NickyJay

If I recall correctly somebody on this forum made a big stink over the fact that the tascam cd-md dubbing created gaps between tracks. This was for the 4x speed transfers as well as for 1x transfers. Sony CD-MD decks in contrast add no gap. When he asked Tascam directly the answer he got was that if he wanted no gaps to be inserted he needed to do a digital transfer from a separate CD deck!. Maybe they've fixed it with the newer produced units, who can say. Does anybody in the world have one of these tascam units to confirm?

Still no 64gb version. Maybe my future grandchildren will live long enough to see it.

Contact Sony Customer Services. Explain to them the problem and they will restore the files for about $100 plus any additional service fee. Only Sony has the knowledge to help you now.

Perhaps on a related note: the newer models are not built to last. My older Sony MD units are still going strong- all metal casing baby, no plastic anywhere.

I would try and help but it just sounds to me all wrong what you're doing. The whole point of MD is to enjoy the superior sound quality, which you just can't get out of the iPod. All of that convenience also makes you lose appreciation of your music collection. If I was you I would just give the iPod away and go back to using MD properly.

Both those units record in Atrac 1 SP 292kps. This is an entirely different format to the one you are thinking about (Atrac3+), it exists only in the hardware as I mentioned in my previous post. That is why we are warning you to be careful when you upload. If it is too difficult to understand please find someone who knows the process to show you, because you don't want to lose quality when you do the transfer. From memory I don't think the RH1 saves the timestamp details when it uploads, just the titles are carried over. If your recordings are that precious though then I am sure you won't mind copying over the titles and timestamps manually?

If you upload the SP files to the PC then make sure you choose Linear PCM as I think the default setting in Sonicstage is 256kps Atrac3plus. You don't want to be transcoding twice if you can avoid it. More generally, I seriously doubt you want to go down the Atrac route especially now that Sony have abandoned developing it further (in the west at least). There are so many headaches with it that even the computer experts on this forum deem it to be a miracle when they can get Sonicstage to work on a Windows 7 machine. Edit - you should ask the ones who use the SP uploading feature for specifics, but I'm pretty sure there are no restrictions on the file when it is uploaded, as there is no atrac sp codec - it's only existing in the hardware itself so no chance of a reverse transfer. With Atrac3plus transfers you have all that ticking boxes nonsense. If you do go down that route (and Atrac3plus is a damn fine codec, sound wise at least) make sure you untick the boxes that say 'Add copy protection' and other stuff like that. I've never bothered with it since I digitally copy directly from my MD deck to a CD recorder when I need to transfer things to CD.

I'm thinking it's a file that's recorded in 24-bit resolution, so that would make it higher than a red book cd which is 16-bit. It would be nice if the person could reply of course, he must be too busy recording in the highest rates for his studio clients to answer our questions lol. Not that you can actually hear the difference mind you. I had a 24-bit recorder and got rid of it because it was just too confusing switching things all the time. Sometimes limitations can actually help with your workflow.

I believe the OLED screen on units like the RH1 (and also RH10) shall slowly keep fading until it eventually dies out. It's one of the reasons why, despite the screen looking fantastic, I have never invested money in one.

He's probably sampled the audio file at a different rate than the ones normally seen and straight imported it into Sonicstage 'as is'.

That's very interesting. Could you please comment a bit more on how exactly you are able to edit the Atrac3 or Atrac3plus files in Sound Forge? Can you move between the two programs - Sound Forge and Sonicstage - freely or are there restrictions? And even though it is a long shot....can Sound Forge itself import / export Atrac3plus files between the computer and a portable unit like say the NH700? Thanks

Sony PCM-M10

Though it is not mentioned in the manual I don't think you should ever try to remove tracks from their groups, or move them between groups, definantly not on the unit itself. There is some kind of advanced copy protection that Sony employs and it can render a disc or even an entire hard drive useless if something is changed. I've never had this problem since I rarely (if ever) use Atrac3plus. I use standard SP mode which is a far more stable format and which can be recovered fairly easily through TOC cloning or specialist companies. I think you can send the disc to Sony and pay something like $100 for them to recover the file though. There's no guarantee of success however. Wish I could do more for you. You should always keep at least two copies of any important digital material.

Didn't Sonicstage V ditch Atrac support for the Hi-MD? Are the Japanese versions of Sonicstage still supporting all other Atrac devices?

For those without a PhD in computer science I fear that SS shall remain an impossibly confusing and frustrating piece of software. My advice - ditch the PC and buy a deck and portable units to record in real time (of 4x speed if you have the CD-MD decks). That was the original way MD was intended.

Can you please tell us some good downloading sites from where to get (through purchasing of course) those WAV/FLAC albums? Though I still find it impossible how it could ever replace the depth of the CD market. How can you possibly have the number of titles anywhere approaching the number of commercially available CDs? Maybe in 20 years time it will happen. For now I just don't see it happening. But maybe I am behind the times, so I would greatly appreciate if you can give your sources for where you are purchasing your music from.

Did you achieve the uploading feature of the RH1 through some other setup?

Why not get Apple to make Sony's software? What an awesome combination that would be - the best software interface with the best hardware on offer. Of course such a collaboration wouldn't go down too well in the head offices of both companies, but it isn't as impossible as you might think. I was always taught in business that if both sides come out of it better than a deal will usually be struck.

Soon you will be able to have open-source Atrac3plus available without the need for Sonicstage. They're working on a windows version for it now. Look in the software section of the forum.

I am quite sure that as a professional spec machine Sony will not have limitations of almost any kind on it.

The iPod and the Minidisc are about as opposite type devices as you could ever conceive of. While the iPod is by far the best in terms of ease of use the Minidisc is king in the area of sound quality and editing features. There is therefore no real point in comparing them at all. Having said that I'm sure that your tips will be very helpful to those with a similar setup.

No chance in hell that I would be able to do all that technical stuff by myself. Will you be taking NAC-HD1E orders ?

Urgh. It sounds like only half your files were updated with 'new info' and for whatever reason the other half was left untouched. So the software must have been interrupted before it could complete the procedure for all of the files. Maybe Sonicstage routinely updates the whole database but at irregular intervals. Does that mean there is no warning of when any new changes are due? If that's the case then this is another Sonicstage quirk we just have to live with.

Yes you sure do have to baby these units. Sony should go back to making the brick type MD recorders where things didn't start to fall off after a few weeks.