Sony Europe's View Of Sonicstage

[DaveH]

I thought that it might be useful to share this with others. I e-mailed Sony Europe with a gripe about SonicStage deleting tracks on the minidisc when I was trying to upload from the MD to "Library" and without actually putting anything into the library. (MZ-NH900; Hi-MD; SS 2.1 & 2.3; Win XP). I also had problems with SS2.1 not recognising when a CD had been put into the drive. This is fixed in SS2.3.

There are several posts from others with similar problems - and some catastrophic losses of original recordings by all accounts.

I didnt actually complain about the machine (which I really like) - just the software.

Well - Sony replied (which I must say pleasantly surprised me) as follows:

---------- message begins here -------------

Dear Prof Heeley

Thank you for your recent enquiry.

I am sorry to read that you are experiencing problems with your new Sony MiniDisc and the software supplied with it.

In regards to your problems with the software and the deleted album the only reason this could happen is if you did the following.

Recorded the album from a CD into the Library

Transferred it to the MiniDisc

Deleted the album from your library

Tried to transfer the tracks back.

With no reference point for the music in the Library there is nowhere for the music from the MiniDisc to go hence why it disappears from the MiniDisc and the Library. If this is not what happened please respond with full details and we can try and advise further.

When you are recording a few CD's in one sitting sometimes the new CD will not be recognised instantly. The best way to try and overcome this problem is to let the CD in the drive stop spinning completely (if there is a CD in there) and then use the [Eject] button in the SonicStage software. If this does not work you can go into the [Tools] menu and select [Options] then go to the option for the [CD Drive] and perform a CD Drive Check. This will spin up the CD and the software will now recognise it. Another option is to close the software down and open it up again.

Sony is aware of the discussion forums and the problems that customers list regarding the SonicStage software. To put this in perspective though only the people who have a problem post things on the forums and Sony have sold well over 22 million MiniDisc recorders worldwide so a very high percentage of customers do not have any problems with the software and it's operation.

I hope this information is of some use to you.

Finally, if you need to reply to this e-mail, please quote reference 137509844 in the subject field of your e-mail.

With Regards

David Hunt

For and on behalf of

Sony United Kingdom Limited

------------------ message ends --------------------

The steps outlined above are exactly what I did - but where does this leave someone with an original recording

hope this contributes to understanding what is happening

[dex Otaku]

I like this total conceit:

Sony is aware of the discussion forums and the problems that customers list regarding the SonicStage software. To put this in perspective though only the people who have a problem post things on the forums and Sony have sold well over 22 million MiniDisc recorders worldwide so a very high percentage of customers do not have any problems with the software and it's operation.

That's pretty amazing.

First of all, they're assuming that everyone who buys a netMD or HiMD is also using a computer.

Second, it assumes that every single person who uses the SS software has access to the internet and knows that discussion fora exist.

Third, it assumes that the issues that we who "have a problem" are posting about it merely to gripe or something, rather than to inform other users of the bugs that are sometimes major and basically cripple the software - not to mention all the really assinine functions that Sony don't document or warn their customers about, like tracks getting deleted when you innocently try moving things back to the library.

If this is really Sony's opinion, then .. good god.

Perhaps you should write back to Mr. Hunt asking him to take an NH900 and try using it with SonicStage for 2 weeks.

I'll bet his opinion would change then.

edit:

IMO: the above quote, upon thinking about it some, is worthy of minidisc.org's news column.

[DaveH]

In response to Dex's post - I agree that it does seem a very odd attitude to take. I doesnt mean that the software product is acceptable. I first of all went to the local Sony Centre (retail outlet here in the UK) where I had bought the player, and buttonholed the manager. He didnt know anything about it and in fact there was no one in the shop who had ever used SonicStage, which was a bit worrying as they had a prominent display of minidisc units. His attitude was the same as Hunt - i.e. we havent had any complaints before so everything is o.k. I do wonder how Sony would fare it they were manufacturing aircraft or cars.

On a technical level I couldnt really make any sense of Mr Hunt's comment:-

"With no reference point for the music in the Library there is nowhere for the music from the MiniDisc to go hence why it disappears from the MiniDisc and the Library." I mean to say, you can transfer a single track from Library to a blank disc in the MD player so why is the situation asymmetrical? In actual fact, the statement above strikes me on reflection as complete nonsense.

[Eryn Vorn]

Sony is aware of the discussion forums and the problems that customers list regarding the SonicStage software.

←

Mouarfffffffffff.

I couldn't install SonicStage on my PC out of the box. It's not a problem, it's a total disaster. And I erased my first live recording by uploading it twice: so cool.

My kids NEVER had an issue using iTunes.

These Sony guys are pathetic ...

Eryn.