iPods: Crap/ Not Crap?

[Dubversion]

the thing is, half the stuff i download has shit tags, and I can't be bothered sorting them out. Folders and file names mean I don't have to

 

[Crispy]

It's not really any more hassle editing the tags on a new album as it is creating new folders, but if you've already got a big collection of poorly tagged music, I can see the benefit.

I spent a couple of weeks cleaning the tags up on my collection a few years ago, which I'm glad I did.

 

[Kanda]

The difference with Dub is he is a music Geek. Loves genres and fucking about filing his music into nice little folders

If you can't be arsed to do that, use iTunes. If you're a music Geek go Dubs way (tm)

 

[Dubversion]

I spent a couple of weeks cleaning the tags up on my collection a few years ago, which I'm glad I did.

well if you want to come round and sort all 270gb's worth of tags, maybe I'll give itunes another go

 

[tarannau]

If you're a music Geek go Dubs way (tm)

No, if you're a lazy music geek go Dub's way (tm).

And then get all uppity at itunes because it has the temerity to arrange your musically logically and upset/expose the omissions in your heath-robinson fussy-folder system.

I really can't see the problem. If you want itunes to automate the dull folder stuff then tick/untick the required preference. Or not if you prefer.

 

[Crispy]

Yeah, but fucked-up tags makes the smart stuff in itunes redundant. You end up with a genre list that includes "Reggae" "reggae" "Regae" "Reggea" "Reggay" and so on. And then 10,000 tracks by "Unknown Artist"

 

[Dubversion]

I really can't see the problem. If you want itunes to automate the dull folder stuff then tick/untick the required preference. Or not if you prefer.

but if you're not using itunes for the sorting element, what the hell else purpose does it serve?

 

[Roadkill]

I like iTunes, although if I'd had a pre-existing MP3 collection I'd probably have got pissed off with it, since it does sort things to suit its own convenience. Aside from that I've only a couple of minor quibbles with it: I don't like the way it stops what you're playing if you start browsing stuff by another artist, and it mildly irritates me that you can't cue things up as easily as you can with, say, Winamp.

IPods? Far from crap. I bought my 4Gb nano a few weeks ago and I'm very impressed with it. It's handy, easy to use, the sound quality's good and, using iTunes it's so easy to shift music on and off it. All good IMO.

 

[Crispy]

It doesn't stop playing when you browse other stuf - What exact steps are you going through?

Queing up tracks is easy. Drag the first track/selection to empty space in the sidebar and it creates a new playlist. Keep dragging new stuf onto that playlist.

 

[kyser_soze]

iPOd& iTunes is a good example of something that a load of people have sat down and said 'Right, let's make this as easy as possible for the greatest number of people'; and it is.

 

[Crispy]

My parents can use it, and I didn't even have to help them. Now that's good software design.

 

[kyser_soze]

Exactly. Most people won't have 270gb worth of MP3s to start with...

 

[Crispy]

That is a disgusting amount of music Do you even listen to most of it?

 

[kyser_soze]

I've got about 30gig on my external HD, just under 17 on the iPOd, and I reckon about another 30 or so on CD still...I listen to about 15% or less of it regularly...some stuff I haven't listened to for over a decade but will never make the mistake of selling off/donating stuff out again...

 

[Roadkill]

It doesn't stop playing when you browse other stuf - What exact steps are you going through?

It does. Well, mine does, anyway. If I'm playing, say, a Bob Dylan album and half way through I click on another artist and browse through what I have of theirs, the Dylan will stop at the end of the track. I've not found a way to stop it doing that - and nor has Jeff, who is a lot more clued up about it than I am.

Queing up tracks is easy. Drag the first track/selection to empty space in the sidebar and it creates a new playlist. Keep dragging new stuf onto that playlist.

Oh I know that, but it's slightly more effort than dragging and dropping songs into Winamp. Lazy? Me? Never.

One of my tasks for this weekend is to teach my mum how to use it, actually...

 

[tarannau]

but if you're not using itunes for the sorting element, what the hell else purpose does it serve?

Playing the music through two sets of (wireless) speakers through simple drop-down menus. Conveniently shared music libraries between three computers all wirelessly networked in the house - play whatever tune from whatever computer wherever.

Very easy to find playlists and a list of (unduplicated) selections to roll out. and that kind of thing. Excellent searching and filtering

Why would I want to go back to some inconsistent folder system and lose the added bits?

 

[Dubversion]

That is a disgusting amount of music Do you even listen to most of it?

why is it disgusting?

and yes, music is on pretty much the whole time. I move stuff on and off my mp3 player regularly.. A lot of stuff i have on vinyl or CD i have on my PC as well.. anything I don't play eventually gets deleted..

 

[cesare]

Exactly. Most people won't have 270gb worth of MP3s to start with...

I just had a wee check, and on one music folder (they're a bit scattered atm, cos I've been moving them about) I have 120GB. I use and like iTunes but I do tend to organise via folders then let iTunes import em.

 

[Crispy]

It does. Well, mine does, anyway. If I'm playing, say, a Bob Dylan album and half way through I click on another artist and browse through what I have of theirs, the Dylan will stop at the end of the track. I've not found a way to stop it doing that - and nor has Jeff, who is a lot more clued up about it than I am.

Hmmm. Will have to check this out!

 

[Roadkill]

why is it disgusting?

Well, it's about seven times as much as I've got...

 

[soulman]

Not crap

 

[ovaltina]

Oh noes!!!

I just bought one. On the way home from the pub. I can't get the fucking thing to sync! This may be because of all the beer. Anyway, yes it's very pretty, but I can't get it to wurk!

I'll probably have more luck when sober

ETA: Ok I've got it running now. It's a 160gb classic one, and it's a lovely little machine. Itunes is easy compared to the Sony software my old MP3 thing was lumbered with, but not perfect. But whatever... Tori Amos sounds lovely. I'm a little annoyed at Selfridges tho - they put 20 per cent off vouchers on their website, along with a list of brands that are not included, then when I got there they said the ipod wasn't included. That's false advertising! I'm going to ring and ask them to send me some cash

 

[Reno]

I bought the 160GB Ipod when I was last in the US and it's fab. I've got my entire music collection, 3 days worth of video material, 500 podcasts, 600 photos on there and it's not even half full. It makes my long daily commute a lot more bearable.

 

[han]

My mate's got 1 tb of music (it's taken him 10 years to...erm...collect it ) - which I'm about to copy off him - huzzah!

Now THAT's disgusting. But no, actually - it's not disgusting - it's an amazingly good collection of everything you could ever want and fortuantely he's got an obscure and rather interesting taste in music.

But going back to the ipod debate.

I have always had a disliking for iTunes and the way it does things, even though I've got a mac. However, recently I have begun investigating mp3 players cos I've never had one. And the fact that you can now get £160gb of storage for £200 on an ipod is just SUCH good value compared to others (eg. Creative, who don't do a player of anywhere near that capacity). So I'm leaning towards getting one.

I think the reason why I find iTunes annoying is because I'm old fashioned and have only ever used a file-structure to organise things. I'm realising that actually, it could be quite a useful tool if I can just be arsed to learn it and get the best out of it. And I can still browse the file-structure if I want, obviously, by just looking at the folders in the Finder window (or using Windows Explorer if you're PC based).

I think I'm getting converted to iTunes/iPods. A technophobic mate copied loads of my music onto his iPod recently and it was just so easy. A monkey could've done it. Yep, it IS good software design!

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Actually, I find the fact that the 160gig always has a good chunk of free space on it very handy - I have taken to rsyncing my iMac's Documents folder to it, so that when I take my Powerbook out, I can just rsync iPod to pbook, then pbook to iPod when I'm done, then iPod to iMac when I get home. If that makes sense. The other advantage is that it's one extra backup copy.

 

[han]

ooh, that's a fab idea.

I didn't know about rsync. Is that some kind of automated syncing thing? You do it over usb, I presume...

 

[ovaltina]

Observations after a weekend of using the ipod - itunes is a good bit of software, but won't let you register without supplying credit/debit card details. This means you can't automatically download album artwork, and maybe other stuff I don't know about. Cheeky.

Everybody talks about how great the wheel thing is but I'm struggling with it - I keep going past the menu options I want. Maybe it gets easier after a while, but it seems too sensitive.

Apart from that it's a million miles ahead of the Sony thing I had before.

 

[Crispy]

After a little googling, it seems you can remove credit card information from the account immediately after you set it up.

 

[ovaltina]

Ah, will give that a try. I don't have one at the mo anyway, so can't register the ipod. It's not a major thing, but stikes me as cheeky of Apple to force customers into giving their card details over the internet, something I usually never do.

Did you get around to dissecting your Oyster card?

 

[Chz]

Another vote for "Ipods are great but Itunes pisses me off".

Thankfully most programs (WMP, WinAmp, etc.) will sync Ipods these days.