dex Otaku

To elaborate on what Latexxx said: Download SonicStage 2.1 and install it. You can then import your own mp3s, convert them to whatever atrac3/atrac3+ format you like, and audition them on your computer - without needing a Sony walkman device to listen with.

Yes. Anything that can be played via USB can be copied using TR. [i.e. standard MDs will not work, but anything from HiMDs will.] Correction: as I have no way to test this [nothing with a digital out] I can't say for sure whether digital-sourced recordings actually will play over USB. If they do, you can copy them. If they don't, you can't. Can someone else confirm this?

I don't think so, at least. I'm still testing every revision you post, I'm just not using it for making my actual "to edit with" files yet because of 1) the glitch problem, and 2) SS's bugs. You're doing excellent work and I believe that everyone here really appreciate the effort you're putting into it. Now if we could only get Sony to fix SS so the trashing of tracks never occurs, all would be well and your prog would become -the- standard tool for conversions.

TR records the stream exactly as it comes from whatever you're playing from. This means that if you use the volume control, EQ, effects of any kind, compression, stereo enhancement etc. from your player, TR will record with all that DSP. If you play with no DSP on, volume all the way up, etc. then you should get a bit-for bit copy. Himdrender is not currently capable of bit-for-bit copies because of the overlap glitch. Ergo, TR is more accurate at this time.

My primary use is location recording. The fact that I can use it as a portable music player is basically just icing. If all I wanted was a player though, I wouldn't buy MD or HiMD. Compared to the rest of what's out there now, it's just .. antiquated, really. As a recording format, it works exceedingly well. I still hold to the opinion that Sony should be push push PUSHING HiMD as a recording format, and getting rid of DRM on personal recordings. If you look at the consumer electronics industry, portable high-quality audio recording [that is also affordable, i.e. accessable to the general public] has basically been at an absolute standstill since DAT failed in the late 1980s. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING else has achieved a degree of embedded success to compete with either compact cassette or microcassette, which were already antiquated in the mid-1980s, and neither of which are capable of the baseline quality that people expect nowadays after 20 years of buying CDs.

My point was that you can analyse the decoded chunks in order to match them. I.E. decode 45 seconds, pad the end with a signature so you know where the end is, mark the zero crossings in the last few seconds, decode 45 more seconds, mark the zero crossings in the first 3 seconds, match the pattern there with what's in the end of the last chunk, erase the bit in between, move to the end of that segment and start over.. nothing to do with the wave writer, nothing to do with directshow, all just done in the temp file with the wav data already decoded.

There is a disc memory mode on the players. Perhaps turning this on or off changes the behaviour of shuffle playback in the same way that it makes the player forget which track you were last listening to.

What if: xxxxxxx0xxxxxxxx0xxxxxx0xxxx0xxxxxxxx0xxxxxx0xxxxxx0 was the end of the last segment [where '0' is a zero crossing] and xx0xxxx0xxxxxxxx0xxxxxx0xxxxxx0|xxxxx0xxxx0xxxxx0 [where | is the end-of-overlap point] was the beginning of the next If you know exactly where the end of the last seg is, which you really should, or you could perhaps mark by a code of sorts that is unlikely to occur in actual audio.. then, using the last short chunk of the prev seg's end [up to the signature] start looking at the beginning on the next segment for the same pattern of 0 crossings... then cut the next seg at its first zero crossing, 0xxxx0xxxxxxxx0xxxxxx0xxxxxx0|xxxxx0xxxx0xxxxx0 and cut back to the beginning of where the patterns overlap and [overwriting the signature as well] remove the space in between xxxxxxx0xxxxxxxx0xxxxxx|0xxxx0xxxxxxxx0xxxxxx0xxxxxx0xxxxx0xxxx0xxxxx0 [where | is the beginning of the word-accurate overlap point] Looking for 0 crossings seems like a simple pattern search routine, definitely simpler than trying to match entire segments of audio [since there's a lot less to search for, and the search is for something altogether distinct]. Maybe I'm talking out my arse here, but it just seems like a simpler way to do things, and would not require crossfading [which precludes any possibility of bit accuracy] and should also prevent glitches since only zero crossings would be used for searching and concatenating. Note that you'd only have to do the match with one channel. If the accuracy of the concatenation is actually down to a single word, both should be aligned correctly. Shoot it down if you will.

Hello Harmonika, The situation is thus: * You can record on your HiMD and upload to your computer, yes. There are is currently no simple way [i.e. as part of SonicStage] to export to .WAV for editing and SonicStage does not permit burning of your own recordings to normal audio CD. * SonicStage [sS] contains bugs which will occasionally trash a track as it is being uploaded. By 'trash' I mean that it never finishes the upload to SS, and it also destroys the track on your disc. Meaning that your recording is lost forever and cannot be recovered by any currently known means. * There are two main methods for conversion to .WAV being used. First is to use a piece of software called Total Recorder, with which you can [digitally] record your tracks directly from the HiMD [controlled by SonicStage] without having to worry about losing any tracks because of SS bugs. When you're finished copying tracks this way you can -then- upload if you wish without having to worry about losing your tracks since you already backed them up. * The other method is to upload them in SS [risking losing tracks without having any backup] and then use marc's very excellent convertor program to convert them to .WAV for editing and/or burning. The hoopla is about the fact that the Total Recorder method requires that everything be done in real time - a 28 minute recording takes 28+ minutes to copy. With marc's himdrender program, you can convert that 28 minute track in less than 30 seconds. The important things to keep in mind are: * marc's software is still in alpha, meaning it'snot guaranteed to work perfectly [though it usually does, now] * going the himdrender route means you -must- upload your tracks first, risking their destruction before you have even had the opportunity to do anything with them. Cheers.

Suggestions: * Update to SS2.1. * Listen to the whole track before uploading to make sure it's actually all there. SS2.1 at least has a bug in it that will randomly and intermittently trash tracks during upload. This is why I recommend using the Total Recorder method [playback direct from the disc via USB, recording with TR] -BEFORE- uploading tracks. I suspect that SS2.0 would have the same bug in it. It sounds like you've found a variation of it, at least. I've completely filled HiMD formatted MD80s [with HiSP audio as well as PCM] and uploaded without any difficulties at all. I seriously doubt it's your recorder or your discs. I would point the finger at SS.

As I haven't done any programming in 10 years the source would not help me much. I have been playing with the settings and have found that: * various settings [no consistency from file to file] make it possible to introduce the glitch in any file, but not to get rid of it from files that always do it * as a note: yes, the files are defragged * It is more likely to happen with PCM sources than atrac3+ * It is also more likely to happen with longer files

Monica, HiMD allows for transfer to PC from HiMD formatted discs only. If what you want is to transfer from standard MDs, you either do it from a home deck over SPDIF or by using broadcast-level equipment that costs thousands of dollars. Or by analogue means, in real time. If what you want is HiMD, then yes, you can do it. There are muliple methods to get around Sony's DRM, just take a look in the HiMD forum under these threads: First and most importantly: http://forums.minidisc.org/viewtopic.php?t=5836 And as to the methods: http://forums.minidisc.org/viewtopic.php?t=6087 and http://forums.minidisc.org/viewtopic.php?t=5858 There are many threads here discussing the sound quality of HiMD vs. MD. I would suggest using the search facility here to browse around them a bit as many excellent opinions have already been expressed on this matter. IMO it comes down to three things, though: 1) Unless all you want is a -player only- there is virtually no reason to buy an MD recorder. I say virtually as Sharp's offerings have slightly different features that appeal to some more than others, such as better-placet controls for certain functions. 2) HiMD recorders can be used to record in standard MD mode as well as HiMD mode. I haven't used the standard mode on mine for anything more than test purposes, and I don't expect to ever use MD mode for anything. The extended record and playback lengths with HiMD [and PCM recording] are more than enough to keep me using it for that only. 3) There are arguments that standard-MD's SP mode is slightly better than HiMD's HiSP mode, but with the recordings I've made so far I've found no qualms with the results I've gotten - and I'm pretty fussy.

I have had the opportunity to compare LP2 recordings made using 1) SS2.1 and 2) an R90 which was transferred to computer by analogue means. Tthe SS2.1 encodes I did sounded like absolute garbage. They were completely unlistenable - almost painful to hear, in fact. The R90 recordings [with subsequent conversions] sounded surprisingly excellent. The difference between them was such as night and day.

If I had a machine other than my own to try out the codecs on I would. I won't risk messing with my install [sS2.1 / SB2.0] though, because it worked on the first try. Perhaps what we need to do is ask people if they'd encode a few short test files. I know there are people here who are running older versions of OpenMG Jukebox and SonicStage.. Would anyone like to volunteer a few minutes of their time so we can test the differences between codec versions? edit: I can make a few test files, including brief music clips, whitenoise, pinknoise, etc. if the demand exists to do so.

Also .. I don't recall if either one gives you the option to change what CDDB host to use. Perhaps what's happening is that it's timing out because the other end is simply too busy.

The 2nd conversion means a loss of frame-accuracy. Kurisu's advice is dead-on: go straight from CD to LP2 and you should have gapless playback again.

This might seem like an evasive answer, but chances are that a single-sample error will be more noticeable in certain situations [among certain sounds] than others. This is related to how adaptive compression [like atrac] works, incidentally, since it relies on masking. Another thing is that since the single-sample error is related to the boundary/overlap of the segments used to decode the OMA file, the error would likely be larger if the amplitude at the point of overlap is high. That's a guess, actually, but going by the files I was having the problem with [and like you, it wasn't with every file] it seems at least partly correct. Ergo, if the amplitude is really small [quiet recording], chances are the error will be much smaller as well, to the point that you possibly can't hear it. edit: Hey marc.. wouldn't it be funny if Sony rang you up and asked to buy your program to use as their wave convertor software? edit: Here's why I refer to it as a single-sample error. Interesting points about this: * it doesn't do it with every file, * if it does it with a file, it will do it every time; if it doesn't, it won't every time, * it doesn't seem to matter whether the source is atrac3+ or PCM, and * it doesn't always do it in both channels [it seems to like the right channel a lot more, for some reason]

http://www.minidisc.org/hi-md_faq.html The short answer is yes. The even shorter answer is that you should use the search function on the fora, or check www.minidisc.org 's FAQs. That's not mentioning product manuals and brochures / info on websites.

You wouldn't have a software firewall that's blocking outgoing calls from Simple Burner, would you? Does the CDDB support in SonicStage work? Mine [sS 2.1] occasionally has troubles that seem both random and intermittent. Sometimes closing and re-opening the software fixes it, and once it required rebooting to get it to work again. I could find no reason for the problems, either.

See http://forums.minidisc.org/viewtopic.php?t=5858 Using that method you never have to upload [and risk trashing] your tracks to the computer at all if you prefer not to.

That 'click' is the one-sample error I mentioned in my post.

See Total Recorder.

If that doesn't define complicated [for what with most software would be a matter of simply hitting 'record' to do all the same things and not be limited by RAM] then I don't know what does. That said, excellent point about the work computers. Students at universities face the same type of restrictions, too.

I think it's important to note, ksandbergfl.. Why would someone with 1GB of RAM in their PC be recording with Sound Recorder, which is garbage and unnecessarily complicates the task, when there are multiple free applications or utilities out there that are easy to find, easy to install, easy to use, have more features than, and most importantly are far less of a hassle in every way than sound recorder [not to mention not being made by M$]? Messer looks interesting btw, everso. It does not support the one feature that makes Total Recorder what it is though: the proxy driver that lets you record digitally from any source on your PC straight to a .WAV file, whether your sound card's mixer supports such a source or not. We could use any program for analogue transfers [which is what Messer is made for]. TR has a specific function that nothing else I've seen supports.

MD decks [home stereo components] usually have optical digital outputs on them. Try looking on eBay for decks. No[consumer] version of standard MD / netMD supports upload to a computer via USB.