iTunes 2.0 Overview

By: Mike Kimball - Revised: 2006-07-13 devin

Introduction

The world's best jukebox just got better. (www.apple.com/itunes) "Presenting iTunes 2. It's the powerful new rendition of one of Apple's greatest hits. iTunes has always made it easier to enjoy your music your way. Its clean powerful interface for importing music CDs to MP3 files, creating playlists and burning music CDs made exciting new things possible with your music collection. iTunes 2 takes all of that to the next level." Available November 2001 as a FREE DOWNLOAD.


Section Links

  1. New Features
  2. Issues
  3. Demo

New Features

  • iPod support ("1000 songs in your pocket")
  • 10-band EQ with 22 presets
  • MP3 CD-burning ("150 songs per disc")
  • Crossfader for song transitions
  • Sound Enhancer
  • Faster audio CD burning (up to twice the speed of iTunes 1)
  • New visuals (as Plug-ins)
  • (MK observation) - better streaming audio

iTunes' features are demonstrated at www.apple.com/itunes.

Issues

  • Current version 2.0.2 (both OS 9 & X, as of 11.21.01)
  • iTunes 2.0 for OS X installer problem - could erase files or set permissions incorrectly (with certain volume names) - affects version available between 11/2 and 11/3 (Fri-Sat). See http://www.apple.com/itunes/alert/ for more info. (link dead)
  • iTunes 2.0 and 2.0.1 for OS X problems with double-byte characters (displays as garbled text) - fixed in the 2.0.2 version.
  • OS X version changes the "." at the beginning of an artist's name to a "_" while importing.

Other

MP3 CD Burning - located in the Edit menu in Preferences, select the CD Burning tab, then click the MP3 CD radio button under Disc Format:

cd burn prefs

Crossfade & Enhancer Effects - located in the Edit menu in Preferences, select the Effects tab. Use the checkboxes to turn effects on/off, and the sliders to set the desired amount. Note - crossfade only works well with songs that have a fade-out ending; sound enhancer tends to oversaturate most songs if you turn it past medium...

effects prefs

Equalizer - located in the Window menu, select Equalizer. There is also a button on the front of the iTunes window, third from the bottom right. There are 22 presets to accommodate the varying types of music and their instrumental arrangements and preferred harmonic emphases - you can edit existing presets as well as add new ones. Most types of music are represented, and there are even a few presets that are tweaked to bring out the nuances of particular instruments (such as "Acoustic" or "Piano").

effects prefs

Some EQ presets demo'd:
  • Classical/Acoustic, Jason Becker plays Paganini - the Classical preset works fairly well, but the Acoustic preset is better at presenting the brightness and harmonic nuances of the solo nylon-string acoustic guitar in this piece.
  • Rock/Pop, Van Halen "Unchained" - the Classical preset would not be far in range from the Rock preset, but the Acoustic one is a bit too bright for the distorted guitar in this song. Rock suits it best. Here the large harmonic difference between Rock and Pop is illustrated - the two EQ presets are nearly inverses of each other.
  • Bass Reducer, Sponge "Got To Be a Bore" - the preponderance of bass in this song lends itself to a demo of this particular EQ preset. Essentially the treble is flat, while the bass is tapered off. However, Mike personally prefers plenty of bass, and would still set this song's EQ preset to Rock.
Visuals - located in the Visuals menu are the usual options (on/off, size, full screen), plus a selection of installed visual styles. There is also the visual on/off button in the iTunes window, second from the bottom right.
  • iTunes visual - built-in to the app, the iTunes visual is generated by interacting three modules (first seems to be primarily shape, second movement, third color). There seems to be a larger selection of modules to select from, in addition to the ones that came with the iTunes debut. You can get info on them, or change them manually, etc. Keyboard commands are:
    c = info on visuals
    q/w = scroll first visual
    a/s = scroll second visual
    z/x = scroll third visual
    ? or h = toggle help menu
    Seems to work great for a variety of different music (Mike's example: Joe Satriani, "Time Machine").
  • Origami - installed as a free visual plug-in. It does have a slight bug with the redraw occasionally exceeding the boundaries of the visual window and overwriting the brushed steel of the iTunes window, otherwise it seems solid. Responds best to songs with high dynamics and lots of space in between beats (Mike's example: Rolling Stones, "Time Is On My Side").
  • Phase Scope - installed as a free visual plug-in. Responds best to songs with high dynamics and lots of space in between beats (Mike's example: Skold, "Anything").
  • Vortex - installed as a free visual plug-in. Responds best to songs with high dynamics and lots of space in between beats (Mike's example: Skold, "Anything").
Other free visual plug-ins are available, but I recommend testing them since they have a tendency to freeze iTunes or possibly your whole machine...