Classical Mac

Over the last twelve months there's been a noticeable trend towards getting more classical CD collections to rip. I'd like to think this is because podServe's marketing and web site (www.podserve.co.uk) has been emphasising the extra attention we pay to classical music libraries.

Maybe we take it for granted (and our Data Grooming software helps) but classical music is better on a Mac. Earlier this week Joe put a classical CD into one of our Windows systems and found the album data that got downloaded was corrupted. Thankfully he stopped and asked for help.

My suggestion, greeted with some scorn, was to put the CD into one of our Apple Macs. He was suitably amazed to find the album data appeared, in the correct format. Well done Apple.

So, if you're thinking of buying a new computer, or looking for a CD ripping platform, opt for the Mac - your music library will thank you for it.

iPod Mysteries

Got a call for help - an observant iPod user noticed that when he synched his iPod the scren showed that 15 Gb of his 30 Gb iPod's storage was being used by 'other'. His question was what's in this 'other' section and how can he recover it for his music?

I went through what I thought was the obvious culprits, data, contacts, photos, games. No, none of those were responsible. Each time we tried to synch the lost half a disc stayed dedicated to 'other'. We tried to restore, no good. Then we finally accepted that a factory reset was the only option left. Did that, but still found the stubborn 15 Gb was out of reach. However we did prompt an error message - error 1428.

Looked this up on the Apple web site and it seemed to suggest the problem here is with Windows rather than the iPod or iTunes. At this point my client expressed concern that this really was a fault with his iPod and so rang the retailer, the iPod being only three months old and he didn't want a 'Friday afternoon' device. Happy ending - iPod replaced, no problem. That's Tesco for you.

Had to go to the Apple Store to invest in (yet another) 500 Gb hard drive. While I was in the queue to pay I rudely eavesdropped on a conversation between a lady and an Apple employee. She was complaining that her iPod often seemed to stall or jam, just stopping mid track. What was the suggested solution? Take the iPod to a technicain in another part of the store who would blast it with compressed air. The customer laughed (me too) but the Apple man was serious. Her iPod was duly taken away and the young lady stood aside to wait for the air to work its magic. I hung around hoping to hear the outcome but had to leave, not wanting to get a reputation as a stalker.

Can't wait until I get an iPod in with the same symptoms to try compressed air. I didn't think to ask if it should be hot or cold.

iTunes, Hard Drives and The Joys of Windows

Several of our clients (www.podserve.co.uk) have reached the stage where their music libraries are larger than their hard drive on their laptop or PC. So, more and more people are looking to store their music on a separate hard drive, and it particularly suits people with second homes as it allows them to take their msuic with them.

Music library on a USB connected hard drive is a simple system on our Macs. Just plug the disc in, no problems. Leave the drive unplugged, no problem.

Windows? Oh, no. If you open iTunes even once without your hard drive being connected it loses all links between its internal libraries (the itl and itx files) and the real location of your music. You see a swathe of grey exclamation marks, against every track. You can't play your music, your iPod doesn't synch properly. The 'cure' is to reload all your tracks. Not only does this take time, but it means you lose the contents of all your (simple) playlists. Small consolation in that smart playlists rebuild themselves.

Twice in the last few days we've had to fix this problem for clients, neither of whom were happy that their hard built playlists had gone.

So, if your music is on a free standing hard drive - you must hae your drive connected and powered on BEFORE you open iTunes. Each and every time. Please don't blame podServe, Apple or iTunes. This is down to Microsoft and I'm afraid I don't know a work-around.

iPod Hardware Repairs in London

iPods are great, but like all computers they go wrong from time to time. If your iPod is in warranty Apple is the first port of call. But what if your iPod is older?

If you can get to Kensington High Street the Apple dealers there - Cancom Kensington - are worth a call. They're at 290 Kensington High Street, about ten minutes walk from Kensignton High Street tube station and the main shops. As Apple dealers they know the whole product range and can check your iPod from both a hardware and a software perspective. Talking to their staff they appear well informed, polite and very helpful.

If you'd prefer to ring them their number is 0845 686 3400. I hope your iPod never fails, but if it does, this could be your salvation.

Outstanding Support

Some years ago I made what has turned out to be a brilliant investment. It's a great piece of software which finds album art and embeds it into iTunes music libraries. I've found it to be quick, easy to use and very reliable.

It's called iAlbumArt, it is written by Mike Matheson and you can find out more at www.ialbumart.ipod-sync.com.

Several times I've done something which needs help. On every occasision I've been amazed at the quality of support I've received, direct from Mike himself. Maybe it helps with me being in the UK and Mike being in the States, but his replies to my calls for help have been as fast as they've been patient and courteous.

So if you're looking for software to handle your iTunes album art, and you appreciate world class support, look into Mike and his product. It's brilliant.

Robotic CD Ripping

In an earlier post Ripfactory explained that they were exiting the robotic CD hardware ripping market. Their plan instead was to have their ripping software sold by the hardware manufacturer as part of a robotic ripping solution. Given the worldwide raising of the blood pressure in the CD ripping community at the mention of Ripfactory, a step in the right direction.

Other postings have brought me into contact with MF Digital. I would have no hesitation in recommending them as a first class company to deal with, they've come over as a solid and professional, keen to deliver good service to their client base. They've even stepped into the breach when their erstwhile trading partner had appeared to let a client down.

So the ripping scene takes a step closer to the golden horizon with the launch of MF Digital's combined robot hardware and software CD ripping systems. You can find out more at MF Digital's web site.

The RipStation name echoes the heritage of Ripfactory but the product is supplied by MF Digital. If you're looking for a robotic ripping solution now your first port of call should be MF Digital. Perhaps I can briefly point out that I don't use a robot myself and I hold no brief for MF Digital beyond being happy to plug the good guys.

Robert Reads and Responds

I sit here typing this stuff and sometimes feel I'm the only one reading it. No, not so - I get replies.

The latest is from Robert Warnock at Ripfactory, he's their Metadata Support Specialist. Robert asks that I credit him and his colleagues for the improvements we've made in our Data Grooming functionality. Indeed much of what we offer is delivered by the latest version of their Audiogroomer software, customised for podServe's special needs.

Yes, thanks to Robert, Audiogroomer is a great tool and along with a couple of other packages and some home grown code, our take on Data Grooming rocks.

Ripping Wrecked by Locking?

For those who have forgotten we operate a CD ripping service (www.podserve.co.uk). At the end of each project we delete the files created along the way - often thousands of AAC or MP3 tracks. And as we also scan images for our clients from time to time we have images files to delete.

Ever since we've been using Macs this has been a smooth process, but I've noticed recently that one of our Macs is getting troublesome. Nothing major, but I sometimes have to go into the iTunes music library and manually delete some files. More troublesome is finding that files in Trash have somehow become locked. This is quite a nuisance, rather than rapidly clearing Trash the process stops. I was left with files left in Trash which I couldn't delete.

Unlocking a file with OS X is easy, just a few mouse clicks, but when you're stuck with 100+ locked files it becomes an unpleasant chore. I'm not alone in this as a Mac user client rang me saying he was having the same problem. So I did a bit of digging and found software which unlocks or locks files in a batch. I've run it a few times and it works well. It's simply called Locker and it's avaialable from vojousoftware.com.

So if you're struggling with batches of locked files, Locker is your answer.

Data Grooming Upgraded

I don't often get excited about computer software, but our new Data Grooming software is really exciting (well for me anyway).

The features list is greatly improved so in turn our clients get a better service. First, we've increased the list of classical composers in the database. Previously we'd found 40 pretty adequate but we've got many more now. I'll be surprised if we find any names to be added to the list.

Handling artist names is also much better. We can now remove one of the most annoying features of modern music - tha apparently endless use of 'featuring', 'feat.' and so on. It can increase the number of performers in a collection and make it hard to find the track you want via the Artist route. Well, say that annoyance goodbye.

Handling Disc 1 etc is more thorough, adding artist name to 'Best of' and 'Greatest Hits' works just as well, and is a little faster.

There's a facility to correct the inappropriate use of capital letters though I've yet to get to grips with the detail of how that works.

Anyway, enough for now, I'm off to play with our new toy. Any data you'd like us to groom for you?

AAC 1 - MP3 0

Looking at the small print in the recent Apple / EMI announcment about DRM free music it seems that the music file of choice will be Apple's AAC, and not the previously universal MP3. Why?

Well, recently Microsoft got hit by a massive lawsuit alleging copyright infringement over the technical rights to the MP3 codec. Perhaps neither Apple nor EMI fancied being hit in the same way.

Maybe EMI saw this as another way of controlling the distribution of their tracks. Maybe the thinking was MP3 is synonymous with those evil file sharing pirates, so AAC could be 'safer' in that respect.

I originally thought this was a simple marketing ploy to enable Apple to market their products (ie iTunes Music Store tracks) to Zune and the users of other MP3 players. It's more than that, each MP3 manufacturer will come under pressure to release firmware updates to support AAC on their players. users will have to find the upgrade, download it, apply it to their machine - how many will just not bother and buy a new iPod instead?

At a sweep Apple and EMI may have changed the drift of digital music. Where once MP3 was seen as the universal standard that accolade could fall to AAC.