Music library without iTunes and another small utility

I already wrote that the iPhone as a smartphone makes me happy, but the bundled software for the PC from the “Little Fruit Company” is somehow not very good.

Uploading books to the Shortbook through a file dump has weary in a very short time. Dear BrightBlame in the comments gave very useful advice that avoided obsessive synchronization errors. But man wants more ... Therefore, I continued to dig.


')
The biggest problem is the music library. Apple's dislike for open and popular formats is known, but this does not negate the fact that the album is easier to find in .ape + .cue than in .alac. As a player, I have been using foobar2000 for a long time, which is scary on the face, but kind inside. Moreover, the purpose of the player, in my opinion, is to play music and not take up memory. Therefore, the main place of this very foobar is at the very bottom of the deepest gorge in the tray. And the easiest way to reach him is with hot keys.

So, the initial position: on your computer is a rich and diverse format library. Something in mp3, something in flac, something in other formats. Convert it to a different format that would understand the device with the apple, and do not want to, and there is no time for this show.

But aesthetics requires that the music be in the iPhone / iPod, and that CoverFlow works, and that everything is just like that of people. For this we need the following devices and materials:

• lame.exe
• foobar2000 iPod manager
• little idea about the encoder (or google) configuration commands

It should be said that using lame.exe is optional, but I just got used to mp3, because I took it. Initially, the foobar2000 iPod manager plugin wants to use the NeroAac encoder, but it somehow did not happen on my system. And lame was already.

Further points:
1. Put lame.exe in a convenient place in the system.
2. iPod manager - to the foobar2000 / components directory (well, or where you have plug-ins for foobar there)
3. Restart foobar.
4. In foobar: file -> preferences -> tools -> iPod manager.
5. On the mobile devices tab, put a single tick.
6. On the Conversion tab, we ask the plugin to convert all unsupported formats and (to taste) supported, but with a bitrate of more than 320 kbps (two upper checkboxes)
7. On the same tab, specify the path to lame.exe.
8. And in the same place in the parameters we write, for example, like this: -S --noreplaygain -V 5 --vbr-new - %d
9. Connect the iPhone.
10. Restart foobar2000.
11. Enjoy the result.

The result should be something like this:


It was in the computer:


It became in the iPhone (foobar2000):


It became in the iPhone as such:


Mistress note: iPod manager is trying hard to download from the iPod everything that he finds in supported formats. And he supports a lot. So be careful and careful :)

In addition, in order for CoverFlow to be enjoyable, the covers must either be embedded in the file itself (mp3tag to help you), or be in the folder with the album, and called plainly - folder.jpg. Otherwise you will not see the cover.

The second minor trick is the iPhone folders . The add-on Explorer, which, with iTyunse enabled (well, yes, won't leave it at all, and it will fit for backup) reveals the phone's folder structure. I use it to load heaps of books, for example.

All this works on a non-jailbroken phone with the latest firmware , which is good in itself.