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Mac Itunes File Organization?

I'm a newbie to Itunes on Mac. I just got my mini two nights ago and I'm very happy with it. I've got a lot of CD's to rip and I'm looking for advice on how to organize the files. What are the pros and cons of letting Itunes organize the files vs. trying to organize them myself.

I've got an external hard drive with over 50 CD's worth of .wav files that I ripped on a PC with audiograbber and EAC. The songs are organized on the hard drive by artist, then by album, then by song title. Itunes will play these files fine but the Itunes library organization treats the artist and song title as one title, with nothing in the other fields. I'm willing to re-rip these CD's, if necessary, but I'm looking to set up a good strategy first.

I'm willing to stick with .wav files as hard drive space is cheap and getting cheaper. Will there be any problems loading the .wav files onto an Ipod?

Any advice from the other Itunes users out there before I get started?
pmi_guy
herman
2,256 posts
 
I agree with all above except I do believe if you use AIFF it will have tags.

Since iTunes and Apple Lossless are the native formats for the Mac I suggest those. Same sound. less space. As stated you can always convert back to wav if you want.
jpod
59 posts
 
I've ripped a few albums to AIFF lately. Tags show up on the Library and playlist pages, and in the Itunes XML file. Since there is XML I assume the tags are portable. But haven't downloaded anything to my MP3 player yet.

BTW In the last two weeks I've tried WAV, FLAC, AIFF, and Apple Lossless using EAC, Foobar2000 and Itunes. Due to allergies I'm having some intermittent partial hearing loss, but presently I can't hear any difference between any of these combinations of formats, rippers and players. And according to what I've read, all these formats convert back and forth with no loss of data--WAV=AIFF=FLAC=Apple Lossless in terms of PCM.

I'm under the impression that there is not a single best option and lots of choices. That's good.

Happy Ripping and Listening
JPO

pmi_guy OP
72 posts
 
Thanks everyone for the input. I'll start ripping in either Apple Lossless or AIFF. Are both formats equally compatible with Airport Express AirTunes and Ipod?
restock
831 posts
 
To correct my earlier post: I guess itunes CAN attach tags to AIFF files. There is thread on the slim devices forum:

AIFF/WAV & ID tags
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