< Day Day Up > |
11.3. iTunes : The Digital JukeboxiTunes, in your Applications folder, is the ultimate software jukebox (Figure 11-5). It can play music CDs, tune in to Internet radio stations , load up your iPod music player, and play back digital sound files (including the Internet's favorite format, MP3 files) and other popular audio formats. It can also turn selected tracks from your music CDs into MP3 files, so that you can store favorite songs on your hard drive to play back anytime without having to dig up the original CDs. If your Mac can burn CDs, iTunes lets you record your own custom audio CDs that contain only the good songs. Finally, of course, iTunes is the shop window for Apple's popular online iTunes Music Store ($1 a song).
iTunes can also burn MP3 CDs : music CDs that fit much more than the usual 74 or 80 minutes of music onto a disc (because they store songs in MP3 format instead of AIFF). Not all CD players can play MP3 discs, however, and the sound quality is slightly lower than standard CDs. The first time you run iTunes, you're asked (a) whether you want iTunes to be the program your Mac uses for playing music files from the Internet, (b) whether you want it to ask your permission every time it connects to the Internet, and (c) whether you want the program to scan your Home folder for all music files already on it. (You can decline to have your hard drive scanned at this time. Later, you can always drag it, or any other folder, directly into the iTunes window for automatic scanning.) Tip: The following pages present a mini-manual on iTunes. For the full scoop, plus coverage of the iPod and the iTunes Music Store, consult iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual . 11.3.1. MP3 Files and CompanyThe iTunes screen itself is set up to be a lista databaseof every song you've got in formats like MP3, AIFF, WAV, AC3, AAC, and Apple Lossless. iTunes automatically finds, recognizes, and lists all such files in your Home folder Music iTunes iTunes Music folder. Tip: You can instruct iTunes to display the contents of other folders, too, by choosing File Add to Library. It promptly copies any sound files from the folder you "show it into your Home folder Music iTunes iTunes folder.
Tip: If you connect an iTunes-compatible portable MP3 player to your Mac (the iPod isn't the only one), its name, too, shows up in the left-side Source list. You can add songs to your player (by dragging them onto its icon), rename or reorder them, and so on. 11.3.3. The iPodUnless you're just off the shuttle from Alpha Centauri, you probably already know that the iPod is Apple's beautiful, tiny, elegant music player, whose built-in hard drive can hold thousands of songs. (The iPod Shuffle doesn't have a hard drive, and holds a couple hundred songs.) It's designed to integrate seamlessly with iTunes. All you have to do is connect the iPod to the Mac via its FireWire or USB 2.0 cable. You'll see the iPod's icon show up on your desktop as though it's a hard drive. You'll also see an iPod icon show up in the iTunes Source list. Click its icon to view its contents. 11.3.4. The iTunes Music StoreThe iTunes Music Store is incredibly easy to figure out. Right from within iTunes, you can search or browse for over 1.5 million pop songs, classical pieces, and even comedy excerptsand then buy them for $1 apiece. There are no monthly fees, and your downloads don't go poof ! into the ether if you decide to cancel your subscription, as they do with some rival services. Start by clicking the Music Store icon in the iTunes Source list. You go online and land on the home page, which looks and works like a Web page. Use the Search Music Store box (top right corner) to find the songs or performers you're interested in. Double-click a song to hear a 30-second excerpt. (For audio books, you get a 90second excerpt.)
11.3.4.1. Buying musicIf you decide to buy a song, you need an Apple Account. Click the Account: Sign In button on the right side of the iTunes window to get started. (If you've ever bought or registered an Apple product on the company's Web site, signed up for AppleCare, ordered an iPhoto book, or have a .Mac membership, you probably have an Apple Account already. All you have to do is remember your nameusually your email addressand password.) When you click the Buy button next to a song's name, iTunes downloads it into your Home Music iTunes Music folder. It also shows up in the Purchased Music "playlist in the Source list for convenient access. 11.3.4.2. RestrictionsApple Music Store downloads are copy-protected gently. For example:
11.3.5. Playing MusicTo turn your Mac into a music player, click iTunes' Play button ( ) or press the Space bar). The Mac immediately begins to play the songs whose names have checkmarks in the main list (Figure 11-5), or the CD that's currently in your Mac. Tip: The central display at the top of the window shows not only the name of the song and album, but also where you are in the song, as represented by the diamond in the horizontal strip. Drag this diamond, or click elsewhere in the strip, to jump around in the song.To view the current music's sound levels, click the tiny triangle at the left side of this display to see a pulsing VU meter, indicating the various frequencies. 11.3.6. Playing with PlaybackAs music plays, you can control and manipulate the music and the visuals of your Mac in all kinds of interesting ways. Some people don't move from their Macs for months at a time. 11.3.6.1. Turning on visualsVisuals are onscreen light shows that pulse, beat, and dance in sync to the music. The effect is hypnotic and wild. (For real party fun, invite some people who grew up in the Sixties to your house to watch.) To summon this psychedelic display, click the flower-power icon in the lower-right corner of the window (see Figure 11-5). The show begins immediatelyalthough it's much more fun if you choose Visuals Full Screen so the movie takes over your whole monitor. True, you wont get a lot of work done, but when it comes to stress relief, visuals are a lot cheaper than a hot tub. Once the screen is alive with visuals, you can turn it into your personal biofeedback screen by experimenting with these keys:
Table 11-1.
By the way, these are the secret keystrokes for the built-in visuals. The Web is crawling with add-on modules that have secret keystrokes of their own. Tip: If the visuals aren't running in full-screen mode, the Browse button turns into an Options button. Click it to see a window full of options that aren't available anywhere else. 11.3.6.2. Keyboard controlYou can control iTunes' music playback using its menus , of course, but the keyboard can be far more efficient. Here are a few of the control keystrokes worth noting: Table 11-2.
Tip: You can also control CD playback from the Dock. Control-click the iTunes icon (or click and hold on it) to produce a pop-up menu offering playback commands like Pause, Next Song, and Previous Song, along with a display that identifies the song currently being played . 11.3.6.3. Playing with the graphic equalizerIf you click the Graphic Equalizer button (identified in Figure 11-5), you get a handsome control console that lets you adjust the strength of each musical frequency independently (Figure 11-6).
11.3.6.4. Preventing ear-blast syndromeHere's a clever touch: In the iTunes Preferences dialog box, if you click the Audio icon, you see a checkbox called Sound Check. Its function is to keep the playback volume of all songs within the same basic level, so that you dont have to adjust the volume to compensate for different recorded levels. (This setting, too, gets transferred to your iPod.) 11.3.7. Copying (Ripping) CD Songs to Your Hard DriveiTunes lets you convert your favorite songs from audio CDs into files on your hard drive. Once they've been transferred to your Mac, you can play them whenever you like, without needing the original CD. To rip a CD (as aficionados would say) to your hard drive, make sure that only the songs you want to capture have checkmarks in the main list. Choose a format for the files you're about to create using the pop-up menu on the iTunes Preferences Importing tab. Then click the Import button at the upper-right corner of the window (see Figure 11-7).
When it's all over, you'll find the imported songs listed in your Library (click the Library icon in the left-side Source list). From there, you can drag them into any other "folder" (playlist), as described next. 11.3.8. Playlistsand Smart PlaylistsWhen you click the Library icon in the left-side Source list, the main part of the screen displays every music file iTunes knows about (and even every QuickTime movie file; iTunes will play back soundtracks ). It's organized much like a Finder window, with columns indicating the song length, singer or band , album, and so on. As always, you can rearrange these columns by dragging their headings, sort your list by one of these criteria by clicking its heading, reverse the sorting order by clicking the heading a second time, and so on. To find a particular song, just type a few letters into the Spotlight-ish Search blank above the list. iTunes hides all but the ones that match. Apple recognizes that you may not want to listen to all your songs every time you need some tunes. That's why iTunes lets you create playlists folders in the Source list that contain only certain songs. In effect, you can devise your own albums, like one called Party Tunes, another called Blind Date Music, and so on. 11.3.8.1. Creating playlistsTo create a new playlist, click the New Playlist button in the lower-left corner of the window, or choose File New Playlist (-N). Alternatively, if you've already highlighted certain songsby -clicking them or Shift-clicking themyou can choose File New Playlist From Selection. A new playlist appears as an icon in the Source list. You can rename one by double clicking it, and add songs to one by dragging them out of the main list. Tip: Deleting a song from a playlist doesn't delete it from the Library (or your hard drive). Similarly, it's fine to add the same song to as many different playlists as you like, since you're not actually increasing the size of your Library. (You might be starting to pick up a running theme in Apple's software. Playlists work just like albums in iPhoto, or the Sidebar in the Finder.) 11.3.8.2. Playing with criteriaSmart playlists constantly rebuild themselves according to criteria you specify. You might tell one smart playlist to assemble 45 minutes' worth of songs that you've rated higher than four stars but rarely listen to, and another to list your most-often-played songs from the Eighties.
Tip: To rate a song, make the window wide enough that you can see the My Rating column. Then just click the My Rating column for a selected song. The appropriate number of stars appearsone, two, three, four, or fivedepending on the position of your click. You can change a song's rating as many times as you likea good thing, considering the short shelf life of a pop hit these days. To make a smart playlist, choose File New Smart Playlist (Option- -N)or just Option-click the New Playlist button beneath the source list. The dialog box shown in Figure 11-7 appears. The controls here are designed to set up a search of your music database. Figure 11-7, for example, illustrates how you'd find up to 74 Beatles tunes released between 1965 and 1968that you've rated three stars or higher and that you've listened to exactly twice. When you click OK, your smart playlist is ready to show off. When you click its name in the Source list, the main song list updates itself according to your criteria and any changes in your music collection. (Smart playlists get transferred to your iPod, but don't continue to update themselves there.) 11.3.9. iTunes: Burning Music CDsiTunes can record selected sets of songs, no matter what the original sources, onto a blank CD. When it's all over, you can play the burned CD on any standard CD player, just as you would a CD from Tower Recordsbut this time, you hear only the songs you like, in the order you like, with all of the annoying ones eliminated. Tip: Use CD-R discs. CD-RW discs are not only more expensive, but may not work in standard CD players. (Not all players recognize CD-R discs either, but the odds are better.) Start by creating a playlist for the CD you're about to make. Click its icon in the left-side Source list to see the list you've built. Drag songs up or down in the list to reflect their playback order. Keep these points in mind:
When everything is set up, click the Burn CD button in the playlist window. Insert a blank CD into the Mac and then click Burn CD again. The burning process takes some time. Feel free to work in other programs while iTunes chugs away. |
< Day Day Up > |