Solution for itunes storage overload

[digi_midi]

I have lots of albums/songs to put on my ipod. I also have limited computer space. My ipod imports everything from my library every time I plug it in. This is probably not news to anybody who owns one, so I'm sure there must be similar questions out there...

How does one keep the songs/ wav files presently on one's ipod without overloading the hard drive by keeping them there too?? Am I just missing something painfully obvious or is this not possible? Given that wav files take up a lot of space, it seems like there would be a way to not have to store them on a hard drive at the same time.

Thanks in advance!!!

[bobb-mini]

why on earth are u doing wav and not mp3 or other loosy but perfectly acceptable format?

Yes, there is a way, it's called MANUAL SYNC. Asked all the time, it's iPod 101.

If u only keep your songs in the iPod though, and it craps out, u have NO backup, so as long as u know that, go for it.

[digi_midi]

I guess wav.'s just sound better, although they are really big. Converting to mp3 would really be the best way though. Thanks for the advice. I guess I could have been more specific. THere are programs out there (winzip and winrar are two) that could compress files. I'm wondering if I did this and kept the compressed files in the library if they would still be on the ipod. This would be one way to go.

Thanks again

[cjmnews]

Audio files don't compress well. Especially WAV files. You might get 1-5% compression, but I doubt it would get beyond that.

Why not a second hard drive? One of your more weathly buddies must be buying that 300GB and getting rid of his 40GB. Put that in and move all your music to it?

Or you can be the weathy guy and buy the 300GB, I've seen them on sale for under $100 recently.

[digi_midi]

That just might be the ticket. Any experience with storing wav files on the 60gb? I'm thinking full memory will be reached soon, at which point I probably will go to mp3. 300GB at under $100 though? That's encouraging, esp in for having a permanent place to keep the music without messing with cds and risking scratches.

[Galley]

WAV files do not support tags, so if you try to use them in another program, you're screwed. You're better off using Apple Lossless, RealAudio Lossless, or other lossless codecs such as FLAC. Certain apps, such as RealAudio 10.5 and Anapod Explorer will convert the lossless files "on the fly" to MP3 or AAC as they are transferred to a portable device.

[digi_midi]

oK, SO my itunes was converting the files to AAC.. noobs. :p So my main question would be at what bitrate to convert. I'm tempted to do 320 k but this seems kindof big. are mp3 and aac comparable in size? Thanks again and sorry for the question tree.

[Galley]

From my tests, anything higher than 192Kbps AAC is overkill. You really won't notice any difference in sound quality. 192 is a reasonable 1.5MB/minute of audio.