Well the sad day appears to be soon approaching where I will leave my beloved J. River Media Center media player software in favor of iTunes.  Apple's being tricksy with their sync routines for recent iPods so I have no choice but to use iTunes if I want to sync to my new iPod Touch.

So, any tips for optimizing the software or my library to accommodate a few hundred albums with lots of soundtracks in the mix?  I never browse my soundtracks by artist so using the traditional iTunes setup of genre - artist - album doesn't seem optimal.

This post is partially to plug J. River MC and partially just to mourn, but any advice would be appreciated

I recently bought an iPod when my factory refurbished Zen Xtra received an electro-magnetic spark unto death last month.

Since, I've had it for two weeks and through a quirk of who-knows-what reformatted my iPod's harddrive claiming "unreadable, corrupt" files upon connecting to iTunes twice already. I was ready to send it back to Apple after a few racy tirades but have since given it another try. Here's a lesson: don't just drag 'n drop onto your Pod, instead, you must "sync" your music directory library with your iTunes as to mirror it on your Pod or else it will likely (within a week) realize something of a discord and render your Pod corrupted and its need to be factory restored.

Gotta love Apple's dictatorial do-it-our-way-or-the-highway "sync" policy with iPod and iTunes -- and the penalty that ensues if you don't. I'm almost certain this is a method to screw PC users.

I've never had this problem in my four years of ownership with Creative products. But Apple? This infuriating, customer no-service nonsense "reformat" has happened five times in my one plus year hike with them. It had better not happen again.

Yeah, the best tip I can give you is don't do it!
It's funny how for so many years apple claimed to be less corporate, more a people company than Microsoft, and now that they're on top in the digital music biz, they're just as bad as Microsoft ever was if not worse! I suggest getting a Zen...

-avatar!

You should be able to organize your library and iPod/iTouch however you see fit by using the View options in iTunes or the Menu options on the iPod, but I'm content with the default setup and have just kept it as-is. Then again, I only use my iTunes to bring stuff over to my iPod which I only really use at work, so I don't use the application extensively.

Yeah, that's what you have to do with iPods - just plug 'em in and let iTunes do the sync. They're not set up the same way that other players are, so getting out of the habit of dragging and dropping songs onto the device will only help you and save you the trouble of having to restore your iPod.

I restored mine a few days ago because I had some corruption, but I don't mind. It's like a fresh start, and all my songs get automatically carried over.

I know a lot of people are anti-Apple or whatever, but I'm perfectly content with my iPod/iTunes setup.

Except Adam's already stated that he got an iPod Touch.

I'm a very manual-based user of iTunes; I don't ever use the auto-syncing options, since I like to create every one of my own playlists from scratch.  Manually transferring the songs to the iPod can be a lengthier time commitment, but it allows greater flexibility to the way you want your music to be set up.  And besides, if it's music that you're definitively planning on keeping on the player, it's just a one-time affair.

But yeah, as Zane and XISMZERO says, drag and drop is a no go with iTunes.

Oh, I forgot to mention this - there's an option so you can manually choose what syncs up with the iPod, so your whole library doesn't need to mirror what's on your iPod.

Yep, I've always managed my iPods manually and it's no problem. But tips for organising? I don't know. I use the Touch as well but have a fairly hefty music library in iTunes and it was just something that grew organically. You'll get used to the systems and how to find stuff very quickly but I'm not sure there's any tips that will make that easier.

F*ck iTunes. Seriously.
I bought an iPod Classic when my Creative Jukebox started becoming obsolete (by my standards, which are several years behind the rest of the world), and I disposed of iTunes within a couple of days because it's so godawful to work with, it's like putting a huge ball and chain around your Mp3 player.

So I'm using Winamp instead, which works wonderfully.
Allows me to manage my library on OTHER computers as well.

I know I'm just being an idealistic albeit demanding consumer: Apple should just let you do whatever the hell you want after you paid them $250 to own their market dominant product. That's not consumer friendly to force you to do it their way or be penalized if you don't and this frustrates me.

I can't urge the rest of you who've never had to endure the reformat process -- NEVER just drag and drop -- you will, within a week, find out why it's a grave error to do so.

What concurrently frustrates me is that Creative's (and most of the competition for that matter) product line had disinterested an old-timer user like me who just wants to use his MP3 player to listen to music or have it as a player sized at anything above 16 puny gigs.

I suppose it's like finding a cellphone without a cameratextmusicmicrowave package... Ultimate distraction or else!

Wait, I'm trying to understand what the problem is...

...but let me suggest something anyway.

When an MP3 player's search function doesn't accommodate you, you have to mess and play around with things like the ID3 tags in order to trick it into doing what you want it to do.

When I credit my soundtracks, I alter the ID3 tags.

For example, under "Artist," I just put the name of the series, or the name of the specific installment of the series, i.e., "Artist" for Final Fantasy X would be either just "Final Fantasy," or "Final Fantasy X."

That way, when I'm browsing under artist, I'm still able to identify soundtracks by their series, or specific installment in the series.

For the soundtracks that are composed solely by one artist, I just list the artist after the album title when specifying the album title, i.e., "Album Title" for Final Fantasy VII reads "Final Fantasy VII (Uematsu Nobuo)," just so I still have the artist information.

For soundtracks composed by multiple artists, I have the artist's name listed after the track title, i.e., on the FFX OST, Track Title for "At Zanarkand" (Disc 01, Track 02) reads "At Zanarkand (Uematsu Nobuo)."

I can slip you a free ID3 tagging program, MP3tag v.2.40, if you want, which will allow you to alter ID3 tags quickly.

Let me know if this was helpful!

Bernhardt, that's the gist of what I was asking... how to set up my MP3 tags as well as the view settings in iTunes to make it optimal for browsing a large library with lots of soundtracks at both home and on the road with my iPod Touch.

I'm thinking I'll probably use the Genre field for the general category (game ST, film ST, pop, dance, etc.), use the Artist field for album artist/series, and put the more specific genre and artist info into Composer and another field if the tags will carry over properly.  Apparently iTunes doesn't use the standard ratings ID3 tag either, which complicates things a bit further.  I had a couple other custom fields that I was using with my old software but might just have to go without them.

I'm curious what you use for listening to music at home then.  Do you use a different media player and sync that to iTunes or *gasp* use a CD player?

On a related note, iTunes 8 doesn't want to let me put its library files anywhere other than "My Documents/iTunes" which is rather annoying.

What I always do...For the album section, I always manually set up "Artist - Album (year)". So for example, I have "Poison - Look What the Cat Dragged In (1986)". This way, I'm effectively searching by artist and album when I look by album on my pod (I rarely use the artist lookup on the pod). Also I made sure any "thes" are moved around...Police instead of The Police and stuff.

I personally love iTunes, quirks and all. I find the sound quality inferior to Winamp, so I don't always use it for playback, but for organization, I love it. Before using it, I never paid much attention to tag management or anything. Now if I grab something untagged, I can move it to the right directory, slap it in, tag it (select all the tracks in an album and use "Get Info" to modify all the tracks I highlight) and sync it and I'm good to go.

Hail to the king, baby.

You could do like me and just connect your iPod to an amplifier?

I have read little of this thread, but all I have to say is

T H I S IS A FREAKING AWESOME TAG EDITOR (the GUI is Japanese, but I hope Adam doesn't mind it).

Well I just couldn't do it.  I tried to go the all-Apple route and switched to iTunes for a month or two there but man that software suuuucks.

Biggest qualms:
-No external encoder option for ripping.  No LAME, no happy.
-No "Playing Now" list.  It's sucks having to jump through hoops just to tweak your track order a bit or add and delete songs, not to mention having no idea what's next up for playback without hitting an obscure keyboard shortcut.
-Lack of options and customization overall.  With iTunes it's Apple's way or the highway.

Using J. River Media Center again is bliss.  Will have to drag-and-drop to iTunes occasionally to sync new music to my iPod but it's worth the effort.

On a related note, for all the praise Apple gets for their user interfaces I'm pretty unimpressed with the music navigation on the iPod Touch.  All this talk about gestures and you can't even use them for playback controls.  Important controls and indicators are in all sorts of unintuitive places and even jump around to different areas of the screen.  The home button double-click shortcut helps tremendously but still I wonder what Apple are paying their designers all that $$$ for.

Sorry about the rant.  So have any iPhone / iPod Touch users out their jail broken their players and used the PwnPlayer substitute?  I'm wondering if it's worth the risk.

Told ya so

It may seem rather silly to revive this topic, but the shuffle on iTunes just sucks. Why is it when there are 2799 songs to choose from I end up hearing the same damn ones over and over? Last I remember Winamp had a simular tendancy.

So, to bump up a previous thread..... With the third generation iPod Touch now available, I was thinking of upgrading from my current Nano.  Adam (and anyone else who owns one), how has yours been treating you?

Despite the promise of a faster processor that's equipped on the higher-end 32 and 64 GB models (essentially the 'true' third generation models), I'm leaning more toward the attractively-priced 8 GB.  I wonder, though, just how beneficial that speedier processor will be down the line, as apps and games get more resource heavy?  Being able to web browse quicker is always a plus, too.

Also, how's the jail breaking scene going?  Any particularly noteworthy apps worth looking into?

My 8 gig Nano is nifty littly device, but honestly? I almost completely regret buying it. In retrospect, I shouldn't have spent that much on a device simply to listen to music when cheaper options were available.

With that said, I do like it, and it serves its' purpose.

I have a 64 GB third-gen Touch and I LOVE it. Unsurprisingly, I've almost filled it up with music. I don't think I would have been satisfied unless the damned thing was 256 GB or higher.

I even love iTunes! It's so handy to have all my music categorized by composer.

If you're buying a new Touch, absolutely buy one of the new third generation models with the faster processor.  Forget about it being beneficial down the line - it's beneficial right now.  I've got the first generation Touch and was fine with it until the 2.0 OS, but since upgrading to 3.0 I've noticed a performance hit in even the music player of all things.  For example, there's now a considerable pause when I tap an item in the genre list before it shows the album listing to follow; that pause wasn't there before and it's just long enough to make me wonder if the tap even registered, which is generally annoying.

My complaints with the music player's interface still stand.  There are so many annoying little things:
-The volume and playback controls show up in three completely different places depending on where you call them from.  Forget about controlling playback without looking at the device.
-Half the time you have to scroll back any number of menus to get to the main library controls for artist, album, etc.  They should be easily accessible ALL the time.
-Gestures work for navigating the menu hierarchy sometimes but not others.
-Current playback position and track scrubbing controls, song rating controls, and current playlist are all on different screens and unintuitive to access.
-Long track names and album titles don't scroll - for long titles there's no way to actually see the whole title (which can be an issue for lengthy game soundtrack titles)
-iTunes sucks
-etc etc

Obviously nobody needs to consider a Touch unless you're interested in running applications, but I wouldn't recommend buying one unless the app functionality is your primary motivation and music playback is secondary.  Also consider that the much-rumored Apple tablet will probably do a lot of things the Touch does for apps but much better, depending on your needs and whether you're willing to wait.

There's also the new Zune, which gives you limited app functionality and doesn't chain you to iTunes.  (Edit: I've just read that it does chain you to the Zune desktop software, however, which may not be much better.)  I'm planning to give it a try the next time I'm back home, and if the music player navigation is better than the Touch's, might make the switch.

But if you want lots of apps now, and have sufficient wifi access to make the most of them, and don't mind second-rate playback controls and desktop media software, then the third-generation Touch is worth a look.

One word: Discman.

So, yours is a first-gen, correct?  The 2Gs were supposedly upgraded with faster processors after the 1G, so I wonder if they would still prove to be any more competent running 3.1.1.  I *really* don't want to spend $300 right now....

Yeah, I've heard of those before.  No firmware or upgrades necessary, right?  Works right out of the box?  Seems too good to be true.

Seriously, some days I really do pine for devices made simpler.

I'll take an MP3 player, thanks.

Well, I caved, and ordered myself a 32GB 3G Touch.  A hands-on comparison test between a 2G and 3G running 3.1.1 made it an easier choice; everything from menu shifting to app loading and web browsing was noticeably quicker and snappier on the 3G.  A contrast, perhaps, that wouldn't bother me if I were using the 2G exclusively..... but now that I've gotten a taste of the difference, there's just no going back.

So, any games and apps, free or otherwise, you guys recommend?  I can imagine me using mainstays like Pandora, NY Times, Instapaper, Wi-Fi Finder, Wikipanion, and Stanza -- and I've been dying to try out MGS: Touch.  Anything else?

Well here are a few of my faves -

Brushes - for drawing pictures!
Pinball Fantasies - Amiga pinball classic lovingly recreated.
8Bitone - A chiptune sequencer, great fun.
iNetHack - it's NetHack, one of the greatest games ever made, on the Touch.
Space Invaders Infinity Gene - The best shooter on the Touch.

I've bought a ridiculous amount of games for mine so if you want some recommendations (FlightControl) or a steer-clear list (Duke Nukem), just let me know.

Lay it on me, man.  I imagine it's easy to get swept up in those oodles of titles, so a little weeding out would definitely be helpful.

I remember you alluding that Silent Hill: The Escape was a bust.  Have you tried MGS yet?

You know when I wrote 'anyone else get it' in that thread, I meant did anyone get the game... not to worry. No, I never tried Metal Gear Solid Touch at all. I haven't heard great things but I guess you never really know without giving it a go. There may be a Lite version to try.

Here are some off the top of my head. I'll have a look on my iTunes later to remind myself what else I have tried.

These are in no particular order but if you want my must-haves, I'd say Space Invaders Infinity Gene (mentioned above), Flight Control and Rolando 2.

Resident Evil Degeneration - Not great. RE in an airport. I found the controls very awkward and, while the basic game wasn't bad, I got the impression it wasn't great even if it had decent controls.

Duke Nukem - Absolutely unplayable due to the controls.

Canabalt - This is available free as a Flash game so you can try it. The purchased Touch game is the exact same and I adore this. It's a run and jump game (well, just jump, run is automatic). Jump across buildings, over obstacles, through windows. Style is sublime.

Beneath A Steel Sky Remastered - Another one you can get free on a PC but, for me, worth paying for. A great point and click adventure from the makers of Broken Sword.

Monkey Island - Another point and click (of course). This is the new redone version and you can just swipe the screen to play it in its classic form. I'm actually reluctant to recommend this simply because it could have had all the nice animated visuals of the larger console versions and it doesn't. Still, it's a great game.

Real Racing - The most console-like game I've seen on the Touch. It's beautifully made and controls surprisingly well but I'm not sure that this type of game really suits the device. If you're looking for a racing game, though, this is a good one.

Katamari - Barely playable on a 1G Touch and yet becomes quite an enjoyable experience on the 3G Touch. But whether it has anything to offer over other versions? Well, it doesn't. But it's not bad.

Lumines - Such a great game but the controls here are very poor and, for a game like that, it's a total deal-breaker. Hold off until they fix the controls (or if they fix them).

Doom Resurrection - It's an on-rails shooter based on Doom3. Once you get past the fact that it's on-rails, you may really enjoy this. It's a great little shooter. House of the Dead meets Doom.

Rolando 2 - I totally recommend this. Many games on the App Store are complete rip-offs of other games and it's so clear that Rolando began life as a Loco Roco rip-off. And yet they actually added a huge amount to the game and the first Rolando turned out more fun to play than the game it ripped-off. The sequel is even better and manages to get more of its own identity in the process. A wonderful game. A great Mr.Scruff sountrack too.

Flight Control - A brilliant 99c game. It's so simple. You just draw flight paths for planes and try not to get them to crash. And then it gets hectic as more aircraft come in to land. It's so much fun.

SimCity - A surprisingly good version of SimCity. More detailed and better than the DS versions. Control works but takes a long time to get used to and, even after that, it's slow to play. Not much of a quick dip game so hard to say that it suits the Touch but it's worth a mention as it's well done.

Darkest Fear - A very short horror game with a simple concept - monsters lurk in the shadows, light your way to safety. It's a little puzzle game and took me by surprise. I absolutely loved it.

There are a few for you to start thinking about. Some there might catch your interest. You probably know this but www.toucharcade.com is a great resource for Touch gaming so you can search for info on any of those there. Hope that helps!

Of the Apps I've tried:

Zenonia - A fun Secret of Mana/Zelda-esque game. Very long and detailed. Controls are a little wonky (like a lot of Touch games but you get used to them).

Bookworm - Your basic "hunt for words" kinda game. VERY ADDICTING.

Terminator Salvation: A very solid third-person shooter. Graphically pretty and lots of fun.

Many thanks, guys!  Of the ones listed, I'm thinking Canabalt, Real Racing, Rolando 2, and Flight Control will take the first trials by fire.  Terminator Salvation looks like it could very cool as well.

I've had my Touch for a few days now, and I'm absolutely smitten with it.  I'm really glad I sprung for the 32 GB, as the DVD movies I'm putting on via the HandBrake converter is steadily filling it up.  With the proper encoder tweaks, films look freaken boss on the Touch's screen.  So far, I have Coraline, Bolt, Ratatouille, Speed Racer, The Dark Knight, Midnight Run, and Enchanted on there - but I should easily have enough room for the LOTR, Pirates, and Bourne trilogies as well. 

I also downloaded a boatload of apps and games, most of which I haven't tried out yet.  However, if there's one app I've been using extensively, it's Pandora.  This is the first time I've ever used the service, and in just three days, I've been introduced and exposed to more new music than I have in three YEARS.  I think it's the convenience of having the service on the go, and through a personal listening device that's a real draw.

Thanks to Kotaku, I bought up both Doodle Jump and Pocket God on the Apps Store.  I haven't quite found the appeal in Pocket God yet, but man, is Doodle Jump addicting.  My high score's about 29,500 at the moment.

Also, I just wanted to add how awesome it is to play custom soundtracks to these games.  It's as easy as turning on your iPhone/Touch player.  I've been playing both the Söldner-X and Shatter soundtracks to Missile Command.  And there's something strangely stimulating about doodle jumping to Eye of The Tiger.

By the way, has anyone picked up Space Ace, or the recently released Dragon's Lair?  If so, how do they hold up to their old-time arcade counterparts?

I've been living on the rouguelikes on the iPod Touch. Rogue Touch is a fantastic version of Rogue perfectly optimised for the system. iNetHack works great and it's NetHack, one of the best games ever made, on an iPod!

And there's Sword of Fargoal, a seemingly simply older Roguelike that has been given a lovely lick of paint and plays great. Anyone into Rogue games should check them out.

Haven't gone for Space Ace or Dragon's Lair. While I love how they look, I don't think I could bring myself to 'play' them again.

Anyone tried Sigma yet?  You can read up on Touch Arcade's review to see what it's all about, but it's essentially a match-3 puzzle game in the vein of Columns, Bejeweled, and Tetris Attack.  As partial as I was to those titles, I'm stunned at how much more I'm enjoying this one.  It's fast-paced, the touch controls are wonderfully intuitive, and the ability to continually stack beyond three adds a terrific level of strategy and fun.

After many addictive hours, I'm not kidding when I say that this makes a strong candidate for Game of The Year; it really is that good.  The introductory price is still just $.99.  Grab it before it goes up to $2.99!