I think I'm missing something basic here.
I've recorded many albums and copied a few in the past to a thumb drive as MP3s
I seem to have completely forgotten how to do so
I followed the how to video and all was well until it's time to bring up the recorded albums.
Whenever I try to access the collection it comes up "Your collection is empty"
What am I doing wrong?
Hi,
Please try the following:
1. Go to the Split Tracks window.
2. Click on the link where it says 'filtered' (top-left of the window).
3. Clear all filters and then click OK.
If that doesn't fix it, please get back to me.
Sorry, I don't see that on the screen. Screen shot attached
OK, thanks for the screenshot. It's not the problem I thought it was.
So, your collection is genuinely empty. Did you delete all the albums in it, or perhaps install the software on a different machine? Also, you might have other collections. Have a look under Menu -> File -> Recent Collections.
Responding:
No, the albums are still in the directory, and it's the same machine.
The only collections I have are "My Albums" and one I created yesterday for the USB drive.
However, your comment has triggered an idea. About a year ago, I had a software issue that required reloading the OS.
Could that have broken the connection? If so, how can I re-establish it?
Are you looking at the 'raw' recordings or your saved tracks? The difference is described in a topic in the VinylStudio help file entitled 'Where are my files located?' under 'Importing and Exporting Files'.
My directory structure isn't exactly as in the help file. It is:
C:\Users\Paul\Music\My Albums for the music, which has all my recorded discs.
C:\Users\Paul\Music\My Albums\My Albums for the collection
This folder is empty
This would explain the error. Do I need to resave the albums to rebuild the collection?
And now a follow-up. How would I access those recordings to resave, since all actions except 'record new' require the collection?
You have a problem. If MyAlbums.mcf has somehow been destroyed (i.e. is empty) then you cannot save your tracks again since VinylStudio doesn't know what to do. You might like to take a look to see if you have a file called MyAlbums.mcf.bak, and if so send it to me for analysis:
p DOT sanders AT alpinesoft DOT co DOT uk
It also begs the question where all your saved tracks went (assuming that you did in fact save them). Are they in the Recycle bin?
No backup file. What's next?
OK, please send me MyAlbums.mcf and I will see if there is anything in it. But I fear the worst.
In looking for MyAlbums.mcf, I may have found what we were looking for in a different directory.
In C:\Users\Paul\Music\Album Artists, which has all my digitized music, I found the My Albums Directory with the art directory a 'vsfiles' folder with .wav.wfd files.
If my guess is correct, I need to redirect the program to use that directory. Am I on the right track?
Hi,
Possibly. Let's hope so.
The corresponding .mcf file will be in the parent folder of that folder. Try opening that in VinylStudio (Menu -> File -> Open Collection).
Under options, I pointed it to that folder. It looks like that did the trick. Will let you know.
Great, thanks.
It took a while to get back to this.
The process is working, just had a bit of a learning curve to figure out how to convert to MP3 and then save to a usb.
It appears to be a two step process.
Hi,
You can do it direct if you designate your USB drive as the target folder in VinylStudio's Settings / Preferences dialog, but you might not want to do that for other reasons.
If I do that, I'm guessing I'd need to move it back for all other work.
Would I permanently lose my connection to the other saved work by doing so?
Hi,
You can change the folder to which VinylStudio writes your saved tracks at any time. There's no 'connection' other than that.
Thanks, it would be useful when I convert multiple albums to mp3.
It'd be so much nicer if the players would play .wav files.
Most players will, although I don't see the advantage. What are you playing your tracks on?
Usually in a vehicle, most often a rental, especially since most no longer have a CD player.
The .wav files are on my netbook computer, so I can play them any other time.
And then there's the whole 'what order the tracks play in' issue. That varies from player to player.
Forget consistently hearing a concept album (Tommy, Dark Side..., etc.) in the proper order.
> And then there's the whole 'what order the tracks play in' issue.
Are you including the track number at the start of the filename for your saved tracks? That usually fixes this (and that's what it's there for).
Yes, and I've tried renaming the tracks with the track number as the first two characters.
No difference.
Also happens with the Groove media player on my netbook.
Also tried resaving with the number AND in time order, in case it played from oldest to newest...
How annoying. Did you try to see if you could get any change out of Microsoft?
Oh, lord no. Wonder how the player on my Linux workstation would do...