One thing I can help people with, is that I’ve made a standardised classical composer list, with the following ‘syntax’:
lastname, firstname(s) (birthyear-deathyear)

I now have a list of 387 composers (I have a lot of early music, that’s why there are so many composers), from
Abel, Karl Friedrich (1723-1787)
to
Zanetti, Gasparo (fl.1625-1645)

but of course including people like
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750)
or
Schubert, Franz (1797-1828)

If you want to I can post the list here (but I’m not sure that would be appreciated), otherwise mail me at mcarpentier@pandora.be.

Cheers –Mike

None have yet made my iPod alien to the suspicion of causing some very ugly (windows – but spare us all the "you should by a Mac") blue screens.

Re shuffling Haydn symphony tracks, do you actually notice the effect? is it truly so different than listening in order? ;-).

I agree that it is important to get the compression right, and for my ears AAC
at 192 k is about as good as the iPod can handle.

However this is nowhere near what the original CD can do. The problem is
mainly that listening on an iPod is limited by the iPod DAC/preamplifier. If I
play the Philips Zoltan Koczis Bartok compilation from the iPod through my
reasonable Hi-Fi, it’s not at all bad reproduction. However, put the disc in my
Linn Genki, and there is a piano there. Similarly for the Quatuor Mozaiques
playing Mozart- the presence just doesn’t come through the iPod, whether
using loudspeakers or a pair of Sennheiser 580s.

The iPod is great on holiday or on the move, but no way would I consider
using it for serious listening, and anybody thinking of using one to feed into
a good audio system should check out what this sounds like before going
down the path of putting large collections on.

—
Bob L

-edwardo

In addition to a modest number of CD’s, purchased over 15 years, I have a substantial, but OLD classical collection, of great music but medicore analog sound quality, on LP’s and tapes. I don’t like all of it, but I know which works and which performances I DO like. Where is the best place to find (just a limited number – don’t want all the CD’s) these ONLINE (iTunes store or similar), without the limitations of the Gracenote database, and then simply purchase downloadable digital classical music, one work at a time?

I would use good formats (Apple Lossless or similar), as I have an excellent music system from MERIDIAN (www.meridian-audio.com).

Indeed, when you describe the virtues of Apple Lossless, I’m surprised that you don’t also mention MLP (Meridian Lossless) … it is the new standard for DVD-A and can do streaming; doesn’t need the whole file (e.g. Apple Lossless), etc., among other advantages. Apple should have used it, but maybe they didn’t want to deal with international standards (read: Japan, Inc. + a British audio company + Dolby, who has now bought the rights to MLP from Merdian), who knows?

I’d be grateful for any advice regarding where I should go to find great classical works in downloadable form. Here’s an example that GRACENOTE can’t find: "Mozart Symphony #12 in G, Prague Symphony Orchestra".

Many thanks!

/Steve Taylor; set505@comcast.net

This may be too late, but regarding your question about trimming MP3s to send to your sons, you might check out MP3 Trimmer. Its sole purpose in life is to do exactly what you’re looking for I think. Basically, you open up the MP3 you’d like to edit in the MP3 Trimmer application and splice out the section you want to keep. Then the program saves the “new” MP3 as a separate file on your desktop (or wherever). The nice thing about MP3 Trimmer is that it doesn’t first expand your original MP3 in order to edit it, and then recompress the edited portion (and thus lowered the sound quality). Instead, it simply edits the MP3 file directly. It costs all of $9 and you can find it here: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20938

Best,
Glenn

iTunes is fully scriptable, Bob, but better than hacking around yourself are
the downloadable scripts available from Doug’s AppleScripts at

http://www.malcolmadams.com/itunes/index.php

iTunes has a menu bar option for AppleScripts called ScriptMenu, which
can be installed as easily as creating a folder called Scripts in your users/
username / library/ itunes folder.

Download and place whatever scripts you choose in this folder. The one in
particular I thought you’d find useful is "Copy as MP3 from Start to Stop".
This will allow you to edit out and save a portion of the selected file. Making
an MP3 from an MP3 will cause fidelity to suffer a bit, but that isn’t an issue
in this case.

There are hundreds of scripts available – free- on the net, but Doug’s site is
the most helpful, comprehensive and educational one I’ve come across.

BTW, OS 9 users – iTunes 2.0.4 is also scriptable, and many of these
scripts will work in Classic as well.

My approach has created several new problems.

One is how to back myself up without creating all the disks I wanted to get rid
of. Even burning MP3s at 160 takes up a lot of space. It has, however,
inspired many interesting opportunities to create custom combinations to
introduce my grandchildren to aspects of music and its history that no
existing disk does. For example, I have edited and narrated a two-disk MP3 (I
have some PC-using grandchildren) set on the evolution of the Paganini
Caprices from Locatelli to Andrew Lloyd Webber with excursions into various
instruments and genres and comparisons with other efforts to explore the
possibilities of instruments, like Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, and the ways
of constructing Variations, like Brahms’ and Rachmaninnoff’s. Finding a good
application in OS X for conveniently inserting my spoken comments between
or into tracks has also been unsatisfying. I have also Made them copies of
some of my favorite idiosyncratic collections, like 50 different
interpretations of "All the things you are" or "Body and Soul" from the original
performances through vastly different renditions on varied instruments,
which brings out both aspects of the music and talents of the interpreters
that are quite dramatic. Well, to each his own.

How to compact my collection as efficiently as possible is
complicated by my desire to maintain the integrity of an original album when
the same track is repeated on multiple recordings. I have found no easy way
to use the same file to represent multiple iTunes tracks which are really the
same music reorganized on different compilations. I have many comipilations
of Opera excerpts ( I find it difficult to enjoy recitatives or plot lines when
listening piecemeal during activities, and, as a singer, I often enjoy comparing
multiple performances of an aria by different artists more than a single opera
in toto. Some performances by the young Pavarotti, however, are far different
than his recent ones, and identical performances are collected in differently
named CD packages. Keeping performances both easily distinguishable and
readily accessible without destroying a record producer’s posssible artistry in
organizing a disk is difficult if not impossible in iTunes without keeping many
duplicates of identical track files.

I have been frustrated in seeking efficient ways of keeping liner notes and
information related to a piece or performance, including some scores or
libretti, I have not found any convenient way of quickly noting in iTunes that I
have the sheet music for a track in one of my many collections of "Baritone
Arias" or "Italian Art Songs" let alone where exactly to find it. Ideally I’d like to
scan all that paper onto disk and call it up from iTunes with a click.

Finally, for the time being, I would love to figure out how to send pieces of
miedium length to my relatives and friends who lack DSL more efficiently. I
often hear a phrase or piece that i think someone will find interesting (two of
my soons, e.g., are amateur composer-arrangers, and I often find myslef
hearing the way someone else has worked out a musical challenge that they
would find instructive). Trimming out, say, several five minute excerpts of
pieces and attaching them to e-mail is very time consuming on both sides
(and reminds me how far away they all live). Any suggestions?

Bob G New York

Don’t forget you can also use Apple lossless, which takes up more space, but
is exactly the same quality as the original CD.