SonicStage 3.3 Arrives -- a Reformed ATRAC is Born

*Christopher* · October 31, 2005

To the suprise of the staff here and most of the community, Sonicstage 3.3 has been delivered via official Sony resources.

The most stable and steadfast download location is at ATRACLife Downloads. You may optionally download it from Sony.

New features include:

- Dynamic Playlist is available.This allows you to select genres and artists of tracks and to specify the order of tracks to display, to make Playlist by Date Imported/ Rating/ Playback Count/ the Number of Transfer and the Number of Tracks/ Playback Time/ File Size, dynamically.
- New Playlist updated on My Library renews existing Playlist on an ATRAC Audio Device, transferring the Playlist to an ATRAC Audio Device.
- Ripping an Audio CD in ATRAC Advanced Lossless (AAL) format is available.
According to new audio-compression technology, an Audio CD can be recorded into My Library without any sound degradation. And this new technology allows to record an Audio CD with the size of 30~80 percent with ATRAC3 or ATRAC3plus current audio-compression technology, in order to keep compatibility with current devices.
- Ripping an Audio CD in WMA format is available.
- ATRAC3plus 352kbps
- "Album Jacket/Cover" view in Device Transfer window

As mentioned before, ATRAC Advanced Lossless has been introduced. There are four bitrates: 256, 132, 128 and 64kbps at normal and high quality settings. When converting from CD to AAL, you can choose from one of those four bitrates. AAL cannot be transferred over to an exising ATRAC device; it will be converted to ATRAC3plus 256kbps.

To further expand on the aforementioned *.wma support, a screenshot has been provided:

Note: Another nice feature from SonicStage 3.3 is the option to transfer your ATRAC tunes as ATRAC3plus 352kbps to all existing ATRAC3plus capable units - that includes 1st and 2nd generation Hi-MD units and all known ATRAC3plus capable Network Walkman devices, VAIO Pocket and the PSP.

The following screen captures depicts the option to use ATRAC3plus 352kbps in the "Transfer Window." "Album Jacket/Cover" view is also a new feature as shown in Device Transfer window*The device used during this transfer was the VAIO Pocket.

filenameoptions.doc

In addition to a new ATRAC3plus 352kbps bit rate and the advent of the ATRAC Advanced Lossless format, SonicStage 3.3 allows the user to determine ratings of each music track.

SonicStage 3.3 Module Version

SonicStage : 3.3.03.10270
SonicStage Add-on for Personal Audio Download : 3.3.00.09270
OpenMG Secure Module : 4.3.00.08302
MagicGate Memory Stick Device : 4.3.00.08302
NW-E2, NW-E3, NW-E5 and NW-E8P : 4.3.00.08302
OpenMG CD : 4.3.00.08302
M.S. PRO : 4.3.00.08302
CD Walkman : 4.3.00.08302
Hi-MD : 4.3.00.08302
Music Clip, NW-S4, NW-E7 and NW-E10 : 4.3.00.08302
HDWM : 4.3.00.08302
Net MD : 4.3.00.08302
EMD Plug-in: 1.2.0.9
CD-R Writing Module(Audio CD/ATRAC CD/MP3 CD) : 3.3.00.09270
Px Engine: 2.4.35.500[/code]

indeego · October 31, 2005

A new rating-system for songs is also available. See added screenshots in Ishiyoshis' post.

Looks like a featuretest before ConnectPlayer appears on the screen :ol_rolleyes:

willykyu · October 31, 2005

Ishiyoshi, I see on the pics you're using SS3.3 on mac, and I see japanese is diplayed on an English version of SS. How come?

Is the SS3.3 unicode on Mac?

I installed 3.3, French version, and it is now absolutely impossible to access "transfer" window with applocale japanese enabled. There an error message omjbox, and the program terminates! These non-unicode issues are killing me!!! Now back to 0, I can only use SS with my "????????????????" titling series!!! and some track won't transfer at all ("impossible to find track"...or something like that).

3.3 doesn't support japanese either!!

Well, thank you Sony for this unexpected surprise, but you screwed up AGAIN! it's a never ending annoyances story...

Does anybody have the same "applocale" troubles?

Richard · October 31, 2005

I am using SS 3.3 English and when I run the old AppLocale shortcut for Japanese Sonic Stage it goes fine. Try running Applocale and re-creating the shortcut for Japanese Sonic Stage.

Btw I think Ishii just has some crazy skins on his Windows pc.

Edited October 31, 2005 by richyhu

***Ishiyoshi*** · October 31, 2005

Ishiyoshi, I see on the pics you're using SS3.3 on mac, and I see japanese is diplayed on an English version of SS. How come?
Is the SS3.3 unicode on Mac?
I installed 3.3, French version, and it is now absolutely impossible to access "transfer" window with applocale japanese enabled. There an error message omjbox, and the program terminates! These non-unicode issues are killing me!!! Now back to 0, I can only use SS with my "????????????????" titling series!!! and some track won't transfer at all ("impossible to find track"...or something like that).
3.3 doesn't support japanese either!!
Well, thank you Sony for this unexpected surprise, but you screwed up AGAIN! it's a never ending annoyances story...
Does anybody have the same "applocale" troubles?
←

It's magic! :ol_cool: Seriously, I'm running on WinXP with a Panther theme via StyleXP. Japanese text is viewable because I employed Microsoft Applocale and applied the approrpriate registry edit.

If you need instructions regarding registry edit --> please review the following threads: 1 and 2.

willykyu · October 31, 2005

I did too. But nothing cures.... sniff...

Impossible to access the transfer window with applocale running, SS crashes. My registry is changed to jap, I created a new shortcut. And it doesn't change anything... well, too bad for me I guess...

Thanx for your quick answers by the way!!!! Atraclife.com is wonderful! :ol_love: :ol_bah:

(PS: I tried-of course- to unistall SS, reboot, install again, reboot, and retry. The same thing happens.)

Edited October 31, 2005 by willykyu

***Ishiyoshi*** · October 31, 2005

I did too. But nothing cures.... sniff...
Impossible to access the transfer window with applocale running, SS crashes. My registry is changed to jap, I created a new shortcut. And it doesn't change anything... well, too bad for me I guess...
Thanx for your quick answers by the way!!!! Atraclife.com is wonderful!
←

Please start a new thread with your O/S and system info. We will try and assist you there.

Ok... back to topic. :ol_smile:

mercury_in_flames · October 31, 2005

I still dont get what the AAL system actually does. Is there any benefit whatsoever??

indeego · October 31, 2005

I would say it is a kind of "super-copy".

Because the different Sonydevices use different Atrac-Versions this "super-copy" provides best compatibility and soundquality (and you save harddiscspace in comparision to wav).

What I dont understand is that you can chose between different Bitrates for AAL.

kaledi · October 31, 2005

This is what I've found and posted on the Minidisc.org forum

These new bitrates are confusing me a lot, but think I'm beginning to work them out.

You can encode lossless at "256kps, 128kps, 132kps and 64kps"

When you encode the same track into each of these formats you get slightly different file sizes - between 33.5 and 35.5MB for 4.08 track.

What I have found though is if you want to convert your lossless files to a compressed bitrate, then the files are optimised for their associated compressed version and the conversion is almost instantaneous.

Thus

256 lossless to 256 ATRAC3+ is very very fast

but 256 lossless to any other ATRAC3+ is slower, but interestingly still much faster than conversion from ATRAC3+ to ATRAC3+

Same goes for other 'lossless' bitrates

What isn't clear to me is why file sizes of the lossless files differ

lindijones · October 31, 2005

This is what I've found and posted on the Minidisc.org forum
These new bitrates are confusing me a lot, but think I'm beginning to work them out.
You can encode lossless at "256kps, 128kps, 132kps and 64kps"
When you encode the same track into each of these formats you get slightly different file sizes - between 33.5 and 35.5MB for 4.08 track.
What I have found though is if you want to convert your lossless files to a compressed bitrate, then the files are optimised for their associated compressed version and the conversion is almost instantaneous.
Thus
256 lossless to 256 ATRAC3+ is very very fast
but 256 lossless to any other ATRAC3+ is slower, but interestingly still much faster than conversion from ATRAC3+ to ATRAC3+
Same goes for other 'lossless' bitrates
What isn't clear to me is why file sizes of the lossless files differ
←

Well if you select 256 kbit/s lossless aal then you have a lossless´quality on the harddisc (Computer) to play and burn on cd again lossless and for transfering to a player it will extract the 256 kbit/s information. You will not get lossless on your player at the moment.

Imagine that you have a lossless file and a 256 kbit/s a3+ file.

If you convert a 256 kbit/s aal into 256 kbit/s a3+ then really no conversion is done because when you converted it by ripping the cd. That´s the reason why it´s so fast.

Only if you want to convert to another bitrate than 256 kbit/s it will be converted and takes more time.

What i want to know is how all you guys delete a sampler from your hd player??

Thanks

Tom

*pata2001* · October 31, 2005

OMG. I didn't check the board for a couple of days, now Atrac lossless! Good job Sony. This is one of my wish list.

However, let's say if we pick Lossless 128kbps. If then I want to transfer to a device using 96kps, will SS transcode the lossless version, or the 128kbps prepared version? Hopefully it's from the lossless, but we never know (based on our experience of fake SP). Hopefully somebody can verify (ie. by ripping to lossless 64kbps, and transferring to 256kbps).

kaledi · October 31, 2005

Well if you select 256 kbit/s lossless aal then you have a lossless´quality on the harddisc (Computer) to play and burn on cd again lossless and for transfering to a player it will extract the 256 kbit/s information. You will not get lossless on your player at the moment.
Imagine that you have a lossless file and a 256 kbit/s a3+ file.
If you convert a 256 kbit/s aal into 256 kbit/s a3+ then really no conversion is done because when you converted it by ripping the cd. That´s the reason why it´s so fast.
Only if you want to convert to another bitrate than 256 kbit/s it will be converted and takes more time.
What i want to know is how all you guys delete a sampler from your hd player??
Thanks
Tom
←

Actually, I'm not convinced it is a simple case of a lossless file + the compressed version bolted onto each. This is because normally, the file size difference between say a 64kps file and a 256kps file for a typical 4min track is more than 2mb (which is the file size difference of the respective lossless files). Moreover, when you transfer to a HiMD device, then the transferred, compressed file, remains in the optimised folder, suggesting that a conversion process has taken place. Therefore, I suspect that the lossless file is just that, but the various implementations of the lossless files have additional information to optimise the conversion process for their respective bit rate.

kaledi · October 31, 2005

Another interesting point and question.

Hi-MD devices (and other ATRAC devices) support this new bit rate of 352kps, yet they do not support 320 kps nor the lower recently added bit rates. Further, you cannot rip a CD at 352kps. Anyone have any technical ideas to why this might be?

kilgore · October 31, 2005

please tell me sony is actually going to release the connect player for download and please tell me that it will actually be compatible with the current sony mp3 line. or is sonicstage 3.3 our final send off before sony goes all out with its WALKMAN?

kilgore

Yulri · November 1, 2005

I'm wondering if this will actually work with the vaio mp3 player as there have been some compatibility problems before with newer SS ...

psdiao · November 1, 2005

Can I import from MP3 a compilation album with the album title the same for each track but the artist different and have it as one album in album view? Currently it's one album per artist and is really annoying.

evilmutent · November 1, 2005

I don't understand what this is all about. in my mind, lossless means nothing is lost, correct? and lossless formats take ALL the information and digitally compress it like a "special" zip file for audio. then how can there me a bit rate associated to a lossless file? smaller bitrates mean smaller files right, because less information is kept. how can this be considered lossless? i mean, if it is the case, why don't i just go encode all my music at the lowest bit rate of lossless and have everything i own on a 40 gig hardrive in perfectly archived lossless quality.

on the other hand, maybe i missed somthing over this post that explains this whole thing and now look like a total retard.... either way, i still wanna know.

peare · November 1, 2005

And I have to re-initialize my HD5... Are we going to do that when each new SS is released? God I hate to delete my 15gig from my HD5.

sxc_ · November 1, 2005

I wonder if they are having problems getting the new Connect Player finished and they are going to ship the new walkmans with SS 3.3?

*Christopher* · November 1, 2005

sxc, I would not be surprised if that ended up being the case.

***Ishiyoshi*** · November 1, 2005

I'm wondering if this will actually work with the vaio mp3 player as there have been some compatibility problems before with newer SS ...
←

Welcome to ALC!

If you mean the VAIO Pocket: rest assured, it works fine with the VAIO Pocket and on the plus side, I didn't have to initialize the device to utilize it with SonicStage 3.3. Please note: my upgrade trail was from SonicStage 3.2 Japanese version.

***Ishiyoshi*** · November 1, 2005

And I have to re-initialize my HD5... Are we going to do that when each new SS is released? God I hate to delete my 15gig from my HD5.
←

I didn't have to initialize the device to utilize it with SonicStage 3.3. Please note: my upgrade trail was from SonicStage 3.2 Japanese version.

peare · November 1, 2005

The problem is that there were too many SS installer for the SS 3.2 which were uncompatible with one another. The installers had different sizes, and I had to find the same installer to be able to share my files between my PC and notebook. Now it seems that my nightmare came back. I think I acted early for the 3.3, for I know the North American version of 3.3 will ask me to delete all my tracks or re-initialize once again. Anyway I think I'll play a bit with this new toy. BTW where is the lossless options? I see here 352kbs, but no lossless when I'm on the transfer screen.

*Ascariss* · November 1, 2005

Congrats sony on another product I can't do jack with.

Until I get my new A3000 series, any new atrac codec isn't much use for me. Sony better ship the connect player with the new models, otherwise, there is no excuse to include this "lovely 3.3 version" *cough cough* which has no drag and drop feature.

3.2 works fine for me, I'll wait for the connect player with my A3000. If that doesn't ship with the new walkmans, I will seriously have to look for alternatives to sonic stage.

will the mp3 orgnaizer work for the new walkmans?

peare · November 1, 2005

Can som1 explain to me what is the use of 352kbs? AAL's highest is 256kbs and Atrac3+ is 320kbs. So how we will be able to use 352kbs from lesser bitrates?

lxrichbirdxl · November 1, 2005

Will the ugrade support models from other regions? Thanks!

***Ishiyoshi*** · November 1, 2005

Will the ugrade support models from other regions? Thanks!
←

There are no regional restrictions. SonicStage is essentially the same in all regions; the only difference is its Music Service module (Mora = Japan, Connect = US and Connect-Europe = applicable European countries) and obviously for certain countries, the UI language. So, the answer to your query: the new SonicStage 3.3 will support all relevant Sony ATRAC devices.

lxrichbirdxl · November 1, 2005

Thanks! I can't wait to check out 352kps!!!

November 1, 2005

Fantastic! New updated version of ss that is Sonic stage 3.3 .The only difference i see right now is Ripping of tracks in "WMA" format which was not possible in earlier version.But since our device does not support it .I don`t know what will it be used for.May sony put some firmware to update r devices.Also new atrac 352kbs bit rate.

But sorry for the customers of Asia & pacific {http://www.css.ap.sony.com}as there is no installer (for ss.v3.2 or 3.3 either)there.as this installer contain music online store which is not useful to us at all.t

peare · November 1, 2005

YESS! I ripped an audio CD AAL @256, and transfered to my HD5 as is. It seems that there is no wait for conversion, they were uploaded Atrac3+ @256. Then I transfered the same album to my MZ-NH1 atrac+@352 and there had been conversion and wait... but everything went smoothly. I wish we had an option to rip CD's @352

Dimitri · November 1, 2005

Can't rip @352? What's the point of it then?

lxrichbirdxl · November 1, 2005

Hey, why can't I rip cd in 352kps? I don't see any settings on that?

***Ishiyoshi*** · November 1, 2005

Hey, why can't I rip cd in 352kps? I don't see any settings on that?
←

Please note: to maintain compatibility with previous devices, that AAL was built with ATRAC3 and ATRAC3plus as a base. Hence, AAL can only encode in bit rates based upon selected ATRAC3 (132kbps) and ATRAC3plus (256kbps, 128kbps and 64kbps). According to Sony, AAL truly compress audio signals without any loss of data and is able to compress a CD anywhere from 30% to 80% of its original size without any loss of data.

lxrichbirdxl · November 1, 2005

YESS! I ripped an audio CD AAL @256, and transfered to my HD5 as is. It seems that there is no wait for conversion, they were uploaded Atrac3+ @256. Then I transfered the same album to my MZ-NH1 atrac+@352 and there had been conversion and wait... but everything went smoothly. I wish we had an option to rip CD's @352
←

What's the point? Lossless is compressed from cd, then you compress it again to 256kps, you lose even more quality?

But, maybe the overall time is less...

Anyone can tell why I don't see any 352kps setting? Ishiyoshi, I don't quite understand you. Cuz it was mentioned on the first page that SS3.3 has atrac@352kps?

Edited November 1, 2005 by lxrichbirdxl

***Ishiyoshi*** · November 1, 2005

What's the point? Lossless is compressed from cd, then you compress it again to 256kps, you lose even more quality?
But, maybe the overall time is less...
Anyone can tell why I don't see any 352kps setting? Ishiyoshi, I don't quite understand you. Cuz it was mentioned on the first page that SS3.3 has atrac@352kps?
←

Please read the initial thoroughly. There's distinction between ripping an Audio CD in ATRAC Advanced Lossless format and converting/transferring tunes in the newly ATRAC3plus 352kbps to an existing ATRAC device. As I have mentioned in the preceding posts, I believe because AAL was built with ATRAC3 and ATRAC3plus as a base, it can only encode in bit rates based upon selected ATRAC3 (132kbps) and ATRAC3plus (256kbps, 128kbps and 64kbps).

However, AAL cannot be transferred over to an exising ATRAC device if the transfer mode is set as "as is"; it will be converted to ATRAC3plus 256kbps.

***Ishiyoshi*** · November 1, 2005

Update: SonicStage 3.3 Japanese version is live as well --> click here

lxrichbirdxl · November 1, 2005

thanx but it didn`t work at all.therefore i will post a new topic under "software" section
←

It worked for me.

Select 'Run' from start menu, enter 'regedit', then go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to SOFTWARE to Sony Corporation to SS to EMD then delete all entry with CONNECT or something. :ol_biggrin:

November 1, 2005

That why i think sonic stage 3.3 & sony both sucks naa b`coz we r unable to transfer music in AAL format(atrac lossless format) to our devices .Even we r unable to transfer atrac 3plus 320kpbs as well.When ever we try to transfer it starts converting to it default setting first then it will transfer then what is use of that .I thinl sony people were sleeping somewhere while making this new software.At least they should put some firmware update for that.

chenfurfur · November 1, 2005

hey guys, i'm really excited about this new upgrade. However, i upgraded from SS 3.2 and would like to connect my Vaio Pocket to it but it gives me the error message, "The connected ATRAC Audio Device cannot be used with the currently installed SonicStage. To use with the currently installed SonicStage, you must delete all tracks in the ATRAC Audio Device or initialize the hard disk of the ATRAC Audio Device." Is there any way I can connect my Vaio Pocket and transfer songs in the new SS 3.3 without deleting all the songs off of it (cause that would be such a pain). Or how do you initialize the hard disk with it? I'm really confused and oblivious...i'm sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong thread. Someone pleassee help. thank you!

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SonicStage 3.3 Arrives -- a Reformed ATRAC is Born

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