JSngry Posted April 27, 2023 Report Share Posted April 27, 2023 IMO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rostasi Posted April 27, 2023 Report Share Posted April 27, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Milestones said: What do people think of sound quality on Apple? I assumed it would be rather good, and it is (at the least) respectable. But I had been using Bose external speakers on previous computers. I like those a lot, and they provide better stereo effect. There is no clear way to connect those up to this new one. I'm not much of a techie, despite using computers pretty heavily for more than three decades. Like any computer, that's going to depend on a number of elements: sound card and general speaker quality mostly, so it's generally not an Apple issue. I use Audioengine A5+ for all my audio work and they sound great for what I need. Lots of audio folk just love Apple's "Core MIDI" and "Core Audio" features and I've got to say that it's worked great for me. Edited April 27, 2023 by rostasi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjzee Posted April 27, 2023 Report Share Posted April 27, 2023 1 hour ago, Milestones said: What do people think of sound quality on Apple? I assumed it would be rather good, and it is (at the least) respectable. But I had been using Bose external speakers on previous computers. I like those a lot, and they provide better stereo effect. There is no clear way to connect those up to this new one. I'm not much of a techie, despite using computers pretty heavily for more than three decades. Not clear if you're using a desktop or laptop. I thought all their desktops still come with a 3.5 mm headphone jack. If your laptop doesn't (part of Apple's minimalist ethos), you should probably invest in a multiport adapter, such as: You can also play your music using Bluetooth or AirPlay. I have an Apple AirPort Express connected to my stereo, so can stream music from my iMac to that using AirPlay. I also have a pair of Altec desktop speakers connected to my iMac with a 3.5 mm headphone jack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milestones Posted April 28, 2023 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2023 There is headphone jack (desktop computer) and I tried the speakers there. I figured they would not work, and they don't. Some special adapter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rostasi Posted April 28, 2023 Report Share Posted April 28, 2023 I know that this sounds like something "Roy Trenneman" would ask, but have you checked your sound output settings? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Gray Posted April 28, 2023 Report Share Posted April 28, 2023 You are probably trying to output analog to your speakers. If you are, I can only agree with rostasi. check your settings. However it is possible you are trying to output digitally via a dac to your speakers. The minijack socket on Macs used to be combined digital/analog. Now they are just analog so digital output will not work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tranemonk Posted April 28, 2023 Report Share Posted April 28, 2023 21 hours ago, rostasi said: I'm probably gonna make the move to the M2 Max or Ultra Studio when it's hopefully released this fall. I use their machines for very long times (10 to 15 years) before replacing them. Even my monitor was nearly 22 years old when it finally gave out and I replaced it with this beautiful 30" Cinema HD Display. I've noticed that it can be wiser to go with even number upgrades, so that's why I'm going with the M2 chip. Ultra Studio is overkill in my opinion. Even a lot of the tech reviewers I trust on Youtube are like... "I will never use all the power in this thing..." not to mention the price... I have the Mac Studio base model and it's more than enough.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rostasi Posted April 28, 2023 Report Share Posted April 28, 2023 (edited) Yeah, I've seen that too, but when I buy, I want a big lasting jump in performance, mainly because it's not gonna leave this studio until it really has to. Yes, the chip is different and quite a few other things are advanced, but I've been using a 12-Core with 64 GB of memory for 13 years now and so I'm looking at a bigger jump with the M2 and Max or Ultra. We'll see what finally comes out when it's released. The comment about "...I'll never use...(etc)" is always a funny one to me, because I remember being overwhelmed with maximum specs for decades. ("Holy crap, a TERABYTE of storage! Wow, how can you use all of that?!?") Edited April 28, 2023 by rostasi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milestones Posted April 30, 2023 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2023 Back to the original idea---transferring the music files. I did get some music on, but less than 10%. I thought dragging the folder/files from external hard drive to "music/downloads" would do it, but it seems not--nor the similar copy and paste. So much for simple methods. I've tried Migration Assistant, which seemed to start and then stall. I thought Time Machine might work, but I think that's for something else. Pretty baffled right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjzee Posted April 30, 2023 Report Share Posted April 30, 2023 Here's a start: Open Finder and locate your music files on your EHD. Then open iTunes (aka Music). In the column on the left side of the iTunes window, under Library, click on Songs. This will list all the individual tracks that iTunes recognizes. Go back to Finder, and drag one folder (one album, say) onto the iTunes window. See if the music is copied into the iTunes library. See if those tunes play, and see what metadata transferred along with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rostasi Posted May 1, 2023 Report Share Posted May 1, 2023 (edited) Exactly what mjzee said. Dragging to music folders is actually not the easier method, because there are inner workings and extra steps that I won’t bore you with (and besides, there’s the easier method). Also, are you wanting to use that external hard drive as your source … or are you wanting to transfer your external drive tunes to a newer drive - for example, your internal drive? Seriously, just take a folder and drag and drop it in the left hand window and your Mac does the rest if you’re just transferring to your internal drive. Again, it’s always a good thing to Google precisely what it is what you want to do: “How do I add tunes to Apple Music from an external drive?” and often you’ll get a link to an Apple forum or helpful magazine article with helpful folks if you have further questions. There you’ll find out what Migration Assistant and Time Machine are actually used for. Just hate to see you trying and trying other things that might not be the things you need in order to do what you want to do. Edited May 1, 2023 by rostasi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tranemonk Posted May 1, 2023 Report Share Posted May 1, 2023 I would recommend a different method. Assuming you have your library organized the way you want it (on your Windows PC)... in Itunes, go to File and Import. It will ask you for a destination (e.g., where is the library you're moving it from) and just let it do its thing. How extensive is your library? As I mentioned previously I would screenshot it before your import so you know exactly what you have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjzee Posted May 1, 2023 Report Share Posted May 1, 2023 The reason I recommended he start with one album is this: iTunes (aka Music) will copy the files and place them in a folder of its own choosing. This location can be seen by going to Music/Settings.../Files, and see what is listed under "Music Media folder location." My assumption is that Milestones has a large music collection (he belongs to the Organissimo boards, right?). If he transfers all his music to his computer's hard drive, he'll probably fill it up. If he changes the location to the EHD where he currently houses his collection, because iTunes copies the music, creating a second copy of each file, he'll fill up that EHD. The best solution would be: if his EHD has space to duplicate his entire collection, then he should change the "Music Media folder location" to that EHD. If his EHD cannot hold an entire duplicate of his collection, his best bet is to purchase a second EHD and change the location to that EHD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milestones Posted May 1, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2023 I'm now thinking the problem is with the old computer--an HP. It always seemed eccentric with storage. As I look at the external HD, I often find no tracks under an album folder; or if the tracks do appear, they don't play. There is a message something about Quick Time Player, and I really know nothing about that. Some tracks came over with methods that have been described here on the forum. On the external HD the list starts with seemingly stray tracks (not in folders). These transfer; the others do not. At least I think this is the case! I need to really look at the external HD to see what is going on. My collection runs about 3,000 hours. I think I can reproduce it through various means, though it will take time--possibly years. My old HP is dead, so there is no more use of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 1, 2023 Report Share Posted May 1, 2023 Quik Time? Check you file types and their associations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Bresnahan Posted May 1, 2023 Report Share Posted May 1, 2023 Quicktime used to be an app on Apple PCs that was used to play video files. It can also play .mp3 files. If it's saying that .mp3 files open with QuickTime, I would guess that Apple Music is not your default music player. When you ripped your music to this external hard drive, what file format did you use? If you used Windows Media Player as a ripper, the resulting .wma files will not play on an Apple (that I am aware of). You might have to download something like VLC Player (https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html) to play them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Bresnahan Posted May 1, 2023 Report Share Posted May 1, 2023 I would also suggest taking your external hard drive over to a friends house that has a Windows PC just to see what that hard drive looks like on it. It may have gotten corrupted/damaged when your old PC went down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjzee Posted May 1, 2023 Report Share Posted May 1, 2023 4 hours ago, bresna said: I would also suggest taking your external hard drive over to a friends house that has a Windows PC just to see what that hard drive looks like on it. It may have gotten corrupted/damaged when your old PC went down. I second this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rostasi Posted May 2, 2023 Report Share Posted May 2, 2023 cue the “Third Man” theme… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milestones Posted May 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2023 On another issue, it looks like that on Apple one needs to create a playlist in order to burn an album or set of songs. I can work with that, but it just seems odd. Why not burn straight from the album? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Bresnahan Posted May 2, 2023 Report Share Posted May 2, 2023 (edited) If there is a lesson for those reading this, it's that everyone should be making multiple backups of their music library. I have 4 backups, with one stored at my daughters' house. I even have a partial backup at work but that one is useless as once I attach it to my work PC, it gets encrypted. The only way I could get anything off of the encrypted drive would be to write the mp3 files to a bunch of DVD-R discs, which would take a very long time. Edited May 2, 2023 by bresna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milestones Posted May 3, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2023 I had one backup, but it has largely failed me with music. On other things, it was invaluable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rostasi Posted May 3, 2023 Report Share Posted May 3, 2023 I’m wondering just how your audio was saved. Maybe they were Mac-incompatible .wav files? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Bresnahan Posted May 3, 2023 Report Share Posted May 3, 2023 7 hours ago, rostasi said: I’m wondering just how your audio was saved. Maybe they were Mac-incompatible .wav files? VLC can play wav files on a Mac. VLC can play practically anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rostasi Posted May 3, 2023 Report Share Posted May 3, 2023 (edited) Yes, that’s true. Sorry, what I meant to say was concerning the subject - which was about Apple Music. Not sure how good VLC is at organizing, but, yes, that can be used. Edited May 3, 2023 by rostasi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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