Beginning a music collection on my computer...

[LowEnd]

Being new to minidisc (I have a MZ-NH1 on order) I am looking at using Sonic Stage to store my CD collection on my computer hard drive. What I'm looking for is opinions on the best approach to doing this. It seems pretty straight-forward but I want to make sure I'm on the right track before I rip a bunch of CD's and wish I had done it differently.

I'm running a Vaio desktop with 160 gig hard drive. I can probably dedicate 60 - 80 gig of space for music storage (I may end up getting another drive just for music storage if I need to)

I have several hundred CD's and would be great if I could store all of them on my hard drive but I'll probably end up just picking my favorites and starting there.

If I rip them to Sonic Stage in PCM mode (assuming storage space is not a problem) then when I want to download to the HI-MD does it convert it on the fly to say Atrac3Plus 256 (or whatever lower bitrate choices that are available) or should I rip them to sonic stage in 256k mode and if decide that I want to download songs at a lower bit rate to HI-MD, will it convert it during the transfer process?

I guess what I'm trying to ask is... should I store the music on my hard drive in PCM mode so I can have the option to convert it to whatever bitrate I want or will storage space be an issue and I should store them as Atrac3Plus 256k mode?

Hopefully I'm making some sense. Any suggestions on the best way to start my music collection on my hard drive would be appreciated.

[Fray Adjacent]

Ripping in PCM mode is gonna take up up to 700MB per CD. I'm not sure if SS2 even allows 'recording' (ripping from CD to your SS2 database) in PCM. If you're going to only use your HiMD for playing music, or SS2 for playing 'recorded' music from your computer, then I would 'record' your CDs to computer in the highest bitrate (PCM if it allows, or HiSP [256kbps ATRAC3+])

Personally, since I already had a lot of stuff in MP3 on my machine, and my use of HiMD will be for travel and listening to some stuff at work via the player plugged into my computer's line in, my music 'database' at home consists of MP3s on my server, and my SS2 database on my workstation. My CD collection is relatively small, but I have not ripped everything to MP3 on my server.

My process when I get a new CD is:

Take it home, rip it into 320kbps MP3 and save to my server.

Rip to MD (HiMD) directly from CD using Simple Burner, in Hi-SP.

Copy MP3s to CD for use in my car MP3 player.

So, my primary music database is MP3. Since I rip directly from CD to MD for newer music, my SS2 database stays pretty small.

Hope that at least helps you formulate a plan of attack for your database

[Christopher]

When you recieve your NH1 you will get Sonicstage 2.1 [which allows you to rip into DRM-protected PCM mode via Sonicstage, Fray]. Rip everything into PCM, and then I would suggest you primarily use 256kbps ATRAC3plus audio for the unit and be blissful. :happy:

[LowEnd]

Thanks for the info, this helps!

Although storing them as Atrac3Plus 256k "may" be sufficient, I'd prefer to store my collection in PCM format which means I can't really get this work done until SS 2.1 comes out. I think I'll rip a CD or two at 256k and see if the sound quality is acceptable or not. Might be for what I need and would save me a ton of disc space.

Sounds like I may be getting a new hard drive to store my music on so I don't eat up all my space and not have enough for other things on my computer.

[Christopher]

You can rip a CD at 256kbps ATRAC3plus audio with iceeedtea's build of Sonicstage 2.

[Fray Adjacent]

Or with SS2 that comes with your HiMD device. I prefer using Simple Burner when ripping straight from CD to HiMD, tho. Quick and easy.

[Leland]

I think you have to be careful. Unless the software changes, the way it currently works is limited. If you record in Hi-SP to the SS database in the first place, that is what it will transfer to the HiMD as so you will not have extremely high capacity discs. If you record in PCM, the first time you transfer to HiMD, you will be able to select a bit rate for the conversion that will be done on the fly, after that subsequent transfers will be done at that rate as it saves the file. The way SS works, it will transfer at the rate available IF it is compatible with HiMD (which is all of them except PCM) OR you can force it to convert to the lowest compression rate (48) and maximize space. That is the only flexibility you have, which I think is too little.