Entertainment For Lively Minds
Replacing pre-existing files on iTunes
Posted by LOUDspeaker on 18 August 2011 - 11:44am.
Did you know?...
...that you can replace existing music files on iTunes so you don't lose playcounts, genre tags, comments, placements in playlists etc.
Insert the CD into the computer, make sure the artist, album and song titles are exactly the same and iTunes will recognise the pre-existing files and will ask if you want to replace them?
I updated Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan from 192 MP3 to 256 AAC. The songs "4th Time Around" and "Obviously 5 Believers" were spelled on my 192 rips with "Fourth" and "Five" so those were ripped as new songs instead of as replacements.
You need to keep an eye on what your computer is doing to make sure everything's going to plan, but this should be useful information to know.
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I only learned this last week!
I'm presently downsizing a lot of stuff that I ripped at a crazy-high bitrate so as to free up some space on my iPod.
An occasional click on the 'Recently Added' playlist will flag any problems with duplication.
Alternatively.....
... instead of downsizing your iTunes library, on the Summary tab when you connect your iPod to iTunes, there is a checkbox "Convert higher nitrate songs to 128kbps AAC". Select that and it will leave your iTunes as is, but downsize them as it copies to the iPod, saving you space and the trouble of doing yourself.
I have my library as lossless on the iMac (to stream around the house to the HiFi) but convert to 128kbps for the iPod in the car.
I thought about doing that, Chris
and there was a niggly voice in my head that said going from one lossy format to another mightn't be a good idea, and that there'd be less risk of degrataion by doing the process *again* from a CD.
I realise there's a huge heap of irony here in me, on the one hand, wanting to downsize bitrates and, on the other hand moaning about a fear of sound degratation. :)
yes,
my understanding (possibly suspect) is that mp3 and AAC compress different elements of the music file, so converting from one to the other is effectively going to lead to double loss?
I did know this one actually
But maybe you've hit on a good idea - tips for iPods/iTunes.
I learned a few things about iTunes out of necessity, for the time when it lost all my files (incredibly annoying with 35,000 tracks, but now all backed up) and when I had too many tracks that they wouldn't fit on my old iPod. Until I realised that you can simply untick the boxes to leave it off the iPod, I was deleting tracks to make way for new ones.
I have since been through my entire library and tidied it all up, adding the artwork and everything, so it looks really good. Even then I wasted time cutting and pasting artwork or correct album titles into each individual song from an album before realising (after I'd nearly completed the task) that you can edit this information for groups of songs at the same time by simply highlighting all the songs you want to edit before right clicking and going into Get Info. Would have saved me ages if someone would have told me that at the outset.
My tip though, for those that don't know this, is that it is easy to edit the last track on those albums whereby the band thought it was a good idea to have a 'secret' track after the last song, so you simply have two normal tracks instead of a great long one with a gap between the songs. Before downloading the last track, listen to the end of it and make a note of when the track ends. Then right click and go into Get Info and go into the Options tab. Delete the Stop Time and enter the time that the track ends, adding a second or two to ensure you allow for the fade out. Once that has downloaded you can listen to the start time of the secret track and repeat as above changing the Start Time to a second or two before the track starts. You will also need to delete what you put in Stop Time and leave it blank, so that it downloads the secret track to the end. You will then need to go into the Info tab and change the Name of the secret track, to avoid it copying over the previous track. Hey presto, two tracks!
You can even use this method to create your very own intros quiz, should you be so inclined, or to edit out rubbish bits of songs that you don't like!
oh y'poor bastard...
individually editing track details rather than just doing the one album name on a group of songs!
Thanks for the tip on sorting out 'hidden' tracks.
FYI
Don’t you hate CDs that have a bonus track tacked onto the end of the last song after a long silence? Especially when they come up on shuffle?
I use a programme called mp3DirectCut to edit those silences, and to separate the hidden track from the last song (it’s freeware and easily found using Google). Unfortunately it only works with MP3 files. As far as I’m aware there isn’t a similar programme for AAC editing. Well I’ve worked out a way to cut parts out of AAC music files using iTunes.
To edit out the silence and cut the two songs into separate music files do the following using iTunes:
Rip the whole album in AAC apart from the last track.
Rip the last track in Apple Lossless (so not to lose sound quality when it gets converted into AAC).
Play the last track and find out at what point the first song ends.
Right click on last track and select Get Info.
Under the Options tab there is a box marked Stop Time.
Input the time the song ends.
Change the import CD settings back to AAC from Apple lossless.
Right click on last track and select Create AAC Version.
iTunes will then make an AAC version that is only as long as the start to stop time you specified, meaning that you will have now created a short version without the silence or the bonus track.
Play the full length version again and note the time when the hidden track starts.
Right click on it and select Get Info.
Under the Options tab there is a box marked Start Time.
Input the time the song starts and put a zero in the End Time box in order for it to reset to the standard full length.
Right click on it and select Create AAC Version.
iTunes will then make an AAC version that is only as long as the start to stop time you specified, meaning that you will have now created a short version without the first song or the silence.
Rename the track with the correct title or Bonus Track if you don’t know the name. I also recommend adding “(Edited)” to the end of both shortened music file names.
Delete the full length Lossless version as it is no longer needed.
You now have two tracks without silences instead of one long track with a song on either end separated by a gulf of silence.
Change the track number of the Bonus Track and change the number of songs in the album by +1.
While I’m here I’ll also point out that you can combine tracks that run into each other. Before ripping the CD highlight the appropriate tracks, click on the Advanced pop down menu and then select Join CD Tracks. When you rip the CD those two or so tracks will be ripped as one file.
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/a-simple-way-to-edit-aac-audio-fil...