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Sonic Stage Libraries

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GordonThomson

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I am a new member so please be gentle .... I have also tried to use the search facility but can not find an answer to my question so hope one of the experts out there can help with my query.

Is it possible to have more than one library on a PC withSonic Stage or can you associate the library with the user profile so different users can have different libraries? Main reason is I've imported all my own CDs into Sonic Stage. My wife also has a Sony device but her music tastes are completely different to mine. It would be convenient/easier to have separate libraries to auto update our own libraries etc. There does not appear to be a way of doing this apart from using different PCs!!!! (This is not an option).

Thanks for any info/suggestions

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Welcome to Sonyinsider :)

Haven't used Sonic Stage for quite while,but if you have different profiles/login under Windows than you can have different libraries ,but if I'm right ,if you user same login in windows than its not possible .

Regarding Software query :No ,you will have to stick to SonicStage

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Thanks Stuge,

Yes I do use different log ins but the location for the library is in a shared directory.

My work around is to have one main library but then delete from the player and then import our own particular favourites. I then save the two diffeernt versions of the library using the backup facility giving a diffent name for ewasch back up file.

My sons both use IPods and can have their own libraries. It is frustrating to think that the Sony hardware is excellent but is let down by inferior software - barely fit for purpose?

Gordon

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Sorry to be a bit late to this particular auction. The Sonic Stage libraries are particularly badly designed with the effort to protect content by DRM coming above all. However you can group your Songs within the library using three different types of agglomeration- albums by artist, albums (no artist), and playlists. Maybe there's a solution there.

Also - and this is what really counts - don't even THINK of using backup without being very careful. Backup and restore would mess up the permissions and encryptions something horrible because the protection has a time element in it (the computer's clock, in other words).

First of all, before you try anything like that, you need to learn how to remove the DRM from any uploads you have made. (you cannot do it with DRM-protected downloads from the net, it is fair to say). This takes a fair amount of juggling as the database also has a horrible habit of pronouncing perfectly good WAV tracks as unexportable to MD (the solution is to delete them from the library without deleting the music file(s) and re-add them).

What I am trying to get to is this: if you can get rid of the DRM (using the Sony-supplied File Conversion Utility) then it works just fine to keep the actual .oma file (well they become .OMA but the change of file name is only a signal, not a guarantee that they are different) in a different physical place. You can in fact move them around on the computer or the network, or play them back from another machine, or keep them on a memory stick, or portable USB drive. Although the entries might be in the library, the files wouldn't be there, so you could swap drives and only the music that one person wanted would actually be there available to Sonic Stage. I know that's not much help but just a thought.

Another reason you might want to do that, is those files don't even need SonicStage to run in order to play them. They can be played using Windows Media player (or anything that uses all the codecs like RealPlayer). This means they can be in the list of one of the other players. Doesn't help you with download (to the MD players) but once again provides a logical separation.

A third option is to get VirtualPC (or VirtualBox) and run a separate Windows inside Windows. But most people won't do that unless they have a very recent (and therefore powerful) PC. That would be literally the only way to get what you describe - namely a totally separate install of SonicStage on the same PC.

(Actually Avrin is sure to comment that there's some clever way of getting multiple SonicStages to co-exist - I actually have 5.2 on this PC as well as 4.3. However 5.2 doesn't even support MD. It DOES play back the OMA files, though).

You said be gentle - but you are asking to do something even the geeks don't usually try.

(added: since you are not using MD's at least in part, you COULD get the 5.2 version for the NW-A1000. Provided you can cope with partial Japanese menus LOL - the track titles will still be in English).

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Thanks for all your replies. I have previously found out to my cost that it is better not to use the back up and restore feature on Sonic Stage. I now back up all my music etc using commercial software (and this also backs up all my documents, emails etc).

I take it that Sony now have more effective and reliable software for their portable music devices/MP3 players etc?

I believe that the Sony hardware is excellent but my experience to date is that the hardware suffers due to extremely poor software. Hope that is no longer the case?

Great to hear your views?

Thanks

Gordon

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Thanks for all your replies. I have previously found out to my cost that it is better not to use the back up and restore feature on Sonic Stage. I now back up all my music etc using commercial software (and this also backs up all my documents, emails etc).

Don't even THINK about backing up the .oma files until you have removed the DRM encryption. If you do so much as a System Restore (or possibly a Windows Service Pack or worse, upgrade) you may lose the lot. In this case, having them backed up "with commercial software" won't help in the slightest. Sorry.

To answer your other question, I think they continue to provide new software (eg Version V) with their new models. The fact that the current (4.3) software still works on the first NetMD MD models is pretty amazing in the short-memory world of digital music - but Sony came from the music end, not the digital end, to where they are. Try version 5, if nothing else you get to learn Japanese :)

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There is a workaround to make SonicStage use different libraries for different users by creating a REG-file with different settings for each user and importing this file into the registry when the user logs in to Windows. But I don't think that it will be really convenient or reliable.

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Sorry for being thick - but how do I remove the DRM encryption?

You aren't - not at all. Sony included this feature very late on and it STILL defaults to ON :)

Put SonicStage in My Library (click the centre top). On the main menu, under T(ools, you should see "Start File Conversion Tool...". You will now be asked to allow exit from SonicStage. This is good.

When it initializes, you will be presented with a dialog that looks like this (after an intro and then something that says "checking the database" for a minute or three). Note that instead of 31 minutes (this is a tiny database) it may say 12-18 hours!!!! DON'T PANIC. (note you will have to click on the image below to enlarge it and see what it looks like)

post-101758-125242705821_thumb.jpg

Now if you UNncheck the box that reads "Add copy protection", it will scan through the db again, and come up with a revised estimate of how long it will take. If you've never done it, this may be an hour or two. If you make a point of doing it after uploads or once a week, it will rarely take more than a couple of minutes, and usually their number is double what it turns out (this software is CPU intensive and was written for machines slower than the present generation).

Don't check the upper box, it in fact replaces the old .oma files with ones ending .OMA without any extra help from you.

Hope this helps!

Stephen

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