Sonicstage 2.3 Distorting Mp3s

[nite]

I've just upgraded sonicstage from 2.0 to 2.3 on my friends machine and we're now getting artifacts/disortion on 50% of the tracks. Apparently this is a know issue (after live chat with the US).

So, the questions are - does anyone know if it's possible to fix within 2.3?

Is is possible to reinstall sonicstage 2.0 using a copy from p2p?

The original CD is in another country and may be hard to find and get sent over.

Would obviously prefer a solution within 2.3!

Cheers,

Andy

[dex Otaku]

Could you be more specific as to what the distortion is?

And what bitrate you're using?

And what the source is [CD, transcoded mp3, &c.]?

[nite]

Could you be more specific as to what the distortion is?

And what bitrate you're using?

And what the source is [CD, transcoded mp3, &c.]?

←

I'll ask my friend when I talk more with him tomorrow, but as far as I heard the artifacts were always constant, seemed to be faster than the beat, and could sound like distorted hit-hat (but they did sound different on other tracks). He said most often if a few trackin in an album were distorted, most would be, but occasionally there were just one or 2 or none at all. At a guess, its a distortion thats triggered by certain features of the track signature ...

Not sure what the bitrates were, but they're all ripped from CD using SonicStage 2.0, probably at default rate & format.

Hope this helps! If not, will get clearer info on the answers tomorrow.

Any ideas on whether we can revert to 2.0 by either running a normal uninstall, or uninstalling 2.3 altogether and somehow restoring whatever digital rights certificate are installed at the moment.

I've no idea how this stuff works. Ideally I'd like to get the wav converter working with 2.3 and convert all of his tracks away from Atrac to mp3 so they're not DMA'd! Obviously, right now I guess the mp3's would have same artifacts.

Cheers mate,

Andy

[fumanchu182]

I'll ask my friend when I talk more with him tomorrow, but as far as I heard the artifacts were always constant, seemed to be faster than the beat, and could sound like distorted hit-hat (but they did sound different on other tracks). He said most often if a few trackin in an album were distorted, most would be, but occasionally there were just one or 2 or none at all. At a guess, its a distortion thats triggered by certain features of the track signature ...

Not sure what the bitrates were, but they're all ripped from CD using SonicStage 2.0, probably at default rate & format. 

Hope this helps! If not, will get clearer info on the answers tomorrow.

Any ideas on whether we can revert to 2.0 by either running a normal uninstall, or uninstalling 2.3 altogether and somehow restoring whatever digital rights certificate are installed at the moment.

I've no idea how this stuff works. Ideally I'd like to get the wav converter working with 2.3 and convert all of his tracks away from Atrac to mp3 so they're not DMA'd! Obviously, right now I guess the mp3's would have same artifacts.

Cheers mate,

Andy

←

Hi, this is my first post and basically reason for joining the forum. I am having the same issue as you. For example a track I have at the moment, Van Halen - Dance the night away with the following attributes:

Size: 2979172 bytes

Header found at: 2048 bytes

Length: 186 seconds

MPEG 1.0 layer 3

128kbit, 7139 frames

44100Hz Stereo

CRCs: No

Copyrighted: No

Original: Yes

Emphasis: None

Gets distorted. On the pc it is 3:06 seconds long, and on the MD when transferred in SP mode is 2:56 and change. The song is sped up and distorted. I am using a NETMD MZ-NE410 with Sonicstage 2.3.

My computer specs are a p4 2.2ghz, 512mb or ram, w/ usb 2.0 using XP Pro with SP1.

The only foolproof way of converting these tracks is by doing the mp3->pcm->cd image using nero and then mounting the drive with daemon tools and recording using simple burn. This sucks cause what if you want to have more than 74 minutes of music on the MD.

Sony won't even return my call and they are very rude to say the least. I have compared this with an mp3 that was succesfully transferred over and there is no other difference besides it being joint stereo.

As well it is kinda hit and miss which ones will transfer over correctly and which ones will not.

[ROMBUSTERS]

first off update windows to SP2 and then uninstall and reinstall SonicStage again (using the directions on this forum - use a search). then see if it makes any difference

[dex Otaku]

For example a track I have at the moment, Van Halen - Dance the night away with the following attributes:

Header found at: 2048 bytes

MPEG 1.0 layer 3

128kbit, 7139 frames

44100Hz Stereo

Gets distorted.  On the pc it is 3:06 seconds long, and on the MD when transferred in SP mode is 2:56 and change.  The song is sped up and distorted.  I am using a NETMD MZ-NE410 with Sonicstage 2.3.

It would be interesting to know what codec this came from.

A theory, and only a theory: perhaps whatever encoded this used a short block format that SS or even your system's mp3 codec doesn't like.

That's basically a guess. I'd take a look [in the Device Manager, under "Sound, video and game controllers"] at what audio codecs are installed on your system. Make sure there aren't conflicting codecs, such as the FhG and ffdshow [which would show up under your start button's "all programs" menu] installed at the same time.

Also, unless you have a good reason not to, install XP SP2.

Lastly, while I'd actually expect distortion from a 128kbps mp3, though the time difference et al suggest something truly wonky going on.

Cheers.

[fumanchu182]

I installed SP2 and uninstalled all my odd codecs. As well I installed Sonicstage 2.3 according to one of the posts on the board (have to delete some reg keys and some program folders). The Van Halen track went on no problem. What I am going to do is install each extra codec that I have for audio like fddshow and aac3 individually and then upload the Van Halen track after each install to track down what it was. Or it could be neither and I just needed to upgrade to SP2.

Thank you for you help.

[dex Otaku]

Make sure that when you install FFDSHOW you you one of the following:

Either

* use the FFDSHOW audio config panel to set its output format to be 16-bit integer only [uncheck the boxes for all other formats]

or

* disable mp3 decoding by FFDSHOW altogether [in the same settings panel, under "codecs", look for mp3 and select "disabled" from the dropdown box]

[zerodB]

Question: Does this distortion occur as well when the ATRAC3 files are played back on the PC? Or does this only occur when the files are played back on your MD?

[nite]

Could you be more specific as to what the distortion is?

And what bitrate you're using?

And what the source is [CD, transcoded mp3, &c.]?

←

figured it out - all of the tracks that had distortion were mp3's - he neglected to tell me that! Anyway, I just said play the mp3's in iTunes/winamp and if you want them on your minidisc import them usin sonicstage - all sorted.

coupla questions thought that would sort this out finally though, can you set sonicstage to play mp3's using another codec (ie. Lame)? If there is an atrac & an mp3 version can you force it to try atrac first (it seems to default to mp3).

also, the reason I upgraded him to 2.3 in the first place - wav converter: when I open the tool, the library is empty. I assume this is as he's changed the default location of his library. Is there any way to force it to check another directory?

cheers,

andyc

[nite]

I've been having some problems with distorted sound in sonicstage 2.3. Eventually figured out that its with mp3's only, not atrac.

My questions are - can you set up sonicstage to play mp3's using another codec (ie. Lame)? Or, if there is an atrac and an mp3 version, can you force it to try Atrac first (it seems to default to mp3).

Cheers,

Andy

EDIT by kurisu: I've merged your new topic on this matter to your old one. No need for multiple topics.

[StEaLtH]

What about «Sony_MP3_conversion_tool.exe». Are you trying it? It works nice, as for me.