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iPOD's and break music


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I was looking at some iPods during the holidays, and was a bit surprised to see so many different models. Now I know that some of you are using these ipods for break music, and I'm wondering how happy you are with the sound-quality, and overall performance. Would it be worthwhile going with the iPod Touch, and what capacity would you recommend? (16,32, or 64GB).

Is the camera on the iPod Touch any good? Video?

AppleStore.ca has 64GB 4th generation refurbs, for $229. Canadian. The 32GB models are $179.

The iPod Nano is $149. (new) for 16GB, and no camera.

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I use an 8G ipod touch, 16gb iphone, 64gb ipod, all work just fine. As Agedhorse mentioned, make sure to turn off EQ and other effects you might have enabled.

I have yet to come across a time where I needed more than 8GB of background music.

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I use an 8G ipod touch, 16gb iphone, 64gb ipod, all work just fine. As Agedhorse mentioned, make sure to turn off EQ and other effects you might have enabled.

I have yet to come across a time where I needed more than 8GB of background music.

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Quote Originally Posted by Bobby1Note View Post
How are you guys connecting these units to your consoles? Are there special adapter cables required?
I am just using an audio cable (1/8 stereo connector to L/R 1/4 connectors) directly into my aux in on my mixer (X32).

Or you could get the ipod dock and do the same thing.
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Quote Originally Posted by Bobby1Note View Post
How are you guys connecting these units to your consoles? Are there special adapter cables required?
I am just using an audio cable (1/8 stereo connector to L/R 1/4 connectors) directly into my aux in on my mixer (X32).

Or you could get the ipod dock and do the same thing.
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I've been using some Sony 16GB MP3 players for many years now and they sound as good as any other source I use. (Stanton CD player + Sony home/pro Minidisc decks)

All of my digital music is encoded at 320kbps and directly from store bought or music service (ERG) CDs.

Connection to my mixers is via 1/8" to dual (L/R) RCA OR 1/8" to dual (L/R) 1/4".

Al

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I've been using some Sony 16GB MP3 players for many years now and they sound as good as any other source I use. (Stanton CD player + Sony home/pro Minidisc decks)

All of my digital music is encoded at 320kbps and directly from store bought or music service (ERG) CDs.

Connection to my mixers is via 1/8" to dual (L/R) RCA OR 1/8" to dual (L/R) 1/4".

Al

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Quote Originally Posted by Al Poulin View Post
I've been using some Sony 16GB MP3 players for many years now and they sound as good as any other source I use. (Stanton CD player + Sony home/pro Minidisc decks)

All of my digital music is encoded at 320kbps and directly from store bought or music service (ERG) CDs.

Connection to my mixers is via 1/8" to dual (L/R) RCA OR 1/8" to dual (L/R) 1/4".

Al
Al, I've seen the Sony's at Costco. I think they were going for about $90. Somebody was telling me something about the down-side, but I don't recall specifically what that was about. I'm wondering if it didn't have to do with iTunes incompatibility,,, I just don't recall. Any thoughts on that?

Frankly, I doubt I'd need 64 GB's capacity, unless the camera/video capability of the "Touch" is good/very good.
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Quote Originally Posted by Al Poulin View Post
I've been using some Sony 16GB MP3 players for many years now and they sound as good as any other source I use. (Stanton CD player + Sony home/pro Minidisc decks)

All of my digital music is encoded at 320kbps and directly from store bought or music service (ERG) CDs.

Connection to my mixers is via 1/8" to dual (L/R) RCA OR 1/8" to dual (L/R) 1/4".

Al
Al, I've seen the Sony's at Costco. I think they were going for about $90. Somebody was telling me something about the down-side, but I don't recall specifically what that was about. I'm wondering if it didn't have to do with iTunes incompatibility,,, I just don't recall. Any thoughts on that?

Frankly, I doubt I'd need 64 GB's capacity, unless the camera/video capability of the "Touch" is good/very good.
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The video capability of the touch is full HD (1080 or 720 depending on the model). And video quality is quite good in full light. In partial light, I would say pretty grainy (due to the miniscule lens camera size), although our video director did shoot a full length video with HD cell cams in a moderately lit environment, and was fine with the results.

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The video capability of the touch is full HD (1080 or 720 depending on the model). And video quality is quite good in full light. In partial light, I would say pretty grainy (due to the miniscule lens camera size), although our video director did shoot a full length video with HD cell cams in a moderately lit environment, and was fine with the results.

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I know people think I am imagining things when I say this but I think the sound quality of Ipods suck *ss.
The sad part is that you are basically forced to use them due to the simplicity of having so much music stored on such a little device.
Your download rate or whatever it's called has a lot to do with the quality also.
Another thing people say I imagine is that the multipin port sounds better then using the 1/8" headphone port.
I have used both and IMO there is no comparison, the multiport to my ears sounds much clearer/cleaner.

Rip a few songs from a CD that you like the quality of and store them on the ipod, then compare those tracks to ones you download.
Another thing that drives me crazy is the audio level from song to song varies greatly, you have to babysit your board when playing break music to watch the levels.

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I know people think I am imagining things when I say this but I think the sound quality of Ipods suck *ss.
The sad part is that you are basically forced to use them due to the simplicity of having so much music stored on such a little device.
Your download rate or whatever it's called has a lot to do with the quality also.
Another thing people say I imagine is that the multipin port sounds better then using the 1/8" headphone port.
I have used both and IMO there is no comparison, the multiport to my ears sounds much clearer/cleaner.

Rip a few songs from a CD that you like the quality of and store them on the ipod, then compare those tracks to ones you download.
Another thing that drives me crazy is the audio level from song to song varies greatly, you have to babysit your board when playing break music to watch the levels.

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I personally hate Itunes.

All of my music is in Windows Media Player and compressed to 320kbps. Most people could not hear the difference between 320kbps and an actual CD. As for the portable vs home units, I have tested and compared both sources through studio monitors and could not reliably say one sounded better than the other. (as long as the player has no internal EQ/effects applied of course). Both headphone output on the portable and RCA outs on the home units sounded identical to me in terms of quality. This was my experience. When I DJ, I mostly use the home units, but the rarer song request I will often have on my portables. I can almost guaratee you, you couldn't tell which I was playing. The main difference between the portables and the home units (most of the time) is the output level / where you will need to set your channel gain. My portables need more channel gain applied that my home units, even at almost full volume. The output of the home units is usually fixed and not variable like the portables.

Al

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I personally hate Itunes.

All of my music is in Windows Media Player and compressed to 320kbps. Most people could not hear the difference between 320kbps and an actual CD. As for the portable vs home units, I have tested and compared both sources through studio monitors and could not reliably say one sounded better than the other. (as long as the player has no internal EQ/effects applied of course). Both headphone output on the portable and RCA outs on the home units sounded identical to me in terms of quality. This was my experience. When I DJ, I mostly use the home units, but the rarer song request I will often have on my portables. I can almost guaratee you, you couldn't tell which I was playing. The main difference between the portables and the home units (most of the time) is the output level / where you will need to set your channel gain. My portables need more channel gain applied that my home units, even at almost full volume. The output of the home units is usually fixed and not variable like the portables.

Al

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Quote Originally Posted by soul-x

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The video capability of the touch is full HD (1080 or 720 depending on the model). And video quality is quite good in full light. In partial light, I would say pretty grainy (due to the miniscule lens camera size), although our video director did shoot a full length video with HD cell cams in a moderately lit environment, and was fine with the results.

 

I tried to get info on the megapixel count for the onboard still camera (4th generation Touch), and couldn't find anything. Seems to me that it's 1.2MP. I just got of the phone with a buddy who's a professional photographer, and he mentioned graininess as well. He said it would probably look good on the Touch's small screen, but not good/too grainy for anything larger.
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Quote Originally Posted by soul-x

View Post

The video capability of the touch is full HD (1080 or 720 depending on the model). And video quality is quite good in full light. In partial light, I would say pretty grainy (due to the miniscule lens camera size), although our video director did shoot a full length video with HD cell cams in a moderately lit environment, and was fine with the results.

 

I tried to get info on the megapixel count for the onboard still camera (4th generation Touch), and couldn't find anything. Seems to me that it's 1.2MP. I just got of the phone with a buddy who's a professional photographer, and he mentioned graininess as well. He said it would probably look good on the Touch's small screen, but not good/too grainy for anything larger.
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My advice:

- I buy my tunes from Amazon or Google (always mp3). Google uses 320 bit rate and Amazon recently converted most to 256. If you already owned songs purchased from Amazon you can download the better quality versions for free through your amazon player.

- To level volume use the PC version of mp3gain. It's an older program but works wonderfully. the PC version is NON-DESTRUCTIVE. This means it stores the volume changes in the tag and they can be redone or removed at any time through mp3gain. I have mine set at 93 dB (they suggest 89 but that's far too low). At 93 clipping will be indicated on many tracks, but don't worry about it. The clipping algorithm isn't all that great and I've never heard clipping. If you're really worried about it you can set to 91 and it will be fine, but that's just really quiet. Most modern tracks are 98-100. The mac version is DESTRUCTIVE meaning there's no going back once you've made changes.

- I use a Whirlwind IsoPod . At around $50 it's not cheap, but it works VERY well and I recommend highly if you're trying to pipe it mono through one channel strip of your board.

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My advice:

- I buy my tunes from Amazon or Google (always mp3). Google uses 320 bit rate and Amazon recently converted most to 256. If you already owned songs purchased from Amazon you can download the better quality versions for free through your amazon player.

- To level volume use the PC version of mp3gain. It's an older program but works wonderfully. the PC version is NON-DESTRUCTIVE. This means it stores the volume changes in the tag and they can be redone or removed at any time through mp3gain. I have mine set at 93 dB (they suggest 89 but that's far too low). At 93 clipping will be indicated on many tracks, but don't worry about it. The clipping algorithm isn't all that great and I've never heard clipping. If you're really worried about it you can set to 91 and it will be fine, but that's just really quiet. Most modern tracks are 98-100. The mac version is DESTRUCTIVE meaning there's no going back once you've made changes.

- I use a Whirlwind IsoPod . At around $50 it's not cheap, but it works VERY well and I recommend highly if you're trying to pipe it mono through one channel strip of your board.

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