Ripping a cd album to mp3 using itunes

tech77

Hi.
I'm not that familiar with apple products but my sister got an ipod nano there and i was helping her rip her cds to mp3 using itunes.
Now, i thought it would be a piece of cake, just change the encoder in preferences to mp3, set the bit rate, the album tracks appear in itunes and click import cd.
Did all that.
So i check the music library- they're converted, but as ten individual tracks rather than the whole album together. :mad:

So i thought, probably need to rip using AAC format instead.
Did that- same thing.
WTF- it can't even rip a cd properly to its native format?

Now i'm probably missing something here- i refuse to believe itunes is such a useless POS.
I know there's something about connecting to the internet to get names of tracks and stuff (tracks on the cd were unnamed btw) but surely this is an optional and incidental step, isn't it?

Anyway, ended up using trusty old CDEx, ripped the cd to mp3 and then imported it into itunes- the album seemed to stay intact.

But surely itunes can rip cds no problem without breaking them into individual tracks.
What am i doing wrong?
Thanks.

cnocbui

Since when was ripping a whole album as a single track the 'right' way?

iTunes is doing it the right way.

When you rip a CD, iTunes can fetch all the metatdata like album name, artist and track titles from an online database. To do this, in settings->general, click on the box marked 'automatically retrieve CD track names from the internet' when you insert a CD to rip. It can also retrieve the album artwork under the advanced menue - get album artwork.

Obviously the computer has to connected to the Web at the time.

Every individual track will then have metadata for the album it is from, the artist and the track number.

If your sister then wants to listen to a specific album, all she has to do when it is in iTunes or on her iPod is to select the album name and press play. If she has shuffle switched off it will play the album from start to finish by track number. If she has shuffle on then it will play all the tracks in the album in a random order.

So doing it the iTunes way she will have flexibility in how she listens to her music, while still being able to play a whole album as a single unit. Doing it your way she will have no flexibility at all.

If she is using an iPod, ripping in AAC is the way to go as it is a superior format to MP3.

tech77

cnocbui wrote: »

Since when was ripping a whole album as a single track the 'right' way?

iTunes is doing it the right way.

When you rip a CD, iTunes can fetch all the metatdata like album name, artist and track titles from an online database. To do this, in settings->general, click on the box marked 'automatically retrieve CD track names from the internet' when you insert a CD to rip. It can also retrieve the album artwork under the advanced menue - get album artwork.

Obviously the computer has to connected to the Web at the time.

Every individual track will then have metadata for the album it is from, the artist and the track number.

If your sister then wants to listen to a specific album, all she has to do when it is in iTunes or on her iPod is to select the album name and press play. If she has shuffle switched off it will play the album from start to finish by track number. If she has shuffle on then it will play all the tracks in the album in a random order.

So doing it the iTunes way she will have flexibility in how she listens to her music, while still being able to play a whole album as a single unit. Doing it your way she will have no flexibility at all.

If she is using an iPod, ripping in AAC is the way to go as it is a superior format to MP3.

OK thanks.
So, an internet connection IS necessary to get this metadata/etc which allows the tracks be playable together as an album.
Or indeed, as you say, in the shuffle mode?

cnocbui

tech77 wrote: »

OK thanks.
So, an internet connection IS necessary to get this metadata/etc which allows the tracks be playable together as an album.
Or indeed, as you say, in the shuffle mode?

Yes, you need an internet connection to get the metadata automatically, or you can type it in manually. In which case you do not need a connection. You can enter the artists name, album name, genre and number of tracks once only for all tracks as a group edit, but you would have to enter the track titles and track numbers individually.

banquo

OP,

Select all the tracks and right click. In the menu that pops up from the right click, select ''Get track data'' (or something similar, I can't remember offhand) This will get the track names, artwork etc.

tech77

cnocbui wrote: »

Since when was ripping a whole album as a single track the 'right' way?

iTunes is doing it the right way.

Sorry, what i mean is: ripping the tracks and keeping the tracks together as an album, and in order (like on the cd).
(instead of ripping them and throwing them each into itunes as individual tracks, as was happening).

Anyway, i got the metadata and that (presumably) has kept them together as an album.
Thanks.

The Big Gig

tech77 wrote: »

Sorry, what i mean is: ripping the tracks and keeping the tracks together as an album, and in order (like on the cd).
(instead of ripping them and throwing them each into itunes as individual tracks, as was happening).

Anyway, i got the metadata and that (presumably) has kept them together as an album.
Thanks.

It's just the way you are viewing the tracks I would say. You can arrange them anyway you want within your library. Just click the album header and that will put them in album order. Also if you click view and show 'column browser' it's a good way to find and select albums in their own.

Dravokivich

i think the guy is talking about creating a playlist...

sorry bud... dunno how to do it myself..

- Drav!

Ticktactoe

There are many ways to view the tunes i.e as single tracks, as albums, as part of playlists, as most played etc.

If you want to view the songs via album in Itunes you just select the 'album' header under music.
On the Ipod you just go to Album.

If you want to create a playlist so to retrieve the album easier just go to >File >new playlist and it will appear on the bottom left of your screen to which you give it a name.

Once you get to know Itunes it is a fantastic application!

tech77

Ticktactoe wrote: »

There are many ways to view the tunes i.e as single tracks, as albums, as part of playlists, as most played etc.

If you want to view the songs via album in Itunes you just select the 'album' header under music.
On the Ipod you just go to Album.

If you want to create a playlist so to retrieve the album easier just go to >File >new playlist and it will appear on the bottom left of your screen to which you give it a name.

Once you get to know Itunes it is a fantastic application!

Hi.
Just to clarify.
The problem seems to have been resolved with the internet connection/metadata retrieval suggestion above.

But what WAS happening:
The individual tracks of the album were being ripped and then thrown in individually with all my other albums (so i presume i was in album mode).
And they were coming up as unknown tracks (among many other unknown tracks) under an unknown album in the ipod.
Anyway, hopefully resolved now.
Thanks.

whiterebel

tech77 wrote: »

Hi.
Just to clarify.
The problem seems to have been resolved with the internet connection/metadata retrieval suggestion above.

But what WAS happening:
The individual tracks of the album were being ripped and then thrown in individually with all my other albums (so i presume i was in album mode).
And they were coming up as unknown tracks (among many other unknown tracks) under an unknown album in the ipod.
Anyway, hopefully resolved now.
Thanks.

They are being ripped into the library, not albums or playlists.
When you rip a new CD, ensure its connected to t'internet, and allow the tracks to be named. You can search for the album/artist (I use latest imported date) and select all, then choose "new playlist from selection" which then gives you your album in the playlists. Sort by album title column and it puts the tracks in the correct order.


I met a guy years ago on holiday and he had a 40GB iPod. We had a look at each others iPods - and he was stunned to see I had separate playlists, by artist genre etc. Not surprising - when I looked at his, he had about 4000 "track 1", "track 2".............Boy was he happy when he found out the right way:D

lyndonjones

FYI

CDDB, short for Compact Disc Database,[1][2] is a licensed trademark of Gracenote, Inc. It is a database for software applications to look up audio CD (compact disc) information over the Internet. This is performed by a client which calculates a (nearly) unique disc ID and then queries the database. As a result, the client is able to display the artist name, CD title, track list and some additional information.
The database is used primarily by media players and CD ripper software.
The need for CDDB is a direct consequence of the original design of the CD, which was conceived as an evolution of the gramophone record, and did not consider the audio tracks as data files to be identified and indexed. The audio CD format does not include the disc name or track names, so a supplemental database is needed to supply this information when discs are used with modern media systems. A later development called CD-Text is another solution to the same problem. CDDB also seems to be used by some software to identify the songs played on the radio and save them as MP3 tracks.

cnocbui wrote: »

Since when was ripping a whole album as a single track the 'right' way?

iTunes is doing it the right way.

When you rip a CD, iTunes can fetch all the metatdata like album name, artist and track titles from an online database. To do this, in settings->general, click on the box marked 'automatically retrieve CD track names from the internet' when you insert a CD to rip. It can also retrieve the album artwork under the advanced menue - get album artwork.

Obviously the computer has to connected to the Web at the time.

Every individual track will then have metadata for the album it is from, the artist and the track number.

If your sister then wants to listen to a specific album, all she has to do when it is in iTunes or on her iPod is to select the album name and press play. If she has shuffle switched off it will play the album from start to finish by track number. If she has shuffle on then it will play all the tracks in the album in a random order.

So doing it the iTunes way she will have flexibility in how she listens to her music, while still being able to play a whole album as a single unit. Doing it your way she will have no flexibility at all.

If she is using an iPod, ripping in AAC is the way to go as it is a superior format to MP3.