Jump to content

hpmoon

Members
  • Posts

    40
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Profile Information

  • Location
    http://www.southwestchamberplayers.org
  • Interests
    0

Contact Methods

  • Skype
    Live recording

hpmoon's Achievements

Newbie

Newbie (1/14)

0

Reputation

  1. Why did you post that? This thread (and the whole board) is about ATRAC, so... I can think of dozens of applications that do exactly the same thing as this Switch Sound File Converter. No ATRAC, no dice.
  2. Shockingly, there is still no diverse tool which can batch convert, other than the severely limited Sony mini-app MP3 Converter. I'll never understand why companies like Ahead (Nero), etc., never added an ATRAC codec for their conversion softwares (when ATRAC went non-DRM as an option).
  3. Calm down, DRM is eliminated for all uses of SonicStage other than Connect store purchases. You know this, right? SonicStage is on par with iTunes, WMP, etc. In this thread, there are already people who have noted bug fixes, including the fact that when importing multiple audio CDs, SonicStage properly refreshes when a new CD gets inserted. Also, there was some mention of the way that a bungled import doesn't freeze things up, but just skips and moves on. I'm sure there are more bug fixes. Check out ATRAC Life, too. In sum, there is no basis in the widespread comment (numerous times even in this thread) that the only change at all is Vista compatibility.
  4. Any progress on adding WMA codec support to Hi-MD Renderer? It's been almost a year since the issue came up, and WMA is far more widespread than any of the other codecs supported in Hi-MD Renderer (other than MP3, of course). Thanks. The first, critical question here is whether your .oma files have DRM (i.e., they were purchased from the Connect store or they were ripped with the "add copy protection" box checked). If so, Vegas 7 will not open them, and the WAV conversion process is your only option.
  5. You can get this now on pre-order for $69.95 with free shipping from Amazon.com. They're really trying to get rid of these -- but it's a great sounding unit with full SonicStage support. It works with wired ethernet, or with a Wireless Access Point (WAP) connected to its ethernet port. You then can access your full SonicStage library and playlists.
  6. I've had this problem too where it's time-consuming to open each individual track's properties and delete the source file -- so this seems like a reasonable work-around. But I'm wondering whether the Optimize Database function in SonicStage 3.4 (and earlier) also cleans up the properties of each track when the file it references doesn't exist anymore. (For that matter, SonicStage's Help does a horrible job of explaining what it is specifically that the Optimize Database function does in the first place.)
  7. I'm bumping this thread two years later and wondering whether there's any solution to making a typical multimedia keyboard (e.g., my Wireless Optical Pro) control SonicStage. When SonicStage alone is loaded, the next and previous track keyboard buttons do the right thing, and stop will stop SonicStage, but the Pause/Play button on the keyboard that always calls up Windows Media Player and fails to affect SonicStage. I'm wishing this would work because I just got myself the whole Bluetooth Logitech system with playback controls on the wireless receiver units and wireless headphones. Same with the keyboard on the Bluetooth devices: next/previous and stop buttons work, but not the critical play/pause button. Logitech's Bluetooth system sends playback control commands via the A2DP Bluetooth protocol, therefore it's important for SonicStage to respond as A2DP continues to integrate with Windows.
  8. Note my discussion a few weeks ago on the related subject of Sony's software suite supporting ATRAC here. Your parenthetical "perhaps" is answered by the fact that all known ATRAC formats are supported, down to ATRAC Lossless and ATRAC3plus at every bitrate.
  9. I've tried Hi-MD Renderer, as noted in the original post. It's just not a very good program, with all due respect. Sound Forge offers many more codecs (including WMA) that Hi-MD Renderer does not -- and two steps is not an option for anyone with a meaningfully sized library (unless you enjoy killing time). Plus, it transcodes much faster -- I'll run the stopwatch if you need proof. On that subject, buying Sound Forge becomes less of a gouge when you factor in the time savings -- particularly whenever Sony fixes the Batch Converter bug so that a batch list can be created directly within the module, compared to the process I've created above. I note again that you can perform several simultaneous transcodings (and more) with Sound Forge, as well as retain the original file folder structure. This you cannot do with Hi-MD Renderer either. Also, don't overestimate the cost. This is more realistic. Everyone, please hit the link in the original post to send feedback to Sony on this. Once the Batch Converter bug is fixed, we can start thinking outside the Hi-MD Renderer box. .
  10. Very few of us have any interest in installing a Japanese font, per the instructions in this topic. As the much better alternative, install any one of the following six new ClearType fonts that will be included in the next OS: You will find the fonts here. They are English. Note that Consolas is the only non-proportional font face.
  11. Thanks for the effort, Ishiyoshi, but I think the confusion stems from your instruction to edit "all relevant" XML files, meaning those that have <font> tags in them. You will find that a few of the XML files have several dozens of shorter sections bounded by <font> tags, thus your instructions may or may not have meant to reach that far -- strictly interpreting your words, though, they do. I recommend that you re-word the instructions accordingly. Also, since so many people are using this, why not list the files requiring modification? No big deal. I'll do it if you're not willing (though you started this thread).
  12. As a follow-up to this discovery on performing a batch conversion directly from ATRAC formats into WMA/MP3/etc., I've found a semi-automated way to make this work. Unfortunately, this technique is limited by your computer's processing power and memory capacity. I was successful with this procedure opening several dozens of files on a Pentium IV/3.0 GHz/2gb RAM PC. With all due respect to Hi-MD Renderer, this has become the best possible way to convert files from "My Library." 1. Open all the ATRAC files that you want to Batch Convert, from within Sound Forge 8.0d. You can do this by going to "File" then "Open...", then selecting multiple items (or all the files) in a folder. Before moving on to Step 2, you can open additional files from other folders by repeating this step. 2. There will be a delay while waiting to load the ATRAC files, due to Sound Forge's automatic peaks-building algorithm -- it will do this for each file that opens, each in its own window. Just wait for them to finish. If you don't want to deal with a bunch of .sfk files after these peaks are built, make sure that you select "Delete temporary files on close" within "Options" then "Preferences..." 3. Go to "Tools" then "Batch Converter..." and you will see all the ATRAC files you opened in the list, as demonstrated below. [attachmentid=1579] 4. Click the "Save" tab (see example in the picture attached to the first post in this thread). Click the "Add Save Options..." button. Select your codec (e.g., WMA, MP3, OGG, WAV, etc.) and fine-tune it as desired. When you specify the destination directory, you can "Preserve source subfolders" by checking its box. Note that you can add additional save options to this tab's list for concurrent transcoding of a single source to multiple files (e.g., OMA --> MP3 and WMA). 5. Click the "Run Job" button on the bottom right. You'll see the progress under the "Status" tab. 6. Upon completion, you can easily close all the open files/waveforms as indicated below. [attachmentid=1580]
  13. Started a new thread here. By the way, to the poster who claimed that the CD Architect 5.2a update supports ATRAC -- it does not.
  14. So far there is no path for directly converting ATRAC files into WMA files. Many situations exist today where WMA is the only option, either because: (1) you choose a lower bitrate such as 64 kbps because of flash player space limitations, and WMA is the only game in town (vs. MP3 which is indisputably inferior at 64 kbps); or (2) WMA is the only supported file type (e.g., all Verizon mobile phones with digital music capability). Currently, the quickest way to do this is to use Hi-MD Renderer for a batch convert to MP3, retaining metadata, and then transcoding those MP3s into WMAs. Obviously, that's a lossy thing to do to already very lossy files. There's hope on the horizon, but like always, Sony almost gets us there but not quite. With the release of Sound Forge 8.0d, Sony added support for importing all kinds of ATRAC files, including ATRAC Lossless, which can then be saved to whatever format you like among Sony's impressive list of codecs -- including WMA, and even WMA Professional (though we're still waiting on access to the Holy Grail of low-bitrate codecs, WMA Professional Plus, which is what Verizon uses for delivering music over its network). Sony also added a fantastic "Batch Converter..." option (under the "Tools" menu) that can take nested folders of media files (e.g., SonicStage's "My Library"), perform operations such as conversions to WMA format (as well as additional conversions to MP3, etc. during the same pass!), and then store the converted files into separate folders that match the folder structure of the originals. [attachmentid=1577] But surprise, surprise -- while you can "Open..." an ATRAC file in the same application, you can batch convert every other kind of source file except ATRAC. Since Sony spilled the beans by allowing ATRAC imports anyway, its exclusion from the Batch Converter is more likely a bug, but with Sony, you never know... Anyway, please go to this link to encourage Sony to add ATRAC processing ability to the Batch Converter. With this addition, a whole new world of options will open up for ATRAC users. I personally don't have much of a problem having Sony's suite of software consist of components to tackle "pro" tasks versus. consumer tasks -- a big chunk of the criticism about SonicStage goes away when this Batch Converter gets its wings.
  15. OK, since you profess from the fore to be "condescending" and "undiplomatic," let's poke some holes in your own high-strung analysis: Great, but perhaps the comment went to the desire for a default setting. I have SonicStage set to automatically rip an inserted CD. Considering how big of a joke the Gracenote database is, even classical recordings usually do not set compilation on -- this is a big problem when you have a soprano artist on one track, and a cello soloist on another, with the same overall ensemble. Simply put, the desire is to make every single import a "compilation," which would enable artist, etc. differentiation between tracks within a single album. Most of us view "My Library" in the Album view -- indeed, it's silly not to when you're a serious music collector. Your method doesn't work in that view at all; you have to View by All Tracks to perform that function, do the job, then switch back to the Album view. It's a bad scenario, though -- if you want to turn on the compilation setting for selected tracks in an album, you're sure to miss a few depending on how you sort. Yeah, it sucks. EQ, though usually abused by infants who think that high fidelity equals how much da room shakes, also can compensate for acoustical abnormalities in the room, or the differing warms and strengths of outputs (different headphones, speakers, etc.). Your argument that this issue is cured by the codec is strange and probably not well thought out. Lastly, you remark that adding an EQ ability within SonicStage for music playback would "inflate the price of SS from $0 to about $500 overnight." I don't think I'll be taking you seriously from now on.
×
×
  • Create New...