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Nice article, I was surprised that an easy process developed back in 2001 would have good incite. the only step the writer forgot was is to use java or some caffeine program while ripping any grateful dead recording to prevent the computer from falling asleep!

Unless I'm missing something in iTunes, I could never understand why Apple does rip a CD directly to a separate playlist. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Oops, sorry, *doesn't* rip a CD directly...

I click no on the "would you like to import the CD window" and then create a playlist which I drag the CD into to import it. That way I always have a Playlist of the original CD which is especially good for CD's that don't have information on the internet.

Be sure to compare the time lengths of the imported tracks to the original CD. If iTunes encounters a part of a track it cannot read, it will skip the rest of that track and go on to the next track. Unfortunately it will not alert you that any tracks have only been partially imported. You can try cleaning the CD and/or turning on the "Use error correction..." in the Import Settings under the General tab in Preferences and importing the track again.

I have encountered this error in every version of iTunes. I've also reported this bug to Apple several times but never received a reply.

Older versions of iTunes would let you rip a CD and import the track names without the track numbers. The current version of iTunes does not allow this. Is there any way to get that feature back?

davekriss93, on 12 January 2011 - 06:17 AM, said:

I completely agree, there should be a default setting for when you rip a CD it creates a playlist for it. This is the number one with a bullet reason why so may people have messed up libraries.

Backpacker, on 12 January 2011 - 08:18 AM, said:

Where are you seeing the track numbers? In the track titles? That's not happening with CDs I rip.

iTunes needs to add the following features:

1. Create a playlist of the CD when it's ripped
- It's a pain imported the CD then creating a playlist then find those CD contents to drag into the playlist esp if you have a LARGE music library!

2. Add the BURN CD button back!
- Yes, people actually do want to burn CDs for the songs they downloaded or ***cough***borrowed*** from others!

3. The Gracenote Dbase is CRAP!
- It's English based so if rip ANY CDs that's NOT in English (i.e. Asian CDs), there's no way of getting title and songs or cover art for those CDs!
- Gracenote should SHARE its Database with the ENTIRE music industry across the world NOT just the English speaking world!
- Thank goodness I'm able to put in the CDs title, song names and cover art myself!!!!
- No thanks to Grace notes which is Friggin' UNRELIABLE which is why I NEVER use it to download SH*T from it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4. ADD FLAC support!
- NO, do NOT speak of Apple's AAC or Apple's FLAC!!
- FLAC is used by various mp3 players which copies the songs AS IS though the file sizes are HUGE!!
- Considering that the ipods' capacity has increased, what's the point of having crappy 128k/256k bitrate files when you can have 320k or FLAC files?!
- Get good IEM's (i.e Shure & Westone) and you can literally HEAR the difference in music quality!
- 'Nuf said!

johnwalton, on 12 January 2011 - 06:41 AM, said:

Thanks for the tip! I knew you could highlight & drag the tracks over to your self-created playlist & import them that way, but somehow it never occurred to me to drag the CD to the playlist. I can imagine a similar "pain" this would be to the tracks method only because I have a *lot* of playlists that I'd have to scroll through to drag the CD icon to the playlist. It would be so much easier if Apple just asked if you wanted a playlist made of the disc.

I have error correction checked permanently in my import settings, on the theory that it might correct slight glitches which iTunes may let slip otherwise. At any rate, it doesn't hurt performance in a noticeable way, and for a scratched CD it saves me from going back to settings, turning on this feature, and retry the import.

Also, always clean a CD before import. The cleaning cloth you get with your Mac, iPod or iPhone is excellent for this. Always wipe radially and be gentle.

Expobill, on 12 January 2011 - 05:24 AM, said:

When I rip GratefulDead music to my Mac it doesn't go to sleep, it just gets very mellow and groovy.

Hello -- 2001 wants its article back.

Sorry. Couldn't resist. Was just watching Steve introduce iTunes 1 way back when.

Ah, the good old days when people bought CDs.

themelz, on 12 January 2011 - 07:49 AM, said:

A better solution is to learn how to hold your CDs properly and not scratch them. It is not an error when you are feeding mangled CDs to iTunes.