Increasing bit rate of iTunes songs ripped from CDs?

First of all, don't over-worry about what can go wrong. I added it in order to help you, not hinder or put you off. Apologies if it has - change your mind about this as soon as you can.

I've upgraded some of my albums to a higher bit rate, often changing them to mp3 at the same time. So to answer one of your questions, yes, an iTunes Library has no issues at all with mixed formats, nor do iPods. I have mp3, aac, wav (experimental use only), Apple Lossless (which is why I know they don't play on some Android players) in my Library and on my iPod. I also have some flac files, but iTunes cannot even import those, so I had to create new versions first, by using another programme.

My usual practice is to import over the existing copy. This not only protects a song's place in Playlists, but as mentioned, play counts and star ratings, both of which I make use of for Smart Playlists*. Because I made the mistake of renaming some albums, whenever I re-import one of those I have to check album titles in order to prevent creating a second copy under the original title. That's why I know what can go wrong, but also, how easy it is to sort it out. There's another benefit to copying over the top. If you re-import over the top of the existing copy, you don't have to delete the old copy. But if you delete and re-rip, that's an extra task. What a faff, why bother with that?

Try it.

As a test, just try with one album, to see how you get on. The very worst that could happen is you manage to lose both the old and the new copy (although it's difficult to see how). If that happens, simply import the CD from scratch. If less than the worst goes wrong, I've given you tips on how to fix it. To quote (ironically) a bold statement from a film (which The Simpson's nicked): "nothing can possibly go wrong". Once you see that it works, try another one.

Back to your point about file sizes: a one hour album in Apple Lossless is 60MB, so about the same as the mp3 or aac version, not the size of the CD version. But as stated, I recommend not using Apple Lossless, no matter how much you think you'll stay with Apple forever. For example, can the Brennan play Apple Lossless? (I don't know, although I am aware of their players.)

You made the point about the capacity of your nano having limited capacity. That's an easy one to solve. (Well, it involves setting up, but there's minimal maintenance once you do.)

Let's assume that you don't want to hear all the same songs every day, but instead, you would like a variety. Perhaps, songs you like a lot are available on your iPod every day, while your less favourite songs are removed form the iPod after you've heard them, and not put back onto the iPod for a while. This is achieved by Syncing with your iTunes Library. So after each Sync with iTunes, your iPod would have a sightly different selection of music on it; favourites and some music you haven't heard for a while.

Such an amazing feat is achieved by using Smart Playlists (did you notice the asterisk up above?)

* A Smart Playlist can be created which removes songs after they've been played and only puts them back after a period you choose has elapsed. The same Playlist can keep favourite songs in it all the time. You then use that Playlist to synchronise with your iPod, and it removes and adds songs as dictated by that Smart Playlist. Fret not though - you can still play the music on your iPod in any way that you currently use. For example, that favourite album can be played from beginning to end just like playing the CD. Nothing else will play. You can (if you so wish) select a particular genre and play every song (currently on your iPod) of that genre, without hearing any other genre. Or of course, you can simply set the nano to play songs in shuffle mode, choosing from every song currently on the iPod. After a further Sync, that iPod has a different selection on it, so every shuffle would be different.

Oh! and each of your iPod can be synchronised independently of the others. Your running iPod can have completely different content to your sit back and relax iPod.

CMB62 wrote:

So should I delete this album from my Library and re-rip it at 256 bit,

Arggh! Don't even think about deleting your existing versions.

No - don't delete things!

And again, no, definitely not.

I trust I've made myself clear. ( I will return to this point later.)

• A copy of a song at 256Kbps will (or at least, should) sound better than the same song at 128Kbps. That's why digitally purchased versions are usually a minimum of 256Kbps now. Bear in mind though, that a recording from the 1920s (yes, I have some!) may, or may not, sound any better, due to the quality original 1920s source. It will be down to you to decide whether you can detect, hear or even just simply appreciate the difference. It will depend upon:
  • your own hearing, which may get worse as you age
  • the headphones or speakers that you use
  • the individual recording (album). Each recording studio and each producer used their own techniques, which will make a difference
• Also, consider whether you might one day improve on the headphones or speakers that you use

Also, I assume re-ripping those 1000+ CDs in lossless would increase the PC storage needs from 25GB to over 500GB?

I'm not convinced that's correct. As a test, I created two Smart Playlists of songs as a comparison:

• • with a Bit Rate of 128Kbps, 4745 songs took up 36.57GB. (That'll play for 14 days, 8 hours and 53 minutes)
  • with a Bit Rate of 256Kbps, 4609 songs took up 40.93GB. (This one will play for 14 days, 16 hours and 19 minutes)

So, approximately the same number of songs and roughly the same playing time, but double the amount of storage, not twenty times as large.

So, you should create two copies of each of a few songs, one at 128Kbps and the other at 256Kbps and then compare them. If you appreciate the difference, taking into consideration any future equipment upgrades you might go in for, you might decide to use 256Kbps instead.

Now, it's later, so back to my "point". (You've got to inject a bit of humour, especially in this day and age.)

To upgrade your existing 128Kbps music, simply import the CD again, over the top of the old one, but using 256Kbps or even VBR (Variable Bit Rate). Yes, that's right, just import the CD again without deleting the old copy. Providing the album information is the same (i.e. the album title, song titles and artist name), iTunes will recognise this and ask if you wish to replace the existing copy with the new copy:

• • the advantage of this method is that your Play Counts, star ratings and inclusion in Playlists will be maintained. If you delete the old copy and then import from the CD again, all that will be lost
  • the possible problem is, if you have edited song titles, album titles etc, or the Gracentote database finds updated information for that album, iTunes may treat the re-import as a new album, leaving you with two copies - the old and the new. But fret not, this too can be resolved. It just depends on how much work you are prepared to put in. I'll return to this even later

Which format should you use for the upgrade of your music?

I'm pleased you asked that.

• • MP3 encoder is a good option, since any mp3 player will be able to play it. Notice the clue there? In iTunes, click on Edit/Preferences/General>Import Settings>Import Using:

• • AAC encoder. Apple's propriety format. Most modern audio players (aka mp3 players) can now play AAC files (they will have a file extension of .m4a)

• I would avoid the AIFF and Apple Lossless encoders, because not all non-Apple players can play them. (Consider your future options). An well-known make of Android phone cannot play Apple Lossless files.
• do not use .wav because wav files are very large. Basically, it's the same format as on your CD. You might hear a difference, but the increase in storage will be ten times the size of the 128Kbps version and wav files cannot store artwork inside the file. This means that when you transfer the music, the artwork may get lost. I have an album in both 128Kbps AAC format and in wav format. The album plays for 41 minutes and 4 seconds:
  • 128Kbps AAC: 41MB
  • wav: 415.2MB

I'm worn out.

Okay, it's even later now. See, even later comes, eventually.

If you re-import a CD at higher Bit Rate, over the top of an existing 128Kbps version, iTunes will ask you if you wish to replace the existing version because it recognises that the album information is exactly the same, so it must be the same album.

However, this can go wrong for the following reasons:

• the online database that iTunes uses to identify the album has picked up a revised version of the album. Someone has updated errors in spelling etc. In this case, iTunes will think it's a different album and will therefore create new files, based on the new information, rather than replace the old ones.
• iTunes finds a new "pressing" of the same album, but which has slightly different information, which causes iTunes to treat it as a different album. The result is the same as above
• you have edited the album information, which means that iTunes again thinks the new version is a different album. I've edited albums to remove guest artists or correct spelling errors
• just because... (some inexplicable reason)

If you manage to import a separate copy, do this (I'm assuming that each copy of the album is in its own album-named folder):

• make sure you know where both the old and the new copies are - and which is which.
• rename the album folder of the old copy with (for example) a trailing X in the folder name. So Greatest Hits becomes Greatest Hitsx
• get iTunes to try to play each song. It will fail and put an exclamation mark next to each song as you try it. You can see the exclamation marks easily in the Songs view:

• for each song, navigate to the new version and select it
• once you are satisfied that you've got it right, and you therefore don't need the old version any longer, you can safely delete it
• job done

One last point.

Hard drives (and SSD drives) fail. Back up your music library onto an external drive, preferably one outside your computer.

CMB62 wrote:

And after all that, I guess just one more thing - it seems you are recommending the best approach is just to re-rip the CDs over the top of the existing ones, and the songs should find their way into the correct playlists, and then I can delete the old version of the CD.

If you copy over the top, you won't have to delete the old copy because the re-rip will have done all that for you. iTunes will simply use the new copy and won't even realise that it's not the copy it used before. Therefore, all Playlists will be intact.

Try just one album and see how it works.

Should iTunes not recognize that the CD you're importing is one that you've already imported at some point in the past then you won't get the benefit of the new copy replacing the old, with ratings, playlist membership etc. being preserved. In that case see my DeDuper script which can be set up to keep the largest copy/highest bitrate from a set of duplicates, and will merge ratings, play counts, playlist membership and such to the copy that is kept when the duplicates are eliminated.

tt2

Oh!

It's been a long day...

You're welcome.