iTunes AudioStation Sync

[nicko_mv]

Hi Guys,

I have two questions - one is easier than the other...

1) Is anyone syncing between their iTunes library on their mac, and the music directory of the DS? I basically want to have new music I add to my iTunes library automatically be transferred to the DS.

2) Hard question - is there any way to transfer/sync/whatever iTunes playlists into Audiostation?

Thanks

[myCloud]

1) Is anyone syncing between their iTunes library on their mac, and the music directory of the DS? I basically want to have new music I add to my iTunes library automatically be transferred to the DS.

Yes. We have a shared folder common to all users (the two of us) named "shared" with Read/Write permission to the Local Group "users." It is in Login Items on our Mac accounts so it mounts at login. In it, I created a folder named Music. Into Music, I copied my entire ~/Music/iTunes folder. Then I launched iTunes with the option key held down, it asked me to choose an iTunes library and I navigated to the iTunes folder on the DiskStation.

I do all my CD ripping in iTunes, but we prefer Audio Station and DS audio for playback. I added /volume1/shared/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music to the Control Panel -> Media Indexing Service checked as Audio for Audio Station. (These paths are case-sensitive)

2) Hard question - is there any way to transfer/sync/whatever iTunes playlists into Audiostation?

Easy. Convert them to .m3u with iTunes Export and put the results in /volume1/audio/playlists. Because of where my iTunes songs are, my playlist links have to begin with ../../shared/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/

What you probably didn't know to ask is how you get your album cover art to be seen in Audio Station. iTunes keeps that in a separate database instead of embedding it in each song. Audio Station will work with the latter, or you can create an image file in each album folder named, "cover.jpg".

Hope this helps.

[nicko_mv]

Thanks so much for your detailed reply!

As I have a laptop, its a bit harder with the itunes library being located on the Disk Station. I do however use iTunes match.... so possibly I could move all my stuff to the DS, then have it automatically download from iTunes match as needed... or potentially I could use rsync, but ive never used that before.

Have you any ideas?

Thanks

[myCloud]

I'm sorry, but I fail to get your point (I do that more the older I get). My wife and I have MacBook Pro notebooks and only use wireless. It isn't a problem in day to day use--nothing iTunes (other than the app) is on my notebook anymore--it's all on the DiskStation. You might want to hardwire the notebook into the router for the initial copy of the iTunes library for speed reasons. The quality of iTunes Match is limited to 256 AAC. I have stuff in Apple Lossless, and even some in AIFF (ripped and taken out of the iTunes library--only on the DiskStation). So we don't use iTunes Match.

[nicko_mv]

Ah sorry - I wasnt clear. I mean that I spend a lot of days with my laptop away from home when I want to access my music. I can currently access webdav shared from the net, so possibly I could do the initial upload at home, then access my library via webdav, and fall back onto itunes match if that fails? I doubt that would be an effective solution however.....

[myCloud]

If you have network access, can't you just login to http(s)://your_DDNS_name/audio in a browser on your notebook?

[edit: use Control Panel -> Application Portal to make "audio" work]

[nicko_mv]

of course...
Gotta say im a bit reluctant to move to Audio Station from iTunes, but i'll give it a go and see how I fair.

Cheers for the help

[calameda]

"Easy. Convert them to .m3u with iTunes Export and put the results in /volume1/audio/playlists."

Just set up my Diskstation (DS413j) this past week. Audiostation is enabled and I'm able access my music library from it. However, I'm not finding the /volume1/audio/playlists referred to above. I assume this is the default directory for the Audiostation application? Is there an option to expose application directories that are otherwise hidden. I'm using DSM 4.1. Appreciate any suggestions on this.

[myCloud]

The shared folder "audio" is visible in FileStation. If it doesn't already exist, create a "playlists" folder in that.