A long overdue update:
First, having been unable to coordinate a meeting with Leo of SweetVinyl for the firmware update, SweetVinyl graciously offered to have my SC-2 shipped out to them and returned it with the update. Light-show issues solved.
And, drum-roll, please, the beta of version 2.0 came out in January '19. This beta software includes track editing, track splitting/joining, metadata editing and more.
As a beta tester, I got the new software and have tried it out. It works more or less as promised. The app is pretty much useless for the new features, at least in this beta version. They recommend using a chrome browser to connect to your SC-2 over your LAN. Easy enough. What works well is the track editing and metadata editing. In this regard, it's not all that different than some of the software programs you can buy. But, what is neat is that when you are finished editing, you save your work, and then you can select the format, resolution and even declicking level, and the program updates your thumb or USB drive that is connected to the SC-2. You can even get the raw file, clicks and all, in full-res WAV, for use in editing with 3rd party software. You can also save multiple versions, e.g., a 24/192 FLAC file and lo-res MP3 file of the same recording.
What needs work: I have alerted the Sweetvinyl team to a loud click that is heard between each track after editing. Also, the metadata is often wrong, or completely absent, and, so far, none of the track divisions inserted by the software were even close to where they ought to be. All of this is fixable via editing, but it is time consuming. Artwork, which has yet to come up correctly by itself, must be sourced from the web, saved on your computer, and then copied into the metadata on the SC-2 files. The metadata saves recordings by LP side. Good for purists, but I would rather have tracks 1 through 10, for example, than tracks 1 through 5 on side one, and tracks 1 through 5 on side 2.
What doesn't work at all yet: For now, file playback through the SC-2 is not available. Also not yet available is the ability to render the edited files directly to a NAS. But these things are coming. I was able to mount the thumb drive on my laptop, and copy the edited files to my server. However, the track labeling had to be fixed (as noted above) manually. Also, none of the artwork on the thumb drive made it to the server, for some reason, so I have to insert that manually onto my server as well.
Remember, this is still a beta version, so some hiccups are to be expected. But, I am finally digitizing in FLAC at 96/24, and getting great results (except for the clicks between tracks). And, it looks like I can finally mothball my CD recorder.
First, having been unable to coordinate a meeting with Leo of SweetVinyl for the firmware update, SweetVinyl graciously offered to have my SC-2 shipped out to them and returned it with the update. Light-show issues solved.
And, drum-roll, please, the beta of version 2.0 came out in January '19. This beta software includes track editing, track splitting/joining, metadata editing and more.
As a beta tester, I got the new software and have tried it out. It works more or less as promised. The app is pretty much useless for the new features, at least in this beta version. They recommend using a chrome browser to connect to your SC-2 over your LAN. Easy enough. What works well is the track editing and metadata editing. In this regard, it's not all that different than some of the software programs you can buy. But, what is neat is that when you are finished editing, you save your work, and then you can select the format, resolution and even declicking level, and the program updates your thumb or USB drive that is connected to the SC-2. You can even get the raw file, clicks and all, in full-res WAV, for use in editing with 3rd party software. You can also save multiple versions, e.g., a 24/192 FLAC file and lo-res MP3 file of the same recording.
What needs work: I have alerted the Sweetvinyl team to a loud click that is heard between each track after editing. Also, the metadata is often wrong, or completely absent, and, so far, none of the track divisions inserted by the software were even close to where they ought to be. All of this is fixable via editing, but it is time consuming. Artwork, which has yet to come up correctly by itself, must be sourced from the web, saved on your computer, and then copied into the metadata on the SC-2 files. The metadata saves recordings by LP side. Good for purists, but I would rather have tracks 1 through 10, for example, than tracks 1 through 5 on side one, and tracks 1 through 5 on side 2.
What doesn't work at all yet: For now, file playback through the SC-2 is not available. Also not yet available is the ability to render the edited files directly to a NAS. But these things are coming. I was able to mount the thumb drive on my laptop, and copy the edited files to my server. However, the track labeling had to be fixed (as noted above) manually. Also, none of the artwork on the thumb drive made it to the server, for some reason, so I have to insert that manually onto my server as well.
Remember, this is still a beta version, so some hiccups are to be expected. But, I am finally digitizing in FLAC at 96/24, and getting great results (except for the clicks between tracks). And, it looks like I can finally mothball my CD recorder.