How to Import songs into itunes
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago at 4:58 pm. 13 comments
How to import songs into itunes is easy. You just put the CD in, select it in itunes, and click on advanced - convert selection to MP3.
That’s it - Easy!
But, the default setting on itunes is not the best setting to use when importing songs. In fact, there is a better way to import songs that uses a program called LAME. This article describes how to import songs into itunes using the better quality of the LAME encoder.
If you want to skip the technical stuff and go straight to having good music, jump down to the ‘How to do it’ section.
Introduction
If you go to itunes:preferences and click on the advanced then importing tab you will see some options like Import Using: and Setting: This raises a few questions.
1. Why does Apple allow me to use different formats like AAC and MP3? Which one is better?
2. There are different ‘bit rates’. If a smaller bit rate uses less space, but has worse quality, and a higher one means better quality, how high do I have to go to get the best quality? How good is the default setting of 128 high quality (See picture below - click to enlarge).
Unfortunately I assumed the defaults were the best, so I used the built in defaults in itunes to import my CD collection. But if you listen carefully to your ipod through my stereo, and compare it to a CD you will see that at 128kbps there is a noticeable difference in audio quality.
The bottom line is, if you want the best quality that still is compressed, use a little program called the ‘LAME encoder’ on the ‘insane’ setting. I have reimported all my CD collection using the LAME encoder set to the insane setting, and it sounds much better - I now cannot tell the difference between the ipod and the CD player.
What is LAME? What is insane?
Lame is an mp3 encoder that is open source, which means rather than being developed commercially, it was developed by unpaid enthusiast programmers. It was originally not as good as the commercial mp3 algorithm, but as many people worked on LAME, it actually overtook the original mp3 encoder and is now better, and free!
There are literally hundreds of possible settings to use with lame, regarding audio quality, there are lots of different ways LAME can encode. There are some standard settings, called standard (as good as the itunes defaults) extreme (better that itunes default) and insane (best possible quality). We are using insane, and even if you cannot hear the difference between extreme and insane, I would go with insane as the extra disk space used is minimal.
How to do it:
STEP 1. Install the itunes LAME Encoder.
Download LAME version 3.95.1 with the itunes-LAME Encoder from here. (click on itunes LAME importer - download)
You will get a disk image appear on your desktop, open it and you will see the following:
Click and drag the CD logo in the top left onto the folder on the bottom right, and it will automatically install the LAME Encoder.
Step 2. Import a CD.
Open itunes and insert a CD into your computer. Make sure the CD is selected in itunes.
In itunes there is a new menu item between window and help, click this and select Import with LAME…
A new iTunes-LAME window will appear that looks like this:
In the window type in –alt-preset insane as you can see above. Select prefs and select ‘cache tracks to hard drive’ also in prefs make sure destination is set to iTunes Music Library.
Click import, you will have a great quality CD in itunes, in a playlist called imported from LAME. You can delete this playlist, it is only so that you can see what you just imported.
Why trust me?
I am an Electrical Engineer, I worked at ABC radio in audio electrical engineering, I have been playing with audio gear and electronics gear for over 20 years. I have read a lot of stuff from the net re the best way to import into itunes, and this is what I use. When I got my ipod there were literally hundreds of pages of information regarding which is the best format to store songs in. I have understood all the technical arguments, and apart from copying your CD into itunes with no compression (apple lossless encoder) which takes 650MB per CD, for no discernable increase in audio quality, this is the best quality you will get in itunes. I have 2000 songs fitting on my 15G ipod. If you are low on space, I think you are better off deleting some less favourite CD’s than encoding at a lower quality.
I was hoping to make this a no choices, here’s how to do it, but I’ll give you one choice. If you have an ipod nano, and a really short on space, and woudld desperately like to fit more songs, then use ‘–alt-preset’ standard instead of ‘–alt-preset extreme’. But I would use insane and have less songs on.
Happy Listening!
Fantastic!
The quality improvement is GREAT!
Thanks for easy to follow explanations & instructions.
Is it possible to use LAME when purchasing / importing from the iTunes store?
To quote from apple “Purchased songs are encoded using MPEG-4 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format, a high-quality format that rivals CD quality.” Apple AAC files at 128kbps are approx equal in audio quality to 160kbps mp3, so not as good as LAME insane or extreme. I buy CD’s from http://dirtcheapcds.com.au for $10 and import into itunes!
Good news itunes is now giving you the option of paying more for better quality downloads, but still not as good as with LAME!
itunes LAME’s newest version is 3.97 which works well… but is hard to access through iTunes… no extra window item … got to go into the library/itunes/scripts folder to open the app.
any suggestions?
Well itunes 7.1 did cause problems with LAME and so lame was upgraded with this:
http://blacktree.cocoaforge.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7610
TO get it back in the menu is a bit messy you need to make an alias of the “Imoprt with lame” script file and move it into the itunes scripts folder.
right click on itunes-lame.app and select show package contents
open contents
open resources
make alias of “Import With Lame…..scpt”
put alias into User/library/itunes/scripts
will be back in your menubar of itunes.
Just noticed a typographical error in the first question in ‘Introduction’. You ask why Apple allows you to use different formats like ACC and MP3. It should read AAC.
Fixed thanks!
thank you for the step-by-step! not being a coder, that makes all the difference for me. now i’m happily importing cds into itunes on the insane setting and it’s sounding excellent.
i have one curiosity: is it possible to have folders of music on one’s hard drive and somehow get itunes/LAME to recognize them as something to import? sorry if i’m exposing untold ignorance by asking, i’ve just been copying cds onto my hd for easy portability and sharing, and now i want to import them into itunes with LAME to free up the space. what would be the intelligent way to do that (that wouldn’t create duplicates in itunes)?
First go to itunes preferences, the Advanced tab, and make sure that the box that says “Copy files to itunes Music folder when adding to library” is NOT checked. This stops it creating duplicates in itunes.
Then make a new playlist, and drag all the CD audio files that you want to convert into that playlist.
Now select them all and import using lame.
Then delete the playlist, and, if you are game, after you’ve checked the import worked, delete the original files to save space.
Nice tutorial, just what I was looking for. But in Step 1 you say, “Download LAME version 3.95.1″ but the link leads to a page to download version 2.0.9t4. I couldn’t find any other versions on their site.
I’ve also seen other references to the 3.x versions thru the same website, so I know it’s not just a typo on your site. I’m a bit confused what happened to the 3.x versions of the LAME encoder. Do you know what’s going on?
You can get the latest version of lame from here:
http://lame.sourceforge.net/index.php
Click on “get lame”, then click on the link that says “file area”.
It looks like the latest version is 3.98, but 3.97 is the recommended version.
There is a great discussion about lame here:
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Lame_Compiles#Recommended_encoder_compiles_and_source_code
I’m new to Mac, new to Ipod and overall confused. I’m on a Mac OS X v 10.4.11 with the new Itunes v 7. In my research in how to import my CD collection to Itunes I came across your site. Very informative, but every time I try to follow your instructions it doesn’t work. I’m not sure if I’ve got the download saved properly. For whatever reason, it keeps going to the desktop. I searched and found some bundles with the enabling software for the Lame Encoder but still nothing. I don’t get that “added” tab between Window and Help, I don’t see in Preferences where I can change it from the AAC to LAME. I’d wait to ask my kids but since they are only 3 & 4 yrs old, and can’t read yet - I’ll be waiting a long time. I’d really like to be up with the times, era, before they beat me to it. Thanks Wayne!