Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Stupid iPod / iTunes questions

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-13-2009, 02:07 PM:

This is probably one of those things that is so simple but I have looked everywhere I can think of and can't find the answer. I am sure somebody here can help.

On the iTunes, is it possible to consolidate songs under one artist name when there are a couple of variations of how the artist is listed? For example, I have a lot of Herb Alpert music. Some of it is under Herb Alpert, some is under Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, and some is "Herb Alpert/Tijuana Brass." So I have three different folders but would like to put all that music in one Herb Alpert folder.

Is there an easy way to do this? I tried moving all the song files into one folder and deleting the other folders, but then the next time I synced the iPod, it created the previous setup on my computer again and put everything back where it had been.

I've searched the help menu and done some googling about this and found nothing...I'm sure the solution is dope-slap simple. Anyone?

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 05-13-2009, 02:17 PM:

I have the same problem with the Sansa it seem to want to group songs by the name of the source album not the folder you put them in

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-13-2009, 02:31 PM:

You'll have to edit the ID3 info in the MP3s themselves so that all of the songs appear under the same artist name, etc. You can't have Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship. Instead you must rename all songs from both as Jefferson Hang Glider or something.

In order to do this, simply press Apple + I (or probably Control + I in Windows) with the song highlighted in iTunes to bring up the information about a particular song. Go to the INFO tab and change the artist (best to copy and paste since it is case sensitive and will consider it to be a different artist if even any one thing is different). Press OK and close the window and it will automatically be saved. Now all songs by your favorite band Jefferson will all be grouped under the same artist.

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 05-13-2009, 02:31 PM:

My Beatles White Album CD got split into three different folders courtesy of Itunes. 2 folders because of 2 cds and one song having been tagged as Nicky Hopkins/Beatles. I am afraid this may be the nature of the beast.
Herb Alpert rules!

Posted by Greg Anderson (Member # 235) on 05-13-2009, 03:09 PM:

This is assuming that you have selected the "Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized" option in your preferences.

Highlight all of the "Herb Alpert" songs (with all variations on the name of the artist) and then press "Apple+I" or "Control+I," depending on your operating system. You may get a warning box which asks if you're sure you want to edit information on multiple songs. Click OK.

Now, use the "Album Artist" box to give the name you want (like "Herb Alpert") as the artist name for all the selected songs. Click OK and close iTunes just to be sure it's saved everything the way you want it.

Now, go check your music folders and see if all those albums are contained in one folder.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-13-2009, 03:46 PM:

Sweet. That's way better, less time consuming and easier than my advice!

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-13-2009, 06:35 PM:

Thank you guys. I'll give this a try as soon as I get home from work.

The one thing iTunes/iPod doesn't seem to be able to do, is to "stitch" two or more songs together so they always play one after the other in a shuffle. For example, Queen's "We Will Rock You" must always be followed by "We Are The Champions." (Or is there some way to do this that I'm not knowing about? Given the above posts, I would not be surprised!)

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-13-2009, 07:32 PM:

In that case, you'd just have to make them into a single MP3. Rip those 2 songs from your legit, uncompressed store-bought CD again. I have no idea what sound editing capabilities you have, but open them up in Quicktime (you must have the PRO version for this to work I think). Copy We are the Champions (select all, control + C). Open up We Will Rock You and move the playhead to the end of the song. Paste. Save.

Posted by Greg Anderson (Member # 235) on 05-13-2009, 08:36 PM:

In an older version of iTunes there was a "smart shuffle" setting to make it more likely or less likely to play sequential songs from the same artist or album. But, in general, shuffle means shuffle. So, like Joe said, the only way to make sure that two songs are always played in a certain order is to create one audio file out of them.

(And, suddenly, I'm noticing that if you want to buy "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions" from iTunes then you have to buy two songs. When does anyone want to just listen to one of them?)

Back to the original question... why does it matter where iTunes stores the song files? If iTunes keeps things in one folder or 10 folders or 1000 folders, who cares? The songs are all listed in the iTunes Music Library when you run iTunes. iTunes knows where to find the files. So why does it matter how many folders are in the "My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music" folder? Why do you even need to look in that folder?

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 05-14-2009, 01:41 AM:

I really don't need to look in the folder but I noticed I-tunes was doing that when I looked at my library.
Another song which one has to buy two of if one wants the song as the original single had it is Mr. Bojangles by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The single had an intro where an old fella was demonstrating how he got his dog to "sing", or rather, howl to a hymnal. It's quite a hoot.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-14-2009, 10:22 AM:

quote:
In that case, you'd just have to make them into a single MP3. Rip those 2 songs from your legit, uncompressed store-bought CD again. I have no idea what sound editing capabilities you have,

Yeah, I know that routine - I use Sound Forge and CD Architect to make CDs with so it would be no problem -- it just seems surprising that there is no "better" way to accomplish this given how many examples of "pairs" of songs there are....not to mention whole album sides by people like the Beatles, Pink Floyd, etc.

Posted by Greg Anderson (Member # 235) on 05-14-2009, 11:01 AM:

There is a better way. Don't use shuffle. [Wink]

Posted by Michael Barry (Member # 237) on 05-14-2009, 11:19 AM:

Hi Mike!

I found a way for you to achieve what you are after.

Select/highlight both 'We Are The Champions' and 'We Will Rock You', then command-I (get info). After accepting that you would like to edit multiple items, you will be looking at the 'info' tab/window. 4 items down there is a field called 'Groupings'. You can call this anything you like, for example, 'Queen Medley' or something like that. Click 'OK' to make the change.

Now locate the 'Controls' pull down menu at the top of the screen. Under 'Controls' - 'Shuffle' - there will be 3 options: by song, by album or by groupings. Select groupings.

Now whenever iTunes is in shuffle mode, it will play those two songs in that order one after the other, treating them like one entity. Just like you wanted. [Smile]

Note that most iPods only offer shuffle by songs or by album, and not groupings. I don't know if there is an iPod that offers this, so it's probably iTunes only.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 05-14-2009, 12:17 PM:

Am I the only one who thinks the iTunes gui is garbage? It is not very intuitive at all.

Posted by Greg Anderson (Member # 235) on 05-14-2009, 12:26 PM:

Yes, you're the only one. [Smile]

In my experiences, iTunes was the first music database software I ever used. Once I had everything organized there, I had no interest in trying anyone else's software. And when I wanted to buy a portable player, the iPod was the only thing I seriously considered because, again, I didn't want to bother organizing my music again in someone else's software. So, I have no idea how the GUI looks in other music database programs. I can't even name other programs... except Windows Media Player, which isn't appealing to me.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 05-14-2009, 02:02 PM:

There was a recent change on iTunes that removed the checkboxes next to the song list when in shuffle mode. The checkbox controlled whether or not the song would play. Now when I'm listening in shuffle mode and decide the song sucks and I never want to hear it again (but don't want to delete it), I can't easily uncheck playback from the screen I'm on. Not that I'm losing sleep over it or anything.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-14-2009, 02:45 PM:

Michael Barry - thanks! I'll give that a try. Although if it doesn't work on iPod, I'll miss most of the benefit because I do about 90% of my listening while driving.

I have used both iTunes and Windows Media, and I prefer iTunes. I have a love-hate relationship with Apple; I like that they've been able to (at least partly) legitimize download music, it's still killing the traditional music biz. But the biz would have died the same death without Apple's help anyway, so I'm glad at least somebody's making some money off the funeral.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 05-14-2009, 03:45 PM:

I should point out that since I have an iPhone, I do use iTunes. But I don't like it. [Big Grin]