Sooloos Tips
 

Now that there are a few people using Sooloos systems I thought I would start a thread so we can share our Sooloos tips. I'll start off and list my tips.

Loading tip #1) I'm sure by now you have noticed that the pic Sooloos finds for the metadata is only 200x200 and pretty much sucks. Unfortunately you will have to manually change all the album pics using your PC interface. I've found that the bigger the better for the pics especially if you are using the "Dark" screensaver. Pics 1000x1000 work great but anything 500x500 are pretty good. The best place to get pics on the Internet is Album Art Exchange - High Quality Album Art (Album Covers and CD Covers) next best place is the MP3 section on Amazon then Amazon's music section then Google Images or Ebay as a last resort.

I think you already know that Sooloos uses All Music Guide for it's metadata. If the Sooloos does not find the data you can sometimes "force" it in.

Loading tip #2) To import metadata on files the Sooloos does not find: From the Control PC/Mac in the editing screen select "Update Metadata" at the bottom and enter the 10 digit AMG Album ID number from the lower left side of the AMG web page for that album. The number of spaces is important when entering this number, keep in mind the number is 10 digits long so if you see R 6209 you know there are 5 spaces. Also when doing this during importing, I find it works better if you leave the artist's name blank and only have the Album Name and AMG Album ID number entered.

Loading tip #3) Check the track titles when loading. It's much easier catching mistakes when loading the albums especially when loading FLAC or Apple Lossless files. If you find track title mistakes when loading FLAC or Apple Lossless files you can simply select "Revert to user data" at the bottom of the editing page, this will save you some manual typing time.

Loading tip #4) Having reviews available on the Control 10/15 is very cool. I thought it would be cool to have more reading info there so I add in artist biographies along with the reviews. Just find the artist bio online (All Music Guide) and using Control PC/Mac copy and paste the bio in.

Loading tip #5) Meridian added a section called "Tags" which is a "Focus" searchable field. You can use Tags for any info you would like to add to the metadata. Don't forget you have this field to use.

I use Tags for the media type that was the original source for the album. For example: CD, Gold CD, XRCD, Dual layer SACD, LP, DVD-A, Download, High Res Download... This way I can find and "Focus" all my Gold CDs very quickly with just two taps on my Control 10 screen. If you are wondering, I have 328 Gold CDs on my Sooloos right now.

You can also use Tags as reminders for you. For example: if you are loading and you know an album you just loaded needs more editing but you don't want to do it right now just make a tag called "Edit" then you can quickly find these albums later.

If you have a huge Classical collection you can use tags for composers or orchestras to help organize your collection.

There are many uses for tags, don't forget they are there.

Loading tip #6) When editing album info if you are copying and pasting when you go to "paste" in Control PC you don't get a drop down menu when you "right click". To paste into Control 10 editing fields just left click in the selected field to get the cursor in there then hit "control V" on the keyboard.

I have not used Control Mac so I'm not sure if this is a problem with Apple computers.

I don't really like the way Sooloos deals with multidisc sets, you can combine them as a set but I like them better as a single album. My method is time consuming but the end results work best.

Loading tip #7) To load multi disc sets as a single album:
Load the CDs on the Sooloos as you normally would, once the entire set is loaded export (as flac files) the CDs to your PC. Next import all the CDs in the set at the same time and "unalbumize" them then create a single album from all the songs in the set (make sure to get the track order correct by selecting the songs in play order). Now comes the first problem, All Music will not be able to automatically identify the newly created album so you will need to go to All Music and get the album number (at the bottom left of the web page) and you can then use this number to force the album data in. The next problem is when you force the data in like this it will only give song titles for the songs on CD 1, the rest will show as "unknown". Instead of typing in all the song titles you can simply select "revert to user data" at the bottom of the track editing page. Once you get all your data correctly entered complete the import. Don't forget to delete the original CDs from the Sooloos.

I've done this with about 100 multi disc sets on my Sooloos, it took some time but I'm glad I did it.

That's all the loading tips I can think of.

Here is a non-loading tip:

To go directly to a song in a Queue on the Control 10/15 double click it. I had no idea the Control 10/15 had double click features until I accidentally did this.

Victor, thanks very much for your input on the Sooloos! This ones a sticky :thumbsup:

Glad to help. I hope the tips help all the guys who are jumping on the Sooloos bandwagon. Hopefully the thread will grow as other figure out some new tips.

Thanks for doing this, Victor. I hope to contribute as I learn more about the Sooloos.

Victor, thank you! I'm sure we'll all benefit from your trailblazing!

Reg

If you don't want to use the 500GB storage in the Control 15 (because there is no automatic back up)

do the following

Go to System Settings
Go to Devices at the bottom left of the System Settings menu
Click on Controlfifteen zone
Unclick the Enable Storage box
Presto!

howie

Thanks, Howie!:thumbsup:

This is in another thread, I thought I would put it here also.

You can use the Speaker Link output for an AES-EBU digital output.

I built a Speakerlink to AES balanced digital cable to use with my Control 10. It works great with my DAC. I've been using this cable for 5 months with no problems.

Here is the pinout info you need of the Speakerlink output:

Pin 2&5 ground
Pin 7 AES+
Pin 8 AES-

You should be able to build a Speakerlink to AES with this info.

Hi All,

This is my very first post! :banana:

I just stumbled across this forum today and I am so happy that I have found such a friendly bunch!!! I am placing my order for the MC200 tomorrow and am so researching and reading comments I can find.

Its so nice not to read post after post of negative comments so im really looking forward to returning and chatting with you all.

I have a few questions regarding the MC200.....
- Am I correct in thinking that there is no FOCUS feature on the ipad?
- Is there a way to see multiple album covers simultaneously like on all the Sooloos marketing images? The only images that are displayed on the itunes app store are totally different.....
- Can you orientate the ipad landscape?

Has anyone posted a link with a video of the sooloos app working? I have not yet seen it and am VERY curious to see how smooth it navigates. It would be AWESOME if someone could post video link :D

If not when I get mine I will make a video of it all working and post on you tube.... Perhaps it will help to show others on here how it looks. Even if we live near an sooloos dealer, not all have the units on demonstration......

I know the distributor has stock so I hope to get it very soon : )