Howdy All,
I have a Sony MiniDisc Walkman MZ-NE410 and I must say it is a great little unit. However, I'm having an issue with the SonicStage software that comes with it. I have a large MP3 collection I made out of my CD's at home, which are now stored in their jewel cases in the basement. I'm trying to import these MP3's into SonicState to put on my MD player, but I keep getting an error message saying that these files are not supported by SonicStage. They are both CBR and VBR, and all the other settings are standard from MusicMatch Jukebox, which has never steered me wrong in the past. I'm running SonicStage on a Celeron 533 with 256MB RAM and Windows XP Pro. There is plenty of swap space for Sonic Stage to play with (I checked as I ran into that problem before).
I've had nothing but problems with this piece of software. Googling provides little and Sony tech support is completely unfriendly. Is there any other software I could use to put music on this MD walkman, or is SonicStage my only choice?
The Czar
(I should have saved up and bought an iPod!)
Due to Sony doing a Microsoft, SonicStage is the only known available software able to do standard MDs. If you had a Hi-MD, then you could use almost anything, but you dont. Something you could (this is very CD wasteful) do, is to burn all your MP3s to CDs, and copy them that way.
Use a CDRW then its not so wasteful.
is it possible to use one of those cd emulator programs (i think like alcholol 120) which would then give you a virutal cd rom drive?
Then you could "burn" the mp3 to audio very fast (since its going to a virtual drive on your hdd and not a real cd) and then extract that way.
Just an idea/thought. (I have no idea if that really would work though).
Use Nero.
I got no business posting here. I don't use a Mac. But what I am saying works on Windows.
Use Nero express, choose to create a music CD.
Add your MP3's into the compilation and select Burn.
When it asks what device you want to burn to tell it you want to create an image.
It will default to a disc image in the Nero format. Don't worry about this, tell it to go to town and do its thing.
When it is done use Alcohol 120 to mount the image to a virtual drive.
SonicStage will recognize it and all will be right with the world.
I am currently experimenting with Real Player. I learned last night that Real Player will write to Minidisc.
Like the guy above me, I also have no buisness posting on here as I'm not a Mac user either. However, this was the first page that I got when I googled SonicStage alternative so I thought I'd give this place a go for some advice...
Now, having read the thread, I now realise that you cannot get an alternative to SonicStage. Reading down further, I come to the whole "use nero, burn image" advice etc. But the thing is, I can't actually get into SonicStage to even try this. Every time I open it (or NetMD SimpleBurner for that matter) I get the Microsoft Patented "Unexpected Error" screen. I have tried everything from uninstalling all the drivers to deleted all Sony related files from my machine. When I try to reinstall it, the same problem occurs. Any idea on how to sort this?
I'm also having problems with the SonicStageInstaller but that's a whole other tale for a whole other day.
I used the Nero/Alcohol 52% trick and everything worked perfectly. It's much more convenient to make a mixed MD than digging out a dozen CD's and doing the disc shuffle to get exactly what you want (anyone remember the floppy shuffles needed to install OS 7.5.x on an older Powerbook with no CD ROM Drive? You'll know what I mean...).
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.
The Czar
I have also don't have any business being on this forum, but have stumbled arcoss it after Googling Sonicstage alternative. Please excuse my randomness.
It appears no alternative to Sony's Sonicstage exists. This is a shame, as my MP3 play is quite nice, but I can't be dealing with this software. Be warned, stay away from Sony and Apple mp3 players, unless you like software screwing your happyness!
Sonicstage is all flash and pure gash! Rant time$&£"!
NO - I don't want you to resort all my music
CAN'T FIND THE DAM MP3! - as your ordering sucks
YOU MUMMA SUCKS SHEEPS - I am not buying your lame ass AAC with DRM
SONY - your MP3 players suck, purely because of poor software. My SONY is going on Ebay (Sorry mum & Dad, nice idea for a Christmas present. I don't mean to be an ungrateful little chimp, but Sonicstage will destroy my life!)
BuR
Alternative software is listed on Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SonicStage#Third-Party_Alternatives
Sorry for the rant before reaserch!