Help! Uploading From Hi-md Player To Pc

[HeatherD]

I've been browsing around reading, trying to figure out exactly how this should be done and what I need. I know this has been adressed, but I'm still quite confused.

I have a Sony NH1 and I want to hook it up to my comp and upload everything I've recorded. (which I know is impossible at the moment) I have SonicStage 2.0, so I need to download the newest version, right? Ok, then I'm confused about what happens next. What exactly is this OpenMG thing? Do I need to download WinNetMD? Do I need to download Audacity? Do I need to download the Wav Converter tool from Sony? I would prefer not to have to pay money, but I will if that's the best option.

And what is better, .wav or .mp3?

[Kaotic]

OMG, I swear, some people are LAZY!!

according to your posted Topic, HeatherD; and before you post this thread.

did you happen to notice those 4 topics being PINNED/stickied in the Hi-MD forum (above the discussion topics?). in which one of the topic says, and I quote;

"Marc's *fast* Method Of Uploading From Hi-md To A .wav File"

[HeatherD]

Yes, I tried to read as much as I could! I spent over an hour searching stuff before posting this. I'm sorry, I'm just technologically inept, I guess. And if you notice, my question was not simply "how do I make a .wav file?"

I just need someone to tell me simply what my best course of action is. I've come across all these new terms and software programs and I am seriously confused! I thought I might be able to find some polite help here.

I just want to know if .wav or .mp3 is better, and simply how I proceed after I download the newest version of Soundstage.

I mean, I've seen threads where people are like "omg, wtf do I do??" and people helped them out! At least I've tried to do some research here

[HeatherD]

And yes, looking back, I did start to read Marc's thread. I found it very confusing, possibly unreliable, and it is closed so that there is no feedback whether it even works well or not.

[skmetal07]

FAQ

did u read this at all, it ight help u some.

dont worry about open mg, it sux and is outdated. Marcnet's software has had no problems so far, from other opinions that i have read, and u should update to Sonicstage 2.3 from Connect.com, u might want to download audacity, its a free music editing software that u can use to edit your uploaded recordings. all of these programs are free.

.wav is a better music format since it is uncompressed and does not lose any music information, mp3 is a lossy format and is only good for portable listening.

keep the questions coming...

Edited January 16, 2005 by skmetal07

[Christopher]

Welcome, Heather. Did you read Marc's thread recently? He just updated it with pictures and all sorts of stuff to help a novice use his program effectively. His program is not unreliable in my tests [as well as others], and I would wholeheartedly recommend it over Sony's software.

What you do though, plug in the unit, go into Sonicstage, transfer the recordings you made to your library. Open up Marcnet's utility, and then follow the step by step instructions in his thread.

[HeatherD]

Ok, thanks guys! My dad is a little leery about letting me download stuff that isn't directly from Sony, I'm afraid... I thought I would try downloading this WAV conversion tool http://www.sonydigital-link.com/DNA/faq/fa...=WAV_conversion Will this do what I want it to?

I'll take another look at Marc's thread. I'm sorry to sound like a dork, asking questions that have already been answered. It's just all so overwhelming!

[Christopher]

Yes, that program will do what you wish, but it's a shame your father is so restricting - Marcnet's program is superior in functionality.

[HeatherD]

Thank you so much Skmetal07 and Kurisu for your help! It's really helped to clarify everything for me

I'll get my dad to look at Marc's program. Hopefully I'll be able to use that instead.

Edited January 16, 2005 by HeatherD

[Christopher]

Heather, I took care of Artstar's remark and he has been punished for such. He does not represent the type of people here who are willing to assist you, and I apologize that your first interactions here had to have such content.

[HeatherD]

Oh! Well, thanks I can kind of understand some people being frustrated with the questions. No worries I really have been looking into this all day, I just couldn't make sense of all the different options and terms being thrown at me all at once. But now I have a clear course of action, thank you again!

[skmetal07]

glad we could help Heather! but really I have no idea why artstar snapped on you like that, we really are a nicer community here than that, dont be afraid to post any questions you have regarding your new hi-md unit, we dont mind any questions, even if they are kinda newbish hey that's what we are here for!

oh and tell your dad not to worry about marcnet's program, if theyre was anything wrong with it or if his site contained any viruses or spyware/adware, we would let marc know right away. try it out and see, its a pretty good program.

[A440]

At the risk of being redundant, let's go back to basics.

MD to PC to CD is three-step process: Upload, Convert, Store/Burn.

HeatherD, your first step is to install Sonic Stage 2.3, which is a big improvement over previous Sonic Stages.

Then install Wav Converter.

OpenMG and WinNetMD are from the previous generation of players, not relevant to Hi-MD.

Sonic Stage will transfer the music from your MD into My Library. Then Wav Converter will convert files recorded through the mic jack, which are stuck in My Library, to .wav files that can be burned onto CD, edited by programs like Audacity, etc.

If you prefer, Marcnet's software will convert anything in My Library to .mp3 files, which are as portable as .wav files. Mp3 makes the files much smaller, but with some reduction in quality. You can adjust the quality under Marcnet's Output Options under Lame MP3, but I think the default option is variable bitrate (VBR) from 160-320, and that should give you very good quality.

If you are burning to a CD and want it to play in all CD players, burn the .wav files (in whatever CD burning program you have: Realplayer, Windows Media, etc.) to a CD as an Audio CD. If your CD player also plays .mp3s, then it's up to you what format you want to use--you can put more mp3s on each CD as a Data CD or MP3 CD.

Sony makes it complicated for no good reason, but it's getting easier.

[?eter_]

Just a final thought on file formats from Marcnet's renderer:

If you are doing live recordings which are important to you, then I would suggest using FLAC.

FLAC is a format that compresses audio files so that they take up less space than WAV,but does so without changing the audio content like MP3 does (this is called 'lossless' compression, MP is 'lossy'). Typically,you will fit 3 audio (WAV) cds worth of recordings onto 2 cds of FLAC files,so if you are recording a lot this will save you space.

There is another good reason for having a FLAC master as your source to create CDs etc. from. If you burn an Audio CD as your 'master' archive copy, when you make a copy of it using your CD writer,it is not a perfect copy. Basically, the Red Book format (the standard for audio cds) says that a CD does not need to report the EXACT position of a sample,but just be within a few samples (I forget the exact precision) of the sample that it is asked to play. So, when you use Nero or another CD-burner to make a copy,you get a copy that is _slightly_ different from your original. This might not seem important,but can be audible under certain circumstances. Another reason to burn a data CD with FLAC is that data CDs have a different error-correction system from audio CDs,which can cope with scratches etc. better.

So in short, if you are doing a lot of recording of unique events (your own music,concert performances etc.) and wnat to be sure of having access to a good copy,make a master backup in the FLAC format. There are Winamp extensions that will play back FLAC,as well as utilities to convert it to wav,mp3 etc. for burning to CD.

?eter

[HeatherD]

Thanks for bringing up this FLAC thing, I hadn't come across it yet. Sounds like a good idea! I converted everything into .wav files and they're huge! Like 35 MB for a 3 minute track... So I'll definitely look into that.

Thanks all of you for your help! I was a bit desparate yesterday because I was trying to send in an audition... So I'm extremely grateful! I'd put a link here to what I did, but I'm not sure that would be good for my self esteem But again, thank you so much!

[cbp]

I'm trying to download Sonicstage 2.3, but after downloading all modules I get this err msg:

"Installer Execution Failed.

The Downloaded files may be damaged"

I have a very stable connection, and tryed three times with the same result. Did anyone experienced the same?

Is there anywhere else that I could download all files needed?

Thanks.

Edited January 27, 2005 by cbp

[ksandbergfl]

If you prefer, Marcnet's software will convert anything in My Library 

This is another way of saying -- if the ATRAC file was not created on your PC, MarcNet's app cannot convert it for you. You can't plug your HiMD into someone else's computer and use MarcNet's app to copy the files to MP3's or WAV's.

Which, in a philosophical sense, means that you can't convert an ATRAC file back to WAV unless you had the original WAV in the first place. ;-)

[cbp]

I'm trying to download Sonicstage 2.3, but after downloading all modules I get this err msg:

                  "Installer Execution Failed.

                   The Downloaded files may be damaged"

I have a very stable connection, and tryed three times with the same result. Did anyone experienced the same?

Is there anywhere else that I could download all files needed?

Thanks.

←

Does that mean that I'll not be able to pull out hours and hours of interviews that I have on my MD's to the computer?

[Justin42]

I'm not sure where it saves the files (check C:\Documents and Settings\[your username]\Local Settings\Temp for "ssupg" files or the like) but possibly it didn't really re-download the files the times you re-ran it after the initial error-- it saw you had the proper files (by name) and skipped the download, then failed running the original corrupt downloads.

Try emptying out your temp folders, restart your computer, and see if it works.

[Christopher]

Is there anywhere else that I could download all files needed?

Thanks.

←

http://forums.minidisc.org/images/SS23ENG.exe

[Black_Shoulder]

I'm trying to download Sonicstage 2.3, but after downloading all modules I get this err msg:

                  "Installer Execution Failed.

                   The Downloaded files may be damaged"

I have a very stable connection, and tryed three times with the same result. Did anyone experienced the same?

Is there anywhere else that I could download all files needed?

Thanks.

←

This happened to me before too. But when I tried re-downloading it, it worked. Check to see if the file is of the correct size. The problem is not with your connection, it's with the site itself.