dex Otaku

ATRAC has something that others don't have: editibility. Yes. Main reason being [at least with pre-atrac3+ codecs] that frames of atrac data correspond exactly in length to frames or segments of CD-DA data, which is why things like gapless playback from accurately ripped sources are possible. Fixed packet-length [and identical source/decoded streams, i.e. sample rate the same] is [/are] crucial to the whole editibility question, and technically any codec that supports fixed packet-length can support editibility as long as the stream can be identified and decoded starting with any arbritrary block. This doesn't really make ATRAC unique for these qualities. It just means that ATRAC is well-implemented with MD. DRM and editibility are more about carrier design [media format] and container design [file system / file type] than they are about a codec. The codec is actually irrelevant to both when it comes down to it. That said, Hi-MD andthe new hdd players etc. from Sony that use atrac3+ are built for DRM from the ground up because of built-in encryption. Again, that's an implementation thing, though, and isn't necessarily unique to atrac3+. It would be just as simple to take an mp3 stream and do the same with it [except that the known decoding methods for mp3 would make it much easier to crack the encryption, so it makes good sense for Sony to use their proprietary encoding to discourage this]. Woohoo.

Hey Marc, I'm experimenting with your prog here. I have done alpha and beta-testing in the past, so I know what to keep in mind. Still, before I get to the issues I've found, which are few, I'd like to point something out to everyone: The chance still exists that SS and your HiMD will trash tracks randomly during upload. If you are using -only- himdrenderer to transcribe recordings after uploading them, then you are taking the risk of permanently trashing a first-generation recording without having a backup of any kind. Yes, himdrenderer is definitely faster. And yes, the problem is NOT with himdrenderer, rather it's with SS. himdrenderer will not damage your recordings [well, maybe it might if you really tried to find a way, but.. yeah]. Just know conclusively and accept that there is the chance that your first-generation irreplacable recordings might be permanently trashed by SS while you're uploading. This warning should be in the first post on this thread, IMO, since noob users are looking to this as their method to do things when they are likely at some point to lose something because of SS's bugs. That said.. File positioning: you said that accuracy is not to-frame in positioning during 'playback' for render, right? And you chose to use 5-second segments? Would it not be easier to use longer segments [i.e. 45 seconds or so] with a slightly longer overlap? It might not take less time, but one thing I've noticed with most of the files I've rendered so far [note that was with .001, I only just downloaded .002] was a single-sample error at almost every single segment boundary. i.e. the one sample at the very middle of the overlap would be bad, so every 5 seconds a 'click' would happen. If you use longer segments then you have fewer chances for error, even if it takes longer to make sure the overlap is correct. The end result should be no faster, no slower, and a *lot* more accurate if my thinking is right. I also get the repeating segment at the end of every file, but I can grasp where it's coming from and you said you'll address that issue. With .001 I couldn't get files longer than about 5 minutes to render. .002 is working fine for this. Now to listen to it.. Keep up the excellent work. While my big long warning above might be bad for the popularity of this as an immediate solution to the upload-conversion dilemma, I certainly don't intend that as a personal slight. After all, the problem is with Sony's software, not yours. Still, until Sony fix SS so that uploads are randomly trashed, I will not consider simple upload and conversion for anything of real importance. Let's hope they fix it soon.

It's called interference patterns. You don't normally hear them so obviously because the brain filters out some minor changes and can't detect others. It's a bit like how your brain tries to adjust perception of your eyesight to maintain colour balance regardless of what lighting you're in. Basically, if you're wearing the mics, any movement at all is going to change the sound of the recording. Very small, very slow movements are less likely to be noticed. What you're actually hearing are the acoustics of the room you were in [and their interaction with the speaker placement, crowd movement, etc.]. This is normal and if you pay close enough attention you can actually hear it yourself just by walking around. I'd suggest making a simple mount for the mics and using it next time rather than wearing them. If you're running FOH [if you're at the sound board] then you'll be limited as to placement [having to keep it with you] but at the very least, mounting them and not moving them makes for a -consistent- recording that you can EQ and edit later. I have seen friends make simple mounts for twin-condensor "binaurals" by gaff-taping a pencil to the top of an extended mic stand, then taping the mics to the end of the pencil. Not elegant, but it does at least work. Since you're using cardioids I'd suggest using a Y-pattern, as you don't have to deal with the leakage you get with omnis.

I have a pair of Sound Professional's in-ear binaurals. Thing is, they're just microphones, right? I don't -have- to wear them for them to work.. So I made a prototype mount for them, by taking some alligator clips with rubber boots on them [red for right, black for left], deforming their [open] ends slightly so the plastic part of each mic will slip into it [which is inside the rubber boot, no less]. I then took a misburned CD-R and cut some polar fleece fabric to overlap it, and screwed another alligator clip onto one edge. What I now have is a pair of mic holders that won't damage the mic, which I can clip onto basically anything that's strong enough to hold them up [they are large clips, not like lapel mic clips that work on fabric]. I also have an acoustically-absorbent disc that I can sit between the mics to help with stereo separation. I have already made a few recordings this way and the results are quite good. Best of all, I can set this up [currently I'm using a large cylindre of plastercine as the mount for all three] and walk away, not having to worry about what way I'm looking, etc. If we're going to talk about actual micing techniques then my preferred method is usually to use multiple mics. For example, when recording a stand-up bass I'd use a large-diaphragm condensor down on the body, a more average [pencil condensor] where the strings are plucked, and another up top to catch fingering sounds. I would record these on separate tracks simultaneously. As far as stereo goes I like the binaural effect but it can be very fussy. I find that a forward-facing arrangement with 12cm spacing and a baffle between works well for most situations, though a coincident pattern works better in others. It depends on the room, distance to subject, etc. In general situations [outdoor for instance] I'd be more likely to stick with M/S micing or coincident Y.

Excellent work, marc. Serious kudos to you.

Not a problem. It's a shame that it uses graphedit though, since all that has done on any machine I've ever tried it on is crash.

I don't know what to suggest. What you're describing sounds exactly like the effect of AVLS.

No. You should be able to do in in the SonicStage library, though.

1) Sony's software, which is required for transferring to/from HiMDs and to netMDs, exists on the Windows platform only. Sony has a long "tradition" of not supporting Mac for pretty much anything, from the network music players to video cameras et al. No other companies are producing HiMD units yet. netMD players are available from various companies but as far as I know, the basis for these on the computer side is still the same OpenMG software from Sony - meaning Windows support only. I have heard that SonicStage et al work on Virtual PC running under OS 9, but have not heard conclusively on this. Try searching the fora here for "mac Hi-MD" as there have been discussions on this before. As for caveats, clarifications etc. - Sony determines the standards for both netMD and HiMD; they require the same functionality of all liscencees, i.e. othre companies making compatible hardware. While you will find minor differences between, say, Sony and Sharp's offerings in terms of user interface and how certain features work, the basics will remain the same. 2) HiMDs, when connected via USB, show up as a USB mass-storage device. You can do drag&drop transfers with them for any kind of data files. Transferring music to be played on netMDs and HiMDs must be done using SonicStage [or the older OpenMG Jukebox]. netMDs play only the atrac3 format; HiMDs play both atrac3 and atrac3+ formats. There is no native support for any other format, including mp3, m4a/aac, WAV and AIFF, ogg, wma, etc. Anyting you want to play on netMD or HiMD must be transcoded to one of Sony's formats in order to work. Sony's DRM [digital rights management] is also a part of both the players and the software. DRM requirements [and no native support of alternate formats] are what keep simple drag&drop of music files from working; data files that are dragged and dropped are ignored by the player, and music files that are transferred using SonicStage are encrypted and "invisible" when HiMDs are used as data drives. There is actually one large [encrypted] file on the discs that contains all audio data, like having a file system running overtop another filesystem, if that makes sense to you. 3) HiMDs can transfer in both directions, keeping in mind the limitations that Sony's DRM impose. netMDs can be transferred to, but not from, regardless of who makes them. The limitations imposed by Sony's DRM include: * You can transcode and download [to the player] non-DRM'd wma as well as mp3 files and WAV files from your PC. You cannot upload these to another computer, though you can play them in any player and should be able to play them through SonicStage on any computer. Rephrased: you can connect via USB to a computer other than the one your music was transferred from and play [digitally over USB] using SonicStage, but can't upload. [someone please correct me if this is wrong, as I haven't tried it myself] * You can upload your own recordings made on HiMD only once; after uploading the original recording is marked as uploaded and can only be played from the original disc, not uploaded again. You cannot burn uploaded tracks to CD or export them in any way other than to other Sony network audio components, such as another HiMD disc, atrac3/atrac3+ CD as used by Sony's newer players meant for such, and Sony's hdd players. While the above are serious limitations, there are workarounds [see the thread here] that permit fully-digital transfer, which takes place in real time only. Sony have promised to release sometime this fall a wave converter utility to be a companion to SonicStage that will permit open export of uploaded recordings to WAV files for editing and writing to CD.

Yes, AVLS on the player. I'm not really sure what to suggest. It still sounds like some kind of compression, limiting, or normalising is taking place [none of which SonicStage does]. Let's see if I have this right so far: * anything you transcode with SonicStage does it * the originals on your computer sound fine * enabling EQ on the player makes the problem worse * AVLS on the player is turned off .. What is the source of the recordings you're listening to? Have you tried importing a CD or just a track from a CD straight into SonicStage ["recording" it, rather]? Have you tried copying a CD to HiMD using Simple Burner to see if there is a difference?

The iRiver's recording features are stunted at best, and known to have problems doing things like recording for longer than 30 minutes. See here. Aside from that - $800AUD for an NH1 seems like a lot more than exchange alone should account for. Minidisc Australia advertises them for $679AUD. I haven't had much luck getting information of any use out of Sony Canada, myself. It seems that their support people are totally uninformed on issues regarding HiMD. Still, I'd suggest trying transfers using Total Recorder at the very least. It works very well, even if it is limited to being done in real-time.

Consider for a moment the fact that $10 watches less than 4mm thick run on a single lithium/silver oxide/etc. battery for 3 years have had indiglo-type backlights for a few years now. Admittedly, I'm not an engineer and may be oversimplifying things, but if they can fit such things into extremely inexpensive electronics without difficulty, you'd think they could fit it in our recorders without significantly increasing either the retail price or their manufacturing costs.

I say: all displays should be backlit, both on the recorders/players and on the remotes. It should also be switchable, i.e. press a button for the backlight to be on, so that it's not wasting power when you don't need it. As I've said elsewhere, there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to include an indiglo-type backlight on all displays, unless the EMR it causes is so bad that it interferes with playback or recording.

Send them to people who can't afford more discs. Like me. :laugh:

That's the way it works here, too. I'm assuming everyone's in that same boat.

Some important points: * MD and HiMD are currently the least-expensive and most reliable formats for portable digital recording [most reliable for uploading is another matter] * the price difference between entry-level MD and HiMD models with mic and line inputs is very small, and since HiMD can record to MDs natively [if you need such compatibility for another player, home deck, or car deck for example] there is virtually no reason to overlook HiMD * virtually no reason - unless you're looking for a model that is more durable or has the slightly different feature set/implementation that, say, the Sharp MD recorders offer [see http://www.minidisc.org/equipment_browser.html] * fully-digital uploads are possible in the clear. See the procedure outlined here. There is no one-step process for this, and even when the wave converter is released, it still won't be a one-step process.

As aeriyn pointed out, there are ways to do what you want to. Check the thread she linked to. It's no faster than doing an analogue transfer but it is lossless.

Please don't post in multiple fora at the same time. It sounds to me like you have AVLS turned on. AVLS monitors the output level and compresses it to prevent hearing damage. It also has an extremely low threshold that most people find unacceptably quiet with their headphones. You can find how to turn AVLS off in your manual. Using the EQ and AVLS [compression] together will exaggerate the effect, so it makes sense that the EQ makes things worse. [As a side note, it sounds like Sony got the order of their DSP wrong in that case, too.]

I've actually suggested to Sony Canada that they have someone look at places like here and t-board to get an impression of actual customer reactions/opinions. Who knows if they do, though. [i suppose the service provider running this server might, sincethe weblogs would indicate where people visit from - though that information is only suggestive at best most of the time.]

another alternative method doesn't require or use TR at all. If your sound card's driver includes support for a 'wave' device in the recording mixer, you don't need TR.

Jimmyjazz - This is not appropriate to this thread, even if CD Architect is great software [it's what I use, too]. edit: OMG.. did I just put on a mod hat for second? I'm not a mod.

No. -- Correction: Yes - transfer by analogue means [i.e. from headphone or line-out of the MD to line-in of your sound card]. If/when the wave converter becomes available, I imagine this wont be a problem any more. With SS as it is now, however, I'd be leery of relying on it and the convertor alone, since SS trashes tracks occasionally during upload.

I hadn't realised that these were for release in Japan. [as an aside: I was under the impression that they were not releasing -any- further MD models there, but obviously I'm mistaken]. I'm aware of how popular MD is in Japan, and that in many ways it's defined their pop music scene for years. It kind of made me jealous in a sense, to find that out when I did.. because the same kind of situation in a country like Canada could have altered the face of our entire music industry. Unfortunately, MD is and was the invisible format here. The only thing that kept it alive was pro use.

I have imported mp3s and WAV files with sampling rates from 32kHz - 96kHz into SonicStage without any problems. Is this a file you made yourself? Do you know what encoder it came from? PM me if you like and we could arrange for you to send me that file to try here. As for the fast playback problem, sounds like it's being improperly resampled. Same deal goes with that file..

The 900's front is aluminum, back is plastic.