drwtsn32 Posted May 27, 2004 Report Share Posted May 27, 2004 I can't believe it, but Sony got version 2.0 right! I could never stand using version 1.0/1.5 and would always resort to using SimpleBurner with my NetMD. With SonicStage 2.0 it imported all of my 320kbps MP3s into the library and lets me transfer easily to my HiMD. The first time it transfers it will convert the file to OMG format automatically. BTW, I'm using an NH600D I picked up at Target. I tried the remote from my R90 with this and the buttons worked but the LCD on the remote was basically blank. I'll play around with it some more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted May 27, 2004 Report Share Posted May 27, 2004 Indeed! Sonicstage 2 really isn't that bad. It's the best yet, and hopefully 2.1 [with better PCM functionality] will be even better. Get's an ok in my book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leland Posted May 27, 2004 Report Share Posted May 27, 2004 I think SS 2 is a substantial improvement. It is more stable for starters. I was getting lockups with SS 1.5 when transfering in the SP compatibility mode to use MD's in my car where I lack MDLP. But there is still much to be done. Other music software is much more flexible. I would like some ability to make it easier to use for playing along with music with my guitar. The ability to transpose to a different key or to slow down a song without changing the pitch would be great. Also, the ability to generate random playlists is gone, which was kind of fun, and there is no facility to rate songs like itunes does, which would also be nice. Also, even though I have a VAIO and can write CD's, I think this capability should be enabled on any PC with a CD writer, not only Sony PC's. It seems like it can't be about DRM if they let Sony PC users do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted May 27, 2004 Report Share Posted May 27, 2004 Good suggestions, Leland. I honestly think that in time, we could see a decent maturity with this software. I'd also like to add: Let us Americans browse foreign Connect markets! It'd be cool to buy Japanese music that way..also, a choice in bitrate for purchases off Connect. It'd be nice to get Hi-SP quality tracks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leland Posted May 27, 2004 Report Share Posted May 27, 2004 One cool feature of SS2 for those who play music is the ability to attach a text file or a URL to a particular song. I have been using this to keep a copy of the guitar chords or tablature with the song or a link to a tab on a website using the URL feature. I can then make a playlist of all the songs I like to play along with, and have all the chords, lyrics, tabs etc. right there. Itunes cannot do this as far as I can tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PDOG58 Posted May 27, 2004 Report Share Posted May 27, 2004 Indeed! Sonicstage 2 really isn't that bad. It's the best yet, and hopefully 2.1 [with better PCM functionality] will be even better. Get's an ok in my book.I think Sonic Stage 2.0 is great. I downloaded it about 3 weeks ago and it has worked flawlessly for me. Any word as to what extra features will be released with 2.1? I pray some sort of an export function so I can edit stuff I have recorded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damage Posted May 27, 2004 Report Share Posted May 27, 2004 One thing that I actually miss from SS 1.5? SS 1.5 had automatic mix making and uploading (random mix generation depending on your choice of artists, genres, etc). I may be dumb as a brick but I haven't found anything close to it on SS 2.0. That is somewhat mitigated by the group/artists/album navigation feature on the HiMD units and Auto Ranking (I miss this!) on the CD Walkmans Other than that one nifty feature SS2.0 is actually a pretty decent software from Sony... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dobber Posted May 27, 2004 Report Share Posted May 27, 2004 I agree 2.0 is a significant improvement. I never used either version from my 505 & 510. Used M3U2SB & S.Burner. I Have been useing 2.0 for about a week now. It even allows me to convert and transfer very low bit-rate mp3 audiobook files. Only wish there were someway to auto sync my MP3 directory and the SS2 Library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alieninhead Posted May 27, 2004 Report Share Posted May 27, 2004 I'm OK with SS2. I liked the old way you recorded things in SS 1.5; the ability to click on "hard drive" to "NetMD" just made more sense to me visually; I've had some awkward moments with SS2.0 because of that. I understand how to use it, it just seems waaaay tooo funky for me. But in general, I do like the added functions it gives. I'd transfer all my tracks into it if I used Windows lots, but I don't do that much anymore... To be honest, I don't use it much. I open it up, maybe buy some music, or import it and transfer to my NetMD. It's not my favorite media player in the world..waay too hard on RAM and processing power. ~a.i.h. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmp64 Posted May 28, 2004 Report Share Posted May 28, 2004 Here are two things I'd like to see in a future version of SS: 1) Normalizing 2) Auto-playlists (i.e. - make me a 3 hour playlist of Classic Rock and Alternative tunes, then normalize them when I transfer to MD. Or normalize my entire library). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Stamp Posted May 28, 2004 Report Share Posted May 28, 2004 it can normalize when burning a cd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mAjEsTiC Posted May 28, 2004 Report Share Posted May 28, 2004 yup agreed...SS2 is a lot better than the previous releases...more stable and nice refined interface... features that it has over teh previous ones also are a nice touch...wonder what SS2.1 adds on top of this one... :happy: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmp64 Posted May 28, 2004 Report Share Posted May 28, 2004 "it can normalize when burning a cd" Not sure what you mean - to me, the purpose of normalizing is achieving consistent volumes across multiple sources - which is a problem you would have if creating a playlist, (or album, in SS2's language). I did see something in the options about CD smoothing - or something like that - is that what you are referring to? (Don't have access to SS2 at the moment). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alieninhead Posted May 28, 2004 Report Share Posted May 28, 2004 One thing I don't like about this new SS2 is the way it presents albums. It tells you the time it would take on the disc based in SP mode, but I record in LP2. So I don't know really how much I can stuff on an MD in LP2 mode; in 1.5 it gave you a MB value for the album and you could cross reference that with how much space was left on the disc... ~a.i.h. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alieninhead Posted May 28, 2004 Report Share Posted May 28, 2004 In fact..does anyone have a handy chart that shows you what the compression rate is on LP2 compared to SP, since Sony was not kind enough to show it for me in SS2? I'd definitely be very happy if someone diiiid! ~a.i.h. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted May 28, 2004 Report Share Posted May 28, 2004 True SP is 292kbps, but if you're transferring via NetMD it's actually LP2 badged as SP. Anyway, LP2 is 132kbps. All bitrates are in the Hi-MD faq, btw: http://minidisc.org/hi-md_faq.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbm Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 While waiting for the Hi-MD units to come in, I decided to download SonicStage from Connect to see what it is all about. It has several selections for burning to CD, but I don't see any mention of MD or HI-MD. Will the MD selections show up when I connect a HI-md to my computer, or will I have to Install the software that comes with the Hi-MD? Thanks, Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alieninhead Posted June 1, 2004 Report Share Posted June 1, 2004 Good question, as someone who has never had a NetMD/Hi-MD player may not know...that yes, the "record to NetMD" does not show up until you connect a player to your computer via USB and it is turned on. ~a.i.h. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbm Posted June 1, 2004 Report Share Posted June 1, 2004 Thanks Alieninhead. Interesting, you would think they would put the MD selections to show all the time so that someone not using MD might decide to give it a try. One more question. Is there a way to combine 2 albums into one on the computer in SonicStage? Thanks again,, Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fray Adjacent Posted June 1, 2004 Report Share Posted June 1, 2004 Here's a neat idea for an added function: Allow SS2 to take a regular 80min MD that was recorded in NetMD mode, and reformat to HiMD mode, and then write back the tracks to the disc. Basically, take a MD with two or three CDs in LP2 mode, and convert it to HiMD mode to free up space without really having to 're-burn' the tracks to the MD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbm Posted June 1, 2004 Report Share Posted June 1, 2004 On my last question never mind, I figured it out. Now all I need is a Hi-MD to write to. -Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Linc Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 To agree with what was mentioned elsewhere, I would really like to see normalizing of tracks in SonicStage. I often play music from my PC when preparing and eating meals, and if I make the quieter tracks more audible in the kitchen, the louder tracks darn near knock my monitor off its perch! I would also like to see an expansion of editing functions in SS. Right now I can Divide or Combine tracks, which is a nice thing. Divide is especially nice for those tracks with four-minute gaps (who decided that was cool?) or to extract the main part of a song from some weird bit of introductory noise. I also like to extract songs with intros I like but which are ruined when the lyrics begin. But of course, I want more! I would like to be able to fade the volume at the end of the first part of a Divided track, which would make some of my extractions a bit less jarring. This leads to being able to ramp up the volume at the beginning of the second part of a Divided track so that it sounds better. I would like the capability to determine the length of the fade. I miss the playback equalizer I had when using OpenMG. Come to think of it, being able to both normalize volume and adjust for too much or too little of this or that frequency range would be most welcome when playing from SonicStage or transferring music to a disc. I don't suppose there exists any third-party software than can do any of this without causing problems with SonicStage.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mshadel Posted July 6, 2004 Report Share Posted July 6, 2004 Personally I've found SS2.0 to be irritatingenough that I've considered returning my 600D. It's the only software on my computer that crashes on a regular basis. Once it has crashed it will not work reliably until I do a full reboot. On many occasions SS will report that there's no MD present when one is clearly plugged in. The player says it's connected, but SS can't see it. Even if it were very stable there are a lot of features missing: 1. The ability to drag tracks from outside into the program. I would love to drag a folder of WMA's from Explorer straight into SS. As it is now music has to be imported into SS before I can do anything with it. 2. Adding new music to SS is a pain in the ass. I often buy several albums at a time online. I want SS to scan my collection to pick up the new ones. Instead, I am forced to either add each album individually, or re-scan the entire collection, which takes over an hour. 3. There's no good way to determine how many tracks will fit on a disc. Why can't SS tell you the total running time of the tracks you've selected before beginning the transfer? Related to that, I'd like to tweak the list of music I want to transfer before the transfer begins and the CPU slows to a crawl. 4. Selecting a mode for the music transfer is non-intuitive. It should let you select your transfer mode from a simple list, period. 5. SS encodes your music on the fly when you transfer it for the first time. I want to encode my entire library ahead of time so I don't have to wait around when I'm trying to put a disc together quickly. Give us a codec! 6. All my music was FLAC encoded before getting the MD unit. SS can't see it. I had to reencode everything to WMA Lossless in order to use it with SS. SS needs to allow plugins to support different codecs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mshadel Posted July 6, 2004 Report Share Posted July 6, 2004 [double post, don't know how to delete it...] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breepee Posted July 6, 2004 Report Share Posted July 6, 2004 6. All my music was FLAC encoded before getting the MD unit. SS can't see it. I had to reencode everything to WMA Lossless in order to use it with SS. SS needs to allow plugins to support different codecs.I agree completely and especially with the last one. Plugins would be great (or at least support for FLAC, and OGG while we're at it). I must say I have my hopes on realone player. I like it as a allround audio library (software is a bit sloppy, but you can't have it all ) and I think HiMD will be support (like NetMD). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rochee Posted July 8, 2004 Report Share Posted July 8, 2004 Can someone help me here. Afer I encode MPS in SS2 and upload to a MD I would like to play the encoded file in SS2 as well. When I click on any OMG file it does not play. Does anyone else have this problem? Thanks, Kieran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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