carlshrader

Ya-hoo! WAVs are a bit real-estate intensive, but at least it worked! So that's the deal - Sony let's you do things the hard way rather than the easy way. Thanks for that latest tip, as now I can at least back-up the original MDs without fear of permanent copyright protection AND use reliable software to burn tracks to standard audio CD with just the computer. This is good.

#1 - Tools option for file conversion will not allow me to convert to WAV, it only attempts to optimize tracks transferred with older versions #2 - I just moved my portable hard drive to a desktop and the SS on the desktop refuses to transfer any tracks to my RH10. I conclude that my library comes to an end when my laptop does - unless I still have the original MDs. I would burn from a netMD to a CD by putting the MD in a deck and use digital out to a proCD burner deck (if I had access to my CD burner at the moment, which I don't).

Re-Recording Experts: I have used MDs since 1999 to make custom CD compilations (for my own private enjoyment, of course), using an MD deck to professional CD burner, often with a pro-MD deck in between when editing or equalizing (by hand, of course). I have about 150 MDs, and I recently purchase an RH-1 (because SS 4.0 is out), and am in the process of uploading all my old MDs to computer, which is my primary purpose. But now I am not even so sure I should even be doing that. I am asking the following questions because I am transitioning between residences and not all of my recording equipment is available, otherwise I would be running some tests to answer some my own questions. I don't want to proceed in even the simple tasks I am doing if I am going to be unpleasantly surprised when I'm "back in business." In addition, I also don't want to be making any "mistakes" in running my current tests, i.e., those that I can do with just the RH1 and the computer. Assume for all questions that I am making all transfers both ways in SP mode, and that all "original" MDs were created on a non-Net MD deck (17-inch stereo component) ("deck"). I have been unpleasantly surprised by all the limitations, restrictions, fine print, legalese, hardware requirements, and general hassles in doing the "simplest" things with Sonic Stage 4.0 (Windows XP). Example: I can transfer "my library" tracks to a blank MD, but cannot transfer that resulting new compilation back to the computer with a different "album" name. It says I recorded the tracks on another net-MD or recorder. I think I understand the gist of the message, but I don't understand all its implications. Hopefully some of you have gone where I would like to go. For another example: I just read somewhere that I can transfer such tracks back to MD only three times. Does that mean that if I have already transferred a particular track twice just playing around, I get only one more shot? More importantly, assuming the answer is Yes, can I erase that album on the computer and re-upload the original MD and start over with three transfers available? Or is SS marking my original MDs on the first upload, branding it a "net" MD? If that is so, I have even more issues (see below). Many thanks for your experience, advice, or whatever. At this point, I just want to avoid causing any conceivable "damage" to my current MDs, as well as to my future editing and re-ordering capabilities. To summarize, with more concise questions: 1) Am I changing my original MDs solely by the upload process? (Presumably if I don't change track titles, and I don't see any file-writing activity (as opposed to Access activity) on the RH1, I can presume that there is no change to the original MDs? 2) If my primary purpose if to have a back-up copy of my original MDs, would I be better off just duplicating my MDs the slow way (using decks)? (Ignore any non-SS related issues, like convenience of hard drive and cost of 150 blank MDs!.) In other words, if I were to lose all my MDs, and re-create them from the computer, will I be able to use them in the same way as I could have used the originals? (apparently not, since they cannot be transferred back to a computer) (see #4 below) 3) Can I ALWAYS download to SP non-Net-MD again via quality analog into a quality deck, as often as I want? (I assume that SS cannot police what I am doing with my "jukebox" analog signal.) 4) Can I "beat the system" via digital? In other words, how many steps do I have to take to convert a Net-SP track to a non-Net SP track, or is it impossible (other than via analog)? For example, how would I copy a reordered compilation (recorded from computer library tracks) with a new album title back into the library as a legitmate "album" of "original MD" material (i.e., as if that MD had been made by hand on a deck, never via computer)? What if I put the NET MD (SP) in Deck A, and a brand new MD in deck B, and do a real-time digital transfer, will the computer still view Deck B's resulting MD as containing tracks transferred from the computer? If the answer is "yes," what if I burn the Net MD to a CD, then transfer the CD tracks digitally to a MD deck? (This isn't as bad as it sounds, since I plan to make a CD of any new "album" anyway.) 5) If my library is on a portable hard drive attached to a laptop, and I connect the hard drive to another computer, will SS impose even more limitations (e.g., "this computer not used to create these files")? Thanks, Carl