iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Fourth Edition

Ripping CDs into iTunes

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, evidently equating “Rip” with “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. To make your selection, choose iTunes → Preferences → Advanced (Mac) or Edit → Preferences → Advanced (Windows), click the Importing tab, and, from the Import Using pop-up menu, choose the importing format you want. See Figure 5-4.

GEM IN THE ROUGHArbitrary Groupings

The Grouping column heading (in iTunes 4.2 and later) lets you override the usual sorting criteria and keep together a bunch of songs of your own choosing. (If you don’t see the Grouping column, right-click or Control-click any column heading and choose Grouping so that a checkmark appears next to its name.)

Many classical albums, for example, contain different symphonies, concertos, and other musical forms, all on one disc. How can you make sure that all of Mozart’s Concerto for Piano No. 5 in D Major (K 175) stays together and doesn’t get mixed in with concertos 6 and 8 from the same CD?

Easy. Select all the “songs” that belong together ...