ITunes
From UCanWiki
iTunes is a program which can organize the music you have on your computer. You can use iTunes to copy music from an audio CD (called "importing" or "ripping" a CD); you can also use it to copy music to a blank CD-R or CD-RW to make your own audio CD (called "burning" a CD).
Please note that some of these instructions assume iTunes has been set up a certain way on your computer. If you wfind that the instructions don't work, please ask your tutor.
iTunes can be downloaded for free from http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/.
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Changing the properties of an audio file
Each audio file in iTunes is displayed as a set of information: the name of the file (e.g., "Smells Like Teen Spirit"); the name of the Artist (e.g., "Nirvana"); and the name of the Album on which the track is included (e.g., "Nevermind").
Often, when you rip a CD you will find that iTunes searches a database on the internet to guess what the names of the tracks on that CD are. However, if you do not have an internet connection - or if the database iTunes uses doesn't hold any information about your CD - you will have to enter the track names yourself.
I. Entering the name of the Artist and Album
Because the Artist and Album are in most cases going to be the same for your entire CD, you should start by entering this information for every track, in one go:
- Click on the first track from your CD;
- Hold down the shift key;
- Click on the last track from your CD (this will select all the tracks from the CD you ripped);
- Let go of the shift key;
- Right-click on any of the tracks you have just selected, and click "Get Info" in the menu that appears (this will open a window entitled "Multiple Item Information" which allows you to edit Artist, Album, etc);
- Enter the Artist and Album names;
- Click OK.
Importing a CD
Importing (or "ripping") a CD is the process of taking the tracks from the CD and copying them to your computer. When a CD has been imported to your computer you will be able to listen to the tracks on that CD, without having to have the CD in your computer.
Follow these steps to import a CD:
- Put the CD into your computer's CD or DVD drive.
- After a little while iTunes should start, and display a list of the tracks on the CD.
- To import the CD, click on the button labelled "Import CD" in the bottom right-hand corner of the window.
- iTunes will start importing the CD. When it has finished it will make a sound (three rising bells). You can now take the CD out of your computer.
- To play any of the tracks you imported, click on "Music" at the top top of the left-hand column in the iTunes window, and then, in the main part of the window, double-click on the track you want to play.
Burning a CD
Making a new audio CD from music in your iTunes collection is called "burning".
Before you burn a CD, you need to create a playlist which contains all of the tracks you want on your CD.
I. Create a new playlist
- Click on the "File" menu, and then "New Playlist" (alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+N);
- A new playlist will appear in the left hand column; type a name for your playlist (e.g., "Relaxation Tape");
- In your iTunes music collection, click on the first track you want to burn to CD;
- Hold down the shift key;
- In your iTunes music collection, click on the last track you want to burn to CD;
- Let go of the shift key;
- Click and hold on any of the tracks you have just selected;
- Drag the tracks to the playlist that you created.
II. Burning your CD
- Click on the playlist you just created (the tracks in the playlist will appear in the main window);
- Put a blank CD-R or CD-RW in your computer's CD driver;
- Click "Burn Disc", towards the bottom right of the iTunes window:your CD will start burning and iTunes will give you a progress report in the top-middle of the screen;
- When the CD has finished burning, iTunes will make a sound and the CD Drive should eject automatically.
