I pretty much agree with aubuti: I rip everything with dbpoweramp (the only thing that I use Windows for, but I just haven't found a native OS X ripper that I like) to FLAC in one directory tree for SBS, and (using the the multi-encode feature of dbpoweramp) simultaneously to AAC for iTunes into a different directory tree. I then import the AAC files into iTunes for our various iPods. I do NOT use iTunes integration for SBS. I've been using Songbird to create and export playlists for SBS; works fairly well.
The holes in this workflow at this time are: (1) During the dbpoweramp convert-to-AAC, I volume normalize the resulting AAC using the track gain value; this lets me play back the digital AAC file on systems (e.g., my car's iPod integration) that don't pay attention to ReplayGain tags and still have smooth track-to-track volume. I'd like to do the volume normalize using the album gain tag, but dbpoweramp's multi-encode feature won't work like that since you don't know album gain until you're completely done with the album rip. Solution is likely to do the convert-to-AAC-and-volume-normalize in a batch post-rip, but I just haven't set that up yet. (2) I buy very little music off of the iTMS, but I'd like to expand that for tracks where I have no interest in finding and buying the actual CD. Therefore, I'd like to figure out a way to automatically grab purchased files (in AAC format) from my iTunes directory, slap ReplayGain tags on them, and copy them to my SBS music tree. But I haven't figured that one out yet. Except for these two holes, I'm really happy with my two-directory solution and only using iTunes to manage my iDevices. -- kmr ------------------------------------------------------------------------ kmr's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10664 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32734 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
