At last my HEX-code staring has led to some practical results. Turns out SS40 does support directly ripping CDs into ATRAC3 @ 105 and 66 kpbs. It does not provide any controls to select these modes, so you have to select them via the registry. Do not worry - these registry modifications are reversible, and will be reset as soon as you select any other bitrate in SS40. So, here goes:

1. Close SonicStage.
2a. For 105kbps modify the registry in the following way (or use the 105.reg file from the attached archive):


REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sony Corporation\SonicStage\CDRipper]
"Bitrate_00090010"=dword:00019a28
"FileType"=dword:00090010


2b. For 66 kbps modify the registry in the following way (or use the 66.reg file from the attached archive):


REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sony Corporation\SonicStage\CDRipper]
"Bitrate_00090010"=dword:000101d0
"FileType"=dword:00090010


3. Start SonicStage. Do not change any settings, but proceed directly to ripping CDs (you will see the selected bitrate in the CD-ripping window). These settings will be kept until you change them in SonicStage by pressing the "Briefcase".

Both these bitrates may then be transferred to a Hi-MD without any problems. The unit shows them as "ATRAC3 105k" and "ATRAC3 66k" respectively, and plays them just fine. BTW, ATRAC3 files don't have any "padding" bits when recorded in Hi-MD mode.

For NetMD these bitrates are, unfortunately, almost useless. If you attempt to tranfer them, the program adds copy copy protection, and the unit pads 105kbps up to 146kbps (same as 132kbps LP2 - that's why the unit then shows such tracks as "LP2 Stereo") and pads 66kbps up to 73 kbps. There is no actual re-encoding during the process. When recording to a NetMD unit from an external source, all tracks are also "padded" with additional bits, as usual.

Now for some analysis. Both these bitrates have a cut-off frequency of about 13.8 kHz. This means that ATRAC3@66kbps may sound better for some material than ATRAC3plus@64k with its 15.5 kHz cut-off frequency, since there is less information to encode, which leads to less artifacts.

Most probably these modifications will also work in SS34, although I haven't tested them with that version.

Enjoy!

UPDATE 17.05.2008: padding and re-encoding information corrected.

Nice one.

Would be nice if there was a similar hack for simpleBurner, so you could rip cds to hi-md in some atrac3 format.

No way to do anything similar in SB. AFAIK, all bitrates it is able to work with are hard-coded into the program.

I am actually getting tired with all these experiments. Why doesn't SONY allow us to use our devices the way they should be used, instead of the stupid marketing way?

EDIT: Have just read in the Manual for the flash NW-E002/003/005 series: "CD recording cannot be done using SonicStage software in ATRAC3 at 66/105 kpbs." This is outrageous!

could this be applied to earlyer version of SS to get the 32kbps?

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showt...60&#entry100884

And for transfer to Hi-MD

32 kbps (even if you can get it) is not downloadable to anything. The routines are unofficially lost. Officially they never existed. I'm not going to test this in any way, but if you want, you may try the following values to try ripping CDs to 32kbps in SS30 (I DO NOT GUARANTEE ANY RESULT!!! THESE VALUES ARE OUT OF THIN AIR!!! WILL NEVER WORK IN SS40!!!):

"Bitrate_00090012"=dword:00007d00
"FileType"=dword:00090012

I would try, but I don't think I can get an installer for SonicStage previous versions!

and then would It be possable to get that to Hi-MD with another 'hack'?

I would If I could and thanks!

Just one more question...
How did you get your md player to give up the 32 infomation?

You may try to find an older version on the CD that came with your player.

AFAIK, it will not be possible to transfer 32kbps to a Hi-MD without hacking the program itself (not the registry), and I am not sure it will work.

As I have already said elsewhere, my player revealed the 32kbps information under torture.

I have version 2.0 that came with my MZ-NH1 would that work?

I have no idea about SS20 - never saw it. My RH10 came with SS30, so I was able to look through it.

BTW, let us move the discussion here: http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1826
since not only MiniDisc people are interested in ATRAC.