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Smart Uploading From Hi-MD to PC with MarcNet's Hi-MD Renderer

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Christopher

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Admin edit by kurisu: Whilst this method is still tried and true, and allows more flexibility with the conversion process [flac, ogg, etc], I will note that Sonicstage 3 now has a straightforward *.wav converter tool for Hi-MD.

HOW TO UPLOAD YOUR RECORDED TRACKS FROM HI-MD AND CONVERT THEM TO .WAV FILES *FAST*.

This method will only work with tracks recorded onto HI-MD formatted media. Tracks recorded in NetMD or standard MD mode cannot be uploaded using this method. Further more, if a oma/omg track will not play in SonicStage then it cannot be converted using my program.

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Oh and...

This method is not guarenteed to work 100% all the time.

This method is still in APLHA stage - meaning that it is still experimental.

I take no responsability for transfer, corruption, loss or addition of legal or illegal data. If it goes wrong then Im not taking the slack. Neither am I reponsable if you do naughty illegal things usingthis method. You have been warned.

The chance still exists that SonicStage and your HiMD will trash tracks randomly during upload. If you are using -only- himdrenderer to convert recordings after uploading them, then you are taking the risk of permanently trashing a first-generation recording without having a backup of any kind.

AND: Feel free to mirror my program. Just give me and my website credit for my hard work :smile:

And finally just to repeat what I said in another thread

Its hi-speed yes, but it may miss out or repeat bits of audio... I hope not, but just dont go relying that this will produce a 100% accurate .wav version of your .oma files.

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1) You will need:

* The latest version of Sonicstage [currently 3] installed and working.

* A copy of my HIMDRENDERER program version 0.54. Download here:

http://www.marcnetsystem.co.uk/himdrenderer054.zip

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2) Select Input file. There are 2 ways of doing this:

(You will only need only one of (a) or ( b ) )

a) Browse your computer for the input file.

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First press the browse button at the top right-hand corner of the HIMDRenderer application (as show in the image above). A window should then appear that allows you to browse your computer for Sony OMA/OMG files. Browse to the file you wish to convert, select it, and press the "Open" button at the bottom right of the file browsing window:

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Once selected and opened, the file and path should appear in the "Input File:" box.

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OR:

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b ) Find the input file via the builtin "Find..." button

At the bottom left corner of the HIMDRender window is a "Find..." button.

Simply select the path on your computer to search (the default top option is where SonicStage saves its audio files) and click "Find...". After a few seconds the search will be complete and all results will be displayed on the left hand side of HIMDRenderer:

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You can then simply select an audio file from the list of results and click "Use Selected" to fill in the contents of the "input file:" field automatically

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3) Select the output file.

HIMDRenderer will automatically choose a filename and path to use as the output file. This will be identical to the input file filename and path but with the appropriate 3 letter extension (.wav for PCM wav files, .mp3 for mp3, etc) appended.

If this is not what is desired then simply click on the "Browse" button next to the "output file:" field (circled in red on the image below) and choose a location and filename of where HIMDRenderer should put the output file.

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4) Options.

There are 3 option sections: Processing options, Advanced options and Output options. Click on the apropriate option button to show options for that section.

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Options in the first two sections only need to be changed if the output file contains errors such as repeated or missing audio.

The "output options" change the file format of the output file.

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If the "Dual channel mono" option is enabled then HIMDRenderer will pick either the left or right audio channel, depending which is louder, and duplicate that channels data on the quieter channel. The effect is a mono sounding output file. This is useful for recordings that only have audio on the left or right channel.

The "Output Encoding" option selects whether to save the output file as a PCM .wav (lossless), a MP3 lossy compressed file, a FLAC lossless compressed file or an OGG Vorbis (.ogg) lossy compressed file. Lossy compression discards audio information that the compresser thinks you cannot hear. Lossless formats keep all audio data.

The options following "Output Encoding" depend on the selected ouput format:

PCM

No options available for PCM .WAV files

MP3

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Stereo Mode: This selects wheter to use Full stereo (Best channel seperation), Joint Stereo (Good quality, better compression) or Dual Channel (left & right channels represent different audio streams)

Bitrate control: Variable bitrate (2 methods ... the newer method is faster than old, but slightly worse quality), Average bitrate or constant bitrate (standard mp3)

With variable bitrate you can select the minimum and maximum bitrates allowed. The "VBR quality" setting balences file size against audio quality. The lower this value the better quality but larger file size. The higher the smaller the file size but worse quality.

Average bitrate and constant bitrate only allow a single bitrate to be chosen.

The "Quality" (last option) option balences encoding speed with audio quality. The higher this value the faster the encode but the worse the sound quality.

FLAC

To be honsest, I have no idea what these options do. Im not really a FLAC expert... in fact ive never used it. Sorry. Can anyone help me here?

OGG

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VBR Mode: Here you can select to encode by quality or bitrate. You can also choose to use an averageing bitrate method. With quality mode, the lower the value the worse the quality of the audio and the smaller the file size.

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5) Reneder.

Once everything is set up press the "Go Render!" button at the bottom right of HIMDRenderer. Conversion should take a short while (A percentage indicator is given inside the "Go Render!" button)

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6) Batch Mode

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If you want to convert multiple files in one go then press the "Batch Mode" bottom at the bottom of HIMDRenderer. The "Batch Mode" button will turn into a "File Mode" button. Clicking on "File Mode" returns to the initial single file state.

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In batch mode a file list (batch list) will be displayed on the left of HIMDRenderer. You can either add files using the "Find..." method. This will search for files as described in section ( 2b ). Selecting a file and clicking "Use Selected" will add the selected file to the batch list. Holding down the CTRL or SHIFT buttons and clicking items in the search result list allows multiple items to be selected. Clicking "Use Selected" will add all selected files to the batch list.

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You can also click "Add Files" to display a file selection window simular to the one in section (1a). The batch mode version of this file selection window allows multiple files to be selected by holding down the CTRL or SHIFT buttons and clicking the required files.

The "Remove Files" button removes items from the batch list. Multiple items can be selected for removal via the CTRL OR SHIFT methods.

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Press the "Go Render!" button at the bottom right of HIMDRenderer to convert all files in the batch list.

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7) Bugs and updates

(NOTE: These features require an active internet connection)

If you feel you are not running the latest version of HIMDReneder then press the "Latest version" button at the bottom right of HIMDRenderer. A message box will appear detailing the very latest available version of HIMDRenderer as well as where to get it.

If HIMDRenderer could not process one of your files, or the output of a conversion produced audible errors then please do the following:

* Select "Advanced options" and enable "Generate Log File"

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* In single file mode, select the offending .oma/.omg file and re-render it.

* Click "Bug Report" at the bottom right of HIMDRenderer. You can go back to normal HIMDRenderer operation via the "Exit Report" at the bottom of HIMDRenderer.

* The log file will be saved to the same location as the output file. You can use the "Last Log" option to automatically read in the log file that was generated from the last conversion. If a "Browse" button appears then you may have to browse your system for the log file instead.

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* Fill in your email address (I wont spam you, I just may want to contact you for more information) and any additional information you can think of about the error (Sonicstage version, Windows Version, Type of error,etc .... could you also include a date as I kinda forgot to send this automatically ... sorry) .

*Click "Send Report" at the bottom right of HIMDRenderer.

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Notes:

Thats it. Hope I havn't missed anything.

HIMDRenderer is freeware. However, if you feel my program is worth donating to then I accept donations via NoChex and Paypal. Go to to dontate

Ive set up my own message board at:

http://www.marcnetsystem.co.uk/himd/. You can always find the latest version of HIMDRenderer there.

And if you want to chat then I can be found floating around the Undernet IRC network in the rooms #chatterz or #marcchat.

While im here spamming my website, be sure to check out my music that I created at:

http://www.marcnetsystem.co.uk/music/

Edited by marcnet
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