itunes 4.5

[BevvyB]

bang on music store 1st anniversary!

Cool things I've noticed:

You can select any playlist and iTunes will generate an instant CD jewel case insert of the track names. This is GREAT for sending out your day to day mixes and work. Very cool.

Also, there's an arrow next to each track and artist. Press the arrow - you're at the appropriate section of the itunes music store. This is cool for research if nothing else

Also, like amazon have 'listmania', you can now have your fave playlists displayed on the music store - this kind of thing is great for seeing what people are into of a particular genre, and always brings up cool stuff you may never have come across

[BevvyB]

A new feature on it is 'apple lossless compression'

Anyone know anything about that?

is it this?

http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/edit...ves/000163.php

[robdarling]

What I'd love to see:

the ability to make an itunes machine into a rendezvous slave. Computers in different rooms would enable a complete home entertainment setup that could be under local control (I'm listening on a machine in the living room, but my wife wants to listen to something else while she's taking a shower and getting dressed in the bedroom) but during a party, computers around the house could all be under remote control of a central machine and its playlist.

[keyboardman]

Simple program it is, I find iTunes incredibly useful. Recently I've been getting into the Radio Stations and a program called "Radio Lover". It lets you tune in and record different radio stations during the day. Each morning, I have a couple hours' worth of new music to listen to. A lot of stations even stream the names of artists. Bosh it into the iPod and enjoy something different.

Apologies if internet radio isn't news to anyone but its so refreshing after being inundated with "POP"!

Printing labels directly is SUCH a good feature. So simple but so useful. Especially when roughing up mixes for clients...it would be nice to have something a little more "official" looking.

The lossless compression looks interesting too. But I wonder if half-sized AIFF and WAV files are small enough to "catch on".

Has anyone tried that "xACT" utility?

[cdog]

FLAC is the real shiit

[arimaka]

Originally posted by cdog
FLAC is the real shiit

I can't agree with you more!!!!!
FLAC is AMAZING...

but watch Apple...
Watch them jump up and bite ya! Remember this is only the first release of their LossLess Codec... and they have one or two good programmers in their building... it's going to be interesting to see how this develops...

[jazzius II]

Hmmmmm......reading the FLAC blurb really doesn't explain if it's actually lossless (=bit for bit the same before/after en/decoding) or just better quality then MP3. The piece says it "fills the hole" between MP3 and wav.

Anyone have the low-down on this?.......lossless or simply less lossy?!

[jazzius II]

from the FLAC website:

Lossless: The encoding of audio (PCM) data incurs no loss of information, and the decoded audio is bit-for-bit identical to what went into the encoder. Each frame contains a 16-bit CRC of the frame data for detecting transmission errors. The integrity of the audio data is further insured by storing an MD5 signature of the original unencoded audio data in the file header, which can be compared against later during decoding or testing.

Can you download stuff in FLAC format now from i-tunes?....if so, sign me up!

[VotaIdiota]

Originally posted by jazzius II

Can you download stuff in FLAC format now from i-tunes?....if so, sign me up!

Seriously.
I always said that I would never pay for downloading songs off the internet unless they were bit for bit cd quality.
If Apple has now integrated this into their store, then they just got a brand new costumer.

[arimaka]

Originally posted by VotaIdiota
Seriously.
I always said that I would never pay for downloading songs off the internet unless they were bit for bit cd quality.
If Apple has now integrated this into their store, then they just got a brand new costumer.

They haven't integrated it into their store... The store uses AAC 128kbps and the sound quality is better than the mp3's everyone in the world listens to.

The LossLess codec has been integrated into iTunes, so you can store your own cd's, it even works for delivering audio when time and space is crucial... But it's only 2:1 ratio... If Apple finds a way to improve their codec and make it smaller and smaller and still lossless... now, that would be very interesting... because they could actually comercialize a format that is at least CD-quality...

On the other side there is a lot of people trying to push 24-bit/192Khz DVD-A ... and all the SACD Stuff...

It's like a tug of war...

[VotaIdiota]

Originally posted by arimaka
They haven't integrated it into their store... The store uses AAC 128kbps and the sound quality is better than the mp3's everyone in the world listens to.

The LossLess codec has been integrated into iTunes, so you can store your own cd's, it even works for delivering audio when time and space is crucial... But it's only 2:1 ratio... If Apple finds a way to improve their codec and make it smaller and smaller and still lossless... now, that would be very interesting... because they could actually comercialize a format that is at least CD-quality...

On the other side there is a lot of people trying to push 24-bit/192Khz DVD-A ... and all the SACD Stuff...

It's like a tug of war...

Well, I've already devised a system where all the cds I just like are put into my ipod at 320 AAC.. and the cds I LOVE are put in at Apple Lossless. So far, so good. I'm certainly hoping Apple continues to work on the codec.

[robdarling]

AAC 128 is better than mp3 128, yes, but not better than mp3 192, which I consider to be the minimum I can listen to and feel like the musical relationships of instruments aren't being altered. Apple should have stepped up and done it slightly higher quality, imho.

Go rip an album of songs that are engrained in your brain- the Police Greatest Hits, Billy Joel- stuff that is strong songs that will be wrong if instruments are improperly balanced. You will see what I am talking about.

[arimaka]

Originally posted by robdarling
AAC 128 is better than mp3 128, yes, but not better than mp3 192, which I consider to be the minimum I can listen to and feel like the musical relationships of instruments aren't being altered. Apple should have stepped up and done it slightly higher quality, imho.

Go rip an album of songs that are engrained in your brain- the Police Greatest Hits, Billy Joel- stuff that is strong songs that will be wrong if instruments are improperly balanced. You will see what I am talking about.

I agree with you that balances change on all these classic albums...

I disagree with saying that 192k mp3 sounds better than a 128 mp4... I think 128 mp4 sounds far superior to mp3 at 192... mp3 to me is much thinner on the high end and the bass is completely lost. mp4 at higher sample rates is even better... I have most of my stuff at 192 mp4 or quality 7 ogg vorbis...

Apple should give you the option of recieving something like a DVD-r in the mail with the music you own in another format either AIFF or the new Apple LossLess... something like that should be available at some point, the issue right now is probably the amount of data that would imply...

[scb]

Originally Posted by keyboardman

Simple program it is, I find iTunes incredibly useful.
Has anyone tried that "xACT" utility?

i'm a little late in seeing this post, but xACT is a nice utility

[max cooper]

So, will an iPod play FLAC files?

Originally Posted by robdarling

What I'd love to see:

the ability to make an itunes machine into a rendezvous slave. Computers in different rooms would enable a complete home entertainment setup that could be under local control (I'm listening on a machine in the living room, but my wife wants to listen to something else while she's taking a shower and getting dressed in the bedroom) but during a party, computers around the house could all be under remote control of a central machine and its playlist.

This is a pretty good description of the LINN KNEKT system. I think the iMerge does this too. Of course, they way you describe it would certainly be less costly.

Originally Posted by VotaIdiota

If Apple has now integrated this into their store, then they just got a brand new costumer.

I got a funny visual from this. 'The boss needs two pirate outfits, a Lone Ranger and a slutty looking Snow White! And step on it!'

[bdunard]

So what happens to all of us that have download 300 or 400 songs from the store? Do we have to repurchase them when they offer a better codec?

[blackcatdigi]

Originally Posted by bdunard

So what happens to all of us that have download 300 or 400 songs from the store? Do we have to repurchase them when they offer a better codec?

No offense intended directly towards you personally bdunard, but this kind of logic never ceases to amaze me.

Under what circumstances could you possibly think you would you not have to (re)buy?

What happens to all the people who bought the 2005 X when the new 2006 X comes out?

Did you have to repurchase your music when CDs replaced LPs?

Just because it is a digital 'transmission' purchase, it is still purchasing a product.

Products get updated, and if you want the new version, you BUY it.

[bdunard]

I totally understand what you are saying. But more than ever you are now buying a liscense for a song and nothing more. So why not have an upgrade? LP's to CD's took 30 years - mp3's to "what's next" 2-3 years. I could see where itunes and others would want to do something to encourage people to repurchase stuff they bought last month at a better deal. This is just my two cents!