Automator (iTunes) - worth the hassle ?

[dan69]

Can anyone out there tell me if Automator is going to be any help for me ?
I have this repetitive task I often do, with a number of steps. It goes :

1. Import CD(s) into iTunes using Apple Lossless encoder.
2. Copy the folders for the newly imported CD(s) (in Lossless) to my back up drive, into relevant already existing artist folders when appropriate, otherwise just to iTunes Music folder on the external drive.
3. Change iTunes Preferences/Advanced/Importing/Import Using... from Lossless to AAC Encoder (192kbps)
4. Convert all newly imported songs from Lossless to AAC
5. Delete the Lossless versions on my Mac (keeping only the AAC versions on the Mac, but with back ups on the external drive in Lossless)

That's it.

Laborious and time consuming manual task, just the kind of thing I thought Automator ought to be able to handle, but I can't get close...
Is it worth the hassle to try and figure it out ? Can anyone out there win my undying gratitude and explain the steps to set this up as a Workflow, or is it not possible?
Many thanks,
Dan

 

[sceptical]

I was looking at a similar problem and in the end took a step back from the and approached it a different way. I get to the same result as you - lossless on a separate drive, AAC in iTunes - but not using iTunes to encode.

I use Max (free encoder from http://sbooth.org) to convert my CDs simultaneously to FLAC (lossless) and AAC. It drops both files into the same sort of folder structure as iTunes creates, but on my NAS. I've set Max to add tunes to iTunes as it goes along, which creates duplicate AACs on my local hard drive. At the end of an encoding session, I remove the redundant AACs from the hard drive.

It may seem like overkill to create duplicates, but I think it's far easier to delete files from a folder structure than to try to create them in a new folder.

One possible complication: you're wanting to use Apple Lossless and AAC. As both are acceptable by iTunes, you might find that it adds both sets of files to iTunes if you do this automatically. You could work around this by not using Max to add the tracks to iTunes, and create a script to move all AAC files off your hard drive to a new location, then import the AACs to iTunes from there.

Max is OK. It's a little buggy (in that it throws up random error messages every now and again) but I've had no issues with the output: I use the FLAC files on my Sonos and the AAC on my iPod and I've had no cause for complaint.