Too Much Choice, Too Little Time

[webby]

A lot has changed for me and the way I listen to music in the last few years. First of all, I got married and had kids; two beautiful boys, and that has of course affected the amount of time I can give to listening to music.

Also, in the last few years, I've gone digital, ripping all (still in progress actually) my CDs to iTunes (losslessly) and streaming to my hifi or listening through headphones. My iTunes library is now at around a thousand albums. I also have Spotify (free version) at hand for any albums that I don't have. On top of this, the Internet is a click away and I love reading album reviews and wiki pages on albums and artists, how albums were made etc etc. The thing is, before I know it, I've linked to another album or artist before I've finished listening to the one I started with. Then I'm buying or Spotifying a new album. I have literally hundreds of albums that I haven't listened to yet because of this.

It's like a disease. It's all too easy to get sidetracked and turned on to something else, and then it's just a few clicks away (usually) in Spotify, or YouTube or whatever. I guess the problem would be the same if I had stuck to CDs but it's the ease of access of iTunes and the Internet that exacerbates the issue. Before all of this, I used to buy a CD, come home, play it and listen to it. Now, I rip it, add it to the library and listen to it (or not) sometime later (if I don't get diverted to another album or artist in the meantime).

I've discovered tons of new music, which is great, but I'm spending more time discovering that listening! :scratch:

Anyone have ANY idea what I'm talking about?

Note to self: Too many parentheses (brackets) used.

[WAD62]

All you need now is a decent application that supports ReplayGain (album/audiophile), and you can make some nice playlists ;)

[aquapiranha]

I know where you are coming from. I used to listen to CD mainly, but found I could agonise for ages on what to listen to! Now that I have around 3500 albums on a HDD in FLAC, I can listen in an instant to anything that I choose via the hi-fi, quite literally at the touch of a button! This means I spend more time listening to music, and less time faffing about. I have become more cynical of late too and I have less of an interest in the hi-fi and more on the music itself.

some do not like music in digital form and that is fine, but for me it has opened new avenues to explore and more time to listen, and I honestly do not think I am losing anything in terms of quality either, certainly I still have an emotional attachment to the majority of the music I listen to.

:)

[WAD62]

+1 Steve :)

[Rare Bird]

I decided to totally dump anything other than what i thought was exceptional music, which leaves me with less than 20 albums in my collection.No ripping any others to files for keeps sake, no just forget about them forever & ever. i am no longer the Progmiester

[webby]

All you need now is a decent application that supports ReplayGain (album/audiophile), and you can make some nice playlists ;)

I decided not to go that route before I started ripping. You have to do it at the rip stage right? First of all, I use iTunes and that doesn't support it so that was it for me really. That, and the fact I don't even know what it offers LOL :lol:

Is it just volume equalisation?

[Stratmangler]

I decided not to go that route before I started ripping. You have to do it at the rip stage right? First of all, I use iTunes and that doesn't support it so that was it for me really. That, and the fact I don't even know what it offers LOL :lol:

Is it just volume equalisation?

To answer your first question, no.
To answer your second question, sort of.

You can scan your entire library to generate replaygain tags.
These have absolutely no effect on the music file itself.
They are just tags.
They can however be read by certain applications, Foobar for example, and Foobar can perform output level matching.
Basically stops you from having to leap over to turn the volume down when playing random playlists.

[webby]

Right, I was just looking and found ivolume. Will have to look into it more.

[Stratmangler]

Right, I was just looking and found ivolume. Will have to look into it more.

ivolume eh?
Someone must have strained their creative muscle coming up with that name :ner: :lolsign:

[webby]

ivolume eh?
Someone must have strained their creative muscle coming up with that name :ner: :lolsign:

Indeed.

Anyhoo, back on topic....

[Stratmangler]

Indeed.

Anyhoo, back on topic....

So now you need an app to scan your music folder and generate replaygain tags.

Whatever you do, DO NOT APPLY REPLAYGAIN VALUES.
This will cause irrepairable damage to your music files - nothing an entire library rerip wouldn't sort out.

All you're after is replaygain tags.
They do not affect the files, and can be removed just as easily as they can be added.

Does Winamp do a version for Mac OS?
If so then there is a replaygain scanner as part of Winamp.

[jazzpiano]

Hi Lee,
Congrats on the missus and the boys! That's real life. Now on to our mutual fun: Yeah, I think alot of music lovers have gone through this. Remember you're only human, the sponge only holds so much. Classic information overload maybe? For myself, I find it helps if I try to make more of a personal, people-based connection to my musical exploration than focusing on copious web pages. It also helps you to live more in the moment. As an example, a friend exposed me to Django Reinhardt through cds and 78s. I knew little of this artist at the time and less about 78s. Now, I thoroughly enjoy this "find" and am checking out books from the library, trying to find knowledgeable record dealers, etc. Exciting and interesting music discoveries seem to come in waves, and I think you should let yourself enjoy this. Now, I might go 6 months or longer before I hear anything new... This is fine. Sometimes I use this time to re-investigate an artist I know I already like alot. I try to use the internet to locate knowledgeable, decent people who can give me some first-hand info/advice. Hope this helps and doesn't sound too preachy.
Best,
Barry

[webby]

Hope this helps and doesn't sound too preachy.
Best,
Barry

Nope, sounds good.


Goes off to look up Django Reinhardt. :doh:

[Pete The Cat]

I can identify with the topic.

Too much bought and not yet listened to, too much listed as potentially interesting to get round to checking / buying. Even started to contemplate ahead to retirement (a good 15 years off !) as a chance to catch up...but by then my next generation will probably be looking to me to babysit my grandchildren... :doh:

I'm now consoling myself that having a young family means I'll get exposed to more new stuff when teenage years arrive. So far it's just JLS... :rolleyes:

Pete

[michaelhigh]

Good to see someone with their head out the speakers...I have 13,000 flac files ripped to MediaMonkey, and that makes my vinyl sit, my CD's rarely come out, and I can shuffle for days on end and be perfectly happy. It does free me up to do the interblogs, hang out on audio websites and fiddle around with systems, but I miss going to second-hand stores and chancing $1.00 finds. Oh well, once I get thoroughly tired of MediaMonkey I'll find some other fantastic online thingy to subscribe to, I have dozens of great internet-based radio, some even streaming in lossless! Good position to be in...

[webby]

Even started to contemplate ahead to retirement (a good 15 years off !) as a chance to catch up...

Me too and I'm way off retirement. I know what you mean!

[WAD62]

Right, I was just looking and found ivolume. Will have to look into it more.

Nooooooo!!!!!!!

Don't touch ivolume, it'll re-master your files and normalize them, as happened to my friend :doh:

As Chris said look for an apple app that uses ReplayGain tags, itunes does not TTBOMK :)

Edit; After a quick look at the latest iVolume documentation it would appear that it is now using a similar ReplayGain technique, which does not affect the file, perhaps I was thinking of the older iNormalisation option, so that might be the easiest option for you. It doesn't appear to have both album & track, but to be honest either is fine for decent random playlist playback...

[webby]

Nooooooo!!!!!!!

Don't touch ivolume, it'll re-master your files and normalize them, as happened to my friend :doh:

As Chris said look for an apple app that uses ReplayGain tags, itunes does not TTBOMK :)

Edit; After a quick look at the latest iVolume documentation it would appear that it is now using a similar ReplayGain technique, which does not affect the file, perhaps I was thinking of the older iNormalisation option, so that might be the easiest option for you. It doesn't appear to have both album & track, but to be honest either is fine for decent random playlist playback...
Ok, thanks for that info. You must tell me what TTBOMK means though :)

Another thing, Cue sheets. What are they for and should I use/create them? Getting way off topic now. Will post this in the digital area.

[Alex_UK]

I can totally identify with this. I find myself scrolling aimlessly through my 3,000 odd list of CD albums now all in FLAC, and think "I've got nothing to play" - I just keep amassing new music playlists in Spotify, playing those a few times, then ending up looking for more new music. It is like an addiction - looking for the very few albums that I find that make me go "wow!" (though by doing it in Spotify at least it only costs me £10 per month these days!)

For those who know my bad habits - you will probably be amazed to hear that I have only bought one solitary album since June... not even anything second-hand from the charity shops...

[WAD62]

Ok, thanks for that info. You must tell me what TTBOMK means though :)


To The Best Of My Knowledge...I may just have made that up, I'm sure I've seen it used elsewhere, who knows...;)

[webby]

I can totally identify with this. .For some reason I thought you would Alex.


For those who know my bad habits - you will probably be amazed to hear that I have only bought one solitary album since June... not even anything second-hand from the charity shops...
I've bought one this year. I've had a few given as gifts too, but that's it!