iLife '04: The Missing Manual

Music from CDs

Ripping a CD means “converting its recordings into digital files on the computer.” (Too bad recording industry executives didn’t know that when they accused Apple’s “Rip, Mix, Burn” ad campaign of promoting piracy. They evidently—and incorrectly—thought that “rip” meant “rip off.”)

With the proper iTunes settings, ripping a CD track and preparing it for use with the iPod is fantastically easy. Here’s how to go about it.

Phase 1: Choose an Audio File Format

Before you get rolling with ripping, decide which format you want to use for your music files: MP3, AAC, AIFF, WAV, or Apple Lossless (Figure 1-4). This may be more choice than you really wanted, but learning the pros and cons of each format is worth the effort, especially if you’re about to commit a huge stack of CDs to digital format. You don’t want to have to convert them all a second time.

Figure 1-4. To choose the CD-ripping and file-converting format you prefer, choose iTunes → Preferences, click the Importing tab, and choose the format you want.“Create files names with track number” arranges the songs you import in the same order in iTunes as they were on the CD—even if you don’t choose to rip every song on the album.The Apple Lossless option works only on dock-connecting 2003 iPods and later, including the iPod Mini. Owners of the pre-dock iPods that came out in 2001 and 2002 are out of luck.

MP3

Suppose you copy ...