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Just started converting some MD's to CD...

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Soundbox

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Right, I have just started a project to make some CD's from my MD's. Some MD's I recorded myself and some are pre-recorded. My questions are as below - and I would appreciate your input.

1. Pre-recorded MD's. I import them via SonicStage and MZ-RH1 and then from there burn a audio CD in my computer disc drive. Doing this, how many times is the audio being 'converted'? I seem to recall that the SonicStage does not support SP - or is this not true? I am wondering if I may get better results just linking my MD deck to the CD recorder via optical cable.

2. I got a pop-up box telling me that MD's I recorded myself can be saved as 'WAV'. Now, I have never heard of WAV format and to me that sounds like just more converting going on - but is this so and what is the quality loss when making a CD from WAV format?

3. When making my own CD's that I want to play in a normal CD player is it better to use the optical cable from a deck and miss out the SonicStage part? I keep reading here how SS makes for quality losses and I want my CD's to sound as good as possible.

Thanks, Ian

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1. you should go right ahead and convert to WAV and use Nero to burn the CDs. WAV means "native" CD format, 44.1kHz 1411 kbps PCM.

2. for importing, make sure the format is set to highest quality (PCM 1411 not HiSP 256) in the settings.

3. Once you imported to SS, you can "throw away" the files (they take up lots of space). There's only one small problem - you lose the metadata. This will have to be re-entered into Nero or whatever wav-burning program you use.

If you haven't run into the "slow upload" problem for RH1, be happy. As soon as you connect another (non-RH1) MD unit to the USB, you likely will. It's a solved problem but it will occur unless you do something like what I did a few weeks back and documented here. So far no one has confirmed my findings so it's not stickied.

This route is the best possible. You can capture WAV in the computer from optical out but it will take 10x longer to do the upload (that's how I did it before the RH1).

Stephen

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I am surprised that Sony allows a pre-recorded MD to be uploaded via USB. As up tight as they are about uploading anything transferred down to an MD via NetMD process it strikes me as odd ... Just a thought, I have never tried it.

Agreed. Soundbox - you should be careful. Sony might send a lethal bolt of lightning through the cables....

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Thanks for the help. So, sounds like WAV is the way forward then - I'm afraid that all these abbreviations do not mean much to me - I always thought that CD quality was 'linear PCM' but as long as it works well than I am happy. Out of interest, what did the pre-recorded MD save as in SS? I can see no way of checking what the files in there are (I checked under 'properties', but no info there).

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  • 2 weeks later...

I remember I did this for most of my pre-recorded MDs using my RH1 ... MD -> WAV -> iTunes. I've just found a couple more that I never imported so I've just tried it again and SS won't do anything ... they show up but dragging across to my library does nothing. And, I've actually ordered two new pre-recorded MDs from n5MD.com so it'd be nice to import those as well.

Does it work when running on Windows 7? I think I was running Windows XP when I did it last time. I'm running Windows 7 under emulation on my Mac ... seems Hi-MD transfer also no longer works on Mac OS 10.6.

Thanks,

Brett

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