Official iTunes 11 Thread (Released 11/29/2012)

[bdiament]

Hi Chuck,

 

I'm away from my main machine right now but when I get back, I'll see if moving the iTunes window downward helps with the anchoring issue. If I recall correctly, with earlier versions of iTunes, Amarra didn't "care" - *it* moved the iTunes window where it needed to be.

 

Thanks for the word though. Good to hear it *is* working for some folks.

 

Best regards,

Barry

Soundkeeper Recordings

Barry Diament Audio

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

So iTunes 11 is working MUCH better now that I got my first issue sorted out, but I'm still getting peculiar behavior with some sorting. It's only in the genre view, I have a couple instances where the sorting by artist name isn't working.

 

See the attached screnshot, it's got the Pink Floyd album sorted as first in the list, ahead of the other artists. The funny thing is I have lots of other Pink Floyd albums with the exact same artist tag (those were all tagged together based on folder name so I know they're all identical) and those are all correctly sorted.

 

This isn't a deal breaker like the issue I had before, but still annoying.

[wgscott]

Is it possible you have some white space, i.e., " Pink Floyd"?

[wgscott]

There are, however, some striking improvements:

 

 

iTunes (temporarily) serves porn images to Russian users

 

Apple developers apparently tripped up by recent creation of .XXX domain.

 

by Dan Goodin - Dec 6 2012, 10:07am PST

DEVELOPMENT MAC APPS

25

iTunes users in Russia got an eyeful on Wednesday (hat tip to Wired) when a newly released version of the app displayed graphic images of porn instead of the foreign films they were expecting.

 

The bug, reported to be present in the iTunes Store shown to users in Russia, is most likely the result of images that were linked to xxx.xxx. Security experts speculate it was an oversight by Apple developers, who put the address in as a placeholder and then forgot to revise it. The site happens to be the official search directory for domains that carry the .xxx top level domain, which was created last year. As a result, the iTunes section briefly featured a smorgasbord of pornographic images.

 

Apple quickly fixed the mishap, but has yet to explain how it happened.

 

 

 

 

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

OK, I know what iTunes is doing, and it's really dumb. If I have more than one copy of an album it confuses iTunes. The only instances where I have that are where I have albums in both regular CD lossless and hi rez formats. When that happens, iTunes I guess confuses the two copies and that also confuses the sorting.

 

SO in case of the issue above, iTunes not only confused the sorting, but also confused the cover art, putting the cover art of the version of that album I had in hi rez on the regular CD version.

 

It's easy to see how that happened, there's a big database somewhere that probably gets built and they're probably linking on artist and album fields, they should be including the genre and probably a couple other fields as well.

 

Clearly Apple's famous attention to detail didn't make its way into the design and testing of iTunes 11

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

The good news is that, hopefully, I can fix it. I'm just going to tag all mu hi-rez music with the resolution at the end of the album name and that SHOULD fix it.

[James1776]

I'm having a lot if trouble getting iTunes 11 to work smoothly with PM 1.88a. iT11 seems to tell PM everything is gapless, and most of the time it freezes everything.

 

One of several problems...To begin play I have to hit one track, which the new system ignores, and then hit another which plays...

 

Another quirk is with the system shutting off Pure Music when I close iTunes, something that I used to have to do separately...

 

Bottom line...this (version 11) was a 'fix' in search of a problem.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

The good news is that, hopefully, I can fix it. I'm just going to tag all mu hi-rez music with the resolution at the end of the album name and that SHOULD fix it.

Yep it's fixed now, and I've reported the bug to Apple. That's a dumb thing to overlook during testing, but I guess nobody's perfect.

[mwheelerk]

I would consider myself an earlier adapter and generally open to change thinking most things progress for the best but I find myself cautiously sitting in the background on updating to iTunes 11. I have been reading here and elsewhere people's opinions and experiences. Some people will, I guess, just gripe in general. Others have specific points and issues of features or functionality that are very valid.

 

I have generally been satisfied with the functionality of my current system but feel somewhat odd about being on the sidelines on iTunes 11. I know I would give up Cover Flow which has been an enjoyable display option when I have my HDTV (connected to my Mac Mini) and I remained concerned about any glitches with Audivrana +.

 

Rather silly I am sure but real all the same.

[wgscott]

My personal experience is it has been a significant improvement, despite the problems. I don't seem to have used any of the features they eliminated (including cover flow), except for the composer view (which I replaced with smart playlists, one per composer that I listen to frequently).

 

The ability to change playlists on the fly is quite an improvement, as it compensates for the feature I missed the most when running Audirvana Plus in iTunes-integrated mode.

 

I haven't had any problems now with Audirvana Plus since the release of the latest beta.

[Metralla]

I would consider myself an earlier adapter ....

Early adopters adapt.

[Joebah]

@ mwheelerk Go for it!

[REShaman]

Hi Chuck,

 

I'm away from my main machine right now but when I get back, I'll see if moving the iTunes window downward helps with the anchoring issue. If I recall correctly, with earlier versions of iTunes, Amarra didn't "care" - *it* moved the iTunes window where it needed to be.

 

Thanks for the word though. Good to hear it *is* working for some folks.

 

Best regards,

Barry

Soundkeeper Recordings

Barry Diament Audio

 

Hello Barry,

Chuck is correct about the behavior of the Amarra window's behavior when the iTunes window reaches a certain height on your screen.

With regard to clicking on play in Amarra and the result you're experiencing, that is a novel operation. Have not a clue what would trigger a play scenario as you describe. What setting could possibly cause Amarra to play only one track and then stop requiring you to advance to the next track to play. Did I get this right? Any setting in Amarra preferences? Preload/tracks ? In iTunes? Have you deleted the priior Preferences in earlier Amarra build?

Just brainstorming (define brainstorming).

Hope you find the Gremlin responsible.

Best,

Richard

[khj94704]

That's part of what makes Sooloos a great solution. While listening to a track with Eric Dolphy playing in the band you can tap the screen to see what else in your collection he plays on. In addition you can see items like mastering engineer and tap the ME's name to see what else in your collection he or she has mastered. It's a stellar system, but iTunes beats it on price every time :~)

 

The first time I heard about Meridian teaming up with HP I thought it was pointless, but if you can get a reasonably priced HP notebook that runs the Sooloos interface, get something close to integer mode to an external DAC, and just access the media on an NAS or wherever, that's actually sounding better and better. Much friendlier to my checkbook than a 100% Sooloos, too.

 

HP Connected Music - Meridian

[bdiament]

Hi Richard,

 

Hello Barry,

Chuck is correct about the behavior of the Amarra window's behavior when the iTunes window reaches a certain height on your screen.

With regard to clicking on play in Amarra and the result you're experiencing, that is a novel operation. Have not a clue what would trigger a play scenario as you describe. What setting could possibly cause Amarra to play only one track and then stop requiring you to advance to the next track to play. Did I get this right? Any setting in Amarra preferences? Preload/tracks ? In iTunes? Have you deleted the priior Preferences in earlier Amarra build?

Just brainstorming (define brainstorming).

Hope you find the Gremlin responsible.

Best,

Richard

 

I tried moving the iTunes window lower on the screen, then quitting and launching Amarra. When it came up, I clicked the "anchor" button on Amarra but again, it went to the bottom of the iTunes screen. I wonder if making the iTunes window less tall (i.e. allowing for more room vertically) would change things. Still, Amarra *used* to simply move the iTunes window by itself and place itself at the top. Don't know what changed. Nothing crucial, just an annoyance.

 

Same thing with getting playback started. (Sorry if I wasn't clear: it isn't starting, then stopping and requiring a hit on the "next track" button -- it isn't starting at all when all I do is press "play". It takes (usually) two clicks on the "next track" button before it starts up. Again, an annoyance. Sometimes I just quit Amarra and go back to straight iTunes, which works as expected.

 

Best regards,

Barry

Soundkeeper Recordings

Barry Diament Audio

[REShaman]

Hi Richard,

 

 

 

I tried moving the iTunes window lower on the screen, then quitting and launching Amarra. When it came up, I clicked the "anchor" button on Amarra but again, it went to the bottom of the iTunes screen. I wonder if making the iTunes window less tall (i.e. allowing for more room vertically) would change things. Still, Amarra *used* to simply move the iTunes window by itself and place itself at the top. Don't know what changed. Nothing crucial, just an annoyance.

 

Same thing with getting playback started. (Sorry if I wasn't clear: it isn't starting, then stopping and requiring a hit on the "next track" button -- it isn't starting at all when all I do is press "play". It takes (usually) two clicks on the "next track" button before it starts up. Again, an annoyance. Sometimes I just quit Amarra and go back to straight iTunes, which works as expected.

 

Best regards,

Barry

Soundkeeper Recordings

Barry Diament Audio

 

Thank you for the clarification. Perhaps I should have mentioned that I use a 27" Thunderbolt Cinema Display; and I am describing what happens on that monitor (and not on a laptop). Therefore, if Amarra operates differently on a laptop, I do not have the experience, and apologize for not mentioning the difference in our equipment.

 

The only experience I have with something remotely similar with Amarra Symphony occurs when a track title has quotation marks ( " " ). Despite my requests of Jon at Sonic, the quotation marks still cause the track not to play and to enter a loop trying to add the track to the Preload or to play period. Of course, the antidote is to remove the quotation marks from the title in both iTunes and in iTunes Music Library DB. But it sounds (pun) like you are having a totally different experience. This appears to be a bug Jon should be made aware of, if you are so inclined.

 

Aside from your experiences with Amarra's peccadilloes as it happens for you, it was nice chatting. Hope all is well with you, M, and SR.

 

Best,

Richard

[bdiament]

Hi Richard,

 

...This appears to be a bug Jon should be made aware of, if you are so inclined.

 

Aside from your experiences with Amarra's peccadilloes as it happens for you, it was nice chatting. Hope all is well with you, M, and SR....

 

You are correct. I have already contacted Sonic to report my experience.

 

Nice chatting with *you*, as always. All's well here as I hope it is with you and your M.

 

Best regards,

Barry

Soundkeeper Recordings

Barry Diament Audio

[mwheelerk]

Well a week later, late for me, I'm on board with iTunes 11. So far everything seems pretty seamless. I have found a workaround for me to overcome the loss of Cover Flow. Cover Flow was never a search mechanism for me but simply a display method. I like seeing large artwork on the HDTV. I use playlist and shuffle mode a lot. Cover Flow would order the songs according to the shuffle and display each cover for the song playing.

 

With iTunes 11 while in Playlist view I select and start play in shuffle mode . At the top of the iTunes screen is the info window with a thumbnail of the artwork. Double clicking on the thumbnail brings up a larger version of the artwork only that you can expand to near full screen. I change the wallpaper on my Mac Mini to a neutral gray and place the large artwork image on the left hand side of the screen and the Audivrana + user interface on the right hand side. As songs change the artwork changes and remains full screen giving me the general effect and information I am used to having.

[mwheelerk]

One other small comment. Early on, after only a few songs, I feel I hear a slight audio improvement with a little more detail and definition. That is something I had not anticipated as I thought this was a function/feature upgrade

[Mike Rubin]

I installed iTunes on a Windows 7 laptop on which I use JRiver to play the FLAC's, so iTunes only has to manage a large library of MP3's. It is crashing constantly and has been slow, slow, slow since I installed it. It's a fairly barebones laptop, so it may be a horsepower issue, but the older version of iTunes seemed both a great deal more lithe and definitely more stable. I've done nothing to my system that would account for this and just used the Apple Software Updater to install iTunes. Anyone else having a similar issue on the Windows side, especially if your collection is large? (If I could go back to iTunes 10, I probably would, but I never have had luck with the Windows rollback function.)

[Musicophile]

I'm currently pretty annoyed because simple tag edits like changing genre of s single song take several minutes, and during the entire time Itunes runs at 100% CPU capacity. What the heck is it doing?

[mwheelerk]

I'm currently pretty annoyed because simple tag edits like changing genre of s single song take several minutes, and during the entire time Itunes runs at 100% CPU capacity. What the heck is it doing?

 

Any chance when you are editing those tags that you have Audivrana open and if you do do you have the iTunes optimization boxes checked. If so, an I am far from computer knowledgeable, could it be battling for resources at that point?

[Musicophile]

Any chance when you are editing those tags that you have Audivrana open and if you do do you have the iTunes optimization boxes checked. If so, an I am far from computer knowledgeable, could it be battling for resources at that point?

 

I had Audirvana open, but not playing. But now I'm trying with Audirvana closed, and indeed Itunes editing is back to normal speed. Thanks for the hint!

[Musicophile]

A bugfix is out, with better search in larger libraries plus restoring of the duplicate search function:

 

iTunes 11.0.1 fixes AirPlay, brings back duplicate detection | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

 

The search function is indeed smarter, as it doesn't try to immediately display all finds. I was able to perform even a full library search, which is now down from the >20s before to pretty much immediately.

 

Worth doing the update just for that.

[bjast]

Can someone comment on how well iTunes 11 handles tracks which are both inside and outside of the "Music > iTunes" path? I've heard some pretty scary stories about people having to redo major portions of their metadata because iTunes corrupted their Library. I have thousands of files in dozens of locations (for my own reasons). Thanks