SonicStageTM
Sony’s SonicStage™ software makes it easy for you to get the most from your music. With SonicStageTM, you can store and play digital music content on your VAIO® PC, download digital music, create playlists from your music CDs, import audio files in various formats, watch music with ‘the Visualizer’, create custom CDs, even enhance the quality of your listening experience with the SonicStageTM equalizer. If you like music, you will love SonicStageTM!
Listening to Various Audio Sources
So, you have music from different audio sources that you want to listen to on your VAIO®? Not a problem! Importing these songs is easy with SonicStageTM. But, did you know that you can also experiment with various pitches, listen to the vocals or instruments alone, or even change the frequency ranges? With SonicStageTM software who needs a music studio? More...
Transferring Your Music to CDs
Now that you made your own musical mixes, you want to put them on CD so that you can share your talents with friends and family. You can make your own CD creations that only sound like they cost a lot of money to create. More...
Features
Need some help with navigating through the SonicStageTM software? The Features tutorial can help. More...
Listening to Various Audio Sources
SonicStageTM is an integrated software application that lets you enjoy music. Its intuitive and well matched design makes it compatible with other Sony VAIO® products and provides for easy and quick operations. Not only can you play back songs from audio sources, such as audio CDs, MDs or other audio sources, you can also import songs to the computer's hard disk and organize them as audio files. Furthermore, the imported songs (audio files) can be transferred to portable devices connected to the computer’s USB connector. Some of these devices include:
· Network Walkman®
· Net MDTM Walkman®
· Net MDTM HI-FI SYSTEM
· Memory Stick® HI-FI SYSTEM
· CLIÉ®
· Memory Stick® Reader/Writer
· VAIO® Music Clip
You can also write songs from CDs to CD-R or CD-RW discs to create your original audio (MP3) CDs. To write songs to these discs with SonicStageTM, however, you must use a Sony VAIO® series computer only. This computer must be pre-installed with Windows XP and come with a recordable optical disc drive.
Jessica is determined to make it in the music world. She has been singing and playing music since she was a child. Now, as a member of a local up-and-coming band, she is really trying to critique and steadily improve her musical abilities. Much of her time is spent listening to her songs and playing them back time and time again trying to find both errors and accomplishments. Jessica really wants to perfect her music. To do this, she needs to experiment with various pitches, listen to the vocals or instruments alone, and even change the frequency ranges. Normally, this is done in a studio but what Jessica does not know is that this can be done in a more cost-effective manner that will still produce the results she wants to achieve.
How? With the VAIO® and its SonicStageTM software, she can do all of this and more. So where does she begin? By importing her music to the VAIO®.
Next Step >>
SonicStageTM allows you to play back audio from:
· Hard Disk
· Audio CDs [which are downloaded from the Electronic Music Distribution (EMD) site]
· Net MDTM
· Memory Stick®
· Devices/Media
To play back the first song from an audio source, click the appropriate icon in the Main Window. The Playback Area appears. Click Play in the Playback Area. Playback starts from the beginning of the audio source. You can also double-click the appropriate icon in the Main Window and the playback will start. To play a selected song, click Show List in the Playback Area. The Content Area appears below the Playback Area. From the list in the Content Area, select the Playlist you wish to play back. Check mark the songs you wish to record. Click Play in the Playback Area or double-click the song you want to select.
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You can locate the beginning of the current song, the next song, or the previous song by clicking Skip Forward or Skip Back in the Playback Area while a song is being played back.
You can also fast-forward or rewind a song during playback. Use the slider in the Playback Area to move to the desired starting point for playback. Dragging the slider to the left rewinds the song, and dragging it to the right fast-forwards the song. Playback will start from the point where you release the mouse button.
You can also fast-forward or rewind the song with the Fast Forward or Rewind buttons in the Playback Area while a song is being played back. The song will continue to fast- forward or rewind until the button is released. You can play back a song(s) in a Playlist or audio source continuously (Repeat), in random order (Shuffle) or repeatedly in random order (Repeat+Shuffle). If you play back songs on an MD or MG Memory Stick®, you can play back songs in a group (Group Playback) or play them back repeatedly (Repeat Group).
You can select from the following play modes in the Playback Area:
· Repeat 1 · Repeat All · Shuffle · Repeat+Shuffle · Group Playback (only for an MD and MG Memory Stick ®) · Repeat Group (only for an MD and MG Memory Stick®) · None (to return to normal playback)
The Visualizer Window displays various images that change with the song being played back from the audio source. You can view the images in full screen mode and enjoy synchronized audio and visual effects.
Click Visualizer in the lower right of the Main Window while playing back songs. The Visualizer Window appears. The images are displayed on the right of the window and the song list on the selected audio source is displayed on the left. The images will continuously change during playback.
To change the images on the Visualizer, click Options at the bottom of the Visualizer, point to Select Visualizer, and select the images you wish to display. The images on the Visualizer change. To view the Visualizer in full screen mode, click Full Screen at the bottom of the Visualizer. Alternatively, double-click anywhere on the Visualizer. The images in the Visualizer Window appear in full screen mode allowing you to enjoy the integration of sounds and images.
To return the window to the original size, press the Esc key, right-click the window and select Restore from the menu. You can also double-click anywhere in the window.
To close the Visualizer Window, click the Close icon in the upper right corner of the Visualizer Window and the Visualizer Window closes.
You can enable the equalizer effect when you play back songs. Click EQ at the bottom of the Main Window, and select the desired setting from the menu. You can select one of the following settings.
· Flat: Makes the gain in each frequency range equal.
· Rock: Applies the settings most suited to rock music. Select this option for a clear and powerful sound.
· Pop: Applies the settings most suited to pop music. Select this option for a light and rhythmical sound.
· Jazz: Applies the settings most suited to jazz music. Select this option for a percussive sound.
· Classical: Applies the settings most suited to classical music. Select this option to emphasize the bass and treble frequency ranges.
· Equalizer Off: Disables the equalizer effect. · Equalizer Settings: Allows you to adjust the sound quality freely to suit your own tastes, then register the setting according to your choice of surrounding environment.
To change the skin to Simple Mode, click Menu in the lower left of the Main Window. Select Options from the menu. The Options dialog box appears. The items shown in the tree structure on the left of the dialog box indicate the categorized settings of SonicStageTM. If you select an item on the left, the options corresponding to this setting are displayed on the right, allowing you to view or change.
Click the plus sign next to General in the tree view on the left. Click Simple Mode. The following option is displayed on the right: Select Simple Mode Skin. You can select the desired skin (the window's appearance) for simple mode from the list. After set up is completed, click OK. The changes are applied and the Options dialog box closes.
To change to Simple Mode, click Menu in the lower left of the Main Window. Select Simple Mode from the menu. SonicStageTM changes to Simple Mode.
You can cut (or reduce) the vocals of songs to be played back (Vocal Canceller), or adjust the pitch. Click Effects at the bottom of the Main Window, and select Vocal Canceller from the menu. Songs will be played back with vocals cut (or reduced) the next time you begin playback. You cannot apply the Vocal Canceller effect to songs on an MD in the computer's built-in Net MD slot or a Net MD device connected to the computer.
If you wish to adjust the pitch, select Pitch Shift, and then move the slider to the left or right to adjust the desired intervals. Adjustment is between ‘–1 octave’ and ‘+1 octave’. To play back a song at a higher pitch, move the slider to the right. To play back a song at a lower pitch, move the slider to the left. After adjusting the effect, click OK. The adjusted effect is enabled and the dialog box closes.
Click Import in the upper right of the Main Window. The Import Window appears. Click Import All and the Import All wizard appears. Set up the following options:
· File Location Put a checkmark before the drive or folder in which the audio files are stored. Click the Expand View icon next to the drive or folder to display the sub-folders under the selected drive or folder.
· File Type From the drop-down list, select the type of audio file that you wish to import.
· Import Setting Clicking Settings displays the Import Settings dialog box, in which you can select whether to import audio files (stored on the computer) in their original formats, or convert to OpenMG(ATRAC3) or OpenMG(ATRAC3plus) format during the import process. 1 Click Next. All files that can be imported into the Music Drive (as specified by file type) are listed. Clear the checkmarks of the audio files you do not wish to import. If you accidentally clear a checkmark of a file name that you wish to import, click the file name again. To select all files at the same time, click Select All. To deselect all files, click Clear All. Click Finish.
Importing of the audio files starts. When importing is completed, a new Playlist with the same name as the selected folder is created in the Tree view. The audio files are then imported to that Playlist.
You can also import by dragging and dropping a file. Click Import in the upper right of the Main Window. The Import Window appears. Click Show List and the List Area appears below the Import Window. The songs on the Music Drive are displayed in the Tree view on the right.
Select and drag the desired audio file from Windows Explorer. Drop it onto any Playlist. The audio file is imported into the Playlist.
You can drag and drop folders into a Playlist. Select and drag the folder (in which the desired audio file is saved) from Windows Explorer and drop it onto any Playlist folder or Playlist. If you drop a folder onto a Playlist Folder, a Playlist with the same name as the dropped folder is created within the Playlist Folder. The audio files in that folder are then imported to the Playlist. If you drop a folder onto a Playlist, the audio files in the selected folder will be added to that Playlist. If you want to store the music on your HDD, simply insert an audio CD. Click the Get CD Info button to retrieve the CD information from a database on your hard drive or on the Internet. This action is usually automatically completed once a CD is inserted in the CD Drive. Check mark the songs you wish to record. After you select the tracks click the Record button. The recorded music will now show on the Playlist tab.
2 ATRAC3 is Sony’s original audio compression technology that compresses CS audio data up to 1/10 its original size. 1GB of HDD space can hold over 15 CDs worth of music (standard mode, 105kbps). ATRAC3 allows entire CD contents to fit a MagicGate Memory stick ® maintaining an extremely higher quality of sounds.
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Jessica is truly amazed by what she was able to accomplish with Sonic StageTM. She never realized just how well her music could sound with just a few tweaks here and there. And to think it was all possible with just her computer and some great software!!
More information on SonicStageTM Screen Features...
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· Transferring Your Music to CDs << Previous Step Transferring Your Music To CDs
Now that Jessica has perfected her songs, she would like to put together a CD of her best performances to share with friends and her growing number of fans. Not a problem! With SonicStageTM, Jessica can create her own custom CDs and even perfect them a little more with the help of some of SonicStageTM’s specialized music features.
Whenever she wants to remove songs, add new ones or create a totally different CD, she can check in and check out songs from her favorite mixes. In just minutes, Jessica can have a variety of compilations to hand out to her family and friends. Now, she can create great CDs that only sound like they cost a lot of money to create. So where does she begin? By importing her music to the VAIO®.
Next Step >> Create Your Custom Audio CD
You can create an original audio CD by writing songs from a Playlist onto a CD-R or CD-RW disc. In order to create your original audio CDs with SonicStageTM, you must use a Sony VAIO® series computer only. The computer must be pre-installed with Windows XP and come with a recordable optical disc drive.
Songs in WAV, MP3, and OpenMG (WMA) format, as well as those in WMT compliant files, which have no copyright information, can be written to a CD-R or CD-RW disc. When creating an original audio CD from Playlists, it might be more convenient to place the songs to be written into the Favorites Playlist first.
To write all of the songs from a Playlist, insert a blank CD-R or CD-RW disc into the recordable optical disc drive. In order to create your original audio CDs with SonicStageTM, you must use a Sony VAIO® series computer only. The computer must be pre-installed with Windows XP and come with a recordable optical disc drive. The CD icon changes to indicate that a CD-R or CD-RW disc has been inserted. The Write to CD-R/RW from the Music Drive Window appears.
Click Show List and the List Area appears below the Write to CD-R/RW from the Music Drive Window. Click the drop-down list in the upper middle of the window, and select CD-DA from the Writing Format drop-down list.
In the Tree view on the left of the window, select the Playlist containing songs you wish to write. The selected Playlist is highlighted. Click Select All in the middle of the window. All of the songs in the selected Playlist are specified as ‘to be written’ and displayed on the CD-R/RW song list. Click Start Record. The Writing Settings dialog box appears. You can use this dialog box to set the writing method and speed. Click Start Writing. Writing of songs to the CD-R or CD-RW disc starts. When the writing is completed, the disc is automatically ejected.
Alternatively, you can drag the song from the List view and drop it onto the CD-R/RW song list. The song(s) you specified as ‘to be written’ are displayed on the CD-R/RW song list.
You can rearrange the order of songs by using the drag and drop method.
You can rename a song title on the CD-R/RW song list using the keyboard. Since a song title is also written to a CD-R or CD-RW disc as a text data, this allows you to easily create a CD TEXT disc.
If you wish to delete a song from the song list to be written, select the song on the CD- R/RW song list and click Delete in the lower right of the window. Creating an original MP3 CD from Playlists You can create an original MP3 CD by writing songs from a Playlist onto a CD-R or CD- RW disc. In order to create your original MP3 CDs with SonicStageTM, you must use a VAIO® series computer only. The computer must be pre-installed with Windows XP and come with a recordable optical disc drive.
To create an MP3 CD, the disc must fulfill either of the following conditions:
· A blank CD-RW disc or CD-R or CD-RW disc
· An MP3 CD disc which is not yet closed
The only type of song (audio file) that can be written to such an MP3 CD disc is one in MP3 format. When creating an MP3 CD from Playlists, it might be more convenient to place the songs to be written into the Favorites Playlist first.
To write all of the songs from a Playlist, insert a blank CD-R or CD-RW disc into the recordable optical disc drive. The CD icon changes to indicate that a CD-R or CD-RW disc has been inserted. The Write to CD-R/RW from the Music Drive Window appears.
In the Tree view on the left of the window, select the Playlist containing songs you wish to write. The list of songs in the Playlist is shown in the List view. Select the song(s) you wish to write.
To select more than one song simultaneously, hold down the Ctrl key and click the desired songs. To select all of the songs in a Playlist, click Select All in the lower left of the window. Click Set in the middle of the window. Alternatively, you can drag the song from the List view and drop it onto the CD-R/RW song list. The song(s) you specified as ‘to be written’ are displayed on the CD-R/RW song list.
If you wish to delete a song from the song list to be written, select the song on the CD- R/RW song list and click Delete in the lower right of the window.
Click Start in the middle of the window. The Writing settings dialog box appears. You can use this dialog box to set the writing method or speed. Click Start Writing. Writing of songs to the CD-R or CD-RW disc starts. When the writing is completed, the disc is ejected from the drive. A CD-R or CD-RW disc, that has songs written to it and was created as an MP3 CD, is handled by SonicStage in the following ways:
An MP3 CD which is not yet closed The disc is handled as an ‘Appendable MP3CD’, on which more songs can be added. You can initialize these CD-RW discs in the CD-R/CD-RW Properties dialog box that appears when you click Properties in the upper right of the window.
An MP3 CD which is closed The disc is handled as an unsupported (unplayable) disc, from which songs cannot be played back.
<< Previous Step Next Step >> Check-in and check-out songs
You can check out songs from a Playlist on the Music Drive to a device or media connected to the computer. When you check out songs to a device, make sure that the write protect tab of the device is in the unlocked position. Otherwise, check-out cannot be performed.
To check out all of the songs in a Playlist, connect the device or media to the computer. The Check-In/Out Window appears. Click Show List in the Check-In/Out Window.
The List Area appears below the Check-In/Out Window. In the Tree view on the left, select the Playlist containing the song you wish to check out. The selected Playlist is highlighted. Select the transfer mode for checking out, as necessary. When you click Change Check-Out Settings in the upper middle of the window, one of the following dialog boxes will appear according to your device or media.
· When checking out songs to a Net MD™ device: The Setup In Transfer Mode dialog box (Net MD) appears, allowing you to select the transfer mode (‘Standard transfer mode’, ‘Maximize available transfer space’, or ‘SP transfer mode’).
· When checking out songs to an MG Memory Stick® compatible device: The Setup In Transfer Mode dialog box (MG Memory Stick®) appears, allowing you to choose whether or not you apply ‘ATRAC3plus’ format, and also select the transfer mode (‘Standard transfer mode’ or ‘Maximize available transfer space’).
· When checking out songs to anything other than the above devices or media: The Setup In Transfer Mode dialog box for the selected device or media appears, allowing you to select the transfer mode (‘Standard transfer mode’ or ‘Maximize available transfer space’) for checking out songs.
Click Check-Out All in the upper middle of the window.
Checking out of all the songs in the Playlist you selected begins. After checking out has completed, the songs are added to the end of the device or media.
To check out specific songs in a Playlist, simply open the Playlist and select the song then click Check-Out.
Once you are finished listening to the songs, you will want to check them back in. First, be sure that the original device is connected to the computer. To check in all of the songs from a device or media simply click Check-In All in the middle of the Check-In/Out Window. To check in specific songs from a device or media, select the song you wish to check in. Click Check-In in the middle of the window. Checking in of the songs you selected begins.
When the songs are checked-in, disconnect a device or media from the computer. SonicStageTM allows you to check in and check out songs automatically by any of the following methods:
· Connecting a device or media to the computer's USB connector
· Inserting an MD into the computer's built-in Net MD™ slot
· Inserting an MG Memory Stick® into the computer's built-in Memory Stick® slot
Using this feature, you can check in all the songs from a device or media to SonicStageTM. You can also automatically check out songs corresponding to the item you selected (e.g., ‘Recently ‘Played Songs’, ‘Songs not checked-out frequently’, ‘Favorites Playlist’, or ‘Random Songs’, etc.) in the Auto Check-In/Check-Out Setting dialog box that is displayed. To set up SonicStageTM to check in and out automatically, select Use Auto Check- In/Check-Out of the Check In/Out options in the Options dialog box.
<< Previous Step Next Step >> Now, Jessica has created a great CD that demonstrates her best performances. Who says you need to go to a studio to record a CD? With the assistance of SonicStageTM, she has a great CD that will allow others to hear and appreciate her unique sound. If she wants to change the mix she created and compose another one, SonicStageTM also provides her with that option as well. Stardom may only be a few chords away!!
More information on SonicStageTM Screen Features...
<< Previous Step SonicStageTM Screens
Media Source Icons
1. Music Drive This icon is used to operate the music database "Music Drive" managed by SonicStage, or the audio files registered to a Playlist on the Music Drive. 2. CD This icon is used to operate an audio CD, CD-R, or CD-RW disc inserted in the optical disc drive. 3. MD This icon is used to operate an MD inserted in the computer's built-in Net MD slot. (This icon is displayed only on a computer that has a built-in Net MD slot.) 4. MS This icon is used to operate an MG Memory Stick inserted in the computer's built- in Memory Stick slot. (This icon is displayed only on a computer that has a built- in Memory Stick slot (which supports MagicGate Memory Stick.) 5. Devices/Media This icon is used to operate a device or media connected to the computer's USB connector.
Import Window
1. Playback Control area (hard disk) Used when playing back audio files that are stored on the hard disk (before being imported to the Music Drive). The functions and operations of the Playback Control area are the same as those of the audio source Playback Area. 2. Import Control area Contains the Import All/Stop button, Import Format display, Change Import Format/Bit Rate button 3. Playback Control area (Music Drive) Used when playing back songs in a Playlist. The functions and operations of the Playback Control area are the same as those of the Playlist Playback Area. 4. Open/Close Content List button Displays the List Area. On the left side of the List Area, folders and audio files that are stored on the hard disk are listed. On the right side of the List Area, Playlists, or the songs in a Playlist, are shown. Clicking this button while the List Area is being displayed hides the List Area. 5. List Control area (hard disk) Lists the files contained in a selected folder in the Tree view. And displays the folders, etc., on your computer in a tree structure (similar to Windows Explorer). 6. Import Control area Contains the Start and Stop Import buttons, which imports the audio files (or the folders containing the audio files) selected in the Tree view or the List view to the Music Drive. 7. List Control area (Music Drive) Here you can create a new Playlist, select the items in the Tree view, Displays the "Playlist properties" 8. Show Help button Displays this help file.
Playback Area and Content Area
1. Device Identification Area Displays the icon for the device type currently being used by SonicStage 2. Play Back Controls Plays, pauses, rewinds, fast forwards, and stops, the currently played song and ejects the device. 3. Hide List Hides the song list area 4. Song List Displays the list of songs available on the device. Record Window
1. Playback Control area (Music Drive) Used when playing back the songs in a Playlist. The functions and operations of the Playback Control area are the same as those of the Playlist Playback Area. 2. Write Control area Specify the songs (on a selected Playlist) to be written to a CD-R or CD-RW disc, and displays the List Area. Displays the format for writing to a CD-R or CD-RW disc. You can select "CD-DA" or "MP3CD" from the drop-down list. 3. Optical Disc Drive Control area Displays the drive letter of the recordable optical disc drive into which a CD-R or CD-RW disc is inserted. If your computer has more than one recordable optical disc drive. 4. Open/Close Content List button Displays the List Area. Playlists or songs in a Playlist are listed on the left. Songs to be written to a CD-R or CD-RW disc are listed on the right. Clicking this button while the List Area is displayed hides the List Area. 5. List Control area (Music Drive) Here you can launch "PictureGear Studio," "DigitalPrint," or "LabelMaker," which allows you to print a list of songs in a Playlist on a label for a CD or MD, etc. You can select the items in the Tree view (e.g., Playlist, etc.) from the drop- down list by clicking. 6. Write Control area Specify selected songs to be written. Set the Writing settings. Start and stop the CD writing process. 7. List Control area (CD-RW/CD-R) Displays a list of songs to be written to a CD-R or CD-RW disc. When you select "MP3CD" for the writing format, you can create folders in the song list. You can rearrange the order of songs or folders, or change the multi-level structure in the list by using the drag and drop method. Create new folders in the song list. Initialize a CD-RW disc. 8. Show Help button Displays this help file.
Check-In/Out Window
1. Playback Control area (Music Drive) Used when playing back songs in a Playlist. The functions and operations of the Playback Control area are the same as those of the Playlist Playback Area. 2. Check-In/Check-Out Control area Here you can check in songs on a device/media, MD, or MG Memory Stick to the Music Drive. Select transfer mode and set check-out settings. 3. Playback Control area (Device/Media, MD, or MG Memory Stick) Used when playing back the songs on a device or media, MD, or MG Memory Stick. The functions and operations of the Playback Control area are the same as those of the Playback Area of the audio source. 4. Open/Close Content List button Displays the List Area. Playlists or the songs in a Playlist are listed on the left. Songs on a device or media, MD, or MG Memory Stick are listed on the right. 5. List Control area (Music Drive) Here you can select the items in the Tree view (e.g., Playlist, etc.) from the drop- down list. Allows you to switch between "Tree + List" view and "List" view. Displays Playlist Folders and Playlists, etc., in a tree structure (similar to Windows Explorer). 6. Check-In/Check-Out Control area Checks in and out the selected songs on a device or media, MD, or MG Memory Stick. Moves in and out the selected songs on an MG Memory Stick (in the computer's built-in Memory Stick slot or an MG Memory Stick compatible device connected to the computer) to a Playlist. 7. List Control area (Device/Media, MD, or MG Memory Stick, ) Displays the name of a connected device or media. You can change the name using the keyboard. (Not possible with some devices or media.) Displays an MD disc name when checking out songs to an MD (in the computer's built-in Net MD slot or a Net MD device connected to the computer). Displays the MG Memory Stick album name when checking out songs to an MG Memory Stick (in the computer's built-in Memory Stick slot or an MG Memory Stick compatible device connected to the computer). Displays the list of songs on a device/media, MD, or MG Memory Stick. 8. Show Help button Displays this help file.
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