iTunes is one of the best software solutions that Apple has
released in a long time. Despite the fact that most Apple software
is great with a nice touch of Mac-like behavior, iTunes is a home
run - it is beyond great. Not only is it amazing Mac software; it
is consumer-savvy and an overall hit for more than just the loyal
Apple customers.
iTunes is an important Mac title, and here is how to demystify
it.
For starters, iTunes will search your hard disk drive to find
MP3 files. Let it do the job if you already have MP3 files. If that
is the case, by the way, get this little software piece called
iTunes
Associator, which will change the file type and creator of all
your MP3 files to iTunes instead of, say, SoundJam.
Encoding MP3 Files
This is quite easy. Stick the CD in your CD-ROM drive and wait
for it to appear. You will normally see the CD information loaded
in the source pane of the main window, and the songs will appear in
the right part where you see the title, album, artist, and other
information.
iTunes does a lookup in an Internet database to determine what
CD you have, and it usually finds the correct data. If in doubt
when it finds multiple results, it will ask you to specify the
correct album. If it finds nothing, it will give you the option of
providing the information to the database. Most of the time,
though, everything is loaded automatically. The greatest thing of
all is that iTunes will keep the CD information in its database and
remember that CD when you put it in on another time.
iTunes used
an Internet database and recognized
this CD as Brave New World, produced by Iron Maiden
Before you import your songs into iTunes, remember to do a few
things. Firstly, you have to make sure that the encoding setting
reflects the quality you wish to hear. Lots of different encoding
configurations are available, each having their appeal and
drawbacks. The lowest available is 128 kbps. Without the technogeek
explanation, let's just say that the higher the number, the higher
the quality. iTunes describes 128 as "good quality," but I have my
reservations. 128 is fine if your speakers are not too amazing. If
you have a good pair of computer speakers, such as the Harman
Kardon SoundSticks, go for something higher.
My personal recommendation is 192 kbps, which iTunes tags as
high quality. It takes a bit more disk space, but unless you are
short on storage, this is the right option. If you want a
compromise between quality and disk space, you can always opt for
160 kbps.
If you ask me why, when you select Custom, you see settings such
as 320 Kbps and Variable Bit Rate, I will tell you to come back
next week. Higher than 192 kbps won't make much of a difference on
even high-quality computer speakers. To set the importing
preferences, go to the Edit menu and select Preferences, and hit
the Importing pane.
192 kbps is the right bet for good speakers
Also, you should set the folder where you store your music. In
the Preferences, click on the Advanced pane and click on Change to
select the folder where you want iTunes to store all your MP3 files
when it encodes them.
Then, just hit the Import button - the one with a musical note
in it - and allow iTunes to convert your music into MP3 files.
Remember that the encoding speed depends on your hardware,
mostly your processor and CD-ROM speed. The 12.7x speed you see in
the screen shot above is not representative of the typical
iMac or G3 computer. It happened on a dual processor G4 with the
full blast speed of the Velocity Engine, so please do not be
disappointed if your regular encoding speed is 5x.
One problem is that the online information database doesn't
provide everything, and sometimes it gets the genre wrong. I
snickered when I saw some metal albums tagged with "Pop" or an
Alanis Morissette album tagged with "NewAge." I kid you not! In any
case, all you need to do to change the info on a bunch of songs is
to select them and choose Get Info from the File menu. If you want
to select them all, combine the Command (or Apple) key and the A
key. If you wish to add them one by one to the selection, hold down
the Command key and click on each song.
If you wish to add something, such as the year, just type it in
the text field, and iTunes will automatically check the checkbox
used to say that a changes will be made to the song files. If you
wish to change the genre, just pull down the pop up menu - see the
icon with two opposite arrows - and select the appropriate option.
Then, click on OK to confirm.
Organizing MP3 files
Navigation is easy to figure out. When you click on the Library
icon, you'll easily find out that you just need to click once on a
genre, an artist or an album to display the tracks and their
information. What you want to do, however, is to create playlists
and organize the view options to your liking.
Customizing the view options allows you to display nothing but
the info you want to see about your songs. The greatest thing about
it is that iTunes will remember your settings for each different
window. You can set different view options for a CD, a library, a
playlist or just anything else. Go to the Edit menu and choose View
Options.
Once there, just check of uncheck the columns you want to
display in your playlists and library. Remember, too, that you can
adjust the size of the columns in your playlists by going to the
top of the columns and pointing the mouse to the lines, clicking
once and dragging them around.
To create a playlist, just click on the button (displayed
on the right) and name the playlist. Once done, just find the songs
you want to add to the playlist and drop them on the playlist's
name. iTunes will automatically add the information for you.
Radio
iTunes works with the Kerbango online service to offer lots of
different types of music for Internet radio. Just click on the
Radio Tuner, then click once on the small arrow of your preferred
genre, and then double click on the station that you want to listen
to. iTunes will take care of buffering and streaming playback.
Enjoy!
Conclusion
Before you start burning a CD, which we will explore next week,
remember to learn how to use the minimized window. When you are
listening to music and don't need to adjust anything for a while,
just click on the button to the top-right corner of the main
window, and you will get something similar to the following image.
The smaller window is convenient and easy to drag anywhere on the
screen.
Next week we will learn how to burn a CD with iTunes.
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iTunes used
an Internet database and recognized
To create a playlist, just click on the button (displayed
on the right) and name the playlist. Once done, just find the songs
you want to add to the playlist and drop them on the playlist's
name. iTunes will automatically add the information for you.
