iTunes!!! I'm done with you!

[bazza hallward]

Ok I just want to rant.

 

Everytime I copy a CD to iTunes, it leaves skips behind. I'm fed up with it.

I'm going back to an old favourite - Exact Audio Copy. I'll use iTunes as a library but not as an audio ripper.

 

Does this sound familiar?

[guitardude]

I just dont have that problem with vinyl !!

[Guest]

Maybe your CD burner is on the way out?

[aarond1553552714]

Assume you have set error correction on in the preferences section for importing CDs?

 

I've had no issues at all, and I'm going through the second lot of ripping into Apple lossless this time for Mac Mini, after doing 256 ACC for the Ipod.

 

EAC was too slow for me and indistinguishable from Itunes.

[coleus]

 

aarond;136147 wrote:

Assume you have set error correction on in the preferences section for importing CDs?

 

 

 

I've had no issues at all, and I'm going through the second lot of ripping into Apple lossless this time for Mac Mini, after doing 256 ACC for the Ipod.

 

 

 

EAC was too slow for me and indistinguishable from Itunes.

 

why not rip to lossless first then just batch convert save 2 lots of ripping

 

Were you working on other things on you computer while ripping this can sometimes affect the outcome with skips etc.

[bazza hallward]

Ok - so it could be the CD burner. The PC is 5 years old.

 

Yes, error correction is set - but this kind of skipping may be the PC not being able to commit all its resources to the task. Aparently EAC is designed to ensure that the copy verifies with the source. I've noticed that iTunes 10 is rather heavy on my processor.

 

What I may need is a much faster PC.

[Luckiestmanalive]

 

aarond;136147 wrote:

Assume you have set error correction on in the preferences section for importing CDs?

 

I would have thought error correction setting would only create audible skipping in ripped tracks if the CD is very hard to read or the reader is faulty?

 

If so, your possibililities are:

1. CD media are dirty/scratched etc

2. Reader is faulty (as MJ suggests)

3. Playback is compromised (eg processor is trying to do other tasks besides playing music) - only an option if the skipping is not repeated at the same spot on every track ripped.

 

I use Itunes and never had a track with a skip ripped into it. If you keep your CDs clean then it sounds like your reader is poked (technical term).

[Luckiestmanalive]

Sorry, Bazza - I was a bit slow in my response...

[bazza hallward]

I suspect it's #3 above: PC is busy. One thing I didn't do is turn off the virus checker. But that does come back to software too.

 

The skips are infrequent and happen in different places each time I burn another copy. The CDs are always new and clean (as I clean them before hand). The reader could be dirty, but in my experience they tend to stop reading altogether.

 

With the previous version of iTunes, this didn't happen. So I am still pointing my finger that way. But as with everything, new versions seem to always be less efficient on resources.

 

The other thing is that the PC hard drive is struggling a bit too. I've done a couple of defrags, which has helped a bit. But whenever the PC does something unannouced, the hard drive rattles a bit. I can fix that with a fresh install of Windows and software, but that's such a pain.

 

I will try again tonight with background software off.

[Luckiestmanalive]

Ah... well, if it is your PC then check your audio driver is up to date.

[ToPGuNZ]

I've been having a similar problem. Music skipping on songs I have previously ripped and have previously played fine.

 

PC is currently getting looked at by Playtech at the moment and no problem found yet. Looks like lossless skips but mp3 ok. Drivers all ok, hardware all ok. Doing a full re install at the moment. PC is 6 months old. I also noticed hard drive being used lots.

 

Just found a thread in an online forum that mentions similar problems since version 10.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2570506&start=0&tstart=30

[bazza hallward]

I've got no problem criticising the software first. I was reluctant to upgrade to iTunes 10 because of the problems I've experienced in the past with iTunes upgrades. iTunes 10 is a lot more resource intensive than iTunes 9 - but there's no reason why it couldn't rip accurately.

 

Yes, I have this problem ripping specifically to Apple Lossless too. All my drivers are up to date.

 

I think I should say that the skips are infrequent: I have three albums on my iPod at the moment that I recently ripped in apple lossless. Nirvana has only one skip in it, and Joy Division has a couple of skips. I haven't tried the other album yet.

 

But being a music perfectionist (as we all are here) these skips irritate me.

[stuarth]

The Mac forum posts would seem to confirm there is a bug with iTunes 10.

I haven't noticed it myself yet, but I did notice that my entire iTunes library was 'upgraded' when I moved from 9 to 10.

 

Have you tried playing affected files back on another media player to test whether the files themselves are corrupted, cf. an itunes playback glitch?

[bazza hallward]

 

horn-loaded;136172 wrote:

 

Have you tried playing affected files back on another media player to test whether the files themselves are corrupted, cf. an itunes playback glitch?

 

 

The skips occur when I am listening to my iPod - and they coincide when I play the files back on iTunes on the PC. So the skips are in the files on the PC... which led me to believe they were generated by the ripping process.

 

This is more likely too as PCs generally have that problem when working with streaming data. You could point the finger at CDs and streaming data. Imagine music sold on SD cards... that could be very good!

[Guest]

I was going to say that I hadn't noticed any bugs in my playback. But on checking I see that I'm still on iTunes 9.2!

[got tinnitus]

 

Michael Jones;136175 wrote:

I was going to say that I hadn't noticed any bugs in my playback. But on checking I see that I'm still on iTunes 9.2!

 

Luddite!

 

Time to download 100MB of i-tunes.

Compared to 9.2, 10.x is well worth it. Much nicer "interface" with plenty of makes-life-simpler tweaks.

[bazza hallward]

 

got tinnitus;136176 wrote:

Luddite!

 

 

 

Time to download 100MB of i-tunes.

 

Compared to 9.2, 10.x is well worth it. Much nicer "interface" with plenty of makes-life-simpler tweaks.

 

lol!

yea exactly... who cares if it works when it looks sooo good?!

 

 

Anyway, iTunes 10 is nicer than 9... but if you have no pressing need to update, just stay with 9 for a while. And, given that 10 does something to the library file its possible that you can't go back to 9 (haven't tried it yet).

[Papa Hemi]

Following on from another thread, I am using AyreWave currently, although I do have iTunes 10 installed. I am impressed by AyreWave's small footprint and lack of frills, not impressed by AW not being able to playback .m4a files. As to OP - iTunes has always played without a glitch, albeit always on a Mac.

[Electra]

Does itunes get a checksum off the interweb to ensure you have a bit perfect rip?

 

CD Paranoia and EAC offer this - and its kind of a peace of mind tool that I use.

[LHH]

It may not be a problem with the ripping, but instead a problem with the encoding; something that I've found is more likely to go wrong if the computer is busy with something else.

[Guest]

 

too_tall;136186 wrote:

Does itunes get a checksum off the interweb to ensure you have a bit perfect rip?

 

No, it doesn't. And it's something I'd love to see in iTunes.

 

For "difficult" CDs I use XLD on my Mac, as it's level of paranoia is higher than my own!

[coleus]

XLD on Mac and EAC on windows both properly set-up , are the benchmark for loss-less ripping , there are others but none that offer the level of assurance I would want in a FLAC , with a properly generated log in EAC a bit perfect CD can be re-burnt . itunes unfortunatley cannot do this and to be honest is pretty poor.

[Electra]

I found that itunes ( the once that I tried it ) was designed for speed, not sound quality.

 

I also didnt like it using 1.5Gb of memory when it was just a resident backgound service. So it is no longer welcome near any of my computers.

 

1.5GB?!?!?! F THAT!!!

 

The windows version is poorly written.

 

CD Paranoia, the linux equivalent of EAC, will give a checksum and full report, and check online for accuracy.

 

Its actually pretty good - its faster than EAC generally, and gives the same quality in my experience.

 

 

In fact, I still don't understand why not more are using Linux for their music serving computers. Firewire? Sure thing. Configurable? more than anything else. Free? yup!. Good audio playback support? yup!. Linux is so easy to really close out anything other than what is needed to playback music. Its far more stable and configurable than wither windows or ( hate mail already being written here no doubt! ) a mac.

 

And almost every single stand alone hard drive or network based music server is linux based. Sooloos, Olive, Naim HDX, any DLNA device, the list goes on. Surely there is a good reason, other than it being free, that their all using it?

[Citroen]

Sounds good too_tall, but most computers come with Windoze or some Mac OS.

 

I takes a bit of computer savy to use Linux (or at least that's my "perception") so maybe that's why its not so pervasive in a home setup???

[Electra]

It does indeed Newbie.

 

However, someone setting up a dedicated music server is unlikely to be buying something off the shelf in DSE or HN. Their also likely to want to invest the time to get it sounding its best, as opposed to just wanting to run winderz media player or iloons.