iTunes and External Hard Drive
Greetings beat reader…
Please press play and listen while you read to: “Computer Game” by Yellow Magic Orchestra
Check the groove of this INSANELY epic track. Originally released as “Firecracker” and later released as
“Computer Games” on Horizon Records and I’ll love my 12inch vinyl copy of this track as long as I live,,,
((…you can find it and give a listen on your own if interested…))
Welcome to this weeks installment of computer science discovery and wonder. Since my last communication I’ve been hard at work rebuilding and upgrading my own system, and discovering this wonderful wordpress dashboard. I like the posting view stats and links to the other blogs. Nicely done.
I just recently purchased Serato Scratch Live SL3 to interface my Turntable Dj Setup w/my laptop and digital music files (most of which are recorded from vinyl records, or imported from purchased cds.) It uses coded vinyl and is amazing in and of its own right for allowing the access of Dj style hands-on manipulation of digital audio hosted on a hard drive and connecting to your laptop. It basically turns your laptop into a record bag. Although you will never quite reach the sonic quality of your precious vinyl, even if you do your own a/d conversion. Given that I have been quoted saying, I would never use such a product, and that I would always play vinyl, it has come time to hip myself to the this amazing and versatile Dj tool.
My theory is that now I can continue to record my vinyl and cd collection and playback the high quality .wav files. from the a/d conversion processed by myself from my analog playback source (turnatables, phono preamp, dj mixer, outboard mixer.) We’re talking about transduction here, and that’s a whole other rant folks…
In preparation of installing Serato and allowing it to run smoothly on my 1.5 GHz Power PC G4 w/2GB RAM along with Logic 8 I have had to do the following which has been an arduous and time consuming process to say the least.
I’ve gone ahead and finished an erase and install of my OSX and what a difference. Everything is running smooth except for my precious iTunes 4 Music folder, Library, and iTunes Music Library.xml files that were copied to my external drive are not working w/the iTunes application itself. Yes, for those of you not already hip to this method of storage and playback of all digital audio file formats accepted by iTunes especially in my case the excess of large .wav, .aiff files, etc. The majority of my digital music is not in mp3 file format (unless only available as such.) I have gone into iTunes PREFERENCE ADVANCED TAB to the iTunes Media folder Location window and selected the 200GB iTunes Music folder on my external drive.
Now this causes a big problem. Prior to this erase and install my entire iTunes Music folder, properly labeled w/playlists and track info, stored on a lacie external drive, would communicate properly. What I had learned years ago is that the iTunes Library.xml file and Library Files of iTunes contain info on playlist settings and the likes so it needs that information on your startup disc to talk to the iTunes music folder stored off site on the external hard drive.
I thought I could simply copy over the old .xml file to iTunes on the new OSX and redirect iTunes, however it is not that simple. You need to actually go to ADD TO LIBRARY then select the iTunes Music folder to create the communication link between the iTunes application and the iTunes Music folder (as it no longer exists in the new system and user profile on my startup disc.) It will then add all the track and routing info to the iTunes Music folder hosted on the start up disc and create an updated .xml file that points to the individual tracks stacked on the external hard drive. This is a pain, takes up valuable time, and wipes out any existing playlist info (if existing in your current user profile.) Since I have no playlist info this would be an adequate solution. I may then be able to add the old .xml file and Lbrary folder that i saved onto my external drive to repopulate the communication link and my old playlist info. If not, I’d be happy to just have the music files play with out taking up any room on my startup disk, as they used to, and although it would be nice to have my playlists back and not have to spend time rebuilding them, it is ever so important to have the system functioning properly.
I guess i should export my future playlists and save it for back up. In the event that my current situation were to happen again, or that I was to use my iTunes restore dvds, in the worst case senario, I would simply be able to import the play list into iTunes.
I’ve learned the hard way that wasting time doesn’t pay off and given the opportunity you need always be prepared for what life presents you. A little forethought and action will save you trouble in the end. This solution will be well appreciated once I have everything running smoothly with iTunes and Serato.
It’s off to figure out my dilemma and install software……..
Sweet Dreams from Audio Land…
Oh yeah….. be sure to check this one too… (much more raw live version recorded in NYC in ‘79)
Leave a Reply