IPODS AND SPLIT SCREENS

Question

I have Premiere Elements 4.0.  Is there any way to be able to take music off Ipod's or CD's and put them on your computer in your project to edit with?  We have tried, but are not having any luck.  I know they need to me in MP3 form.  Is there anything to do with MP4 forms to get them on the computer and usuable?  Also, how do you create a split screen in projects?  Thanks!
Kelly

Answer 1

You can "rip" the Audio from a CD and bring that into PE to use as an Asset.
If the Audio is already on a CD, then any ripping software can extract (rip) the files. I would work with PCM/WAV 44.1 KHz 16-bit files, and not MP3's, as there *can* be problems with the latter. PE will conform the 44.1 KHz material to 48 KHz 16-bit for you. This might take a second, when you Import the WAV file, so let it complete that operation. PE will generate a CFA and a PEK file for the Audio. The latter is the Waveform Display file. There will likely be a little blue progress bar at the lower-right edge of your GUI. The freeware Audio editor, Audacity, will do this for you. I happen to use Adobe Audition, as it offers much more power and control, but that would be overkill for most people's needs.
Now, if the music is on an iPod, you'll want to go into iTunes (the copy that is synced to that iPod) and create a Playlist containing the music that you want. You will then burn that Playlist to a CD from within iTunes. This will yield the files in CDA format on the CD and you'll follow the instructions above. Though the music is going from the iTunes compressed format to CDA and then is ripped to WAV, you will NOT restore the file to an uncompressed form, though the file you'll get will be uncompressed. Once iTunes has compressed the music file initially, the "damage" has been done. It will never be as good as the source file that Apple created their m4p file from.
If the music is just on an iPod and you do not have access to the synced iTunes program, there is a utility called iGadget, that will extract the music from the iPod. There is a free version, plus a paid version. I think that the main difference is that the free version does it one song at a time, where the paid version allows for multiple files to be off-loaded at once. I am not overly familiar with iGadget. You will sitll need a copy of iTunes to do the CD burning from a Playlist. IIRC, iTunes will allow up to 7 burns from a Playlist. With older versions of that program, one could create different Playlists to get around that 7 copy limit. I *think* that the newer versions plug that loophole, but am not sure.
If at all possible, I'd not use MP3 format. Some of those files work, but some do not. Embedded "Album Art" has been cited as a possible cause for the failure of some of the MP3's. Also, MP3 is heavily compressed. Going back to as close to the source, as is possible, will yield better Audio.
If I only have an MP3 file, I always convert to PCM/WAV 48KHz 16-bit, outside of my NLE program, i.e. PE, or PrPro. Again, I use Audition for this, but Audacity should work fine too. Remember, once compressed, you will never be able to fully restore the lost quality of the file. Just do not compress any more by going from an m4p to an MP3 format, as you will loose even more fidelity.
There was a good step-by-step for working with iTunes, in the FAQ's section. However, I do not think that those have been restored, since the forum redo. My steps above are basically an abstract of the info in the FAQ's.
Good luck,
Hunt