[Stefan]

since updating to 10.3 my iTunes seems to have a new bug (feature). It randomly blends other songs of my library into the one playing, which sounds terrible.
Updating to iTunes 4.7 didn't solve the problem.
This might be related to the hard freezes I've also experienced (almost) daily with 10.3.5 and which are discussed over at the "mouse moves but nothing else..." thread. Most times iTunes was running before the crash. The other reason for this funny mixing bug could be that my library is located at an external Lacie hard drive with FAT32 and USB2, but it would be too much of a hassle burning all of the date on it.
I'd just like to know if anyone else is experiencing the new iMix, since I might also be hearing strange noises due to being overworked.

[JKT]

Or it could simply be that you need to check your preferences:

iTunes Preferences>Audio>Crossfade playback

[Stefan]

Originally posted by JKT:
Or it could simply be that you need to check your preferences:

iTunes Preferences>Audio>Crossfade playback

no, that's turned off. The mix is totaly random.

[Stefan]

Somebody over at the MacFixIt Forum posted this:

This problem has been reported before on MFI with iTunes files on an external hard drive - a recent LaCie model as I recall. I use an older LaCie model and have never had a problem. To verify that it is your drive and not a damaged file you could copy the file(s) to your internal drive and playing them. You might also try listening to the songs with the external drive connected to a different mac. But it is probably the hard drive - if so, you might contact the manufacturer and discuss it. As far as I know, if it is the drive, there may not be anything you can do about it.

I have a 80 Gig Lacie USB2 drive. Can people with this model confirm problems or give solutions?

[siMac]

I was thinking of buying an external firewire LaCie 250GB drive specifically for keeping my music on, so I'd be interested to hear more about this problem and which drives/systems it affects.

[Stefan]

Update:
It is not actually iTunes blending in songs randomly. I found out that the mp3 files themselves on the external disk are broken, so copying them on my powerbook disk also results in the funny mixes. This also means that some files seem to be broken and cannot be rescued, since I deleted the data after having copied it. There seems to be no pattern in the broken files. Some of them were created with old iTunes versions, some with other apps. On the other hand some files off the same albums aren't.
=> I don't get it and am left with very disturbing collection of my records.