rhagan

I have used SS 4.3 only to play, not encode, MP3 files. I burn an audio CD from mixed MP3 128k and Atrac3Plus 64k files and they are indistinguishable. Both sound good.

I use Sonic Stage v4.3. I often get jumbled order when I transfer a series of tracks from an MD (LP) into the computer. I order them by date/time, but things transferred in the same minute may not come in in order. So now I rename all the files on the MD while it is connected to the computer BEFORE I transfer them, and if tracks are part of the same composition I append "p1" "p2" etc. to the track names on the MD. If you do not know how to name the tracks on the MD, either slow-rt-click the name "untitled" on each track and the field will open up for renaming; or rt click the name and choose "properties." Even this does not guarantee that they will be in order in the left panel after transferring, but I can then select the tracks that are same name and "p1'" "p2" etc and combine them. Even if I do not do that, they will be in the correct order when I sort the tracks by name rather than by time recorded.

Another question: Is there any way to make Sonic Stage send its uploads to an outboard drive? It is a nuisance to constantly have to strip the .OMA tracks off C: and move them to F: or G:

I am using Sonic Stage 4.3 to archive a very large collection of classical music. There will be a few thousand entries. The music files will be on media (MD and some on CD) but all will also be on hard drive storage periodically mirrored. It would be helpful to print the catalog, sorted in the different ways SS makes possible. Is there any way to get the SS listing text into a text file for printing?

Many of you are what we called audiophiles. So you place great importance on dynamic and frequency accuracy. I am just a music lover and I hear from my old stereo component system nearly as well as I do in a concert hall. If it sounds like a piano concerto or a violin, I'm happy. Remember, I am archiving music I gathered off-air. Lots of compression built right in to the source signal right there, as well as some frequency delimitation. Then onto a quarter inch recorder -- Teac, Akai, Sony, various makes over the years -- through a Dolby outboard pre-amp. More compression and distortion built in there, and then throw in occasional tape flutter. Then dub out to cassettes, usually de-Dolby'd and re-Dobly'd in the process, because the two Dolby methods were not compatible. By now you're tearing your hair. But those cassettes sounded good to me and I played them for years. Improving the stereo system a couple times, they sounded better. I never did play them super-loud, except for analysis occasionally, but enough to give the sensation of being in the room with the chamber music group or pianist. I'm also forgiving of the clicks and pops that vinyl LPs produced, sometimes right out of the package, more with every use. Grew up with them. So if I'm happy with this sound, I am obviously not starting where you are. And I find that the HiLP Mds made from these cassettes sound indistinguishable from the cassettes they are made from, in the same sound system or via headphones. I think it is an amazing technology. MP3-128 sounds about the same to me when I put some classical music in an MP3 player. It takes about a meg per minute, versus a half meg for HiLP. But as you say, hard drives are cheap. So the likely route will be to pile up MP3 versions onto hard drives. But that is not a directly playable form like the CD or the MD. You have to involve a computer. So more CDs or DVDs or whatever is around then will have to be made ultimately, as well as the drive being periodically backed up. I wish there were some hope for sturdy MD players to be available in the future. I have already had one MD Walkman go flaky from being dropped a few times. I appreciate your comments. I can see what I must do.

Thank you all. I posted the original query. I will return and read your replies more carefully later, but I gather that you mostly agree that the HiMD HiLP format will not be around forever. More later. Thanks again. RHagan

I understand that most readers of this forum are MD enthusiasts, but I would like your opinion on whether HiMD is a good choice for archiving a large collection of classical music. I have been collecting classical music recordings for four decades - LPs, tapes, off-air recordings to 1/4 inch tape and cassettes, and of course CDs in recent years. All are disintegrating except the CDs, but I read that they too have a brief life expectancy. Plastic is not stable. Silver tarnishes. You can now buy gold CD blanks presumed to be longer lasting, so obviously it is known that regular CDs have a limited life expectancy. So I am putting it all onto HiMD, LP actually, since it sounds as good as most of the material I put onto it when played back. I use an RH10 and a RH700 for editing. Of course these MDs will deteriorate in time. Probably sooner than the cassettes, which lasted forty years before becoming fragile in a variety of interesting ways, none of which has deteriorated the sound when they CAN be played back. BUT: how long will HiMD PLAYERS be around? Is it an orphan technology with possibly only a five year horizon? It seems insane to be doing this, but the process at least gets the collection into a digital domain where I can later move it around. The only way I have thought of to make this collection usable to my heirs or students in the future is to buy five of the Australian 700 players and put them away. But then, will they last in storage, or do these MD devices deteriorate even sitting around? My interim plan is to eventually back the music up from MDs onto hard drives which can themselves be backed up rapidly. But in ATRAC3 format? No other players will be able to read it, and I cannot bank on Atrac3 decoding to be available. I will have to convert it all to MP3 128k, which seems about the same quality as HiLp, but twice as bulky, and store it that way for the long term. But is this a crazy way to do it?

My MZ-RH10 recorder came with a 3v adapter. RHagan