I spent a night trying to sync, clean, and organize my daughter's iTunes list so she could take her iPod Nano with her. Fortunately, it did yield some new approaches to using iTunes to manage my music for my players.

So, what was the problem? First, she has the 4G Nano (yeah, I know it's virtual child abuse to limit her to 4G of space, but it's cute, small, and it was cheaper than the 160G full-size by several insurance payments). So, we've only 3.6G of space and we like to rip CDs into lossless formats. There's no point syncing the lossless version on the Nano, since nobody can tell the difference with earbuds.

Is there a simple method of sorting these file types? Yes! The easiest solution is as simple as pushing a unique name for each file type to the ID3 tags on the files themselves. This can be done while you're ripping files, digitizing them to lossless formats, mp3s, etc. and/or through tag editors (of which there is no shortage) and you can even do batch modifications with many programs.

I like to keep both the smaller version of a given file, which is usually mp3, and the clearest possible version. So, I'll have an mp3 and something like an Apple Lossless format and their respectively huge difference in file size for the same song. For my stereo, I listen to the lossless version and for my iPod I'll use the mp3.

You can create an ID tag for the group as lossy, lossless, flac (not supported by the iTunes player without a hack), mp3, AAC, etc. It's messy, but it does the trick. If you edit one of the sort fields (on the ID tag) you can create smart playlists with those tags. So, you can create play lists with the tags indicating file size and compatibility for the player and sync your iPod with the lighter file types. It's also a way of playing the preferred quality rip when you're entertaining.

You don't even need go as far as creating a tag if you're savvy about the sample rates on your music. You can create smart play lists based on sample rates. Of course, I'll likely use the grouping tag ID and insert grouping by the quality since the bitrates may vary. Obviously, there are other uses for this tag so you may pick something else to use. The point is that this can be a flexible tool for increasing the iTunes discrimination based on file quality with a little human intervention.

I have other complaints about iTunes, though this is primarily a live-article about solutions with iTunes. Someone that has echoed a lot of my opinions on the shortfallings of iTunes is Eddie Lopez, especially as it relates to syncing podcasts to your player of choice.

Posted in media | tech jasonn's blog