What was I doing wrong?

[rob1963]

Yesterday one of my clients for next weekend dropped round a memory stick containing 42 tracks of line dancing music, most of which they will require to be played at the gig.

I needed to transfer the tracks to my itunes library, so I plugged the memory stick into my computer, opened my itunes, clicked on add folder (or was it add file?) to library, then imported the songs on the stick to my itunes music library. When imported, I clicked on them one at a time to play them, and everything was fine.

I then ejected & removed the memory stick. However, when I then clicked on any of the imported songs in my itunes library, it came up with an exclamation mark & a message box saying something about it being unable to play file as it could not locate the file.

I therefore had to delete all the new "songs" from my itunes, as they were not really there at all. I came up with an alternative long winded (but successful) way of getting the songs into my itunes library. That was to plug in the memory stick, burn the tracks directly to 3 CDs, then to rip the CDs into my itunes music library...so job done in the end.

I'd be interested to know what went wrong when I initially tried to import the songs to my itunes, and why they only seemed to stay there while the memory stick was plugged into my computer. Surely once something's been imported, the source can be removed from the PC?

:shrug:

[DiscoTed]

Yesterday one of my clients for next weekend dropped round a memory stick containing 42 tracks of line dancing music, most of which they will require to be played at the gig.

I needed to transfer the tracks to my itunes library, so I plugged the memory stick into my computer, opened my itunes, clicked on add folder (or was it add file?) to library, then imported the songs on the stick to my itunes music library. When imported, I clicked on them one at a time to play them, and everything was fine.

I then ejected & removed the memory stick. However, when I then clicked on any of the imported songs in my itunes library, it came up with an exclamation mark & a message box saying something about it being unable to play file as it could not locate the file.

I therefore had to delete all the new "songs" from my itunes, as they were not really there at all. I came up with an alternative long winded (but successful) way of getting the songs into my itunes library. That was to plug in the memory stick, burn the tracks directly to 3 CDs, then to rip the CDs into my itunes music library...so job done in the end.

I'd be interested to know what went wrong when I initially tried to import the songs to my itunes, and why they only seemed to stay there while the memory stick was plugged into my computer. Surely once something's been imported, the source can be removed from the PC?

:shrug:

What would of happened is the itunes would of just done a pointing file abit like a DNS setup for a website, Of course when you removed the memory stick with the actual files on it wouldnt play but still shows the tracks their. Its abit like dragging tracks into windows media player from an external hdd then disconnecting the hdd. the player will still notice them but put a nice mark next to him, I think this is what happened from the sounds of it. I dont use itunes, ages ago i used a different software for sorting my ipod out, i think it was mediamonkey i used, i know it was free and alot less hassle than itunes, maybe you should check out mediamonkey or sharepod. heres a list http://www.simplehelp.net/2007/07/08/10-alternatives-to-itunes-for-managing-your-ipod/ , ;)

[DJ Jules]

I needed to transfer the tracks to my itunes library, so I plugged the memory stick into my computer, opened my itunes, clicked on add folder (or was it add file?) to library, then imported the songs on the stick to my itunes music library. When imported, I clicked on them one at a time to play them, and everything was fine.

As the man above says, "importing" doesn't actually copy the files from the memory stick anywhere, it just adds them (in their current location - on the memory stick) into the list of tracks available.


I came up with an alternative long winded (but successful) way of getting the songs into my itunes library. That was to plug in the memory stick, burn the tracks directly to 3 CDs, then to rip the CDs into my itunes music library...so job done in the end.

If the files were in MP3 format, then you don't want to be doing that... When you burn to CD, you're converting MP3 (which is a lossy format) back to what is effectively .WAV and then when you re-rip them you're re-encoding them in another lossy format (unless you RIP tracks as AAC, MP4 or WAV files - but I think devices like the D2, etc only play .WAV and .MP3). Normally moving tracks between digital media doesn't change the track, but whenever you rip a track as an MP3, you are losing some of the information in the track, so ripping the same track twice (effectively what you're doing by burning to CD and then re-ripping) means you're going to start to lose rather a lot of the data in the song (which is going to start to effect how it sounds).

You should be able to just copy the tracks from the memory stick to a folder on your local PC (i.e. My Documents/Music) and then import that local folder to iTunes.

Alternatively, dump iTunes ;)

Julian

[Corabar Steve]

Would now be a good time to point out that this would be a breach of copyright (even with ProDub) as the tracks in question aren't yours to copy.

[Vectis]

Copyright issues aside...

1. In iTunes if you get the exclamation marks it's because the software has lost sight of the music files. On the Mac, you restart iTunes holding down the Option key and it will attempt to re-sync. There's probably an equivalent key for windows systems.

2. Within iTunes there's a menu setting that allows the software to make a local copy of any files it finds on removable devices, network drives etc. Not sure where it is off the top of my head (I'm on my iphone today) but it's there. If selected, this would have created a local copy (on your PC's hard drive) from your memory stick the first time you tried to access the songs.

Hope this helps.

[rob1963]

In summary it seems I either need to set my itunes to make a local copy of files it finds on removable drives or to import the music to my computer first and THEN import them from there to to itunes.

Thanks for the help & advice folks.

:)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Copyright ignored then.

Wonderful.

[rob1963]

Due to the copyright isues raised in this thread, I'll obviously be deleting the tracks in question & will tell the clients I won't be able to play any of the music they gave me.

Thanks again for everyones help.

:)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Due to the copyright isues raised in this thread, I'll obviously be deleting the tracks in question & will tell the clients I won't be able to play any of the music they gave me.

Thanks again for everyones help.

:)

I'm pleased about that Rob, as I'd hate you to be shown as a hypocrite. :)

[Corabar Steve]

You still have CD players do you not Rob?

Why not contact the client & ask them to bring their original CDs with them on the night?

Obviously you could still listen to the tracks supplied to familiarise yourself with them, but yes, it's best to delete them ASAP.

[Digitalsounds]

You still have CD players do you not Rob?

Why not contact the client & ask them to bring their original CDs with them on the night?

Obviously you could still listen to the tracks supplied to familiarise yourself with them, but yes, it's best to delete them ASAP.

Thats if the customer has the original CD's they maybe downloaded form said other sites, in which case the client is able to bring you there burn'd cd which you paly and hand back surely that is not an infringment of copyright.

[CRAZY K]

Yesterday one of my clients for next weekend dropped round a memory stick containing 42 tracks of line dancing music, most of which they will require to be played at the gig.


:

What a boring evening listening to that lot Rob .:eek:

I luv Country Music but that sounds far too much--unless its a Western Event.

Not too bad if you broke the boredom by Calling a few dances I suppose;)

Perhaps stick in Country Roads by Hermes House Band:D :D :D
or Hoe Down Throw Up ;)

May phone you later on this, better include this lot in your pro dub calculation :eek:

regards

Alan
CRAZY K

[CRAZY K]

Would now be a good time to point out that this would be a breach of copyright (even with ProDub) as the tracks in question aren't yours to copy.

Thats absolutely true:eek:

Cancel the booking.

:D :D :D

CRAZY K

[Corabar Steve]

Thats if the customer has the original CD's
So maybe then Rob could do what the rest of us would do when we haven't got a track that the client specifically wants & buy them himself.
they maybe downloaded form said other sites, in which case the client is able to bring you there burn'd cd which you paly and hand back surely that is not an infringment of copyright.I'm fairly sure if that was the case they can be treated as shop bought pre-recorded CDs

[Steve the DJ]

I think you have a couple of issues and I have highlighted what is likely to be causing your problem:


Yesterday one of my clients for next weekend dropped round a memory stick containing 42 tracks of line dancing music, most of which they will require to be played at the gig.

I needed to transfer the tracks to my itunes library, so I plugged the memory stick into my computer, opened my itunes, clicked on add folder (or was it add file?) to library, then imported the songs on the stick to my itunes music library. When imported, I clicked on them one at a time to play them, and everything was fine.

I then ejected & removed the memory stick. However, when I then clicked on any of the imported songs in my itunes library, it came up with an exclamation mark & a message box saying something about it being unable to play file as it could not locate the file.

I therefore had to delete all the new "songs" from my itunes, as they were not really there at all. I came up with an alternative long winded (but successful) way of getting the songs into my itunes library. That was to plug in the memory stick, burn the tracks directly to 3 CDs, then to rip the CDs into my itunes music library...so job done in the end.

I'd be interested to know what went wrong when I initially tried to import the songs to my itunes, and why they only seemed to stay there while the memory stick was plugged into my computer. Surely once something's been imported, the source can be removed from the PC?

Hope this helps...

:sofa:

[Corabar Steve]

http://planetsmilies.net/vicious-smiley-1862.gif (http://planetsmilies.net)http://planetsmilies.net/sign-smiley-438.gif (http://planetsmilies.net)http://planetsmilies.net/vicious-smiley-1862.gif (http://planetsmilies.net)

[rob1963]

I'm hoping this thread will be locked for being way off topic.

Thanks again to the three people who DID actually answer the question I was asking in the OP (DiscoTed, DJ Jules & Vectis).

:)

[Corabar Entertainment]

Not 'off-topic' Rob - 'conversation progression'. The legalities (or should I say illegalities) of what you were proposing to do are VERY relevant to the subject.

Moreover, I think you and I have had this conversation before, and you have previously been asked to stop the 'digs'.

Nevertheless, as you are the thread originator and have requested such, and since the point has been discussed and answered, I will close the thread.