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What is the status of Sonic Stage (4-2015)?

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Tom B

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It's April, 2015, and I am among those forced to move from XP (32) to a replacement, in my case Windows 7 (64).   Sonic Stage did work on my XP installation, and I have kept a backup of it.  Some functions required users to access a Sony web site to validate or "authorize" an installation, so normal functions of Sonic Stage would be permitted by their administration.  Does this web page server still operate?  If not, is there a file that is part of my backup that should be used?  I am not willing to lose my previously transferred recordings, most of which were made with a microphone at public events. I do not have any files purchased from Sony's on-line "store." (The computer is the same, but has a new hard drive with the Windows 7 (64) installation.  My files from Sonic Stage are on other hard drives, which are installed.)  What is the best procedure to make use of Sonic Stage with this new Windows 7 setup?

 

(I noted this comment on another discussion of Sonic Stage, found here: 
https://community.sony.com/t5/Walkman-Players/SonicStage/td-p/114459/page/3 

 

"It is not possible to transfer tracks into a computer other than the original computer or (if applicable) one which is authorized with the specific player. If the hard drive of the computer was changed or formatted, the only way to recover the music files is by restoring them using the SonicStage backup tool (provided a backup is available). If you do not have a backup or no longer have access to the original computer, you will have to delete the tracks from your portable player and re-import them from the original source into the new computer." )

 

 

 

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So far my installation of Windows 7 (64) today will play my .OMA files, using VLC.  It's not like it was when we all began.  But I would prefer to be able to use Sonic Stage, or as much of it, as possible.  I have not installed Sonic Stage under Windows 7, yet, or the other programs that work with Sonic Stage.  I'm hoping to hear from people with experience with Windows 7 and this kind of change in operating systems so I can work out a plan to do this right.  I remember in previous years we had hours of trouble dealing with the Sony MD recorders and Sonic Stage. 

 

 


 

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There is no problem with SS setup with Windows 7 64bit (Ultimate SS & MD drivers are available on this forum). I am with 8.1 64bit. You just need to use a Windows "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement" session during drivers installation and restart Windows. This is the trick you can use with Windows 7 if you have a problem.

 

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I've got Sonicstage Ultimate version 4.3 running happily on 3 Windows 7 machines (two 64 bit laptops and one 32 bit netbook).  Touch wood and all, but I've never had any problems, including backups/authentication, most recently last weekend, with over 90GB/5000 tracks, and haven't had to resort to Phillppe's trick to get it work either.

 

Installed the NetMD drivers and works fine with (Sony) NetMD as well as Hi-MD portables.

 

Does a reasonable job as my main PC music player too.

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Ohh no... I just tried to convert some of my old recordings to wav, but SS wont open them.

 

As I can see, Im not the only one with this problem.

 

I dont have my old win system any more, they were made on my old PC that had Vista. I now have a new PC with win7. I put all my ATRAC files on a extrenal HD when getting rid of the old Vista PC and now wanted to import them to my new PC, but all I get from SS is the message about "It is not possible to transfer tracks..." - since I have no chance in Hell to get the old PC back, I guess I (well, my ATRAC files) are doomed... That was a couple of years of kick concerts gone...

 

I can play the files on VLC, so I guess my only hope will be to play them through VLC and re-record them...?

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You need ffmpeg. It works fine on everything except advanced lossless (AAL). You've run into the problem that Sony helped (on purpose) to create by making it impossible to move files, thereby (it hoped) preventing copying of music you don't really own a license to.

 

There are ways to revive that lot in Sonic Stage. Others will tell you how. But if you don't have ANY files from your old machine saved (apart from the sound files themselves) you are stuck with ffmpeg. Which is an amazingly good option compared to a year or two ago (see my post in Announcements).

 

It even supports command line processing, so is perfect for batch jobs.

 

good luck

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Sonic Stage did work on my XP installation, and I have kept a backup of it.  Some functions required users to access a Sony web site to validate or "authorize" an installation, so normal functions of Sonic Stage would be permitted by their administration.  

 

"It is not possible to transfer tracks into a computer other than the original computer or (if applicable) one which is authorized with the specific player. If the hard drive of the computer was changed or formatted, the only way to recover the music files is by restoring them using the SonicStage backup tool (provided a backup is available). If you do not have a backup or no longer have access to the original computer, you will have to delete the tracks from your portable player and re-import them from the original source into the new computer." )

 

I had a hard drive crash on me and I basically lost my music that was on SS. It was a real pain and I was angry. I still am. Nowadays when I need to transfer music from my minidisc to SS I make sure that it creates a WAV file so I'd at least have another copy of it somewhere. I'm not a fan of WAV since the files are so big, but it's better than nothing.

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 since I have no chance in Hell to get the old PC back, I guess I (well, my ATRAC files) are doomed... That was a couple of years of kick concerts gone...

 

 And this is why people hated Minidisc players -- copy protection. I'm feeling angry for you. I would have hated losing my concerts that I recorded.

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I'm still running XP with no problems at all and Sonic Sstage works like a dream; including Simple Burner which I use quite often.

I simply refused to be frightened by Microsoft into giving up XP.  I't's possibly one of their best operating systems; simple and robust.  And I do continue to get monthly updates from Microsoft.

 

Wouldn't it also be possible to have a stand alone computer; one not connected to the internet, that runs on XP to use Sonic Stage without any glitches?  Of course 'Grace Note' and such would not be available but, a small incovienence. 

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I have a virtualbox comprised of a stripped down windows 2000 with sonicstage installed to do uploads...I'm still working on fixing the crash on load for windows 10, it's a real headscratcher.

 

hopefully I get it fixed before Win10 goes gold.

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