Sonicstage Importing Tricks/tips

[superkpt]

So I'm interested in rapid ways of importing a large group of MP3's into SonicStage. I have literally thousands of CD's and a few hundred of them are compilations or mix CD's. Compound that with thousands of MP3's meticulously organized and tagged. I've tried importing into SonicStage with suggestions from this forum but I can't get the compilations to be organized in a specific folder in 'My Library.' Until SimplerBurner for HI-MD comes out, I'm stuck either real-time recording optically with a media player or stuck using SonicStage.

So I had a couple of ideas but I wanted some opinions from you fine MD folk.

1: SonicStage can seemingly import M3U files. As much as I hate the fact that it still pollutes the Library with the files disorganized (i.e. the Album is fine but it's replicated as many times as you have a different artist, so you end up with the same Album 12 times [if your mix collection is 12 songs]), I do appreciate the fact that you can view the Library by Playlists. Is there a way to create M3U files rapidly through a collection of MP3's? A batch process of some kind? I primarily use Winamp to play my music and it has a neat 'Write Playlist(s)' function, but this creates a file called 'album.m3u' in the directory of the MP3 files. Plus, the references in the file are relative and not absolute. So even if you renamed the file and moved it, the references would be wrong.

What I want to do, as you can see, is import M3U files of all the folders of music I have on my computer. At least, then, SonicStage treats them as Playlists (even though the Library is full of the files). So instead of using the Library, I can use the 'Playlists' in the Library to transfer.

2: The original SimplerBurner concept was great. It created multiple Nero images as the filesize maxxed out. Is there some goofy way to fool Nero into thinking that 1 GB is the right size for an audio CD? If that is possible (I doubt it of course), then I can use Nero (+ ImageDrive) and transfer the image easily.

Well, I do apologize for the long post. But I've been reading these forums for a few weeks now and you guys just plain rock. And I think we all share the same dreams and hopes for MD.

All I know is, MD all the way.

[raintheory]

As far as I am aware, you can use SimpleBurner 2 with HiMD (its hosted here in the downloads section, you can d/l it since you've registered).. I'm pretty confident I've used it with my NH900 and RH10. Though I'm not sure this will help unless you have all of your mixes on audio cd. I thought you could image with nero and make the CD as long as you want... Hmm.. Looking into this one...

Not sure on the m3u stuff.. Though I'm sure someone here can help out.

EDIT - I Just checked, and you can overburn w/nero up to 150min... not sure how helpful that is, but you can set the overburning in preferences (nero 6). I'm sure there is a program or 2 out there that you can use to burn cd images as large as you want.. google it.

Edited July 22, 2005 by raintheory

[superkpt]

Rock on raintheory. I most appreciate your advice. I'll look into the burning options and post another reply or an edit.

[superkpt]

So I'm trying to find an INI file or some other hack to let me put in an integer larger than 150 into Nero's Overburn preferences. If anyone has an idea, let me know!

[IdiotSavant]

While I can offer no ideas regarding the M3U files, have you tried using SonicStage's search feature? Whenever I want to transfer a compilation to my unit I put SonicStage into 'All Tracks' view and just tap in the name of the album into the search box, make sure they're sorted by track number and transfer accross.

Though, that depends on you remembering the names of all your compilations (probably not so useful for someone with as much as you) and having the album/track data of the ID tags labelled. That said, it could work well if you've got some sort of volume 1, volume 2, volume 3, etc. system as typing in the prefix would give you a list of all the compilations with that prefix?

Just a thought.. (though it sounds like simple burner might be more up your ally)

[superkpt]

While I can offer no ideas regarding the M3U files, have you tried using SonicStage's search feature? Whenever I want to transfer a compilation to my unit I put SonicStage into 'All Tracks' view and just tap in the name of the album into the search box, make sure they're sorted by track number and transfer accross.

Though, that depends on you remembering the names of all your compilations (probably not so useful for someone with as much as you) and having the album/track data of the ID tags labelled. That said, it could work well if you've got some sort of volume 1, volume 2, volume 3, etc. system as typing in the prefix would give you a list of all the compilations with that prefix?

Just a thought.. (though it sounds like simple burner might be more up your ally)

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That's not a bad idea at all. If all else fails, I'll start doing that. My dream come true: if Sonicstage's Library would act like Winamp's or Sonique's or any other modern and streamlined media player. These programs are smart enough to see a folder full of music files and assume that it's a compilation. Especially if the tags in the folder all have the same Album. Oh well. My fingers are crossed for the fall. If Sony's Connect gets better, Sonicstage HAS to. Maybe we'll all benefit from a better, fitter, faster Sonicstage.

Thanks a bunch for the suggestion!