Talk:SonicStage

message: This article reads like a (quite harsh) magazine review of the software, and it definitely is not NPOV.
I'll sit down with my Vaio notebook this weekend and explore SonicStage to get a better feel for the program and see if this can be cleaned up. LarryMac 19:11, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Encyclopedia article or review? 

message: Whether it is 'accurate' or not is immaterial - Wikipedia articles are supposed to represent a Neutral Point of View and the article doesn't include any balanced information or the positive aspects of SonicStage's sound format (such as the good sound quality in comparison to an equivalent-bitrate MP3)
However, as with most other articles, a criticism section may be appropriate. Leaving out the very numerous and nearly unanimously agreed upon criticisms would be to limit the accuracy of the article.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.181.42.112 (talk) 03:50, 12 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wikipedia is not a reviews site 

message: While the article does contain a very well thought out biased review of the software, an acceptable article would only explain the use of the software, and what it's limited functions are.  It should not discuss what the software's abitlites aren't, or suggest changes to make it better.
the correct way to do it, imo, would be to have factual and neutral page with a 'criticisms' section at the end --Neon white 16:51, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Definetly a review 

message: Sony has a nice line of portable music players. From its first tape walkmans to the latest flash memory mp3 players. However, in a world where computer useage is turning into something almost ubuquitous, they have decided to create a player that will only run in Windows, and, not only that, they decided to impose the use of _their_ software of choice, instead of the _users_ software of choice, Sonic Stage.
However, the point is not on the choice of software, instead, on the security flaws created by the SonicStage player. In the connected context that we are living into, security is turning into a big concern, that can be seen on the amount of efforts applied to it. Take for instance the new Windows version, Vista, that implements a new feature called UAP - User Account Protection, that, simply put, enforces the useage of a restricted access rights for daily useage and administrator access rights only for out of ordinary tasks.
So, what is the problem? Simply put, Sony's SonicStage won't allow you to run the software as a restricted user. Only with super-user privileges. Altough not a flaw as serious as Sony's latest approach to DRM, the installation of rootkits through music cd's, but a serious flaw none the less, that indulges most users to use their software as an administrator, what definitely is not a reasonable approach. Taken that the "Least Privilege Principle" is well know in computer security, where the user is to be given the required access rights to be able to do his tasks, no more, no less.
:Version 4.3 runs under a limited user account with no problem. 109.153.242.10 (talk) 17:53, 7 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  About security flaws on SonicStage 

message: I noticed that someone deleted some comments about Version 4. There may be some useable stuff in what was deleted:
- Sonic Stage CP is an improvement over the previous version, though in look and feel it is very similar to version 3. One major addition is the ability to import AAC music files (used by Apple for the Ipod) with extensions *.3gp, *.mp4, *.m4a as well as continued wav, mp3, and wma support. The program is a bit trick to use, with some non-obvious learning curve issues. The power to sort and edit groups of files doesn't become apparent until you set it to show all tracks. Then clicking on any headers will sort and allow you to modify the properties of groups of tracks (for example marking the tracks in a compilation album so the different artists don't show them as different albums) or deleting a group of files you've manually moved on your hard drive.   
- The gracenote cddb music database worked oddly when importing wav files, but seemed to work well if your converting your cd library to one of Sony's ATRAC format. The ATRACPlus LossLess is well supported, and you can go through the awkward process of converting to wav and mp3 if necessary.   
-    
- Unless you are using a Sony portable digital walkman, I don't see why you would use SonicStage. If you have one, then this version is actually useable if still limited compared to many other systems (such as Yahoo's new music engine). Unfortunately, converting files back and forth loses most of the album and track data, and it is an extra step that you have to go through wav to convert anything.   
- The databases are using microsoft's jet database package, and can back up and restore to another computer if needed. That's handy, but once again, using some kind of file that other programs could read (such as id3 tags or Yahoo's xml based system) would be a real plus. If the program crashes, or otherwise fails to work properly (I had some problems with it accessing cd-rom and dvd drives on two computers) theres doesn't seem to be any way to report the error to Sony. 
:There is some useful information in there, but it needs to be written in a more appropriate style.  It's full of opinion and original research.  --LarryMac 14:34, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Comments on Version 4 Changes. Do they belong, or not? 

message: The edit of July 9th changed this section, I believe incorrectly.
The suggested text was:
:As a simple rule of thumb: ATRAC3Plus at 128 kbit/s gives CD quality. ATRAC3Plus at 96 gives near CD quality. ATRAC3Plus at 64 kbit/s gives generally acceptable quality. ATRAC3Plus at 48 kbit/s gives better than FM quality. For more information see [ATRAC]].
Unfortunately Atrac doesn't give CD quality at 128 kbs - that's why Sony provides an ATRAC bit rate of 256kbs. Not even Sony are claiming CD quality at 128kbs. I also believe this text overrates the quality of the sound compared to FM - a lot.
Is there any evidence to support these changes? mtj 9th July 2006
That's no excuse to blank the section.B|Cube 21:07, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Choice of Bitrate 

message: This might be a useful collection of apps to use as replacements, but Wikipedia is not the right place for this stuff. We should aim to be encyclopedic, which means that rather than including a bunch of research here we should describe the research of other credible sources. I'm planning on removing this section in future. Chris Cunningham (talk) 17:56, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: The first place I look for information is wikipedia, and that includes clues to alternative programs.  A simple link to an alternative program is ok until someone writes an entire page.  Jeremiahbell (talk) 06:12, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  Wikipedia is not a substitute for the Yellow Pages. There's surely an external site which points to these apps. Chris Cunningham (talk) 12:49, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

text: I agree with Jeremiahbell in that wikipedia is one of the first places I look for information, and it is actually how I "did" find an alternative to the less than stellar SonicStage software. I see now that the links to those alternative programs has been removed, and I am hoping to find out if they can be reposted. I tried out all the alternative programs that were posted originally, and I have been sticking with the one program that has continued to be developed and supported and works very well with both older and newer Sony Walkman products. I believe there are quite a few people that would be very happy to be able to quickly and easily find out about the alternative software products that will work with their Sony Walkman products, and this wikipedia page was, could be and should be one of the sources of that information. I think the analogy of the "yellow pages" is not appropriate as this page was the "external site which points to the apps." No sarcasm intended, I'm just pointing out that this page was exactly that page.--Borg2112 (talk) 04:05, 9 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: If you're new to Wikipedia please familiarize yourself with our guidelines for external links. That's what we generally use to determine which links should belong in an article. Themfromspace (talk) 04:20, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

text:  Thank you for the link. I am new as that was my first-ever post, so I do appreciate your help.--Borg2112 (talk) 04:34, 9 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links 

message: You can copy music to and from newer players without drivers or additional software (USB mass storage device class plug-and-play). SonicStage was the one reason I stayed away from Sony players before, but my new one plays nice with Ubuntu. --78.149.120.106 (talk) 23:21, 31 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  No longer needed 

message: While I agree that this article shouldn't read like a bad magazine review, I think that there does at least need to be a 'Criticism' section in it, seeing as there is certainly plenty of it going around. Yes/no?  Fairweather01 (talk) 03:30, 29 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Criticism section 

message: i had formatted the device in the computer, now when i try to transfer songs from the software sonicstage it ask me to empty the harddisk of the device as well as initialise the harddisk now what should i do as the model no. is NW-E003F  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.70.78.12 (talk) 11:50, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  about  the flash memory in the walkman  

message: I've just added that SonicStage 4.3 is not avialable for download from the Sony site.  It's the first ref I've added & don't know how to add any comments to it.  The download page is still there. It has a Sony Asia address  (http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/60444).  It's the only one I found when I looked for the download the other year, and is English.  Even though Sony have localised sites (song.co.uk, sony-europe.com etc.) this appears to be The download page.
Dannman (talk) 12:02, 16 September 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: This is exactly why I intensely dislike software that is totally dependant on being downloaded from the internet.  Should one ever need to rebuild a Windows system disc (a not unlikely requirement given its inherent instability), it becomes impossible to reinstall such software when this is necessary.  It is (in my view) always a bad idea when you cannot download the software itself, but only download an installer which is still totally dependant on finding the software itself on the internet and thus remains totally dependant on the supplier maintaining its availabilty.  86.145.151.250 (talk) 16:41, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

text: I'm sorry to disappoint you (or anyone else seeking Sonicstage 4.3), but all the linked site allows you to actually download is a message basically telling you, "hard luck, Sonicstage ain't here any more".  86.149.79.140 (talk) 16:29, 11 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  CP/4.3 no longer avialable 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on SonicStage. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20080424045859/http://ipastudio.com:80/forums/showthread.php?t=1385 to http://ipastudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1385
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 02:06, 12 January 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello, I am Nicolas Bahamondes, I was doing some freelance research during this quarantine season. Criticisms aside, I created a compilation of major versions of SonicStage at Internet Archive. This archive will be kept updated as soon as I find more versions of this program. Even if this program has bad reputation on the internet, it is important to keep track of its files for the posterity.
The external link of the archive has been added at the External Links section of the wiki.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.160.142.89 (talk) 05:04, 1 April 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  SonicStage Digital Archive external link