Peter Y Posted September 3, 2006 Report Share Posted September 3, 2006 I'm a Macintosh user of 20 years who just moved up to Hi-MD with an MZ-RH1. Hi-MD Music Transfer 2.0 does reasonably well for my Hi-MD minidiscs (except for the two tracks it hasn't liked and refused to upload ...); but it doesn't handle my many standard minidiscs at all, of course. I really have no interest in buying a PC since I have no other need for one and have no interest in learning how to deal with PCs and handling viruses and everything that goes with them just for this one specialized purpose; I rarely use them otherwise. I do have access to PCs at work, but probably shouldn't modify them by installing SonicStage on them. That leads to my question:Is it possible to install SonicStage entirely on an external hard drive, so I could attach it to whatever computer is available and attach the RH1 (I assume PCs have at least 2 USB ports) as well, and upload live recordings from standard minidiscs to the external hard drive? I believe our department has relatively new PCs and I think they're running Windows XP. (I've found questions in this forum about storing music on external hard drives, but not the software itself.)If it is possible, I may ask for help on how to do it; I rarely use PCs and have never installed anything on one.Thanks,Peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sector001 Posted September 3, 2006 Report Share Posted September 3, 2006 i dont see why u wouldnt be able to install SS on an external HD. u just have to make sure the external HD is plugged in and it'll just act like any other HD. so u should have no problem with it.but are u going to use this external with a PC or your mac? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A440 Posted September 3, 2006 Report Share Posted September 3, 2006 You can't just run SonicStage as a standalone program. You have to install it onto the PC, and I believe you need Administrator privileges to do that on XP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Y Posted September 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 Clearly I'd have to attach the hard drive to a PC, since SonicStage doesn't run on Macs!Assuming it doesn't install anything onto the hard drive of the computer I don't see why anyone would mind if I installed it onto my external hard drive, so I'm sure I could find the person who could take care of Administrator privileges.But what I need to know if anyone knows, is whether it does install anything onto the internal hard drive, or if that can be avoided.A440, what does you mean that it can't be run as a standalone program? Do you mean that it has to be installed on the PC's internal hard drive itself? If so, I guess my idea won't work unfortunately ...Thanks,Peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sector001 Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 Clearly I'd have to attach the hard drive to a PC, since SonicStage doesn't run on Macs!Assuming it doesn't install anything onto the hard drive of the computer I don't see why anyone would mind if I installed it onto my external hard drive, so I'm sure I could find the person who could take care of Administrator privileges.But what I need to know if anyone knows, is whether it does install anything onto the internal hard drive, or if that can be avoided.A440, what does you mean that it can't be run as a standalone program? Do you mean that it has to be installed on the PC's internal hard drive itself? If so, I guess my idea won't work unfortunately ...Thanks,Peteri think that is exactly what he meant...i have Sonicstage installed into my internal PC HD and i am running windows XP Professional, it did not ask me for any admin privileges when i installed it. so i dont know why it wouldn't work on an external drive. they may mind it if u r doing it on company's time.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roamer Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 Because of the DRMs that are PC dependent, even if you managed to install it on the external drive, I really doubt it would work with the second PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sector001 Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 Because of the DRMs that are PC dependent, even if you managed to install it on the external drive, I really doubt it would work with the second PC.oh yeah, but if he's gonna transfer tracks with that PC attached with the external drive, it should have no problem, because he's never used that PC before. maybe i'm missing something here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekdroid Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 (edited) Is it possible to install SonicStage entirely on an external hard drive, so I could attach it to whatever computer is available and attach the RH1 (I assume PCs have at least 2 USB ports) as well, and upload live recordings from standard minidiscs to the external hard drive? I believe our department has relatively new PCs and I think they're running Windows XP. (I've found questions in this forum about storing music on external hard drives, but not the software itself.)Not that I know of.Installation will write files/settings to the internal drive anyway, so it won't be possible to use SonicStage 'portably' like many apps, for example, on http://www.portableapps.com, which offer truly portable use.This is why so many of us want native, standard USB Mass Storage drag-n-drop functionality for the audio files on MDs (and other portable audio devices).typo edit Edited September 4, 2006 by tekdroid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A440 Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 "Assuming it doesn't install anything onto the hard drive of the computer" is, unfortunately, a faulty assumption. SonicStage ties itself deeply to the Windows operating system of the host PC. It installs all kinds of things into the hard drive. That is why, in the past, it has had so many bugs and conflicts with things like graphics and soundcard drivers. That's why uninstalling it needed its own FAQ, because of all the changes it makes deep in the operating system. If you were to carry around a bootable OS (complete Windows XP) on your external hard drive, and you can boot the PC you're visiting from your external drive rather than run it from its own Windows installation, then you could probably install SonicStage in the Windows on the external hard drive. But otherwise, SonicStage has to be installed into the PC, not just connected to it. The program in Downloads here is an installer, not a SonicStage you can just run as an app and open, because there's no such thing until it's installed on a particular PC. http://forums.minidisc.org/downloads/details.php?file=21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Y Posted September 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 "SonicStage ties itself deeply to the Windows operating system of the host PC. It installs all kinds of things into the hard drive. That is why, in the past, it has had so many bugs and conflicts with things like graphics and soundcard drivers. That's why uninstalling it needed its own FAQ, because of all the changes it makes deep in the operating system. http://forums.minidisc.org/downloads/details.php?file=21I guess that answers my question - too bad! I guess I'll have to figure out another way to deal with the issue, which will have to involve either real-time transfer or getting a new computer, neither of which sound very appealing!Thanks,Peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A440 Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Don't you have any friends with PCs? As long as you install SonicStage but (during installation) make sure to not let it be the default player, current versions like 3.4 shouldn't disturb what's on your friend's computer. Either that, or spend a few hundred dollars on a cheap desktop PC (or get a used one on Ebay). The time you'd save in realtime transfers would be worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Y Posted September 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2006 Don't you have any friends with PCs? As long as you install SonicStage but (during installation) make sure to not let it be the default player, current versions like 3.4 shouldn't disturb what's on your friend's computer. Either that, or spend a few hundred dollars on a cheap desktop PC (or get a used one on Ebay). The time you'd save in realtime transfers would be worth it.Actually most of my friends whom I'd feel comfortable about asking to install software on their computers either live too far away, use Macs, or both - not surprising given that I live in a relatively rural area and many of my best friends are musicians. I agree that the time I'd save would be worth it.My current thinking (still tentative) is to get a low-end Intel Mac (low-end laptop or iMac) that can run Windows so I could use to run SonicStage. I'd keep it near my stereo and it would be the computer that manages my digital music stuff - digitizing my records and tapes, playing music through the stereo system through an Airport Express, etc. That's a more expensive solution, but it would be more versatile given that I'm a Mac user of 20 years and have no other use for a PC.Peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A440 Posted September 7, 2006 Report Share Posted September 7, 2006 My current thinking (still tentative) is to get a low-end Intel Mac (low-end laptop or iMac) that can run WindowsPeterThe only downside to that is that you'll have to buy Window$. I don't think it's installed on the Intel Mac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Y Posted September 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2006 The only downside to that is that you'll have to buy Window$. I don't think it's installed on the Intel Mac.That's pretty much true; I think I've heard of at least one virtualization program (CrossOver Mac) that lets you run Windows programs from the Finder without having Windows installed. It's still at the stage of being a public Beta:http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/08/31/crossover/index.phpBut for stable released software to run Windows on a Mac you do have to install a legal copy of Windows. But I could use the computer as a Mac when I'm not using it for minidiscs, which would be far more useful to me than a Windows computer, which would be much more useful for most of my purposes.Peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A440 Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 People haven't had much luck in the past with virtual Windows emulators. However, according to this thread Parallels with Windows works. You may not even need a new Mac. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showt...mp;#entry107961 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Low Volta Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 parallels looks like a possible solution, but it still needs intel-macs so you would need to get a new mac and it needs windows so extra costsor you could just get an RH1 (costs, but a lot less than a new mac + windows + parallels) and use the mac software (MP3 from mac -> Hi-MD and your own recordings from Hi-MD -> mac)the second option looks like a cheaper one at this time (unless you really need a new mac) but you must know that the first option will allow you to upload your existing recordings (made with the non-mac-compatible Hi-MD) and the second one won't Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Y Posted September 11, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2006 parallels looks like a possible solution, but it still needs intel-macs so you would need to get a new mac and it needs windows so extra costsor you could just get an RH1 (costs, but a lot less than a new mac + windows + parallels) and use the mac software (MP3 from mac -> Hi-MD and your own recordings from Hi-MD -> mac)the second option looks like a cheaper one at this time (unless you really need a new mac) but you must know that the first option will allow you to upload your existing recordings (made with the non-mac-compatible Hi-MD) and the second one won'tThat's the issue - I have an RH1 and Hi-MD Music Transfer 2.0, and I can transfer from Hi-MD minidiscs. But I have bunches of the older minidiscs and want to be able to transfer them. So using Sonic Stage seems to be the only way to do it; and since i have no other use for a PC, it seems to make more sense to get an Intel Mac which I can also use for other purposes. It's less than ideal as I don't particularly need a new Mac right now, but I can't figure out a better way to do it.If Sony would make Mac software that was equivalent in functionality to their PC software I wouldn't have to do it - so Sony seems now to be in the business of promoting Macintosh sales - are you reading that Sony?!Peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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