally, if I delete the ALAC file created by EAC, the song still plays at iTunes.

As you can imagine, I just want to get it right, so I can start Phase 3 (Burning all my collection into the new Lacie 250Gb hard drive that I've bought.)

Again, I really apologize for the headache. This is tougher than I expected.

Josep

Hmm... Not sure what is happening. In iTunes, you should be able to figure out what type of compression is used for any entry using "Get Info." Select a track, right click, select "Get Info," and see, on the summary page, what it says right under where the album art would be following "Kind." It should say "Apple Lossless audio file" if the directory entry is, in fact, Apple Lossless. If its an AAC file, it will say "AAC audio file" instead.

Since iTunes labels both AAC and ALAC files with the ".m4a" extension, I am guessing that the .ALAC file is being created somehow by EAC. Are you using iTunesEncode? My iTunesEncode settings are found under EAC > Compression Options... > External Compression. I have "use external compression program" checked, parameter passing set to "user defined scheme," use file extension set to ".m4a," program for compression set to "C:\Program Files\EAC\iTunesEncode.exe," and additional command line options set to "-e "Lossless Encoder" -a "%a" -l "%g" -t "%t" -g "%m" -y %y -n %n -i %s -o %d."

What are your settings showing?

Eric, can't thank you enough for your comments - as usual.

I went to iTunes and selected Get Info. The files show as Apple Lossless. Then, went to EAC and the only difference I see is that under compression options, in external compression I had ".alac". So I changed it to ".m4a".

I am assumig that the folder where EAC creates its files has to be the same one than the iTunes folder (in iTunes, under Edit-Preferences-Advanced) right? What happens if they are different folders?

Josep

Well that explains some things. One copy--the one that used to be .alac--was being created by EAC and I suspect the other--the .m4a--was being created by iTunes. Is "copy file to iTunes directory checked" in iTunes > Preferences > Advanced?

EAC has its own directory to write too... Check EAC > EAC Options there is a "Directories" tab--the directory shown is where EAC puts things. Not sure what would happen if you made it the same directory as iT...

Eric, again, thanks. You must think I am retarded!

No, the "copy files to iTunes directory" option is not checked. However, still it's creating the files twice.

I think I know why. Under EAC Options, I have the following naming scheme: %I\%A\%C\%N-%T (which neatly organizes EAC files for Genre\Artist and so on.

However, what EAC does is it creates the .m4a file in that folder following the naming scheme AND in the folder designated in iTunes. If I delete one, I can still play the other one.

How can I prevent this from happening?

Thanks!

Josep