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iPhone music.


Dmitry

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Just got my first iPhone, it's a 128gig 6S. Never had an iPad, not a Mac.

Just signed up with the iTunes on my pc. What's next? I wantto rip some of my cds, and be able to play them on my iPhone.  Do I download iTunes on the iPhone, and connect it to my PC, which already has the iTunes, to download the rips from iTunes to the iPhone?

 

 

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Your phone already has iTunes on it.  

1) Stick a CD into your computer.

2) iTunes should automatically open and show you the CD's info.

3) Click "Import CD."  This rips the CD onto your hard drive.

4) Connect your phone to your computer. A sync will be performed, transferring the music to your phone.

5) If you open iTunes on your phone, you should now see the album you just ripped, ready to play.

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3 hours ago, mjzee said:

 

4) Connect your phone to your computer. A sync will be performed, transferring the music to your phone.

 

As an addendum to this, if you have more music in iTunes than your phone can handle, make sure you uncheck "entire library" and check "selected playlists, artists, etc..." If you don't, it will give you an error message saying that you don't have enough memory on your phone for the library. 

Then you can choose exactly which albums you currently want to have on your phone. 

And, should you ever download anything from the iTunes store to your computer, it will show on your phone's music app automatically, but you'll still need to actually download it to your phone either via your computer, or your wireless service. 

I'd also highly recommend on your phone summary page in iTunes, choosing the option "convert higher bitrate songs to" and select 256 AAC. That will help save a ton of room on your phone, affording you a lot more space for music. 

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I use ALAC for archival purposes. It's far more supported than AIFF. Both are lossless formats, so it'll give you piece of mind that it is identical to what you've got on CD. 

Now, I personally hear no difference between ALAC and 256kbps AAC, but even I rip into ALAC. Most likely out of habit, I suppose. 

That said, if you don't plan on getting rid of your CD copies and are limited on hard drive space (though I can't imagine that happening this day and age) you can always rip to AAC at either 256 or 320kbps. I wouldn't recommend any lower than that as you will start to notice a small difference in quality. Especially at the high end (most notably on cymbals). 

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2 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Thanks!

Which format should I use for the best results for ripping cds?

 For starters, I'd recommend mp3 @ 256 kbps.  For most people, that's all they ever need - it sounds just fine, and doesn't take up a lot of space on your phone.  See if you like it, and work from there.

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1 hour ago, Dmitry said:

My real long-term goal is to start ripping my records. Still not sure how to do it the right and easy way. 

I'll tell you how I do it.  I have a Mac, and use a program called Amadeus Pro.  I also have a CD recorder as part of my component stereo system.

1) Record the record onto a CD, one continuous track per LP side.

2) Use Amadeus Pro to read the CD.

3) Using the graphical information shown in Amadeus, split the tracks into individual files.  Here you can also adjust the volume levels if they're too low.

4) Once done, import those tracks into iTunes and enter the correct information (performer, song names, etc.).

It's a time consuming process (honestly, it's sometimes easier to just buy the digital version of the album), but it's so much fun to carry your records around on your phone.

Perhaps others have an easier way of doing it, but this is how I do it.

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2 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Ripped a couple of discs, it's easy enough.

I wonder what size hard drive I'd need to rip about 1000 in ALAC.

My real long-term goal is to start ripping my records. Still not sure how to do it the right and easy way. 

Hmm...

That's an interesting question, as I'm not entirely sure how many ALAC rips I have on my iMac. But, I would think 500MB would handle 1000 rips without a problem. That's what I have, and still have 154MB of free space. 

What size HD do you have? I wouldn't think it would be any smaller (my machine is 5 years old. 1TB  a standard starting point these days). Though, you always have the options of using an external HD if you find yourself running out of room. 

Edited by Scott Dolan
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1 hour ago, Scott Dolan said:

BTW, did a little research and ALAC files are right around half the size of a .wav file. That would make a full length CD rip about 300MB.

I read that symphonic music takes more space than jazz and rock. jazz, on average 200-300mb, orchestral classical 400+mb. More notes per second, i.e. more data?

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I'm looking at a Tascam 2-channel digital recorder for the purpose of taping my records. It records in several formats, from various mp3 incarnations to wav 16 bit or 24 bit. Can this be easily converted by iTunes to alac, so I can play the lp needle-drops on my iPhone?

https://www.amazon.com/DR-100mkII-2-Channel-Portable-Digital-Recorder/dp/B006JVNTXO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

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My guess would be no, but I'm not 100% sure of that. You may need to import the files to your PC, then run them through a converter like Foobar2000. 

You can try to hook it up via USB and see if iTunes will recognize it, but I've honestly never tried anything like that before.

Have you looked into a USB turntable? You could likely find one for less money than the Tascam and just import the LPs directly to your PC. That way you could cut a link out of the chain to help insure the most direct transfer possible, unless you're using a high end turntable and don't want to lose that quality. 

 

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17 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

My guess would be no, but I'm not 100% sure of that. You may need to import the files to your PC, then run them through a converter like Foobar2000. 

You can try to hook it up via USB and see if iTunes will recognize it, but I've honestly never tried anything like that before.

Have you looked into a USB turntable? You could likely find one for less money than the Tascam and just import the LPs directly to your PC. That way you could cut a link out of the chain to help insure the most direct transfer possible, unless you're using a high end turntable and don't want to lose that quality. 

 

USB tt is out of the question. The quality just isn't there. I have a very satisfying set-up now, and would go the old fashioned route - TT>preamp>digital recorder.

Cheaper recorders possibly and probably have worse a/d converters, although I can't be sure of that. Also, importing directly from tt to pc carries significant background noise, based on what I've read and heard.

The other question is how to actually play the needle-drops on my stereo.

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I assume when you say "the needle-drops," you mean your newly-recorded digital files.  Here's what I do: I have an Apple Airport Express connected via an optical audio cable to an Emotiva Stealth DC-1, which is a component in my stereo setup.  The Airport Express is configured to connect to my home's wi-fi router.  Then in iTunes on my computer, I choose the Airport Express as the audio output.  The music then plays through my stereo.

There are no doubt cheaper solutions, the cheapest being connecting your iPhone via an audio cable (through the headphone jack) as an input to your preamp.  There are also freestanding Bluetooth dongles.  But I like the idea of having a separate component on my stereo, which can be chosen similarly to choosing the turntable or CD player. 

BTW, don't be too scared off by the price on the Stealth.  Emotiva has frequent sales and other discounts.

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Yeah, I've never heard a USB turntable, but I can't imagine the quality is very good. Not compared to the set ups most of you LP cats tend to have. 

As for getting them to your stereo, I guess it would depend on the inputs you have on your preamp. I personally do it wirelessly using my Apple TV unit wired into my DAC via an optical cable. That way I have a direct digital link straight into my system. Would that be an option for you? 

There are several different ways to go, but knowing what input choices you have are key. And is your computer a desktop, or laptop? 

*edit*

mjzee and I were posting at the same time. Sorry for the redundant info.

Edited by Scott Dolan
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An alternative approach.  Solves some problems but raises others.

I have an old computer running Windows XP connected to my hifi via a sound card that has RCA jacks, stereo inputs and outputs.  The computer connects to my preamp through the tape inputs and outputs.  I use Wave Lab and Sound Forge both of which are, I believe, what is known as "mastering" software.  Any analogue source - any record that I can play on my system, tape (reel-to-reel and cassette) and even my FM tuner - can be captured in this rig.  The software records the analogue source as a WAV file.  Both packages can burn CD's from the WAV files or save them in another format to export to something else.  Both come bundled with a bunch of plug-ins for a wide range of "effects" that can be used to edit and manipulate the files.  The Wave Lab package can use the effects from Sound Forge.  Not sure if that works in the other direction.

If I chose to do so, I could have iTunes import any of these WAV files and convert them to whatever format I was using in iTunes.  My iTunes is on another computer and they are not connected over my network so it's a cumbersome manual process for me but it doesn't have to be so.  I may fix that one day.

The problems with this approach are,

  • Finding a sound card with RCA jacks.  I had to buy a used one on ebay.  Most modern 3rd party sound cards are concerned with things like midi interfaces, etc.
  • Wave Lab, Sound Forge and other similar packages are expensive.  It might be possible to use some of the other software noted in this and other threads on analogue to digital conversion.

The benefits are that I get whatever sound quality I have from my regular analogue playback rig.  And once it's set up (not a trivial matter) it's done.  I set my preamp to whatever input I want to record from and then use my computer the way I once used a tape deck.  Hit the record button and go...

The Tascam would be, in a sense, a substitute for a hard drive and a cumbersome way around the issue of finding a sound card that will interface with your hifi.  I suppose it's doable but if you are looking to embark on a long term, heavy duty project I would at least investigate this alternative.  It would work on any Windows or Mac platform.  But you do need the sound card and the software.

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Thanks lads.

So let's see if I understand you correctly.

I tape the lp to a file, split tracks in a software program like Audacity, transfer to my iTunes library, then wirelessly connect the said library to something called Airport Express, which is, in turn, connected to my preamplifier via RCA cables, and use my iPhone as a remote control to play my files?

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3 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Thanks lads.

So let's see if I understand you correctly.

I tape the lp to a file, split tracks in a software program like Audacity, transfer to my iTunes library, then wirelessly connect the said library to something called Airport Express, which is, in turn, connected to my preamplifier via RCA cables, and use my iPhone as a remote control to play my files?

Essentially, yes.  Before you make big plans, though, first try the Audacity software program.  I found it baffling and unusable.  Most people seem to like it because it's free.  Investigate other software programs that may be more user-friendly.

2 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

All of that is correct, with the lone exception that neither Airport Express or Apple TV have analog outputs. 

The Airport Express does have an analog output: it's a combined analog/optical audio jack, as can be seen here.

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That's right! Thanks for the correction! I had forgotten that was a combo jack. Same as the one on the Apple TV unit. I remember that now because I had to put the extension on my Toslink cable in order for it to work. 

Great catch! 

As for Audacity, it's usable. That's about all I can say for it. There are a lot of tutorial videos for it on Youtube, which can be incredibly helpful as the interface isn't the most user friendly. 

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