Apple Releases iTunes 10.5.2 with iTunes Match and Audio Distortion Fixes

It's only 16.6 MB for me through software update.

What error about importing CDs ? I've just imported several CDs from my collection but I haven't heard anything disturbing..not that I was paying attention

The problem only affected CDs encoded with Pre-emphasis. Pre-emphasis encoded CDs have high frequencies boosted to some extent, and need them to be reduced after ripping. Pre-emphasis supposedly provides a better noise-floor than normal CDs, but is only of a benefit to music with a large dynamic range.

It seems that the software component of iTunes that implemented the equalisation curve developed a fault as of iTunes 10.5, producing heavily distorted discs.

Very few CDs these days are encoded with pre-emphasis - limited mainly to some independent classical labels, such as BIS and the discs provided with the BBC Music Magazine. In the past, though, it was more common, particularly with CDs pressed in Japan.

It has never ceased to amaze me that Apple iTunes updates are not only incredibly bloated (100MB for a few fixes), but that they are almost twice the size of their Windows equivalent.
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Apple is total crap when it comes to partial updating of their software. Sure it is simpler to just make everyone download another 100MB file, but is 100MB really necessary for a few bug fixes?

Software update was 16MB don't know what you are talking about.

What error about importing CDs ? I've just imported several CDs from my collection but I haven't heard anything disturbing..not that I was paying attention

i loved the premise but i had to turn it off. so many bugs with covers not showing up etc. got too confusing with everything looking/showing up differently on the iPad and iPhone

It has never ceased to amaze me that Apple iTunes updates are not only incredibly bloated (100MB for a few fixes), but that they are almost twice the size of their Windows equivalent.

What does this tell us? Two things:

1. Apple is total crap when it comes to partial updating of their software. Sure it is simpler to just make everyone download another 100MB file, but is 100MB really necessary for a few bug fixes?

2. Mac software is bloated compared to Windows, even after they have made a new GUI set for Windows to give it the Mac look. In this vein I should add that Apple insult Windows users by forcing their UI upon Windows users (imagine if MS Office looked like Windows 7 on a Mac).

Sorry, but you are completely wrong:

1. This package is a full install package, not an incremental update.

2. The reason why is large is because the package bundles both the PowerPC and Intel versions of the App.
Otherwise it would be about the same size of the windows package, even smaller as most Mac OS X apps don't require a special installer program like Windows programs do.


I don't understand why you would what could have been a good post, talking non-sense; but hey, everyone has the right to give their opinion. The problem is that your comment is making you look really bad.

It's only 16.6 MB for me through software update.

If you get it from Apple.com/iTunes then it'll be 100MB+ because it's a Universal app and the full download as they're assuming you don't have it.

If you get it from Software Update on Lion it's the delta and only 16.6MB.



If you get it from Software Update on Leopard (PPC) it's 79.0MB. I would assume that's the full PPC version.



While that's certainly better I still don't understand why it's not in the App Store yet.

Same here. 16.6MB, OSX 10.7.2. Not sure where everyone is getting the 100MB total from.

If you go to the iTunes page, that's what you get: the full installation. You should find the incremental update in Software Update or on the web at the Support Section.

Those who couldn't wait, got the large size file. So much nagging and complaining for no good reason; only to spread negativity.

Some miscellaneous Match comments:

Since the upgrade to 10.5.2, I cannot match new files. It hangs on "Waiting." Prior to this, it would take about 1 minute to match an album that didn't require uploading. I don't know if their servers are overloaded or what, but this cannot be my problem alone.

I have upwards of 30,000 songs in the cloud now, so I'm pretty well-seasoned at this. In my experience, I have learned:


* A. Matches do not generate alternate results when you re-run them, i.e. I've never seen anything change arbitrarily.
* B. Match results "linger" in the cloud after you delete an album, so if you re-add the album and try running Match again, it will generate the same results (and the tracks previously uploaded will still be out there without having to re-upload them).
* C. Tags do not matter at all.
* D. Time lengths do not matter. Yes, editing the tracks a bit can force a match that otherwise didn't match, but I've seen a 5-minute track that is 3 minutes long with 2 minutes of silence at the end match to a 3-minute track with no silence at the end.
* E. Tracks do not necessarily match from their proper albums. I've seen many examples of entire albums that appear to match correctly, only to find that the singles on the album were instead matched to louder, newer, or more compressed tracks from singles compilations, etc. In other words, Match does not recognize the integrity of an album.
* F. Remasters never properly match. Ever. In some cases a 10-track remastered album will match none of the tracks, and in some cases they will match half and half, but rarely have they matched all of them as long as there are different masters out there as well.
* G. For those stumped about why AAC would match better than MP3, we must remember that these are compressed files being compared to compressed files. The "fingerprint" of the file must look different with a slightly different compression scheme, and finer details might be lost, possibly explaining why Match can't "hear" the difference between different masters of the same track.
* H. There is no "loudness" detection in the match algorithm, so the track you end up with may match to a much louder or quieter version that happens to be available on iTunes.
* I. For those stumped about artwork, you must have your artwork tagged/embedded in the file (don't use iTunes' own artwork mechanism which merely stores a local copy of the artwork and assigns it to each file). If artwork doesn't appear in the cloud, you can make a minor tweak to the files (change the genre or the album artist, etc.) and that will force an update to the cloud version and then artwork should appear.
* J. Match maxes out at 25,000 songs that do not have an iCloud Status of "Purchased." You can easily make a playlist to keep track of this. Any track you try to match over 25,000 will return a status of "Exceeded Limit."
* K. Once out in the cloud, tracks will not always appear on all devices. My library showed 33,000 songs on the iPhone but only 31,000 on the iPad. I had to go through the entire library to see what was missing and then "update" the match library using the minor tweak method described above.
* L. The point above is especially true if you add individual songs to an album or artist that has already been matched. The previously matched tracks might suddenly go dim in track listings and the download button will disappear.
* M. Lots of tracks marked "Album Only" in the store will only upload, never match.

Because most advanced users are not reporting these kinds of details online, please copy/paste/send this info to anyone you know who might be interested. If I had seen a list of comments like this it would have saved me some time in the beginning.

RTW

I just installed the update and scrolling in iTunes with my Magic Trackpad is horrendous. The scrolling doesn't stop when my fingers stop (or change directions) and seems to have a slight 0.5s delay to it. Anyone else having this issue?

**** you're absolutely right. Hopefully they'll get a quick fix out.