Importing MP3's and Albums Annoyance

[imzu]

When importing a bunch of mp3s into My Library (SonicStage 3.1), each file tends to be grouped into albums by what looks like the album-field of the ID3 tag. Obviously this means that the disc gets this many groups created on them (where album = group).

How can I import a bunch of mp3 files and have them appear as single tracks in My Library such that they appear in a single "group" (or no group) on the disc.

A frosty root beer to anyone who can help me with this!

[Richard]

When importing a bunch of mp3s into My Library (SonicStage 3.1), each file tends to be grouped into albums by what looks like the album-field of the ID3 tag. Obviously this means that the disc gets this many groups created on them (where album = group).

How can I import a bunch of mp3 files and have them appear as single tracks in My Library such that they appear in a single "group" (or no group) on the disc.

A frosty root beer to anyone who can help me with this!

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Option 1 change all the MP3 tag's to have the same album name before importing them. SS will put them all under same album and transfer them as one group.

Option 2 - transfer as is, then move all tracks to a single group on HI-MD after transfer and delete obsolete empty groups

[imzu]

Thanks for your reply. I was hoping for a simple option somewhere like 'just tick this checkbox' :-)

In the end I moved all the tracks on the MD from their group folders to the 'root'. I got weird results doing so though, more info tomorrow. COuld it be that Hi-MD is like NetMD in that tracks within groups cannot be deleted? eg. user beware if you try it.

[Richard]

Thanks for your reply. I was hoping for a simple option somewhere like 'just tick this checkbox' :-)

In the end I moved all the tracks on the MD from their group folders to the 'root'. I got weird results doing so though, more info tomorrow. COuld it be that Hi-MD is like NetMD in that tracks within groups cannot be deleted? eg. user beware if you try it.

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Option 3 is to import all the tracks as is. Then in the properties of each track change the album name to be the same this will automatically put them in a single album in SS and thus be transferred as a single group.

[imzu]

Option 3 is to import all the tracks as is. Then in the properties of each track change the album name to be the same this will automatically put them in a single album in SS and thus be transferred as a single group.

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Thanks, it's a bit of an annoyance really but thanks anyway. The best option is this - view the tracks by choosing 'View > All Tracks' then sort by date imported in reverse order. You can then see all the tracks imported as a list and drag those across.

Another problem I've found is that all but 1 out of the 10 mp3's will play! I see 'Cannot Play' appear if I try to play them. Searching the forums and examing the mp3 files closesly, I've found that they do not strictly match the mp3 parametes supports by Sony, eg. they are not 44KHz sampling rate, some are mono etc. These are low rate speech broadcasts and therefore do not have to have musical fidelity. I suppose I can resort to Lame or something to upsample them or something but hopefully they will build something into SS to handle this case and warn the user.

Another shock - I tried to convert the things to several ATRAC formats... and they stay as mp3 (no transcoding) unless the quality of the original mp3 is of a equal or higher bitrate! Your second mug of frosty root beer is for telling me how I can get around this annoyance. :-)

Thank you muchly.

Edited September 7, 2005 by imzu

[Richard]

Another shock - I tried to convert the things to several ATRAC formats... and they stay as mp3 (no transcoding) unless the quality of the original mp3 is of a higher bitrate! Your second mug of frosty root beer is for telling me how I can get around this annoyance. :-)

Thank you muchly.

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Ok point one, 2nd gen players will only play back MP3 of MPEG1 Audio Layer 3 not MPEG2 audio layer 3. The bitrate however can be anywhere from 32-320Kbps fixed or VBR.

2nd thing it will convert to all atrac bit rates but, in doing so doesn't delete the original MP3 file from your system. It will transfer whichever has a higher bitrate maybe to your player (if both are playable).

To enforce it to transfer the Atrac file, go the properties of a converted file and click in the file info tab (see attachment).

[attachmentid=861]

You will see 2 files the Atrac and the original MP3, select the MP3 and press delete file leaving you with only the Atrac file to be transferred. This *will* delete the MP3 file permanently from your system so if you want to have a copy in the original format, make a copy and put in a different location.

This way when you transfer, only the Atrac file will go across.

Edited September 7, 2005 by richyhu

[Petter156]

Another shock - I tried to convert the things to several ATRAC formats... and they stay as mp3 (no transcoding) unless the quality of the original mp3 is of a equal or higher bitrate!

Yep, this is a bummer. I´m hoping for a "force conversion" option in the next SonicStage release. Maybe Kurisu could point me to a link/page where I could voice my SS hopes to the right people (IE the developers).

Currently this is what I go through if I want ATRAC files only on my MD: I import the Mp3´s I want into 'My Library' and convert them to ATRAC. Then I delete the MP3´s from the library (but not from my PC) and re-import the songs as ATRAC files (these are stored somewhere when converted from other formats).

[imzu]

Currently this is what I go through if I want ATRAC files only on my MD: I import the Mp3´s I want into 'My Library' and convert them to ATRAC. Then I delete the MP3´s from the library (but not from my PC) and re-import the songs as ATRAC files (these are stored somewhere when converted from other formats).

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Thanks, yes this way works.

Converting several hours of mp3 to Hi-LP took ages, but I suppose it makes one appreciate the final disk in some weird way :-).

I thought I might have a solution: Once I had both formats in my library, I changed the settings to say 'Transfer as ATRAC3plus 66 (Hi-LP)'. I transferred 1 track, but on the MD that format was listed as mp3. Grrr! I had to delete the mp3 of each and every track to get SS to transfer over the Hi-LP file.

Gah, what a rigermarole! Where can I make suggestions to the SS code monkeys then?

[Petter156]

Wouldn´t mind writing a letter of request to the Sony software department myself. Kurisu might know of an adress where some of these people can be contacted, or maybe he could forward our requests.

But now that SS is (most likely) being discountinued the future is uncertain.