dewdude

i'll admit this..i picked up a friends ipod once..and i couldn't figure out how to work it...for some reason the huge control pad being one large touchpad that i had to move my finger around to scroll menus..that's just...i don't know. I don't like it. It's not the best mp3 player out there by a long shot..Apple just markets the crap out of it. I do use SonicStage 3.3 for my PSP...i used OpenMG jukebox for NetMD back in the day and that was a REAL hassle. 3.3 has REALLY improved things..and it's less evil and controlling than it used to be. I don't know what transfer times are like on Hi-MD..i can only tell you what it does for Magicgate memory stick devices and memory stick pro....the pro's transfer a LOT faster than magicgates (damn near instantly)...but..HiMD is a MO device where as a memory stick is an electrical thing...so..any speed transfer issues between PC and MD is solely on the MD end and the nature of the format that can't be worked around (discussions about how fast the origianal MD eqipment could record audio was debated years ago) I was looking at HiMD but the more research i do into the lack of bitrates and functions i want...i'm reconsidering.

I don't why why Sony made all those ATRAC3plus bitrates and like..doesn't allow Hi-MD to play them back..it's not like it would make the system THAT much more complicated.. but the PSP does play all the bitrates of ATRAC3plus (that i know of), you can also just straight drag and drop mp3's, AAC (mp4), and WAV (yes, wave) into the MUSIC folder. If you use a homebrew app..you can playback OGG Vorbis audio. however, like i said..don't think i'm trying to go PSP vs. MD. I didn't buy the PSP as a portable music device, the memory sticks were too expensive...but..after getting a couple and playing with ATRAC3..since i always have my PSP with me...it was just like, a convience thing. Personally, i use 48kbps ATRAC3plus for my PSP's music. I can cram like, 14 albums onto a 256MB card (235MB in reality) which is slightly more than an original formatted MD. However, a MD probably costs around 2 bucks or less where as the 256MB memory stick cost me $47

in my search for good phones throughout the years (the last 11 years or so) i've encountered many brands..and...i did use some cheap stuff for a while...but when you're 13 you're pressed for cash and Sennheiser's weren't exactly cheap back then. I used to have a nice pair of $89 Technics cans i got at an outlet for $19. I don't remember the model...all i can tell you is it had a funky size adjustment design, which ultimately lead to the death of the cans...the cans were mounted on this band..it was rather large..but, there was this vinyl strap attatched to spring loaded tracks...that's how the size adjustment was done...this broke within months. I starting buying whatever Sony cans i could that were in the $20 range...i thought they sounded pretty good...for a while the tiny little MDR-W08's were my choice on my MZ-E40...i'm still not sure what i was thinking. I used to like the Sony Earbuds if i couldn't get E40's (headphones used to last me 2 months, tops...same with the E40's)..i still think Sony makes both models..in some fashion...the earbuds that came with my PSP are are the same as the $10 ones i was buying about 5 years ago. Currently..i SWEAR by my Sennheiser HD212Pro's. My first pair of Sennys were HD-202's...which are about $19.99...and are EXCELLENT. Mine however...the solder connection to the right can flaked out after a few months. I paid $89.99 for my 212's back in 2003...but you can get them for around 60 bucks now. I am happy to report i am on the same pair...although..i've had a few problems..however, these things are designed nicely...and here's why. For starters...some people might not like the headband..i love it..it's a solid piece of plastic..and after 2 years it's molded to my head. The driver elements detatch from the headband..they clip into a track that's got grooves inside so when you stick them on your head..after you adjust them, they'll sit in place. After about a year...the connection on one of the cans crapped out...however..these aren't solder connections...the cable uses 1/16" sub-mini mono plugs and jacks. New replacement cable costs around $10 from Sennheiser. However, since i did have a rattling element..i bought a new pair last year...this is where it gets tricky. my original intention was to replace the cable and one element...why just the one? i don't know..cuz the other was sounding fine, so, i swapped leatherette pads and thought i was good to go...well...there was a problem..i had one element that had been broken in for a year..and one that hadn't...it caused for a slight imbalance which just basically annoyed the hell out of me...ultimately...i just kept the cable...i gave the cableless cans to my friend. Ironically tho...the gromit on the plug was defective, and within a few weeks was broken...so...i euventually sat down and forced myself to figure out how to solder this funky wire they used..which i had failed an attempt before..i hit the mark this time, and it's still holding. the element that was bad...for some reason has improved. so..how do they sound? well..amazing...the bass is nice and punchy..i've actually tickled my inner ear with them..the treble is good and clean..smooth midranges....they have a 15 ft cord..it's made it difficult when going portable..but i've done it. after almost 3 years..the pads are somewhat pretty worn...but..not totally worn out. they're a bit softer than before..but they've held up REALLY well. my constant flexing of the headband to make it tighter has caused the paint to crack..and the areas that i grab when adjusting the size show wear...but..overall..they've held up well, even to me.

yeah...yeah...i got that....ok....now...here's the thing i'm wondering... what exactly is it going to count as an analog recorded track....is that JUST tracks recorded from md or tracks not imported from mp3/wma/cd...because...i can't convert ANY of my stuff from the PSP to WAV..of course..none of it is analog recorded either it was all mp3 oi WAV imported i was just...shocked...to find the opem OMA files and just about complete total lack of lock down (there is SOME) on my music. I came here...cuz i know ATRAC3 was on MD first and if anyone could give me feedback on what was going on with the current SonicStage scene...it'd be you guys.

But that's only for music transferred via USB right? I had read analog recordings can be uploaded, which, would be GREAT...but i also read the HiMD decks themselves don't record PCM... It is kinda nice i cam make open oma/omg files now..rather than things being install specific..there's a nice folder where everything encoded gets dumped....which means when it hits 4 gigs i could burn everything to DVD and have backups of my ATRAC3 stuff. but, it's like i've argued with other PSP owners (who are against any kind of DRM) is that even if the OMA files are encrypted...like...i don't think we can just start hacking the OPENMG or HIFI (depending on the media apparently) files for drag and drop...even tho the OPENMG folder has .oma files in it....SonicStage has to be used and...suprisingly, at least for me...it has gotten much less evil...non-evil enough for me to use.

not if you're importing from MP3/WMA or WAV files. MP3 and WMA files have provisions to allow you to add album art...which..that does work..no problem there...but i got stuff in odd formats (FLAC/AAC/MusePaCk) that i have to go to wav. it will only do CDDB on albums you import from audio CD.

See, all the old problems with SonicStage is why i abandoned MD. I've now got a PSP..i'm using SonicStage 3.3 (heh....3.3..anyone..anyone..Bueler...Bueler....*cough*DOS*cough*) to transfer ATRAC3 over to it, and, i will say, it's been a dream...it occasionaly does lock up and i have to unplug my USB cable and let it just..reset and plug it back up...and the fact i have to manually add album art to each track for it to work (PSP displays album art)....but..i can live with those. it does eat RAM (suggestion: get a gig of ram) it'll eat yourhard disk if you don't tell it not to.

you also have to remember various rounding off functions are done in the frequency analysys in order to make the window more accurate. Personally, i've never fully trusted frequency analysys overall...yes, 48kbps has a sharp 14khz cutoff...and it's ALMOST detectable...but...let's be honest...how many people have the headphones and the ears to tell? I've tested various aac codecs at 48kbps and i've even taken ogg down that low in an attempt to find the best sounding format at the lowest bitrate...for a while my winner was 64kbps WMA....but...48kbps A3P does an overall nice job of shaping and masking the noise without doing a whole lot of damage to the stereo image. there's sometimes a tad "something's a bit off" and the occasional moments where flanging is noticable...but...i think it's one of the best sounding low bitrate codecs for when you're trying to cram alot of music in a little space. a 1GB Hi-MD disc at 48kbps supposedly holds 45 hours of music...i could put most of the good stuff from my music collection on a mere 3 or 4 discs...... tempting.

Hi... I'm a former MD owner from the pre-MDLP days. I used to hang around on the MD-L...either as dewdude (dew_dude) or minidiscfreak. As i said, i'm oldschool. I started off with the MDBundle5....which the portable didn't last any amount of time...well, my sister at this time also got the MDBundle4..and after a few months she stuck everything in her closet. I took it upon myself to take her J530 which had the phantom power problem, bu removing the disc carrage from my 320 which had a broken wirte head, swap boards, and replace. It's probably one of the ONLY 530's out there without the phantom power problem that doesn't have a lot of mods done to it. that's not why i'm here. I'm talking SonicStage and ATRAC3..now, i was a NetMD owner for a while....till i got angry and annoyed with SonicStage/OpenMG Jukebox and sold everything off and bought an MP3/WMA/OGG CD player. Well, i recently purchased a PSP (don't flame, i'm not here doing MD vs. PSP as a player. MD wins as the media's cheaper) and after updating it's firmware to play GTA...i was left with ATRAC3plus support. Now, i remember OpenMG Jukebox/SonicStage 2.2, i got it ith my NetMD...and it wasn't pretty..it was annoying. The main thing i remember is the protection and check-out scheme it had...even for music you imported from mp3 or wav...that it took forever to encode/transfer. I'm using SonicStage 3.3 now...did they improve the process or is it my PC. I'm holding the fact i've got a new PC than then accountable for the speed in encoding and the fact i'm transfering to memory stick media the reason the songs transfer instantly...but...it seems i've got some strange results with the file permissions. Ok, so, i've got some mp3's imported from my own collection into SonicStage My Library...and i even pre-encoded them using the Convert Format options ahead of time. Now, if i right click a track in my library, and select the Rights/Additional Info tab, i get this: "Playback restrictions: None No. of times played: 0times No. of times transferred: 3times Remaining transfer count: Unlimited Remaining ATRAC CD transfer count: Unlimited Remaining audio CD transfer count: Unlimited" ok....for starters....none? is that a new thing with sonic stage? that it creates open files on your PC....i wasn't sure, so, i transffered some songs to a Memory Stick, Sonic Stage displayed MAGICGATE in the device window. After transfer, using sonic stage to look at the files on the card...it gave me the exact same Rights/Additonal Info. what happened to the checkout thing....is that just a MiniDisc limitation? something strange happened when i got a Pro DUO card...now it was recgonized as a PRO device....but..it put the files in a different folder on the card...and now..it displays this on the rights info for the music on the device: "Rights info : Can be transferred to the original computer Copyright info Record label Record company URL" That's for a imported from a mp3. I will admit, that track, i didn't pre-encode and just transferred doing encoding during transfer. When i pre-encode tracks..i have an option of not putting copy protection on a file. If i pre-encode (right click, convert format..SonicStage transfers just the ATRAC3) and don't add copy protection...i get this: "Rights info : Can be transferred (unlimited times) Copyright info Record label Record company URL" I don't know that much about it's DRM scheme, or if this even applies to MiniDisc...i was hoping maybe some of you MD users perhaps had played around like this and could give me some of your results and inputs...maybe i can just figure out a bit more of what's going on. -Jay ATRAC3plus on PSP - suck it iPod, this is sexier.

hi i'm a former minidisc user...in fact..i'm from the pre MDLP/NetMD days and i also had a NetMD unit, i sold both after i moved. However, i used to hang around the MD-L mailing list WAYYYY back when (dewdude and minidiscfreak) so, hopefully you guys will humor me, besides, this is an ATRAC thread...if anyone disagrees, feel free to have it removed...but, for the most part, i'm trying to study ATRAC3plus and how SonicStage works a bit more in-depth than just plug it in and transfer music. The last MD unit i owned was the blue netMD portable (can't remember the model)...currently, i own a Sony PSP which as of firmware 2.0 has full support for ATRAC3plus, and being an audio geek...i've been playing. I'm happy to report i can cram 14 albums onto 235 MB of space. mainlyi'm wondering how SonicStage is behaving with MD units now. I remember how SonicStage/OpenJukebox did a few years ago and it was slow...annoying...and really..it was the reason i gave up on NetMD. Now i've got it for the PSP and after inital file encoding which has greatly improved...the transfers are almost instant (then again, going to Memory Stick PRO Duo rather than a MO disc) one thing i'm noticing..is if i import music from mp3's....with SonicStage it crates files with NO restrictions. no transfer limits...nada. I've got unlimited transfers..depending on which media i've got. If I'm using MagicGate everything says unlimited transfer. PRO media (even with it's magicgate logo) shows up as PRO and the music goes to a whole new folder. However, music i imported from mp3 can be transferred BACK to my computer, music imporeted from WAV has basically no restrictions at all. I won't ask here what happens exactly, i'll see if i can make a new thread for it.....but...i'll give you all a picture of what at least a PSP looks like playing ATRAC. again, I KNOW this is a MiniDisc forum and not a PSP forum...don't get me wrong, i totally know that, i'm an old-school minidisc user and not some random n00b. I figured since ATRAC3 was primaraly a MD technology, and this is an ATRAC thread, no one would mind....besides..i'm thinking about HiMD again.... thanks. -Jay