Importing my MP3s into SS3.3 corrupts the mp3s!

[Bewarethefoxxx]

Please can anyone answer?? I'm at the end of my tether!!

I had Sony's SonicStage Version 3.0 from a previous player (E107). It worked fine, I could import mp3s into it, convert them to ATRAC3plus and put them on my player. They all sounded great.

I got two NWA3000s, upgraded to SS3.3 and then when I imported mp3s into SS3.3, they all sounded awful. They make popping and clicking noises on some tracks, on other tracks it sounds like the bass is really distorted and the drums in the background are now in the foreground and sound like cowbells. Some, sound like my speaker has blown but it's the mp3 not my speakers.

I've tried playing the mp3s in Windows media player and they play perfectly fine, so something happens to the mp3s when I transfer them into SS.

I uninstalled and reinstalled SS3.3 and it still didn't work

I uninstalled SS3.3 and reinstalled SS3.0 from the disc I got with my original player and now mp3s won't import properly into SS3.0!!! THEY USED TO!

I did a system restore back to when SS3.0 was there and worked, but mp3s are still corrupted on import.

I've contacted SONY, and I'm still waiting for them to get back to me! What has happened to my PC? Something happened when I upgraded from 3.0-3.3

I've got factory installed Windows ME which is why I'm using Sonic Stage instead of Connect Player (would have been nice if Sony had made it clear which operating systems connect player is compatible with on their website!!). But by all accounts so too are alot of people due to issues with Connect player.

I have a huge collection of MP3s and can't put them on my NWA3000. Currently I can only put CDs on, which is not the reason I bought this player.

Has anyone got any idea what I need to do? Where I need to look on my pc? Are you all able to import MP3s ok? Whether they are ripped from CDs or downloaded?

I need to do something, I have to decide whether to keep this player or not and haven't got long left to decide. I am getting XP in the new year and will start using Connect player then, but has anyone had problems with importing MP3s into connect player?

My priority is to sort out my pc and get sonicstage working so I can get my mp3s into the software and sounding normal so I can then compress them into ATRAC.

I really want to keep these players as the hardware is fab.

[Guest Stuge]

From Which site you have updated your Sonic Stage......I think there is some compatibilty issue either SSver3.3 & Your Sound card....

Please upgrade your Sound Card ..............or reinstall the previous sound card driver

[Bewarethefoxxx]

From Which site you have updated your Sonic Stage......I think there is some compatibilty issue either SSver3.3 & Your Sound card....

Please upgrade your Sound Card ..............or reinstall the previous sound card driver

←

Thanks for the response..now you mention it maybe it is my soundcard. I hadn't thought of that.

Oh..just thought, don't know if this makes a diff or not..the mp3s sounding awful in SS, when compressed to ATRAC, made the ATRAC sound awful when played back in SS and when this file was transfered to the NWA3000, this played awful on the player. Don't know if this means it's nothing to do with soundcard or not???

Ok, I downloaded SS3.3 from here

Sonydigital-link site

As for it possibly being a compatibility issue with my soundcard, if you still think this, could you help me by answering the following questions? For your info, my soundcard is a Delta Audiophile 2496

Soundcard official site

1) I assume that it's possible for my soundcard to be an issue just with SS and that's why my mp3s sound fine when played in media player?

2) Any ideas why SS3.0 played mp3s fine? And why by upgrading to SS3.3 mp3s don't play fine on either SS3.3 or 3.0? (I'm trying to establish what went wrong before I take action, ie do you think the installation of SS3.3 affected my soundcard drivers somehow?)

3) What would you recommend I do in the way of updating drivers for my soundcard?? I've never done this before, I bought and installed my soundcard when I got my PC quite a few years ago when Windows ME was the latest OS. Do I just upload drivers from the soundcard website I posted above?? Do I need to do anything with SS3.3 or do I just leave that as it is and it should start working once I've upgraded my soundcard drivers??

You'll have to excuse my ignornance! I'm also being cautious before I do anything!!

Please advise if you can, it would be a massive help to me. I'm sure it's all very simple to fix..I just don't know what to do!!

[Guest Stuge]

I also download upgraded my Sonic Stage from Sonydigital link ..But i had no problems with Sonic Stage till now

please tell me in which bit rate you have your mp3 files ?

& in which bitrate you are converting your mp3 `s to atrac?

I will recommend you to update your Sound card drivers from your Sound card maker site..

Delta Audiophile 249(Drivers)

[Bewarethefoxxx]

I also download upgraded my Sonic Stage from Sonydigital link ..But i had no problems with Sonic Stage  till now

please tell me  in which  bit rate you have your mp3 files  ?

& in which bitrate you are converting your mp3 `s to atrac?

I will recommend you to update your Sound card drivers from your Sound card maker site..

Delta Audiophile 249(Drivers)

←

Majority of my mp3s are a bitrate of 128, a few are higher than this (192 I think).

As for converting to ATRAC, when I originally imported my mp3s into SS3.0 and they played within SS fine, I converted them to 48bps to put on the E107.

For purposes of converting mp3s to put onto NWA3000, I was going to do ATRAC3plus 64.

There's no point me doing any ATRAC conversion while the mp3s sound like this though.

Do you really think it's my soundcard? If so, why would it carry the awful sound through to my NWA3000??

I'll update my soundcard drivers but can't do this till this evening when I get home.

[Guest Stuge]

First of all don`t convert your mp3`s to Atrac.

I doesn`t matter whether you UPDATE Your Sound Card or not because you are getting the same kind of awful sound in your a3000 also .

but their is no harm in updating your driver also (I always keep my sound card ,Video card drivers updated)..

[Bewarethefoxxx]

First of all don`t convert your mp3`s to Atrac.

I doesn`t matter whether you UPDATE Your Sound Card or not because you are getting the same kind of awful sound in your a3000 also .

but their is no harm in updating your driver also (I always keep my sound card ,Video card drivers updated)..

←

So what is the problem? I seem to be back to square one! Why can't I import mp3s into SS without them sounding awful??? Its the mp3 that sound awful, before they're converted to ATRAC. The mp3s play fine outside of SS. I can't put my mp3s (or converted MP3s) on my player as I have to go through SS.

Help!

[Guest Stuge]

It seems that there is some problem with the Sonic Stage ver3.3...

Please uninstall Sonic Stage ver3.3 & and again reinstall ssver3.0(from cd).Then import some mp3 `s on it .

& then tell us whether you are facing the same sound problem or not (I know you had no problem with previous SSver3.0)..

Note:Doing all this again might be time taking & at the same time you might be saying how LOL stuge is ...

[Bewarethefoxxx]

It seems that there is some problem with the Sonic Stage ver3.3...

Please uninstall Sonic Stage ver3.3 & and again reinstall ssver3.0(from cd).Then import some mp3 `s on it .

& then tell us whether you are facing the same sound  problem or not (I know you had no problem with previous SSver3.0)..

Note:Doing all this again might be time taking & at the same time you might be saying how LOL stuge  is  ...

←

well ok, but I did already try that and when I reinstalled version 3.0 from disc, the mp3s sounded bad in version 3.0. I can try this again as you've said but I fear it won't work again.

Someone at work mentioned it might be something to do with dll files that version 3.3 put on my pc. Does this mean anything to you? He said that even though I did a system restore the dll files or things that SS3.3 put in my system registry wouldn't restore. I have no clue what I'd need to do about this.

Any further ideas? I'm still waiting for Sony to get back to me, is it normal for them to keep customers waiting for ages

Thanks for your replies btw

[Guest Stuge]

.dll files are important component of Windows ....They help in executing the programs quickly without loading into Ram .so they help in work to be done quickly.......There are some sites where you can find missing .dll files but for that you will need to find which .dll file has been deleted or changed )which is very hard to find) ..only thing you can do to restore your old .dll files is to restore your windows.

YOU CAN WAIT FOR Sony e-mail but i`m not sure that there assistance will be helpful in this regard..

Edit#2

There are some software that yu can use to find any .dll files missing on your computer

Dll files

[Ascariss]

Hmm, what size was your E107? Next, a highly recommend staying away from Atrac 64 or 48 no matter how desperate you are.

Never go below atrac 132, that is the best compromise with the codec. Reason being once you start compressing the files at such low bitrates, the sound quality goes out of the window. Only use the low bitrates for voice data, not music.

So the easiest way out of this would have been to determine what bitrate you were using, and not anything to do with your sound card, since that is rarely the case, since if that was the case, the mp3s in WMP would also sound bad.

Bewarethefoxxx find the library that SS made, they are someplace, optomized files or something like that. remove them from the library in SS, and then via windows explorer find the optomized files and delete them for good. With 20 gigs at your hands, compression is no longer a worry.

Install SS3.3 if it's not already, open it up, find the options for it, Change it so that the files are not converted to anything at all when transferred to the device. Or if you want to convert it to the lowest possible bitrate with the best quality, ie atrac3 @ 132, almost equal to 192 mp3.

Then transfer the songs onto the A3000 and check for sound quality. If they still sound like crap, press the option button, then the up arrow twice and select detailed information and see what type of file is there.

In the end, I would highly recommend getting rid of windows ME, since that is the worst garbage microsoft ever released, heck even 98 is better than ME for me. Shame you can't upgrade to XP, much more stable and user friendly.

[Bewarethefoxxx]

Hmm, what size was your E107? Next, a highly recommend staying away from Atrac 64 or 48 no matter how desperate you are.

Never go below atrac 132, that is the best compromise with the codec. Reason being once you start compressing the files at such low bitrates, the sound quality goes out of the window. Only use the low bitrates for voice data, not music.

So the easiest way out of this would have been to determine what bitrate you were using, and not anything to do with your sound card, since that is rarely the case, since if that was the case, the mp3s in WMP would also sound bad.

Bewarethefoxxx find the library that SS made, they are someplace, optomized files or something like that. remove them from the library in SS, and then via windows explorer find the optomized files and delete them for good. With 20 gigs at your hands, compression is no longer a worry.

Install SS3.3 if it's not already, open it up, find the options for it, Change it so that the files are not converted to anything at all when transferred to the device.  Or if you want to convert it to the lowest possible bitrate with the best quality, ie atrac3 @ 132, almost equal to 192 mp3.

Then transfer the songs onto the A3000 and check for sound quality. If they still sound like crap, press the option button, then the up arrow twice and select detailed information and see what type of file is there.

In the end, I would highly recommend getting rid of windows ME, since that is the worst garbage microsoft ever released, heck even 98 is better than ME for me. Shame you can't upgrade to XP, much more stable and user friendly.

←

Ok, I really appreciate everyone trying to help me here but I think wires are getting crossed and the point is being missed!

The E107 is the 1gb model, the ATRAC 48 sound absolutely great on it.

The NWA3000 in order to fit a lot of songs on the ATRAC 64 sounds fine. Of course the higher bitrates sound better, but the 64 sounds good enough for the purposes of a walkman, the loss in quality is not really noticable.

In saying this, this is totally irrelevent to the problem I am having. The problem I am having is nothing to do with converting mp3s to ATRAC. Or the quality of ATRACs

To answer your questions above..

1) I already have SS3.3 on my pc at the moment

2) My library currently has ATRAC files in it and these all play fine on my pc and transfer fine to my player and sound great. These have all been directly compressed to ATRAC directly from CDs in sonicstage. I don't see the point in deleting these as this is not the issue.

3) I already have the setting that says my files won't get changed to anything when transferred to my device. That's not what I'm trying to do.

4) I try to import mp3s from my hard drive into Sonic Stage using the 'import files' option. My settings are to import them as they are. Whether I choose to put them onto my device as mp3s or compress them is irrelevant. They import into my sonic stage library and once imported, playback really badly. These are mp3s NOT ATRACs, I haven't compressed them. So, I now have a bad sounding file in my Sonicstage library, which transfers onto my player badly and if I do compress it to ATRAC, it compresses it with the sound faults.

These are the facts

1) I bought an E107 and installed my first ever sony software onto my pc which was sonicstage 3.0

2) I imported using the sonicstage 'import files' some mp3s into the sonicstage library. I listened to them as mp3s, all great. I converted the mp3s to ATRAC3plus and they still sounded great. They transferred onto my E107 without any probs and played fine

3) I upgraded my sonic stage 3.0 to 3.3 I cleared the library from all the old files I used to have (and deleted them off the pc forever).

4) I imported using the sonicstage 'import files' some mp3s into the sonicstage library. I played them in sonicstage, and they sounded terrible. These are normal 128 or 192 mp3 files which play absolutely spot on in WMP.

5) If I try to convert the mp3s to ATRAC is takes the bad sound with it. Therefore if I transfer the file onto my player, it also sounds awful when I listen to it on the player.

6) No matter how many times I've unistalled SS3.3 and reinstalled 3.0 or 3.3, each time I import mp3s into SS, they sound bad.

Something has happened when I upgraded to SS3.3 because this is the root of where it all started and I need to fix this problem.

My issue it not to do with sound quality of ATRACs, although I appeciate your opinion on which compression sounds best.

Does anyone have any idea what I need to do?? Sony have still not got back to me!

btw - I absolutely agree about Windows ME!! I am going to get a new pc in the new year with XP, but I need to get this pc running properly so I can put my mp3s onto my player. To do that, I have to be able to import them into SS without SS making them sound bad!

Bad = distorted bass, popping, clicking, jumping, skipping, drum levels altered so too much in the foreground. Cowbell like drums.

I hope this makes sense and perhaps you have some other suggestions?

[Ascariss]

Hmm something wasn't adding up before but now I see the situation more clearly.

4) I imported using the sonicstage 'import files' some mp3s into the sonicstage library. I played them in sonicstage, and they sounded terrible. These are normal 128 or 192 mp3 files which play absolutely spot on in WMP.

hmm if the play horrible in SS, then that is the problem, perhaps. I am hesitant to say it is your sound card, but I won't since WMP plays the files fine, so the sound card has to be ruled out. Now I am sure the sound driver is fine, since again WMP.

So the culprit has to be SS, there is something wrong with the program def. Ok crazy idea, doesn't SS3.3 have a program that allows you convert your files to atrac?

perhaps isolate 10 songs and use that program to convert to an atrac bitrate you want. Then import those atrac files into SS3.3 and see if the sound problem is there. So seeing as most people really haven't had this problem, I decided to sneek over to our sister forum, minidisc.org.

And yes I might have found a solution:

"It was a codec problem. I have just renamed the "iviaudio.ax" in something like "iviaudio.bak" and now I can normally listen to the music with SS3.3 !"

"the file is in the windows\system32 folder."

If this is not the problem, then we will need to dig deeper into the problem.

[Bewarethefoxxx]

perhaps isolate 10 songs and use that program to convert to an atrac bitrate you want. Then import those atrac files into SS3.3 and see if the sound problem is there. So seeing as most people really haven't had this problem, I decided to sneek over to our sister forum, minidisc.org.

And yes I might have found a solution:

"It was a codec problem. I have just renamed the "iviaudio.ax" in something like "iviaudio.bak" and now I can normally listen to the music with SS3.3 !"

"the file is in the windows\system32 folder."

If this is not the problem, then we will need to dig deeper into the problem.

←

Superstar - Thanks for finding this, you have no idea how much I have been searching for help on this matter and coming up with ziltch!

For your info, I did already try your suggestion of isolating some songs and used SS to convert to an atrac. But when importing these atrac files into SS3.3 the distorted sound was in the ATRAC file. I tried searching for a program outside of Sonicstage that would convert mp3 to ATRAC so I could do that and import the converted files into SS, but I couldn't find any programmes that convert mp3s to ATRAC other than SS!! (I guess this is due to Sony and their copyrighting).

Anyhow, I went to the other forum and found the thread you had found me and reading the issue that person had, it was exactly the same! I am not alone!!!!

"I was using SS3.0 without any problems and i just go with SS3.3

When I play songs in it a horrible noisy song keep playing over the bass of the music. Even if the volume is down. I have no problems listen to my mp3 with iTunes,winamp,wmp. And the noisy sounds keep staying on the music when it is convert in ATRAC...I really do not understand."

So I will try finding this codec and renaming it as it suggests. I assume that's all I have to do? Rename it.

Do you think it will be the same for me as I'm a Windows ME user and he was a Windows XP user?

Fingers crossed, I can't try this till later tonight as I'm at work and it's my home pc doing all this.

I'll update on it so others will know if this works or not.

[Bewarethefoxxx]

Would you believe it! I just got a reply from Sony.

Interestingly they suggest something different:

"To try and resolve the problem you are experiencing with the SonicStage

software please can you do the following;

*** Please note that these steps will create a new SonicStage database,

which will mean that any existing tracks will be deleted from the Sonic

Stage database. Therefore you may wish to backup your existing database

using the SonicStage backup tool before proceeding. ***

* Uninstall the SonicStage components, ([sonicStage], [OpenMG Limited

Patch] and [OpenMG Secure Module]), using the [Add/Remove Programs] utility

in the [Control Panel].

* Start [Windows Explorer]

* Click on the [Tools] menu and select [Folder Options]. Click on the

[View] tab.

* In the [Advanced settings:] section select the option to [show

hidden files and folders] or [show all files and folders].

* Click on the [Apply] and [Ok] buttons.

* Delete the following folders;

* C:\Program Files\Sony\SonicStage.

* C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\OpenMG.

* C:\Windows\Application data\Sony corporation\SonicStage and/or

OpenMG Jukebox.

* C:\Windows\SonicStage. Depending on previous installation options

this folder may not have been created.

* Close [Windows Explorer].

* Please note the following steps contain information about editing

your registry. Editing the registry improperly can cause damage to the

operating system. We would therefore recommended that the registry is backed

up prior to making any modifications. For more information on backing up

your registry please go to the following link,

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256986/EN-US/ ***

* Click on the [start] button and select [Run...]. In the dialog box

type regedit and click on [Ok].

* Delete the following folders;

* HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Sony Corporation/SonicStage.

* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Sony Corporation/OpenMG.

* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Sony Corporation/OpenMG Jukebox.

* Close the [Regedit] window.

* Restart your computer.

* Download and install the latest version of the SonicStage software

from www.connect-europe.com.

* Import an MP3 file into [My Library] and transfer it out to your

NW-E107.

* If the track plays without distortion, restore your database backup,

if necessary.

If you have any queries please let us know."

Ok, now I'm not sure what to do first!!! Codec Vs Sony suggestion?

Can anyone tell me if what sony has suggested is just a fancy way of removing everything to do with their software from my pc then basically starting a fresh? I don't understand all the system registry side of things. Reason I ask is that when I download SS again, if it's a codec issue, it might just happen again. Perhaps I should try the codec renaming first??

Also, they suggest I download from connect-europe. Is this a different version of SonicStage? I initially got SS3.3 from sonydigital-link.

[Guest Stuge]

First try what Sony has said in their E-mail ......Deleting registry files will delete every thing(what ever sonic stage might have dones with registry).....

I don`t think there might be any difference in Sonic Stagever3.3... But Try to install it from Connect-europe (I cannot access connect -europe from India )

Note

: But be carefull while deleting registry......Follow the instructions carefully

[Ascariss]

Do the codec one first, much simpler, all sony did was tell you how to delete the program. talk about tech support.

[Guest Stuge]

I totally agree with "Ascariss"....I don`t know what happened to me (I`m LOL) how did i ask you to do that ..yes try codec thing first before trying what sony has asked you ..I`m sure that there is some problem between Sonic Stage & Windows (Reinstall a Joke)..

Sorry for confusing you"Bewarethefoxxx"

[Bewarethefoxxx]

Ascariss & Stuge

Thank you both for all your help. Having taken your advice and changed the codec found in SYSTEM not SYSTEM32 on my pc (for anyone else who has this problem) and sacked off Sony's suggestion, it has worked.

I've so far tried a few mp3s that I know sounded really bad, and they sound spot on now. I can't believe such a tiny thing as three letters in an extension could cause so much hassle!

Does the sony team read this forum?? Perhaps they should take this advice to offer future customers who have this problem!

Out of interest, do you know how or why this happened? Did downloading SS3.3 change the codec name?

[Ascariss]

Great to hear that this solved your problem. Sony does read the forums, but I doubt they will look into this, since it isn't a wide spread problem so far.

Not sure what caused this to happen, perhaps another program or the installation was screwed, but so many times in a row is rather odd. I just my system and system32, no such file exists for me. Although I do have this lol. ivfsrc.ax.

Well problem solved. Finally you can enjoy your new A3000.

[Guest Stuge]

Glad to hear that your problem is Solved

Cheers!!!!!!!

Enjoy your new A3000