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iTunes problems

Just AIFF ripped 900 CDs mostly classical with dbpoweramp. Using iTunes for playback and file management. iTunes is certainly not made for Classical CD structures. The rips come off the CDs in order and iTunes immediately randomizes the track numbers. OK for pop songs but it doesn't work for a symphony with 4 movements. I can use Album Sort most of the time to place them in order but that destroys the search pattern I use. Is there any way that the track order can be forced to stay in its proper order?

I'm also thinking about moving to J River or other system but I'm not a computer guru so all the full featured aspects of these front ends probably mean I'd not have fun running them. Can any of them sort to two levels say Composer and track name so I can get all Bach contatas or whatever. I'm running a Windows 7 Pro server NAS nad Ayre USB DAC.
keis
10 responses Add your response
mhedges
180 posts
 
iTunes does a terrible job with soundtracks, compilations, or anything where the artists are not consistant throughout the whole cd. I am guessing that is what is going on here.

What you could try is highlight all the tracks for an album (hold control down while you click to select more than one track) then right click and select get info. What I do is put something in the album artist field and then the tracks should be grouped properly.
markhyams
28 posts
 
Did you keep your albums "together" when you ripped them? I use iTunes for my mostly classical collection, and when I rip the disc, I change the Album name to this:

Composer, Work, Ensemble, Conductor or Artist

This has the effect of splitting up an CD with more than one work on it to many albums. Then the track name is just the name of the movement. In one-movement works, this gets a little redundant, but it works. The whole point is that "album" (mostly) loses its meaning in organizing classical your collection.

For searching for all Bach cantatas, I would recommend having a column browser set up for composer, so first click on Bach, and then type cantata in the search box.

Let me know if I can help anymore.
markhyams
28 posts
 
http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/itunes.htm
srwooten's avatar
srwooten
694 posts
 
Did you turn shuffle off? My classical plays in the proper order as does everything else.

Also, whatever column you click above is how iTunes will sort. I click on the "Artist" column. Note- if you click it twice it will sort from Z to A.

If you right click(PC, not Mac) in the columns you can check other items (like track) to have columns show other info (like the track number) Then you can see if it's going to play in the correct order. HTH.
srwooten's avatar
srwooten
694 posts
 
Another thing _ J River is a much better program, but has a longer learning curve. I used iTunes for years, and now use J River. It took me a while to appreciate its greatness.
paul_graham
197 posts
 
Listen to what Srwooten wrote. Spot on.
kbarkamian
647 posts
 
I don't have much classical, but I had a few albums of various genres that wouldn't play in order too. No matter what I did, there was always a random track that was first in sort lists. After a little while, I somehow stumbled onto this -

Highlight the entire album, right click on get album info, and make sure it is album 1 of 1, 2 of 2, etc. Sometimes this info was missing on a track, and it put that track first.

For multiple disc albums, rather them one at a time, I change them so it's 1 of 1, then renumber the tracks of the following discs. By doing this, Pink Floyd's The Wall plays all the way through rather than having to start disc 2's tracks after disc 1's end.
vegasears
1,173 posts
 
Thanks to all the posters for the continuing education. iTunes can be a challenge when it comes to classical, soundtracks and compilations.
srwooten's avatar
srwooten
694 posts
 
Kbarkamian-
Great advice!
rex44
64 posts
 
Good to know. Thanks for letting us know Kbarkamian.
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