Using Banshee with Your Digital Audio Player

Banshee supports several digital audio players, including Apple* iPods, Creative* Nomads*, Dell* DJs, Nokia* N810, and almost any other generic USB Mass Storage player. Instead of having to use separate applications to get support for your audio devices, Banshee gives you integrated support and lets you copy your music to or from your device, no matter what format the music is in.

Playing Music from your Digital Audio Player

To play music from your digital audio player, simply plug your player into your system. After the system recognizes the device, an icon is displayed in the left panel in Banshee.

Select the icon to display the music on your device in the right panel. Double-click the song you want to listen to.

Figure 20.7. Banshee MP3 Playback from a Nokia N810

Banshee MP3 Playback from a Nokia N810

To view or change device properties, right-click your device, then select Device Properties. From there, you can view various pieces of information. For example, if you have an iPod, you can update the owner's name.

Figure 20.8. Banshee iPod Device Properties

Banshee iPod Device Properties

Adding Music to Your Digital Audio Player

To add tracks to your player, simply drag them from your Music Library to your device.

Banshee transparently supports the transcoding of your songs for any device. You can have your music library in any number of formats (including, but not limited to, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and AAC), and it will be transparently transcoded before it is sent to your digital audio player.

To remove tracks, select your device in the list of sources, right-click the song you want to delete, then click Delete from <device_name>.

Copying Music on Your Digital Audio Player to Banshee

Banshee supports the importing of music from a digital audio player to your music library. Simply drag and drop the songs from the digital audio player to your Music Library. You can also import all of the music on your digital audio player by right-clicking your player in the source list and selecting Import.

Figure 20.9. Importing Music from Your Digital Audio Player to Banshee

Importing Music from Your Digital Audio Player to Banshee

Synchronizing Your Library

To keep your digital audio player up to date with your Banshee Library, select your player in the source list, disable Manually manage this device, then click Synchronize in the upper right corner.

Banshee also synchronizes the ratings and cover art in your tracks to your iPod.