Classical Music on an iPod - 4

.

Now you are ready to rip a CD.

iTunes will grind away for a bit and then offer to import the CD to its library. (iTunes says "Import CD" rather than "Rip CD".) Click on "No" so that you can do a few things before you let iTunes import the CD. The image below shows the track list after iTunes has looke dup tag values. Note that the composer tag is blank.

Larger Image here.

Right click on the the column heading to the right of the word “Name”, and check “Composer” and “Genre”. This will allow you to view and set the Composer and Genre tag values.

If the CD contains a work that spans several tracks, you should select those tracks. (Click on the first of those tracks and Shift-click on the last of those tracks.) Then Click on "Advanced" menu and then "Join Tracks". If there are several works with multiple tracks, repeat the process of selecting and joining tracks for each work.

As discussed in the previous post, this step serves two purposes: it makes it easier on the iPod to select and play all of a work that spans multiple tracks; and it ensures that if you let the iPod select and play music at random, all of a work will be played and in the right order.

Here is an image with tracks joined for each of three four movement symphonies:

Larger image here.

Look at the values shown for the tags that matter to you. If they are not correct, you can correct them before the CD is imported.

Select one or more tracks for which you want to set a tag value. Click on the “File” menu and then on the “Get Info” command. A dialog window will appear. Any changes you make here will apply to all the files you selected. Click “OK” when you have entered the changes that apply to the selected files. Repeat this for each set of files for which you want to set a particular tag value. If you are making a change to a tag in one music file, you can simply click on that cell (row and column) until you get an insertion point cursor and a small text box. Edit the old value or type a new one in the text box and then press return.

Now you are ready to import the CD. On the left side of the window under devices, you should see a line for the CD with the album tag value for the CD. Right-click on that line and choose “Import CD”

The importing process will take several minutes. When it finishes, the CD will be ejected and you are ready to import another CD.

You can click on “Music” under Library to see the music files in the library. You can edit tags there to correct any mistakes using the techniques just described. This image shows a sample library listing:

Larger image here.

When you have finished imported your CDs, you can transfer them to your iPod. (Sync with your iPod.) Here is a link to an explanation of the process in Apple's documentation:

Good luck!