mimoid

Hello, I am new to this forum, so please bear with me if I ask something that has been answered before. I have a number of albums in MP3 format encoded at CBR 320 kbps. Whenever I put these onto my Network Walkman, I convert them to ATRAC3+ @256. All around various web sites, I keep reading about how bad it is to transcode from one lossy format to another. While I certainly understand that it may in theory introduce some audio artefacts, I am simply unable to hear any difference whatsoever between the "original" MP3 files and the ATRAC-files - let it be baroque music or intricate ambient electronica. I am using high quality headphones, my musical training is on a fairly high level and my ears are not too bad. Are all those discussions about "transcoding being the devil" related to lower bitrates - or am I missing something obvious? Tom

I will give it a try. Thank you! Tom

Thank you for replying. No, unfortunately it didn't work. The missing tracks had completely normal names. The corresponding OMA-files are indeed missing from the music storage folder to where I had tried to restore them from my backup. I have no other explanation that the backup operation resultet in an incomplete structure. Unfortunately there is no way of verifying the integrity of a SonicStage Backup less than actually destroying your current library and restoring the backup . I seem to have no other option than reripping all the missing albums and tracks. I am not sure I will trust the SS Backup tool in the future. Is there any other way to back up a complete SonicStage music library? Tom

Hello, I just recently replaced my computer and ran the SonicStage Backup tool to restore my library to the new computer. The restoration went without glitches. However I just discovered that a bunch of my tracks are gone. They are still visible in my library in SonicStage, but they can no longer be played or transferred to my Network Walkman (SonicStage reports that the files are missing). I can open up the storage directory in Windows, and indeed, the corresponding (physical) OMA-files are missing. All my albums have been ripped from my original CD's. I have never downloaded anything from Sonys Connect site, so none of the tracks are DRM'ed. The strange thing is that in some of my albums, a few of the tracks are still there, while the rest are gone. They were ripped from the CD at the same time, so I have no idea why some of them remain and some not. I completely removed the storage library and performed a new restoration, but the very same tracks ended up missing again. I suppose it was the backup operation that failed and left me with an incomplete backup. This definitely makes me worried about the reliability of the Backup Tool. Anybody ever encountered anything like this? (BTW I am using SonicStage 4.3 and Windows Vista 32-bit Ultimate Edition) Tom