Disco Music > Disco History 101 Index > Technical > Storing and Playing Your Music On A Computer Via iTunes (aka: How To Say Goodbye To Your CDs)

Storing and Playing Your Music On A Computer Via iTunes (aka: How To Say Goodbye To Your CDs)

I began ripping all my CDs into the Apple Lossless format (no MP3s here!) earlier this year and it is truly liberating not to have to break out a CD each time. More importatnly though is the ability to quickly search and play almost any desired track and create a playlist based on certain criteria such as year, genre, BPM...

I play this through Apple's iTunes music program on a Mac running OS-X. The signal goes out via Firewire to an M-Audio Firewire Audiophile Interface, which feeds my home stereo via a digital coax cable.

The music is stored on two Western Digital 250GB w/ 8Mb buffer hard drives striped as a single RAID unit in a dual firewire enclosure. Since I'm storing music in the Apple Lossless format the file sizes are substanially larger than MP3s and I have already maxed out the two drives. Even so, one can fit a great deal of music like this-right now it is at over 15,000 songs.

The sound quality is exceptional and so good that I am now making the Mac my primary music source. The ripping of CDs is time intensive and although I started last Spring, I am nowhere near done yet with the CDs. I still have all the vinyl to transfer and clean up, but that's another story. All in all, it is worth going this route for the convenience and sound.

Check here for some basic information on the Apple Lossless format...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=150301

I am very concerned about preserving audio quality and am impressed with this format as it sounds great, but is roughly half the size of raw uncompressed CD files. Whether it's on a home system or an iPod I've found the Apple Lossless format to be excellent.

Even though you have Windows, Apple has now made the original Mac iTunes program available to Windows as well and it is free to download.

Many Mac users leave their computers running all the time. In effect they are running like servers and you merely access the data wirelessly through items like Apple's Wireless Air Tunes or you can simply connect to your home theatre systems with standard audio/video cables.

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Posted by: Bernie: DiscoMusic.com
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