SonicStage 4.3 "Ultimate" Release 2

[Avrin 14]

Since the "Ultimate" 4.3 version seems to have gained quite a popularity, and appears to be less glitchy than any previous one, I decided to build a second release. This is purely a cosmetic update.

What's changed from the first release:

1. Updated Registry Information Setup is used now. This doesn't affect minidisc functionality in any way, but may add support for some newer ATRAC phones (you still need to provide the respective drivers).

2. The link to Minidisc Community Forums in the Help menu is replaced with a link to Sony Insider Forums.

3. Installation package extraction path is no longer saved to registry.

4. Windows Installer 2.0 distribution package is not included.

The complete list of changes from the official VAIO version (including changes introduced in the first release):

1. System prerequisites from Microsoft (Windows Installer 2.0, DirectX 9.0c, Windows Media Format 9, Windows Media Format 9.5, Data Access Components 2.5) are not included.

2. OpenMG Secure Module version 5.0 with the respective Registry Information is used instead of the original patched version 4.7.

3. Sony CONNECT Store support is no longer installed.

4. SonicStage Security Update is installed automatically.

5. Latest Personal Audio Drivers for SONY devices are installed automatically.

6. The VAIO support link in the Help menu is replaced with a link to Sony Insider Forums.

NOTE: If you have applied the experimental SonicStage patch 4.3.02 for Vista/Windows 7, you'll need to re-apply it after installation.

Download links:

SonicStage 4.3 "Ultimate" Release 2 for Windows 2000/XP/Vista (you must register at Sony Insider forums to download)

Mini-mode skins

Recommended PxEngine update

[Christopher 1]

You the man. I will post this on the main blog soon. Do you mind if I host it instead?

[Avrin 14]

Do you mind if I host it instead?

I will be really obliged if you do.

[Stuge 1]

great work Avrin

[toms 0]

Hi,

I have to ask the following questions, even though they may be idiotic: Will my Sony Connect ATRAC licensed music play with this version?

Will I be able to burn or convert the above files to a different format, such as wma or mp3, even though they are validly purchased licensed music?

Thanks very much

[Avrin 14]

The question is actually quite serious. SONY seems to have discontinued any support of CONNECT, including authentication. The server used for that is supposed to be down for good starting from the beginning of this year. But it seems to re-appear on the net sometimes even now. But noone can guarantee successful authentication anymore.

As for my version of the program - the original authentication mechanism is not changed in any way. All components are original, there are no "hacks", etc., which would hamper the usage of purchased material. Provided that you can reauthenticate successfully. The only difference from the CONNECT version is that the Electronic Music Distribution (EMD) plugin, required to purchase new tracks and stream OpenMG files, is no longer installed. But I don't think that this would affect already purchased tracks.

Overall, upgrading to my version of the program is the same as upgrading to an official SONY version w/o CONNECT support. You either run into problems or not.

As for converting to other formats, the only way is to burn the music to Audio CDs. This is what SONY officially recommended to do with purchased music before the CONNECT store was closed.

I would also recommend burning all your purchased music to Audio CDs in whatever version of SonicStage you already have, before trying to upgrade. In this way you won’t lose what you've paid for, if anything goes wrong. An additional recommendation is to install the PxEngine update from the link in the first message here, before burning. It won't affect authentication, but will provide better support for modern drives and media.

Edited September 22, 2009 by Avrin

[Avrin 14]

Updated SS43_ULTIMATE.exe by removing the obsolete Microsoft Windows Installer 2.0 distribution package (everyone now has a later version). This allowed to reduce the size by further 1,2 Mb. No other changes are introduced.

[chaoscreater 0]

could you upload it on RS.COM or Mediafire?? RS.de is slow and has problems for me

[Avrin 14]

Alternate links to Mediafire added.

[chaoscreater 0]

[Avrin 14]

The "Ultimate" version consists of re-packed original official components with slightly modified installation scripts. It's completely standalone, and does not require any official components be pre-installed. But you may need to install some systems pre-requisites from Microsoft, which are no longer included.

The way to get Chinese/Japanese/Korean support is described here: http://forums.sonyinsider.com/index.php?showtopic=976

[chaoscreater 0]

The "Ultimate" version consists of re-packed original official components with slightly modified installation scripts. It's completely standalone, and does not require any official components be pre-installed. But you may need to install some systems pre-requisites from Microsoft, which are no longer included.

The way to get Chinese/Japanese/Korean support is described here: http://forums.sonyin...p?showtopic=976

hi thanks for your reply. What pre-requisites do i need? I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit build 7600 btw.

And i just did the registry trick, it still doesn't work......in fact i even looked here for the AppLocale trick and it didn't work either:

http://atinyblip.com/tech-stuff/sonicstage-and-unicode-characters/

[Avrin 14]

Windows 7 probably already contains all pre-requisites.

And the method for installing CJK support for Windows 7 may be completely different from XP. The AreaCode registry modification for the OpenMG engine is still required, but you may need to change other system settings, which I know nothing about.

[chaoscreater 0]

well for Windows 7 Ultimate, you can change the language of the whole system on the fly, so i'll try that and see how it goes. Thanks for your help

btw from that CJK support guide that you linked to me, i noticed there is a guide for the PSP as well, can it actually play ATRAC formats?? I have one and never tried that before.

[Avrin 14]

PSP does support ATRAC.

[THIS SUCKS 4]

PSP does support ATRAC.

does the new version include the drivers for the sony decks that was not in the previous install?

[Avrin 14]

No, the deck drivers are quite old and not certified for modern operating systems, and, as such, may cause problems when installing the full program package. If needed, you may download them separately from http://www.mediafire.com/?3mt2nmtbomz

[chaoscreater 0]

Hi i got it working!! Sorry i had this working already 2 days ago but was busy to post a reply. Yup like i thought, since Windows 7 Ultimate has the option to change to any system language you want on the fly (you have to download it first from Windows Update of course), i just changed it and restarted and bam the whole system is in Chinese. And that's it! SonicStage will let me import chinese songs to it.

Also, what i did before importing my songs is that i first used Sony Sound Forge 9.0 and used the batch converting option to convert all my files to ATRAC3 format. I used the 64 kbps btw. Then, i just import them in SonicStage and it doesn't need to convert them since i already converted them using Sony Sound Forge, and all it does is burn the files to the disc which was really fast for me, and i'm using a crappy laptop with 2GB ram btw.

Anyway, the sound quality plays really well, except that songs don't show chinese characters when played on my Sony CD player, it just shows ---- instead.

Oh well, at least i organized them into folders so it's good enough, i just wanted to try this out since i bought this Sony CD player from lyk.....5 years ago? Which came with the very first SonicStage burner v1.0 lol. Ya this is great, i can just use that CD player for my car....

thanks to everyone for all the help!

[Avrin 14]

Sound Forge doesn't support gapless encoding, so if you encode non-stop albums, tracks will have gaps between them.

And yes, to display CJK names during playback, you need a player or remote that supports CJK.

[chaoscreater 0]

Sound Forge doesn't support gapless encoding, so if you encode non-stop albums, tracks will have gaps between them.

And yes, to display CJK names during playback, you need a player or remote that supports CJK.

ahh makes sense, my CD player is bought in New Zealand so i guess it doesn't support chinese or CJK.

as for the gapless encoding thing, i'm not sure what you mean. My tracks play perfectly, and what do you mean non-stop albums?? I put converted quite a few folders (albums) in Sound Forge, and i can play them fine on my CD player...

[Avrin 14]

Non-stop albums include live concerts, operas, The Beatles's "White Album" and side two of "Abbey Road" and most Pink Floyd LPs, when tracks play continuously, without pauses between them. ATRAC was the first lossy format to support such playback, but only when tracks are recorded or encoded continuously as a single stream. But Sound Forge can only encode tracks separately, one by one, so gapless encoding is not supported, and you will hear small gaps between tracks in continuous albums.

Edited December 15, 2009 by Avrin

[chaoscreater 0]

ahh ic ic, thanks for the info.

BTW, I noticed that there are still one or 2 certain chinese songs that couldn't be imported to SonicStage, it's weird since other songs in the same album folder or other chinese songs from other albums were able to be imported properly.....and i also noticed that one or 2 chinese songs don't play at all on my CD player, even though they were able to be imported and burned to CD properly.....

so now i'm thinking, since my CD player doesn't support chinese, therefore can't read chinese, i might as well rename all those chinese songs to english so that i don't get all these errors and problems.

So right now, i'm trying to find a program that can batch convert multiple chinese songs and translate the chinese words into english. I doubt there's a program like that, but if anyone has a better idea of how to do this (since i have like at least 2GB of chinese/jap songs to rename to), please tell me coz it's gonna be tedious work for me.

[Avrin 14]

The problematic songs may have non-standard tags in them, so SonicStage doesn't understand their names.

And renaming is an excellent idea, since it will make your files universally playable. I always use English letters for names, even for Russian songs, so that they can be properly recognized, displayed and played by anything.

[culp4684 0]

Am I to understand this ultimate version will work on Windows 7? I recently upgraded to Windows 7 Home 64 bit version. I can download the new version of SS, but the drivers seem to be a problem. Is there a way to fix? I seem to be hearing a lot of problems getting the 64 bit version to work...

[Avrin 14]

Windows 7 is not supported officially or even unofficially. And a 64-bit version of any Windows release will not allow you to use NetMD mode (other modes may or may not work with Windows 7).