HI-MD -> PC .WAV transfer problem

[cocoon]

hi all,

firstly let me introduce myself. my name is tim and i am a sound artist from Dublin, Ireland. Dia Duit agus Failte Leat!!

to keep things simple i shall briefly describe this problem and we can (hopefully) take it from there.

i am completely new to the Minidisc format, in the past i have used the Tape and SD-Card medium for capturing sound. due to a desire for extreme portability i have bought a minidisc player, the MZ-RH1 HI-MD recorder. mainly because it allows me to record in "CD Quality" Linear PCM format. i shall not be using the unit for listening-on-the-go purposes and will be using exclusively the PCM format for my work.

okay, now the issue.

so i have filled up a couple of discs with field recordings (made via binaural microphones through the plug-in-power unit input). i can listen back to the recordings on headphones via the player itself no problem but when i go to transfer the files to the PC via Sonic Stage 4.3 "Ultimate", the program does indeed begin to transfer them and at 100% status gives me the option to " save in .WAV format, of which i click YES then a dialogue box says that " One or more tracks cannot be saved in WAV format" ....strange?

of course perhaps i am making some rudimentary error. should i convert them with the ''Conversion Tool" before or after importing them into SS?

does this sound like a problem with the way the MZ-RH1 is set-up to record ( PCM) or perhaps a SS issue ( i have gone into Transfer mode settings and clicked Import Settings -> "Save in Wav format when importing" ?

as you can see i am quite perplexed as to what the problem is! i am sure it is just something simple at my end but NEED HELP!!

i am working on a project and i want to import the saved .WAV files into Pro-Tools for further Editing/ Compostion etc etc...

any help on this issue would be wonderful,

thanks for reading

tim.

[sfbp]

I think I can help you with that.

Tools->Options->Transfer->HiMD leads to this dialog box

Clicking on Advanced leads to a second dialog box.

Check the bottom box and select the location for Wav files. It needs to point somewhere that exists.

Hopefully that is your problem. Sorry the forum software won't let me post this at full size. I'm sure there's a way but I cannot see what it is. Just click the image(s) to see what I am referring to, please.

Stephen

[cocoon]

hi,

thanks so much for your reply..im sorry that i have not responded but other commitments meant i had no access to the internet over the past few weeks.

so i made sure that i had set up the transfer settings as suggested (which i had done before) also the minidisc recorder is setup to record in PCM format and the discs are HI-MD! for sure. then i tried to transfer some more recordings and the same problem, please see included screenshots below:

it is really very frustrating that i cannot transfer the files in PCM/Wav format. as i mentioned this is the reason i bought the recorder in the first place.

any ideas??

thanks in advance

tim

I think I can help you with that.

Tools->Options->Transfer->HiMD leads to this dialog box

Clicking on Advanced leads to a second dialog box.

Check the bottom box and select the location for Wav files. It needs to point somewhere that exists.

Hopefully that is your problem. Sorry the forum software won't let me post this at full size. I'm sure there's a way but I cannot see what it is. Just click the image(s) to see what I am referring to, please.

Stephen

[sfbp]

Couple of comments

1. If you are getting the dialog box ASKING you each time whether to save them as WAV, you've done something wrong.

2. I would hazard a guess that the reason you cannot convert them is something to do with the fact that the tracks are untitled. Try labelling them a,b,c etc.

[cocoon]

okay so i tried renaming the track(via sonic stage), then hit ''transfer to my library and still i got the error dialogue box (see screen-shot above!).

i have read and re-read the manual and looked for info on the net and as far as i am aware i have updated to the latest version (4.3.01) and setup the directory paths to actual folders which do exist, entered the transfer settings and clicked the ''save in WAV format when importing'' box etc.

perhaps i am missing some point , for example do i have to convert them to .wav AFTER i transfer them via the ''file conversion tool'' or something?

it seems to me that they should import as .wav without needing to convert them afterward?

do i need specific drivers for my pc or something, for example the audio device i use for the computer is the Protools Mbox external audio interface (i dont have the software driver for sound installed on the computer), would this cause the issue?

as you can see i am totally new to this Sonic Stage thing!

i really appreciate you kind advice everyone

thanks

tim

[sfbp]

If it cannot save them as WAV it sounds like you are getting them into the PC at least. That's the good news!

1. Check you can play back the PCM track on the computer (not the one on the HiMD)

2. Check to see if the file destination for the WAV exists ****AND IS WRITEABLE**** by you and all other users.

3. Try right-clicking the PCM track in the computer (in SS) and specify somewhere else that you KNOW you have write access to, to save it.

My guess is you have either run out of room in the destination, or, more likely, got SS in a corner where it isn't ALLOWED to create and update files in the destination directory.

[binimgarten]

Hi everyone,

my name is Viktor, I'm from Germany and I'm new to the forum (not so new to HiMD and SonicStage, though).

I found this thread via a Google search because I seem to have the same problem as cocoon:

I can import tracks from a HiMD to "My Library" just fine, but when I try to convert anything to WAV it gives me the well-known error message.

sfbp, you seem to have a hunch where the problem might be when you're asking this specific question:

1. Check you can play back the PCM track on the computer (not the one on the HiMD)

As a matter of fact, the track on the computer can't be played. I didn't even check until I read your message. I'm surprised it doesn't work. Everything's fine with direct playback from the HiMD... Any suggestions?

(I have imported and converted tracks a million times already on my other computer, but on my recently set up workplace in my second appartment (Windows 2000 SP4) I am experiencing this problem for the first time.)

Thanks in advance for thinking about this. And good luck to you, cocoon.

Viktor

[sfbp]

First step is to show the "file path" on the list of attributes in my library. You may find the file isn't where SS thinks it is.

Another thing you can try is to FIND the file (using Windows) and open it with Windows Media Player.

Once you have found the files, it might be a good idea to decrypt them. But you have to find them first. If you know where they are but Sonic Stage doesn't, you can delete them from SonicStage without deleting the actual files, then re-IMPORT them to SS.

If you need help with any of these tasks, just yell loudly.....

You'd better tell us exactly what error you get. It's possible that you tried to play back the files on a different computer or different Windows installation without decrypting them on the old one. In this case, you HAVE to go back to the old setup, or reupload them using the new installation, from HiMD.

Stephen

[binimgarten]

Hey Stephen,

thanks for the quick reply, I appreciate it.

I'm not sure I can follow everything you suggested (maybe because English is not my first language). So let me explain some more:

First step is to show the "file path" on the list of attributes in my library. You may find the file isn't where SS thinks it is.

What do you mean by 'attributes in my library'?

I think understand the logic that SS might point to a different location for the track. So I opened the "Track Properties", where under the "File Info" tab it shows me the "Location". It is in fact a path to a file that actually exists.

Another thing you can try is to FIND the file (using Windows) and open it with Windows Media Player.

You can play back *.oma files with Media Player? I didn't know that. In my case it doesn't work.

I should add that I didn't record in PCM format, but HiSP. If that's of any relevance I'm sorry for not mentioning it earlier.

Once you have found the files, it might be a good idea to decrypt them.

This is probably a stupid question: Decrypt? What do you mean? Are you talking about the "File Conversion Tool"?

You'd better tell us exactly what error you get. It's possible that you tried to play back the files on a different computer or different Windows installation without decrypting them on the old one. In this case, you HAVE to go back to the old setup, or reupload them using the new installation, from HiMD.

No, the files are "fresh". It's a show my friend's band played last night - recorded via mic-in, never imported before. (I just mentioned the old setup to emphasize I usually kinda know what I'm doing ).

The exact error message when trying to convert to WAV is the same as cocoon posted: "One or more tracks cannot be saved in WAV format. -- Cannot save in WAV format."

When trying to play back the imported track there is no error message: The play/pause button just doesn't change to pause and there's no music.

I'd be very happy if you maybe had some more ideas now that I've been a bit more precises. Thanks again.

Viktor

[sfbp]

To cut a long story short, let's see if the DB is intact by running the File Conversion tool and removing the decryption. This is accomplished by unchecking the box "Add copy protection" that you get at the second screen of that utility, before proceeding.

If all goes well, at the very least you now have hi-SP files you can copy to another installation and play there.

Can you try that and report back? If it works, the filenames should change from .oma to .OMA, incidentally, though this suffix (.OMA) is NOT an infallible indicator that a file is decrypted or encrypted.

S

[binimgarten]

Hey again,

yipp, the File Conversion Tool seems to work just fine. Now I have an OMA file.

Good to know I could now work with the file on another computer. Too bad I don't have one that's not hundreds of miles away :-/

Anyway, thanks for all your help.

I guess now there's nothing left for me to try? Maybe I'll install Windows XP or something...

--Vik

[sfbp]

Hooray, that means that almost nothing is wrong.

I'm unfortunately not an expert at fiddling with the pieces of the SonicStage install. Avrin seems to be the only one.

What I strongly recommend is that you simply install his Ultimate edition over top of what you have and see if that helps. I have done that without problems. The pieces are quite complex and the encryption/decryption stuff is very well hidden in an interpreted language (bytecode) subsystem.

I never asked what version of Windows you are running. If you are on W64bits there are all sorts of possible "gotchas" which I can think of. But others got it working (I don't have W64).

If the .OMA file still won't play it sounds like the codecs are simply not installed. Could that be because of W64?

Stephen

addendum: I recall something about Microsoft ADPCM Codec needing to be in the list of Codecs (at CtrlPanel->Sounds and Audio Devices->Hardware->Audio Codecs->Properties, at least in Windows XP) and somewhere near the top of it, and not disabled. Maybe it's as simple as that? Did you recently install something that plays HDCP/HDMI?

Whoops: you might have to enable the "Microsoft PCM Converter" too, see this post by Avrin

[binimgarten]

big thanks to you for coming up with all the possible things that could be the cause!

turns out, the "ultimate" version fixed whatever was wrong. i guess, i should thank avrin, too. dankesch