Mac server

[colterphoto1]

Been using an old iMac for my music, recently bought a 2 TB HD for it and working on 'upsucking' all my CD's to it.

I want good quality, not gritty MP3. Should I use AIFF or Apple Lossless (MP4) file type and why? I'm about 40 cd's into it and a friend brought this up to me. I've been using the Apple Lossless but want to make sure that I'm really not losing any quality and will be compatible with iTunes 47 when it comes out (seems like they update that software every other week).

Thanks

[seti]

They are both lossless but I try to use aiff. The bigger file size makes me feel more secure [:$] Some other programs prefer aiff so it may be more backwards compatable. aiff is uncompressed while files like mp4 flac are compressed. There is software available to convert between them if you change your mind about formats later.

The formats to avoid are the lossy ones like mp3 and wma.

[fini]

Been using an old iMac for my music, recently bought a 2 TB HD for it and working on 'upsucking' all my CD's to it.

Michael, how old is the Mac? What OS ya using?

[colterphoto1]

"Let's call this one Jungle so we can remember what it was.." doesn't a Klipsch Forum member use that as sig line?

I have the old sno-cone mac with the screen on a stalk, you know the one. 80 gb internal HD was packed years ago so music went nowhere. 800Mhz G4 processor 512 SDRAM lol, Safari 1.3, iTunes 7! Ok, ok look I just got the music copied over to the other HD. Give me a bit to make sure this drive is solid before deleting old music and making room for updated system. [ip][li]

I guess I should be asking what (if anything ) I can do to cost-effectively (!) speed up this iMac. Remember the 2TB is only connected via standard USB so that might be the bottleneck. It takes long enough to upsuck a CD that I have time for Facebook or to do something around the house every time I plunk a disk in there..[:^)][O]

M

[fini]

I've been meaning to tell you that that pink area in your current avatar looks to me like the beginning moments of a mushroom cloud...

[seti]

"Let's call this one Jungle so we can remember what it was.." doesn't a Klipsch Forum member use that as sig line?

I have the old sno-cone mac with the screen on a stalk, you know the one. 80 gb internal HD was packed years ago so music went nowhere. 800Mhz G4 processor 512 SDRAM lol, Safari 1.3, iTunes 7! Ok, ok look I just got the music copied over to the other HD. Give me a bit to make sure this drive is solid before deleting old music and making room for updated system.

I guess I should be asking what (if anything ) I can do to cost-effectively (!) speed up this iMac. Remember the 2TB is only connected via standard USB so that might be the bottleneck. It takes long enough to upsuck a CD that I have time for Facebook or to do something around the house every time I plunk a disk in there..

M

That is a cool Mac. I call it the iLamp. If your just using it for a music server it should be fine. Not sure how far it will upgrade or how far you have to upgrade it. I've used old versions of itunes without issues.

[colterphoto1]

ok, I'm using AIFF now. Any tips on organizing stuff? Traditionally I've just titled each folder with artist album. Then I usually drag all albums from a given artist or genre into a master folder like Deep Purple ALL for easy access, then I tag/drag into fun folders by subject matter or a given purpose, such as compilation CD sets to give friends, folders for work (set breaks), etc.

[seti]

ok, I'm using AIFF now. Any tips on organizing stuff? Traditionally I've just titled each folder with artist album. Then I usually drag all albums from a given artist or genre into a master folder like Deep Purple ALL for easy access, then I tag/drag into fun folders by subject matter or a given purpose, such as compilation CD sets to give friends, folders for work (set breaks), etc.

My media folders are a mess. Partially because when I first started I let iTunes organize them then I switched to a folder structure of Media\Artist\Albums. Mine is a mess. Ultimately I just keep my itunes folders organized. It is hard to let go of the OCD for media folders lol but I had to.

[colterphoto1]

Right now I just copy albums to a folder named 'artist album' but I'd like to have it all organized like my shelves, which is:

Media (LP, CD, DVD)

Genre (rock, jazz, classical etc)

Artist

Chrono sort within artist

solo/offshoot projects from that band (ie Robert Plant and Jimmy Page are at the end of the Led Zep artist, not in the P's)

How could this be accomplished, just by using folders? I would think that would be a mess. I'll just leave it all in it's current state. Perhaps some code to put at the beginning of the album to help sort by Genre, I don't know.

[colterphoto1]

I like Kaiser's LP library with everything just stuck in random boxes in no particular order, every listening session is therefore an odyssey.

Me, I gotta have order though...

[mungkiman]

"Let's call this one Jungle so we can remember what it was.." doesn't a Klipsch Forum member use that as sig line?

Guilty. From "Morning Symphony Ideas".

[mungkiman]

I've been meaning to tell you that that pink area in your current avatar looks to me like the beginning moments of a mushroom cloud...

And I thought it was a brain, not a lamp shade.

[colterphoto1]

so I've been chugging away at recording CD's onto this new drive and a friend comes over with her little PC laptop. She's burning (same file size basically AAC v AIFF) THREE CD's to every one I get done! I guess it must be the USB (not 2) interface that I'm stuck with. Or my RAM, or clock speed. I'm inclined to believe it's the USB throughput though.

I could clear off my internal hard disc, copy CD's to that during the day, then copy that bunch of folders onto the external TB in large batches at night and such. Do you think this would be a worthwhile addition to my work flow?

M

[AnalogWave]

I own the same model iMac - got a small museum collection of Macs. That generation is seven to eight years old depending upon the exact model. Only the last of the series had USB2, which is substantially faster than USB1. The optical drive, bus and processor are steam powered by today's standards, so I wouldn't recommend putting money into the computer itself. About the best you can do is load the OS on your fast external drive and switch the boot drive from the internal 80 to the fast external - easy to do in the System Preferences. The other beauty of this is should you find yourself the owner of a newer used Mac someday, the whole enchilada is on the external - just plug it into a faster port.

I went with Apple Lossless. It's compression only, not lossy. As such, you can fit more music not only on your primary server drive but also on portable devices. I use a Nano as a source in my car audio system. I guess you could do your own A/B testing and listen for quality differences. Your ears, your gear - no better authority, right?

With regard to music organization, I check the box and let iTunes do its thing and organize the artists into folders. Really, it's not that important how the music sits on your drive. What you want to do is use iTunes to organize everything - Media, Genre, Artist, etc. You can right-click on an individual or selection of songs and choose 'Get Info' (or Command + letter i) and from the resulting window (at least in iTunes 9.2.1} you can utilize categories like 'Grouping' and 'Genre' under the 'Info' heading. You can create your own Genres if the factory ones fall short. Whatever changes you make here should affect all the selected songs. There are even more settings under the 'Sorting' heading. Then go to 'View Options' and enable all the new columns. And don't forget 'Playlists' which can consist of whatever you drag into the folder.

Finally, and not to be a pill, back the drive up. Technology cuts both ways.

[colterphoto1]

Thanks for the great tips there. It kind of scares me having my system and programs on external drive would that speed up the copying any? I know I can plug this Mac HD into any future Mac I get and that's comforting.

Good thoughts about the file size with regard to portable devices. My iPod is only 30 gb (ok I stay a couple of steps behind, because I'm poor), so that is a concern. Maybe I should revert back to Lossless from AIFF? Isn't there a way to tell iTunes 'make a cheap copy of this and use that to download to iPod device'? I thought that was what people were doing with movies and such.

Thanks for the tips on organizing, didn't know those sort fields were avaiable. I've been using playlists extensively but wanted to do some deeper cataloging.

Here's something I do to make fun playlists. Create a folder, lets call it JAZZ. Go to my main MUSIC folder, sort by genre so all the jazz titled stuff appears together. Give a listen and quickly copy a bunch of stuff to JAZZ folder. Here's where it gets interesting. Using the STAR system, tag each track as to a style of music (world*, fusion**, classic***, acoustic ****, etc.) and then you can resort, recopy, burn to CD pretty specific groups of fave tunes.

[colterphoto1]

I've been reading all the Google searches on AIFF v Apple Lossless. Can't come up with anything definitive. It's like the tube v solid state debate. arrgggh

[AnalogWave]

I can't think of a reason to be concerned about an external drive running the show, but I could be missing something.

Your iMac has a Firewire port and I'm guessing a 5400 RPM factory drive. Just by virtue of the faster 7200 RPM Firewire external drive (if that's what you've got) the machine should be a little snappier. Tough to say whether or not you'll notice any benefits ripping music - that bottleneck could be elsewhere. Either way, once your are done you're done. Just back up your music periodically so you don't hafta' repeat the entire process. It's a lot worse than alphabetizing LPs.

The file type debate, yeah, I just don't know what to tell you. Size was the factor for me as I couldn't hear a difference between the two. If you've got the space and are a good way through the process, carry on with what you've got. There is a function in iTunes under the Advanced menu to convert a high bit rate track to an MP3, but it stores it alongside all your fat files. The more you convert, the more space you consume. I suppose you should check to be sure your iPod can play Apple Lossless files - I don't know when Apple first introduced the format and it's possible the earliest Pods may not be compatible.

If you're not using the 'Grouping' category, that could replace your Source (LP, CD, etc.) The music Style can be added to the existing 'Genre' category, thus freeing up the Star System for rating individual tracks. I'll rip entire CD's knowing full well I won't want to keep all the tracks on my hard drive. I'll then play the collection and mark songs for future deletion with one Star and clear them out later. If I tire of a song after a while I'll zap it that way too. I mean I've got the disc should I want it again.

[colterphoto1]

didn't get a firewire drive, thought they were a thing of the past. Using a USB drive.Proabaly 1/3 through the CD collection already so I'll just keep going as I have been. Shoulda rethought the whole thing and would have been better with 2 x 1TB drives so I'd have backup already here. Or do the whole thing on PC so I could cram a bunch of drives in one case. But this is cheap for now.

One of the main reasons for this swapperoo is to get different music available for my iPod. Considering my use is playing over PA systems, I'm in favor of less music of higher quality. I'll probably fill the iPod with interested playlists, not so much the LedZepALL groupings I had before.

[seti]

[bliss53]

I use a mac mini because there is no fan noise. I like the ease of ripping lossless to itunes. Be sure to use error correction when ripping. The library functions really well. I use a firewire 2 tb drive. I also use a software called Pure Music ($129) that runs with itunes. It grabs the data files and uses its own up sampling program which far better than the itunes output. Up until a couple of weeks ago I used a Wavelenth USB tube DAC with great sounding results.

I would have been very happy to keep this setup but I got the sister program to Pure Music called Pure Vinyl and I started recording my vinyl to 24/192 raw files. The term raw files means that no RIAA equalization curve has been applied to the recording. The RIAA stuff is applied by the software with none of the distortion that comes from a hardwired phono stage. The recording quality is almost as good as the standard vinyl playback but much more convenient. In order to record the raw file you need a microphone preamp. I got a TC Electric Impact Twin on the recommendation of the guy who developed Pure Vinyl. I had to give up the 24/92 wavelength because the software requires both input and output be the same and I wanted to record vinyl at 24/192.

The DAC output on the impact twin is almost as good as the very expensive wavelentgh. Now every time I sit down for a vinyl session I record as I listen. I am a "listen to the whole album" person so I do not break down the tracks. The file sizes can be 1.5 to 2 GB for a single album. I drop them into itunes and they are there for the clicking.

Sorry to go on when you only asked about servers.