Mac & iTunes geniuses... help

I'm not an itunes expert, but I would consider the following approach:

1) Temporarily change the location of your music files to the location you want to keep the lossless files in.

2) Temporarily et itunes ripping format to lossless

3) In the "advanced" menu, select the option to save as lossless to create lossless versions of your songs.

4) Now remove all the lossless songs you just created from your library. Do not delete them from their location, just remove them from the library. Change your settings back to how they were. Now your original settings and library are unchanged from how they were, but you've created a repository of lossless files.

5) Google this one, or use itunes help. When starting itunes, there are keys to depress that allows you to choose opening itunes with a different library or a new library. Open itunes with a new library.

6) Set up itunes with its new library to the location of the lossless files. Switch off "copy files into itunes music folder" option.

7) Import all your lossless songs into this new library. Now you have two libaries, properly populated with the song/formats you want.

Hope that helps. Maybe someone else can confirm this approach. In the future, as you add new music, you'll follow a similar procedure in creating the lossless files out of your original library, but a slightly different importing procedure.

Have you determined that a higher resolution compressed format won't fit the bill for your portable playing? You could save more space that way???

Ed,

If you are going to all the trouble and are looking to save space then you might want to consider just going down to 320mp3. I seriously doubt you will be able to hear a difference on the ipod. Heck 320s are pretty good sounding on the main rig for me and I don't even get not going Apple Lossless on your whole collection. You can seriously hear a difference between AIFF files and MP4? I can't and even Wavelength audio and Ayre say to go lossless. I guess it doesn't make that much difference since hard drive space is so cheap these days. But it is nice to save the space for the ipods.

Try comparing 320 to apple lossless on your ipod. I bet you can't tell them apart.

I have the same problem. My kids who could care less about MP4 vs MP3 can only get a few albums in their Ipod nanos.

Hi guys,

Thanks for your thoughts. Much appreciated all around.

I just realized, duh, that I could re-rip the CDs in A'Lossless (or I'll check out 320), save them in the library (but not copyover the AIFF files), load the A'Lossless files onto the iTouch; then in iTunes, identify which files are the not-AIFFs (good old get info), delete them from the library (which takes them out of the peri-HD as well). A little "steppy" but it works.

Sometimes I wonder about my ability to over-think things like this... maybe that applies to other areas as well LOL.

All the very best over the holidays and into the new year,

and again,

thanks, &

:) listening,

Ed