iPod for dummies

[st4]

I got an iPod Nano as a leaving gift yesterday. It was my bosses old one and they all chipped in to buy me it.

Its a slick device and will end up in the car so no more clyde 1 for me....

I have some difficulties. I cannot for the life of me get to grips with iTunes and find with a 50gb music library that I frequently add to that iTunes is too cumbersome and WMPayer 11 is, well, miles better. How do I get my iPod to sync with this or I am condemned to iTunes.

 

[Ade B]

Having never tried the alternatives, I find iTunes a bit of a software marvel. It always works, finds all my music, is easy to add to and syncs with my iPhone and iPod quite happily just by plugging it in.

In fact I'd go as far as to say after 17 years of PC use, I would happily switch completely to Apple products if they weren't so pricy in comparison.

What problem exactly are you having with it?

Ade

 

[st4]

Importing into the library. I like to give "songs" their own tags, organise my own folders using my own methods (as they are all backed up to DVD) so are stored as MP3 CD DVD1 etc in a folder, then with sub folders of the artists, then the album name.

I manual add to the library, obtain my MP3s in a manner that I won't publicise, then tag them myself of Windows media player, and then double check them using windows explorer to ensure they are tagged properly.

I cannot find a way to do this on iTunes (i.e. manually tag) and the process of synicing to the iPod takes longer than an normal MP3 player does on media player.

 

[Ade B]

Ahh, I see - I have a large number of nameless tracks floating around my office iTunes which have been acquired by staff (the truth). Since having iTunes I've happily bought more music in the last 18months than the last 18 years..

Never bothered to actually catalogue the dodgy tracks properly as I rarely listen to them (the guy who put them on left over a year ago) - you can rename stuff in iTunes and sorting play lists is a drag and drop affair but I have no idea how you import stuff from another format.

One of the tech type people will no doubt assist.


Ade

 

[ROBB]

I am a recent convert to the way of the iPod, and i have to say that i dont understand how i coped without it for so long

You can set iTunes/iPod to manual organisation under Edit/Preferences/Advanced tab, likewise when Ipod is connected you can choose to manually organise your library (i dont).

All of the track/artist/album/composer info etc is changeable by right clicking on the track (or all selected tracks) and renaming artist/album etc. I have had to go through all of this when i converted my entire collection (only 30GB) to iTunes from CD.

I might be a bit OCD but i like all of the artwork and track listings to be correct.

TIP: right click on a track within an album/go to artwork - into which you can paste the album cover which you copied off amazon music!!!

rob

 

[st4]

Hi Robb,

Think I've now sussed what I need to do, and have found a tag editor on iTunes to use that will have the desired effect.

Ta

Steve

 

[andy_k]

I am a recent convert to the way of the iPod, and i have to say that i dont understand how i coped without it for so long

I can, because I'm a music lover and every iPod I have had the misfortune to listen to sounded terrible

 

[Spinal]

Like you I have a large music library (only mine has recently bulged onto a second TB drive)... I too found iTunes on windows to be clunky at best, and totally unable to handle large music libraries...

That said, if you can get your hands on an old mac (even a G5 will do), and run iTunes on that, it's not so much of a memory hog! I now have an old mac pro exclusively to keep track of my music, and as it's also sharing the hard-drives, I can then listen to said music from any laptop/desktop in the house.

M.

 

[ROBB]

I can, because I'm a music lover and every iPod I have had the misfortune to listen to sounded terrible

thats a shame - cos i (so far) have no issues with it. i do love my music (have not listened to radio since the new HU/iPod were enabled in the car. The iPod lives in the car normally, but does reqular duty wired to the floorstanding B&W's/Rotel amp :bannana::bannana:

no issues with whatever quality (headphones aside)

..to which my neighbours can testify.....

particularly the old bloke in the street behind me and 4 houses to the left

 

[Ade B]

I enjoy my music & think that being able to carry my entire music collection around at pretty reasonable sound quality is fantastic as I can listen to it where ever I am. What's not to like.

Ade