Sonicstage - Hi-md Track Killer

[SteveMcGlinn]

I recently purchased a Sony MZ-nh900. I installed and updated Sonicstage. I was really excited by the prospect of being able to upload personal HI-MD recordings to my computer.

Well, true to form, Sony has programmed nuisances, annoyances, and downright evil behavior into Sonicstage. Why was I stupidly thinking that they had turned over a new leaf?

Here's the problem: you can only upload a track ONCE from your minidisc to Sonicstage - and if you try it again, without warning Sonicstage will DELETE THE TRACK FROM THE MINIDISC!!!!

That's right! Sonicstage will even open up a little 'transfer progress' window that makes it look like the track is being transferred, but then it closes and the track is removed from the minidisc!

And you can only transfer files if the minidisc in question is not write-protected. So, you can't protect against this diabolically fiendish deletion of files.

I avoid this problem by writing a symbol on the minidisc that tells me I've already uploaded the tracks once, and by write-protecting the minidisc so that Sonicstage will refuse to attempt a file transfer.

If Sony wants to enforce their stupid limit of one upload of personal recordings (My God, that's stupid!), then at least they could give you a warning message and an option to cancel the upload of a track you inadvertantly try to upload a second time.

I'm a long-time Sony minidisc recorder fan - I've owned several of their machines - but I must say that this latest screwball programming in Sonicstage trumps all of the other stupid things they've ever done with minidisc.

Maybe I should have known better. Why did I think I could trust Sony to do something right?

Steve

[ROMBUSTERS]

to avoid piracy they've gone to insane lengths

[streaml1ne]

I avoid this problem by writing a symbol on the minidisc that tells me I've already uploaded the tracks once, and by write-protecting the minidisc so that Sonicstage will refuse to attempt a file transfer.

←

If you look REAL close at the icon next to the track in Sonic Stage it does change after you've uploaded once. Not much of a reminder, it's easy to gloss over the change in icon. They should really just refuse to transfer the track and not delete it. Kinda lame that they toast it.

[Christopher]

If you've uploaded it to the computer, converted it to *.wav and it's stored on the computer, what's the big deal? Doesn't bother me at all.

[streaml1ne]

If you've uploaded it to the computer, converted it to *.wav and it's stored on the computer, what's the big deal? Doesn't bother me at all.

←

It's a lame extra set of steps. Plus, *twiddles MD in fingers*, this is the archival medium. Why should you have to upload AND archive on CDR or DVD when you have the original on the MD? At work this is a bigger problem. When we record conference presenters on the MD as backup for our streams we'd like to just toss the MD in a box. Then at a later date pull that conference off if needed. Sometimes we get requests a year later for conference audio. Now if we uploaded that track once to fix an issue we had during the event then we need to be really careful about archiving that upload on a file server/DVD/CD/etc.. Otherwise it's gone if someone doesn't realize and uploads a second time. It's an added data management step that really isn't needed and is prone to error (deleted tracks).

[me]

It's a lame extra set of steps. Plus, *twiddles MD in fingers*, this is the archival medium. Why should you have to upload AND archive on CDR or DVD when you have the original on the MD? At work this is a bigger problem. When we record conference presenters on the MD as backup for our streams we'd like to just toss the MD in a box. Then at a later date pull that conference off if needed. Sometimes we get requests a year later for conference audio. Now if we uploaded that track once to fix an issue we had during the event then we need to be really careful about archiving that upload on a file server/DVD/CD/etc.. Otherwise it's gone if someone doesn't realize and uploads a second time. It's an added data management step that really isn't needed and is prone to error (deleted tracks).

←

I guess the best way to do this is to upload the track to your computer, edit it, the download the edited copy back to the MD. The only problem with this is that it might take a while considering the maximum speed is something like 500KB/s.

[streaml1ne]

I guess the best way to do this is to upload the track to your computer, edit it, the download the edited copy back to the MD. The only problem with this is that it might take a while considering the maximum speed is something like 500KB/s.

←

That still won't let you transfer off the MD a second time Ultimately yes, there's realtime. But what's the point of Sony offering the option to upload quickly if you can only do it once. If it's a copyrighted work and I upload a bootleg recording then blast the wav out to a million people I've still pirated the work. Even if I realtime it back to PC, and make a perfect digital copy with Total Recorder, I've pirated the work. It's just a stupid assumption on Sony's part that the one upload will prevent piracy or whatnot.

[Denominator7]

After what happened with one of my discs, I have trouble considering a disc to be an "archival medium". Not long ago I was editing a disc in the player, and for no reason apparant to me, I got the "cannot record or play" message on the screen, pressing any key results in the re-formatting of the disc, very bizarre and frustrating, it could have been a bad blank, or probably any other number of reasons, but it has left me with the knowledge of how volatile recordings on the minidisc can be. Luckily I had backed up the important recordings so nothing was lost except some of my confidence in MD as a storage medium. The confidence is slowly coming back, as I continue to have success with uploading recordings, and with simple burner. Still though my advice to everyone with a one-of-a-kind recording on your MD, do an analog backup with a good recording program such as total recorder or cool edit, then try the digital upload.

As a side note, went to see "Whitenoise" last weekend, the guy (Ian McNeice) doing the EVP recordings was storing them on minidisc!! I didn't catch the make or model, something to watch for if you go see the movie, which I enjoyed, not very scary, but interesting and entertaining.

Happy New Year to all!