iPod conversion questions, normalizing, file structure etc. Options

[thomasmarup]

Hi all
I have tried searching, but couldnt find consistent answers to my problems:
I have an iaudio m3 with 40gb, which is running out of space, even though I have encoded in vorbis at faily low bitrates for my m3. Im considering buying an ipod with 80gb, as it now is gapless. I therefore have some question:

1. I have all my music in flac, on seperate drive, in a structure like this: artist\album\# - songname. furthermore these files are not tagged or anything(these flacs are coded to vorbis for portable, and iaudio m3 just use the filenames and library structure). Is Ipod capable of storing files in this structure (mp3's), without any tags, and does that make for convenient song browsing on the unit?

2. Ill need to re-encode all my flacs to mp3 :-( because of ipod. And need a specific lame frontend(or script) which can convert my whole .flac library, to an mp3 library with exactly the same structure(eventually adding tags as well, based on the file-tree(only if Ipod needs tags will this be neccessary))

3. All my flacs have album replaygain tags. Since I believe Ipod support some kind of normalizing, like replaygain, I wonder if these replaygain tags can be converted to Ipod tags. If not, would I just let itunes compute and write the info to the mp3 files(which would make ipod lower volume in certain songs). Furthermore, can itunes distinguish between my albums, when they are arranged in the aforementioned structure? (I need normalizing with respect to albums, as I want the intended dynamics between songs)

4. This is a lame question, but I think that my m3 sounds very good when hooked to my stereo. Is the Ipod equalized to sound well on a stereo(I know this is subjective and all). I will be running without any signal processing on the Ipod(whatever there is, no dynamic bass boosts for me!). But abit of equalizing could ofcourse be done(even though that is processing as well).

Hope some of you will reply, as I know these kind of questions are trivial and asked alot

Thanks in advance, Thomas

This post has been edited by thomasmarup: Nov 3 2006, 12:50

[chrisgeleven]

3. All my flacs have album replaygain tags. Since I believe Ipod support some kind of normalizing, like replaygain, I wonder if these replaygain tags can be converted to Ipod tags. If not, would I just let itunes compute and write the info to the mp3 files(which would make ipod lower volume in certain songs). Furthermore, can itunes distinguish between my albums, when they are arranged in the aforementioned structure? (I need normalizing with respect to albums, as I want the intended dynamics between songs)

iPod's do not have album ReplayGain. It's Sound Check feature is very similar to track ReplayGain, but it isn't as accurate. For most stuff it works fine, but occasionally you find a song that is too loud or quiet.

One way around this is by using mp3gain in album mode on your MP3's. Then you can turn on SoundCheck if you are listening on shuffle and turn it off when you are listening to albums.