Tech: iPod and mp3 song titles

Subject: Tech: iPod and mp3 song titles
From: pattyClink
Date: 13 Jul 06 - 11:26 AM

Help!

I've been gifted with an iPod "nano". I was grateful and thrilled, but so far it's been very difficult to register, install, and try to load with tunes. But that's not the problem.

Here's the larger question--am I ever going to be able to include my own 'homemade' mp3s on this sucker, and if so how?   Apparently the Ipod and iTunes are set up for commercial recordings which have artist and track info encoded.   

My hand-converted lps and tapes don't have this encoding. (When I first started burning CDs from these old materials, I would painstakingly key in song titles, only to find Media Player still considered it 'unknown' and ignored my file names in favor of 'track 1', 'track 2', so I gave it up. It has worked fine for burning CDs from my wavs, and on the hard drive the mp3 versions have song titles as their filenames and are contained in album 'folders'.

Has anybody out there been able to use iTunes to encode this info? -- Or is there some cheapware out there that will let me encode these mp3s with artist/album/song info that can be read regardless of the software used?

Subject: RE: Tech: iPod and mp3 song titles
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 13 Jul 06 - 11:31 AM

Get a program called Godfather... it allows you to add/edit all kinds of info where mp3s are concerned

Subject: RE: Tech: iPod and mp3 song titles
From: harpmolly
Date: 13 Jul 06 - 12:02 PM

If you select the track you want to name, go to the File menu and select "Get Info", then click on the "Info" button at the top of the dialog box that comes up, you should be able to change the track name/artist/album name info there. If you've already done that and it just doesn't work on the iPod, I'm stymied. ;)

I converted some of my GarageBand tracks to iTunes, so I know you can import them from non-commercial sources. But of course, GarageBand is specifically set up to be able to do that. I dunno, really. Just trying to pick my own brain, I guess. *grin*

Good luck!

Molly

Subject: RE: Tech: iPod and mp3 song titles
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Jul 06 - 09:46 PM

Patty, iTunes on my Mac will certainly play songs with only a title - even 'Unknown' - but I have
been using iTunes since it first came out and it isn't particularly easy to find out all its
features. I suggest that you make use of your iTunes 'Help' if you haven't already done so, and
perhaps also check a forum for Windows iTunes users, Good Luck.

Subject: RE: Tech: iPod and mp3 song titles
From: Ella who is Sooze
Date: 14 Jul 06 - 08:05 AM

try naming the tunes in the library bit, and not on the bit where you are importing them from. It's usually where all the tunes are kept - you can change them there and it should work... I have to do the same as my automatic name thingy isn't working (something to do with a link or?

EWIS

Subject: RE: Tech: iPod and mp3 song titles
From: GUEST,Nicholas Waller
Date: 14 Jul 06 - 02:17 PM

"Here's the larger question--am I ever going to be able to include my own 'homemade' mp3s on this sucker, and if so how?   Apparently the Ipod and iTunes are set up for commercial recordings which have artist and track info encoded."

I recorded my brother performing some of his songs for a CD, making aiff files. It was no problem to import them to iTunes and there convert them into mp3s. Also, no problem to import other mp3s.

If you import the songs/CDs and all they say is "Track 01" and there's no info on the CDDB ("Get CD Track Names", under Advanced), you can rename the tracks line by line in the iTunes interface, or from "Get Info".

Track names are unique, but for several items that are the same - say, album title, artist, genre, year, "of 14" for the numbers of tracks - you can fill in the info in a batch. Select all the relevant tracks, and from "Get Info" (under File in the menu bar) and you're presented with a form to fill in all the common information.

Go back to name the individual track numbers 1 of 14, 2 of 14 one by one to get the tracks in the right order.

Subject: RE: Tech: iPod and mp3 song titles
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Jul 06 - 03:43 PM

2nd the "Godfather" program....totally amazing! Will manage, play, edit, organize....more functions than you can shake a stick at.

Subject: RE: Tech: iPod and mp3 song titles
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 15 Jul 06 - 01:41 PM

Sorry to take so long coming back on, I had some internet access problems yesterday.   

Thanks so much for all the advice. I have downloaded the Godfather and will do some testing with it and iTunes to see see which method is the most effective.   Thank you so much for giving me the answers I needed, cause I was wondering if I should just give it up and return it.

We were able to get a little cable to link to the car CD player, but dismayed to find out the volume output from the iPod is so low.   Apparently you can use a password to reset meximum volume---then the machine promptly resets itself back to low volume every time you turn it off and you get to do the drill all over every time you restart the pod????

I am off to study the online help in great detail because there is no offline manual. Thx again all--