Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with itunes and CD

How to break up tracks when ripping CDs?

RevRob330 — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 12:28:06 -0800

CD Ripping - how to break tracks into smaller chunks? itunes or MediaMonkey. I recently got a copy of Stay Awake, a CD of new artists doing covers of old Disney songs, and I want to rip it to my computer. Several tracks are medleys - 3 or 4 songs running into each other as a single track. I know I can rip these individually, and then use a cutting program to make an individual copy of the songs, but is there an easier/automated way? You can see more information on the album itself on its Wikipedia page.

I'd love to have a way to tell it something along the lines of:
"Take Track 1, which is 9:10 long and spit into:
Track 1 1:59 long
Track 2 3:32 long
Track 3 3:39 long"

I have MediaMonkey Gold (latest version as of a week ago) installed, and I also have itunes on the same laptop. I am running Win 7. I also have Ubuntu 10.10 on the same machine, but do not use it much.

I searched AskMeFi, and googled this, but I keep getting pages that explain how to change the sample rate, and other more basic changes.

I am not great with scripting, but if someone could point me to a script for MediaMonkey, I know how to cut, paste and execute it.

Any other tips, or advice would be appreciated.

Thank you!

Getting audiobook CD in to one book.

Megami — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:19:38 -0800

Audiobooks from CD to iTunes won't join as one book Have downloaded various CDs of audiobooks to iTunes, many of them multiple CDs. In most cases, I could get them to all join in to one book (does that make sense?) but there are three or four that just won't. All the details are the same, I have tried deleting and re-downloading, nothing. For example, one is the Hobbit and I could join all the CDs in to one book, except one (and a middle one at that). If I put them all in a playlist they all play fine and in order if that makes sense.

Is there something I am missing?

How do I change key or pitch on a song in itunes?

lynnie-the-pooh — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 07:15:07 -0800

Hi, I have a song in my itunes that my daughter will be singing to at a recital. The teacher asked me to "change the song a few half steps up to key C". She said her students do it often, but I'm not computer savvy. I have the song in my itunes library and I got it from the itunes store. I also put the song on a CD. It is Somewhere over the Rainbow. It is a particular arrangement that my daughter has already become accustomed to, so we don't want to change the song. We just want it to be a little higher so she can sing it a little higher. Is there software I can buy at an office supply store? Or is there a good website I can trust, for which I could download something? I need something easy and I need something that will show me "C major", as I'm not a technical person and don't know how to change pitches with numbers or slide bars or anything. I just want to change the instrumental song a few notches so it will be C major. Can you help?

Thank you so much.

I thought error checking FIXED errors, not caused them.

arniec — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:42:55 -0800

I'm utterly baffled...why does iTunes import long CDs with errors every time I turn ON error correction, but with error correction off it works fine? I am a "better safe than sorry" kind of guy and so every computer I have had iTunes on, I turn on the "Error correction" feature (which means I go into preferences and put that check in the box...I'm assuming checked means on and unchecked means off, but I could be dumb....).

I noticed when ripping audiobooks, where most of my CDs are in excess of 70 minutes, that errors in the files would occur starting at about 55 minutes and get progressively worse.

This happened to me on four different computers, three running Windows XP and one running Mac OSX, and on different versions of iTunes but always the most recent version available at the time.

It frustrated me but I didn't think much of it, wondering if the large WMAs created might be the problem (I join tracks on audiobooks).

Then I started ripping my audio CD collection and, again, noticed that some tracks skipped even though error correction was turned on. And again, these were later tracks on long CDs (I can specifically cite Eminem's Relapse CD, which runs over 76 minutes, as a CD where the last 3 tracks, about 15 minutes, would skip).

I did a lot of tests on this trying to get them to rip, but as I want all my songs in Apple Lossless my only other options were to rip to WAV and have iTunes convert (which did work successfully using a different program).

But I did some further tests and decided to try iTunes with error checking OFF and, go figure, the CD ripped correctly the first time. Thinking it a fluke, I re-ripped the CD. No problems listening to the track. I've now ripped MANY audio book CDs (all over 70 minutes) and not one skip with error checking OFF but tons of skips with error checking ON.

Can someone explain to me what the heck is going on???

I'm currently running iTunes 9.0.3.15 and still seeing this behavior.

Itunes Not Getting Info from CDBB (Mac) (though it seems to be trying)

snap_dragon — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:59:08 -0800

Itunes is not retrieving titles for CDs from CDBB. It tries to but gets nothing after a few seconds. I am not sure it is even connecting to CDBB or what error(s) are occurring. I even reinstalled Itunes 9 (9.0.2 - newest) and it still does it. I do get the response "This CD was not found in CDBB database. You can enter information for the CD and each of its tracks. If this is not a commercial CD etc etc etc"...I've tried several CDs such as the Doors, Pete Townsend, Roxy Music...all ones that have worked on previous Itunes incarnations. I am not sure if it is an Itunes thing, a Mac/computer thing, or CDBB thing. This is a new thing and wasn't happening before. I have had the computer about a year if that matters. Any suggestions? Thanks for your help and have a good upcoming holiday.

Why do my books skip?

arniec — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:10:38 -0800

Why can my mac (macbook pro) not rip audiobook CDs without skipping near the end? I love audiobooks, but I hate carrying around CDs. Best solution for me? Buy CDs, rip them using iTunes "Join Tracks" feature, put on iPod and go.

However I have a constant problem ripping audiobook CDs (all of which run close to the full 70 minutes available on a CD). Near the end of the CD I end up with skips, audible artifacting, and sometimes completely un-listen-able audio.

It is always near the end of the CD, though the point at which the problems come in may vary. It may be as early as 50 minutes in a 70 minute CD or as late as 65.

I'm importing the CDs using Apple Lossles Encoder. I have tried both with and without error correction when reading Audio CDs.

I don't seem to get this problem at all with Audio CDs, no matter their length. It's just an audiobook problem (perhaps audiobooks aren't pressed at the same quality? I don't know...)

I was hoping someone might be able to offer a suggestion, or if this is a known issue.

I'm using my MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Core Duo Intel system (4GB RAM, 360GB 5400RPM hard drive), so 2 models back from the current. I'm using the internal Superdrive for the reading (are there any known problems with this drive? Might I do better with a USB 2.0 external drive?)

Thanks!

How can we get CD revenues anonymously?

stewiethegreat — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:53:38 -0800

My buddies and I just finished recording a cd that we'd like to sell on iTunes and in stores but don't want our names attached to it in any way. How can we handle getting the profits in the cheapest way possible? We recorded a cd that is not what we normally do, and don't want to have our names (group, individuals) attached to it in any way. We anticipate modest sales, if it's anything like other cd's we've done, and want to know what the best way is to get the money without there being any way for anyone to find out we did it.

We have created a name for the band, etc, which obviously is not the name of our band.

It seems like the obvious thing to do would be to create a corporation or get a lawyer to handle it, but we have no idea how to go about this, and don't want to blow our anticipated (modest) revenues on anything too expensive. All we need is a way to get the money from iTunes to our bank accounts. We'd rather not solve the problem by asking girlfriends or distant relations receive the money and forward it to us.

Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!

MP3 CD Woes

snap_dragon — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:25:51 -0800

How to burn Mp3 random mixes (not entire albums) into several folders on Macintosh for easy navigation in my car cd player...I used to be able to make mp3 discs of whatever songs i wanted and then place them into folders on my desktop, then burn them to disc. It seems that Itunes only allows some form of folder separation (if any at all) by sorting things only by each group's album. This is not helpful if you want several folders with random songs in each folder...for example...I want one folder with songs by rock groups..another that is jazz...whatever. On the new imac, it does not seem to let me take the drag and dropped mp3s in folders on my desktop to a burn disc icon as it did in my older G4. Any suggestions on software or a simpler way around this? I appreciate your input. When it did work, it worked great and saved me from using a crummy fm transmitter on my ipod. The mp3 cds for me sound much better and are easily disposable if left in car.

How to add CD art to mulitple tracks in iTunes?

randomthoughts — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:55:02 -0800

How to add CD art to mulitple tracks in iTunes? I know how to add a missing CD art image to a single track in iTunes but is there a easy way to add them to all tracks for that CD?

Why does iTunes stop playing my CD?

carsonb — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 07:57:58 -0800

Why does iTunes stop playing my CD when I re-focus on the program? Win XP, iTunes 7 I have Autorun turned off. I feed my disc drive a lot of CDs, not all of which are DRM/malware-free, so I keep Autorun off. This means I have to put a CD into the drive, focus away from iTunes, and then focus back on it before it'll recognize the new album in the drive. This I am OK with.

However, if I am already playing a CD in iTunes while using another program, and if I move from that program back to iTunes, iTunes stops playing the CD and no longer even recognizes that a CD is in the drive. The CD disappears from the program. What's going on? How can I fix/prevent this phenomenon?

If it's worth mentioning, I think I'm 1 iTunes update behind. I've been putting it off because I'm scared the beast is gonna be even more of a resources hog on my already-struggling pc.

Maybe the problem is that the world CAN'T listen.

punchdrunkhistory — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 14:24:13 -0800

Why won't this CD rip properly? 12 out of 18 songs are completely garbled, regardless of which program I try to use. I've been trying to rip the Smiths' "The World Won't Listen" to my computer for about three weeks now, and it always fails. The first four and last two tracks are fine, but 'Shakespeare's Sister' through 'You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby' are garbled completely -- each song is at the proper running length, but is made up entirely of approximately five-second bits and pieces of other tracks from the album. Occasionally it plays the correct song for about fifteen seconds, and then returns to the mishmash.

This has happened no matter what program I use. At first I used solely iTunes to rip and play the tracks, but I've had the same results ripping in CDex and playing in foobar2000. The CD plays fine in regular CD players, and is in no way scratched. I get bad results when I try to simply play it as an audio CD through iTunes as well.

I don't believe that the CD is copy-protected. I purchased it new from a record store in Omaha, but it appears to be an Australian import -- if it matters, the inner bit on the underside of the CD reads "D.A.T.A. IFPIL 311 4509918982 D E1" (D.A.T.A. apparently stands for "Digital Audio Technologies Australia).

This hasn't happened with any other CDs I've ripped -- only this one, so I don't think it's a problem with the drive. Thanks!

Why can't I rip mp3s?

Ash3000 — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 06:35:43 -0800

For some reason, when I try to rip/import anything off a CD, all the audio on my laptop slows down to a choppy crawl. In the past few weeks, I've noticed that any time I try to rip something off a CD, be it with iTunes or any other program, the audio on anything else playing turns into an indecipherably slow and choppy crawl, be it an mp3, a website or whatever. I use a Toshiba Satellite. Any obvious culprits?

I hate my iPod (for audio books, anyway)

dpcoffin — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 15:47:34 -0800

There’s GOT to be a way I can convert my .aa audio books from Audible.com into plain old audio files (eventually convertible to mp3s for compact packing onto as few as possible CDs) without burning them all onto physical CD disks at 44.1k first, doesn’t there?? (“Virtual” disks would be fine!) On a Mac, btw... And yes I’m aware that this seems to be something of a grail quest, but surely some M’Filterite has found it...yes?

Mac software for creating quality CD mixes?

jdroth — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 10:59:24 -0800

On the PC, I used Easy CD Creator 5 to create CD mixes. I loved the ability to create custom transitions between tracks: cross-fades, fade-ins, gaps, etc. What is the best CD mix-making software for Macintosh? (iTunes is sadly lacking in these sorts of features.) A downloadable shareware app would be great, but I'm willing to consider something like Toast, even though it costs $80. (Is Toast a good product? Will it let me do cross-fades? The reviews make me wary.) I suppose the best option would be some sort of iTunes add-on to let me do cross-fades, etc. Does such a beast exist?

what's that song called?

n o i s e s — Mon, 09 May 2005 21:52:42 -0800

is there *any* way that i can burn a cd using itunes (or other itunes compatible os x app/script) which will also write the album name/artist & song titles so that when i play my, ahem, cd backup copies in my car i don't just get: 'untitled' & 'track 1' etc on my fancy sat navi display? thank you.

CD Hidden Track Encoding

nthdegx — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 01:43:42 -0800

How do I encode hidden tracks on my CDs that appear before track 1. In my CD player I just hit backawards search to listen to them. Is there an easier way than recording a .wav and encoding that? Why aren't iTunes and Winamp equipped to find these?

How do I burn music CD's using AAC files?

blueshammer — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 06:26:43 -0800

Waugh! (Pronounced the Snoopy way or the Evelyn way.) My iTunes will no longer burn AAC files onto CD. I've followed Fearless Leader's lead and de-DMRed all my Apple Music Store purchases with hymn, but I can't burn protected songs that have been hymned, protected songs that haven't been hymned or unprotected songs that used to be hymned. (I guess I didn't try an AAC rip since I mostly rip to mp3, so there's a missing data point.) When I go to burn a playlist, it deselects all the AAC tracks, although it will burn mp3s made from unprotected AAC files. Does anyone know what's up? Is there another Mac app for making audio CDs from AAC files? I'm not much of an audiofile, but don't want to go through the quality loss of converting 128 kbps AAC to 128 kbps mp3 for all these songs.

AAC to MP3 for fair use?

grumblebee — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 07:16:09 -0800

I've been buying my wife tracks from iTunes and putting them on her Archos Jukebox. Since the Archos doesn't accept the aac format, I have to burn them from Archos onto CDs and then rip the CDs back into my PC and then download the ripped files onto her Jukebox. (I don't feel like I'm cheating Apple out of revenue, because only my wife listens to this music.) [More Inside.] According to my research, this is the only way to move music from iTunes Music Store to a non-aac device. But I'd LOVE to find a method that is less complicated and also cuts analog out of the process.

So here's what I'm wondering: There are all sorts of virtual CD programs out there -- you know, the kind of app that fools your PC into thinking part of your hard drive is a CD in a CD drive. But the only way I've ever seen these virtual drives work is with an image of an actual CD. Why should this be the case? Why shouldn't you be about to create a virtual CD image (a virtual virtual)? In other words, why can't you create a file that never came from an actual CD but which your computer THINKS came from a CD? It's all 1s and 0s, right?

If I could do this, I could burn a fake CD from iTunes and then fool the Archos into downloading MP3s from that fake CD.

Does this app not exist because no one has bothered to create it? Is there a technical issue that makes it impossible? Or does it exist and I just don't know about it?

Are CD's ripped with iTunes AAC less portable than MP3s?

scarabic — Tue, 03 Feb 2004 21:12:40 -0800

If I rip my CDs with iTunes, and select the "AAC Encoder," will the files be any less portable than MP3s? Can most MP3 player apps/devices handle them? Are they all intrinsically copy-protected? Are there real quality benefits? (I'm asking on behalf of someone who has already invested serious time in ripping, using iTunes' - you guessed it - default settings).

Will iTunes recognize song titles on CDs?

Frank Grimes — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 13:27:34 -0800

How do I get iTunes to recognize song titles on CD's when I put them in my drive? My roommate just got a Mac and I'm trying to help him put all of his CD's on it without having to type in song names. Nevermind, I got it.