When will my install of Sonic Stage crash?

[paperclip]

I've been adding all my ripped CDs in my collection to Sonic Stage for burning onto MD's in LP2 mode and I'm up to about 1500 full-length CD's so far. I've a had few SS crashes so far, but all my data is still there, MD's burn well, imports from the M200 work fine - overall I'm happy. I remember reading somewhere that there might be a limit to how many songs SS will hold but cannot find it for the life of me

Can anyone comment on SS capacity limits? It's been 4 months of work almost every night and I'm getting more CDs all the time. Obviously this is a huge investment of time. I Optimize SS database after every session and back up my whole Windows XP install to a home server, to be safe. I'm thinking about running a batch file conversion of the wav's into LP2 mode, after they are tagged correctly, then remove the DRM just to have them in case of a OS/hardware crash. I would have done things differently had I known then what I know now. MD would be so cool without encryption!

[sfbp]

Wait a second.

1. You should NOT rip directly to wav using SS. IMHO. See many posts I have commented on this. Ripping to LP2 should be fine, though for archival purposes I would rip to AAL which is still much smaller than WAV. Burning to LP2 is a no-brainer from AAL. AAL is not encrypted.

2. You SHOULD remove the encryption every time you upload. This is way less likely to crash than doing it all at once at the end. There's no downside to DRM-free files

3. Simple burner goes straight to MD of course, with no encryption and no "track protect" on the dest MD, which even SS still insists upon. The #linux-minidisc project will for sure allow "no track protect" on downloaded LP2, once it is finished. With track protect you cannot edit the file on MD.

[paperclip]

I got unlucky enough with SS years ago that I re-ripped everything last year with EAC. I never really got much passed the testing stage before I decided against AAL and counting on SS. I think I have good quality control with my present setup. I will be making a complete conversion of all these WAVs to LP2, keeping the source files of course (no re-ripping of physical discs - EVER I hope). I have one dedicated PC for just SS, this is the machine I will use to convert the files. I'll remove the DRM (File Conversion Tool) and store these on a USB drive to use with my laptop, importing those to the local install of SS (it has a blank library, I've tested this before and it works great). I figure that way I can listen to them on the laptop AND burn them straight to MD on the go (I really only use LP2 for NetMD anyway. I use the cheaper stuff on the road in case of damage or theft). I thought it would be a great way to have a LOT of music in a small package. But I don't know - it it crashes with 1513 th CD I'd be pretty dissapointed

I haven't played with Simple Burner much, but will use it the next time I buy a CD on the road with the laptop just to have on MD before I get home and rip new stuff right.

[sfbp]

As long as you used EAC, you should be fine. Sony seems to have optimized CD ripping in a very nasty way (and you can't turn it off) so that converting THEIR ripped wav files to LP2/4 is very bad indeed, when ripping (not conversion) is done with SS.

1Kyle pioneered the use of SB on a virtual CD image. I wonder if this sort of thing is why Nero doesn't support virtual CD images any more? You can read his posts to check up if you wish.

FYI, the SS database is a perfectly normal non-encrypted Microsoft Access database. You can look at it if you are curious.