At the 11th hour, we got our tickets for the basketball game, and got to see the Suns open a very large can of whoop-ass on the Lakers
( Read more... )
Nothing to say pro or con! I have the Shuffle now, though. I didn't have to convert anything to a particular format to play on it, though; I just imported them into iTunes.
Gapless playback.... would that be a lack of pause between tracks? I don't see that in the Shuffle, anyway..
You wouldn't need gapless playback on the Shuffle. Gapless playback (and the Rio Karma is one of only two players on the market that had it) is, as you surmise, going directly from one track to the next with no pause between. It's great for live albums, cast recordings, and albums where the tracks kind of run into each other. The Wall, for instance.
iTunes, I discover, searches for music and converts it automatically, which is fine...except that it searches EVERYWHERE. Which means that it took copies of songs from folders that I hadn't cleaned up, yet. Which further means that I've got three and four copies of many songs in iTunes. Sigh.
Strange as this may sound, I don't use the shuffle option much. Don't want it when I am listening to an entire concert. For those I definitely, definitely need a gapless playback, as the tracks must be as seamless as possible. And they seem to be that.
If you have multiple copies of the same song (and not simply different versions of the same song), you can clean them up in iTunes but clicking Edit and Show Duplicate Songs. Then you can remove the extras.
Ah, but! While some of the dupes are straight dupes, some of them, for some reasons known only to iTunes, ALSO contain the name of the artist on the title. Particularly for CDs I ripped myself. One version will have just the song title, and one will have the song title and the artist. Double-clicking on the song title will remove the artist name, but I haven't figured out a way to automate this.
In general, I've had no complaints with my iPod. It's 3G (I think) 20 gig, non-color. Gapless isn't a big deal to me, but I understand it can be important for some types of tracks or songlists. I think it's something that can and should be addressed in a firmware upload. My collection's a little smaller than yours (around 3000 so far), but I've not had much trouble managing duplicates or editing info, or uploading to the player - I think it's just getting used to the interface. Also, iTunes can be configured not to automatically convert files into AAC, and it can still rip to MP3. iPods will also both load and play files in mp3 format.
As for duets making new folders - I've noticed that, but I don't know what I'd do myself. WOuld I normally keep a duet by A+B in A's folder? B's Folder? If it's on A's album, then usually the song title or comments say "featuring B" or some such.
Ideally, I'd like to see the option to have multiple artists on a track, so that it shows up on the lists of both Artist A and Artist B and does not create a list of its own.
Also, I don't know how to get the damn thing to actually LOAD the music! (Is that what it's doing when it's threatening me with the "Do Not Disconnect!" notice?) But we'll tackle that one tonight...
Frankly, compared to my Rio, this is frustrating enough that I think the iPod's going on eBay soon. I can get more money for it than for the Rio, anyway.
For the artists, there'd have to be a field or flag for "multiple artists" - and software to recognize each. Maybe someday. I see no reason why a decent programmer couldn't make this happen, but I've never seen it on any of the music management programs that I have used.
Also, there's an issue with the battery wearing down extremely fast. From the time I unplugged it from the charger this morning (8:00 am, at which time it said "charged") till I ran home at lunchtime (11:45), the battery completely discharged. And it wasn't even DOING anything.
I think the issue with the downloading may have been a semi-faulty USB port. We'll see this evening.
Whups. I meant to make that a response rather than a new comment. I'll get the hang of LJ one of these days. Is there any way to edit posts? Are these things "posts" anyway?
One possibility with iPods - When I'm not travelling with it, I plug mine into a spare set of computer speakers and it's wall charger and use it as a poor man's stereo jukebox in any room I don't already have music. Battery isn't an issue there.
When I got home, I watched it closely. The battery didn't even last long enough to load all of my music onto it (and for some reason, the USB won't charge it). One of Joe's buddies is going to change out the battery for me.
Re: posts - The OP is the post, the rest are "comments." You can edit the OP, but I've never seen a way to edit comments. You can delete them, but the person to whom you're responding still gets an e-mail.
Comments 19
Gapless playback.... would that be a lack of pause between tracks? I don't see that in the Shuffle, anyway..
Reply
iTunes, I discover, searches for music and converts it automatically, which is fine...except that it searches EVERYWHERE. Which means that it took copies of songs from folders that I hadn't cleaned up, yet. Which further means that I've got three and four copies of many songs in iTunes. Sigh.
Reply
If you have multiple copies of the same song (and not simply different versions of the same song), you can clean them up in iTunes but clicking Edit and Show Duplicate Songs. Then you can remove the extras.
Reply
Reply
As for duets making new folders - I've noticed that, but I don't know what I'd do myself. WOuld I normally keep a duet by A+B in A's folder? B's Folder? If it's on A's album, then usually the song title or comments say "featuring B" or some such.
Reply
Also, I don't know how to get the damn thing to actually LOAD the music! (Is that what it's doing when it's threatening me with the "Do Not Disconnect!" notice?) But we'll tackle that one tonight...
Frankly, compared to my Rio, this is frustrating enough that I think the iPod's going on eBay soon. I can get more money for it than for the Rio, anyway.
Reply
The not loading dinna make sense to me. It should be automagic. I hope it works out.
Reply
I see no reason why a decent programmer couldn't make this happen, but I've never seen it on any of the music management programs that I have used.
Also, there's an issue with the battery wearing down extremely fast. From the time I unplugged it from the charger this morning (8:00 am, at which time it said "charged") till I ran home at lunchtime (11:45), the battery completely discharged. And it wasn't even DOING anything.
I think the issue with the downloading may have been a semi-faulty USB port. We'll see this evening.
Reply
Reply
One possibility with iPods - When I'm not travelling with it, I plug mine into a spare set of computer speakers and it's wall charger and use it as a poor man's stereo jukebox in any room I don't already have music. Battery isn't an issue there.
Reply
Re: posts - The OP is the post, the rest are "comments." You can edit the OP, but I've never seen a way to edit comments. You can delete them, but the person to whom you're responding still gets an e-mail.
Reply
Leave a comment