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Subject:AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Posted by: stuffedspacedog
Date:11/9/2004 7:18:54 AM
Anyone else think Sony Media Manager has serious room for improvement? It takes an age to load (makes Cubase SX3 look like windows notepad!), and keeps the SQL server in memory even after Acid has shut down - occupying 103Mb of RAM (!!). I've got around 40Gb of samples... the initial scan took around 15 minutes. Then I added 100Mb of new samples, set Media Manager to "look for new files only"... and the scan took exactly the same amount of time. The search function is almost as slow as using the standard search function in XP, and the navigation seems illogical and poorly thought through. The reference library appears to do nothing more than remind you of the official Sony loop CDs you don't already own. I've now disabled Media Manager and have no plans to use it until it's fixed. Any other experiences/opinions |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: imekon
Date:11/9/2004 7:35:26 AM
The database engine bombed during installation of the demo at home, so I left it switched off. At work, I tried it, but I rarely use 'media managers', especially ones with big memory footprints! |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: ATP
Date:11/9/2004 8:25:52 AM
i have turned it off as well. i have over 16.000 samples and to have to tag them all manually (not to mention thinking of a good system of classification) is simply too much work for me. more so since i already gave each sample a descriptive filename, so i know what kind of sound it is. not to mention the insane loading time of ACID when this feature is enabled. if the media manager is the only reason i had to install .net frameworks (which i really didn't want to do) they could have just left the whole thing out imho. btw, a tip for those whose logon settings are now changed. you can remove the .net account that was automagically generated during install without causing problems with the ACID program. saves having to click on your logon name every time you start XP. :) |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: RasKeita
Date:11/9/2004 9:18:43 AM
ATP, how did you go about removing the .net account. I have issues with having to log on. Also I prefer not having the Media Manager install at all on my system I'll never use it as I've got a file system set up the way I like it already. Further rearranging my entire Audio Storage HD would complicate loading projects in the works and various other existing projects. When you load an existing project it already knows where to find all the embedded audio/ MIDI files moving them would be a huge hassle, then trying to manually search for all of them time comsuming and frustrating. Acid 5 should allow the user to define what to install. |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: ATP
Date:11/9/2004 12:03:32 PM
i don't think it's possible to even install ACID 5 without having the .net stuff installed beforehand. at least, i couldn't find a way to do it. so you just have to disable it in ACID i guess. anyway, if you want to remove the .net account, go to Control Panel -> User Accounts. you will see your own account(s), and the .net account. Click on the .net account, and you will see an option to remove it. now comes a bit that miight be important: when I deleted the account it asked me if i wanted to keep the files it created for this account (while it still deletes the account itself), or delete the whole account including the files that go with it. i chose to keep the files, as i'm not 100% sure whether ACID needs these files or not, and i have enough hd space to spare. DISCLAIMER: i have no idea if the removing of this will affect other programs which depend on this account (if they even exist). for me, seeing as i didn't have the .net stuff installed prior to installing ACID 5, nothing noticable has changed on my system. ALSO, if you somehow screw up your system by doing this (not likely but still), it's at your own risk. HTH. |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:11/9/2004 12:20:29 PM
I deleted the ASPNET account a year ago when I installed Vegas 5 and nothing has stopped working. I even had it remove all the files since it is just the desktop and preferences. This account is only needed if you run a web server and have ASP .Net programs running under that accounts authority. The “official” fix from Microsoft is to hack the registry to make this account hidden. Unfortunately, they never bothered to fix the .Net install program that causes this problem in the first place. ~jr |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: Rednroll
Date:11/9/2004 3:00:42 PM
Honestly, I haven't used the media manager. I don't have a bazillion loops stored on my hard drives or drum samples. For all my audio, I have gotten into a good naming system that works for me with the combination of creating sub-folders and naming the files with descriptive titles. If I need more than that I open up Notepad, jot down some notes and place it in the sub folder along with the media. I guess there's a use for this as a lot of users requested it and are thrilled by it's functionality. I'm not one of them, I would have been more happy with Acid being able to record more than 1 track at a time. Now that would have increased my personal workflow, this does nothing for me.....but that's just me. |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: SonicJG
Date:11/9/2004 3:48:49 PM
The Media Manager was designed so that if you prefer to not use it, you can shut it off. We know it's a fairly big footprint, and anticipated that some people wouldn't see the need and perhaps that's your case. So you know what you'll be missing out on, here's a bit of explanation (much more detail in the online Help), in case you haven't really gotten to delve into what the Media Manager is all about: 1. If you have any Sony/SF loops on your HD, install the reference library first, then activate it, and then scan after that. Any files from the LFA series will be tagged for easier searching. 2. Say you have 1000 drum one-shots in 30 different directories on your HD. If they're tagged, you'll be able to find quickly them all in one view, rather than browsing to every directory separately. That has saved me huge amounts of time already. 3. The Media Manager can also be set to pay attention to media relationships, such as which files have been used together in projects, which files have been rendered/chopped to/from each other. This can save a lot of time, and take some burden out of your headspace, so you can focus on making music, rather than recalling every file that's been used with another. 4. Rather than only sorting your loop/sample material in a single hierarchical folder structure in your file system, you can categorize files in multiple ways. FWIW, a sample library the size of yours is appreciable. We do intend to continue optimizing the Media Manager component, of course, but in the meantime, there are a variety of settings which may afford you with better performance: 1. In MM Options, you can lower your search results limit. 2. In MM Options, select the Shut down database service on exit check box. 3. Split very large libraries into smaller subsets when reasonable. 4. In ACID/Prefs/General, clear the "Save media-usage relationships in active media library" check box. 5. If you've decided you really don't want Media Manager to be active, in ACID/Prefs/General, clear the "Enable Media Manager" check box. WRT the scanning, did you search on just that folder, or all subfolders? If not, the MM will still need to check that none of those 40GB of files happen to actually be new. If that's the case, in the Add Files to Media Library dialog, make sure to direct it to only the folder with new media, and clear the "Include subfolders" checkbox. I hope the information above helps. This is our first release of this technology, and in it you'll find a lot of power. We're committed to continuing improvements in functionality and performance. Thanks for the feedback. Joel |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: Lionel Richtea
Date:11/9/2004 5:33:43 PM
Yeah well... I am perfectly happy using the explorer... i like the idea of the media manager, but after a brief exploration of the demo, i was wanting to tear my hair out. it's not that intuitive and it absolutley drags my machiine down to a crawl.. sad to say, i have switched it off for the time being. however, i would like to see how it develops because, as i say, it is a nice idea in theory... |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: MyST
Date:11/9/2004 5:51:51 PM
Once you get used to it, it's great! The explorer window has been put out to pasture. Well OK, maybe just put on the back burner. It's great having all the similar loops come up in one shot. No more opening different loop libraries to preview. I will admit that at first I had a hard time working through it. Now though...LUV IT! Personally, my favourite new feature. Over 23000 loops scanned and tagged. Yeah baby! Mario |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: grainerr
Date:11/9/2004 7:35:24 PM
Agreed with what marll said. Not intuitive at all, help files do not add anything constructive. dual p3's 1 gig of ram and it takes for ever to do anything in MM Thanks for the straight dope SonicJG but for me it's just not ready for prime time I wish that future patch allows for complete unistallation if not needed. Some of the other stuff looks interesting but MM didn't do it for me overall, glad I upgraded. r |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: Rockitglider
Date:11/9/2004 8:03:40 PM
Hey Mario, Do the libraries need to have the same file structure as they were on the SF Sony loop disks, because I have almost 20 libaries, but I changed some of the folder names. I'm going to try it and see how it works. Rockitglider |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:11/9/2004 9:20:54 PM
Hi Rockit, You don't need to keep your Sony loops in a folder with the same name. If they're Sony loops, they should get automatically tagged when added to your library. FWIW, people should at least give the MM a chance. I didn't think it was all that either. But once a loop is tagged, it made the feature that much more fascinating, plus you can search for exactly what you're looking for (beat count, root note, tempo, etc.) without drilling through folders. HTH, Iacobus ------- RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid Pre-order Instant ACID My ACIDplanet Page Guitars 4 Kids |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: Rockitglider
Date:11/9/2004 11:23:39 PM
Hello mD, Thanks for the info, I'm going to use it, I have so many that this will help for sure. Rockitglider |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: TBlizz
Date:11/10/2004 1:58:09 AM
I took me a while to figure out the Media Manager but I see a lot of potential here. I do have 2 problems/questions: 1. Sony Media Manager successfully recognised 11 ACID titles I have, but failed to recognise the title "Ethnicity Loops for ACID". Any suggestions? 2. Is there a batch conversion program that will 'acidize' all of my other 'regular' wav-files so I can do an advanced search on "tempo" for all of my drumloops? |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: Zacchino
Date:11/10/2004 2:06:04 AM
About the Media Manager Case. Here's my Experience : When I started it, I said "wow, they included Google in AP5". Then I realized that with this service and feature on, I couldn't load my poor Steinberg TheGrand (mentionning "not enough memory to load this VSTi". Ok then. I shut it down, restart AP5, and TheGrand loads correctly. The issue of this big feature is : Virtual Memory. Now I need to spend 500 dolls more to buy 2x 1Go Samsung DDR400 for my dear Shuttle XPC SB81P (it doesn't want "noname"). I think before judging this feature, we all have to give it a 1 month tryout. That's what i'm doing. Building a Library is boring. I know. But It seems that the MM player engine is a bit faster than explorer's. In any case, I've already found a bug when double clicking under the transport bar to minimize the project properties window (Explorer, Track Props, Effect, MM). I'll report that one with screenshot asap. Isaac |
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Subject:RE: AP5 Sony Media Manager - Serious Room for Improvement
Reply by: MyST
Date:11/10/2004 3:06:04 AM
"The issue of this big feature is : Virtual Memory. Now I need to spend 500 dolls more to buy 2x 1Go Samsung DDR400 for my dear Shuttle XPC SB81P (it doesn't want "noname")." You sure? It wouldn't be something else? I was running Reason without a problem with MM open. I only have 512Megs DDR. Mario |
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Subject:RE: MM little specific bug
Reply by: Zacchino
Date:11/10/2004 5:08:26 AM
-This is not a general bug, because it's specific to a .medialib that I created, and occurs only with one of my .acd file. It seems to happen only when all categories of the MM are selected. -This happens when I minimize the window docking area (double-clicking a little bit under the transport / Bpm controllers, where your get a resize/extend cursor). -I get this error message : The media library an unrecoverable error. The media library will be closed. System.ArgumentException: Invalid parameter used. at System.Drawing.Bitmap..ctor(Int32 width, Int32 height, PixelFormat format) at System.Drawing.Bitmap..ctor(Int32 width, Int32 height) at Sony.MediaSoftware.Controls.CustomListViewEx.CustomListViewEx_Resize(Object sender, EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnResize(EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnSizeChanged(EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.UpdateBounds(Int32 x, Int32 y, Int32 width, Int32 height, Int32 clientWidth, Int32 clientHeight) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.UpdateBounds() at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMove(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.ListView.WndProc(Message& m) at Sony.MediaSoftware.Controls.CustomListViewEx.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam) -System : XP Pro SP2 P4 3.4 Ghz 512Mb of Ram Seagate 160Gb HDD M-Audio Delta 44 I think it doesn't worth it worrying about this one. Too specific. Maybe a wrong syntaxe in the .medialib. |
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Subject:RE: MM little specific bug
Reply by: Zacchino
Date:11/10/2004 5:10:21 AM
Myst : TheGrand is really badly written for streaming samples, so maybe that TheGrand is the culprit too ^^. Reason works just fine with me too. |
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Subject:RE: MM little specific bug
Reply by: SonySCS
Date:11/10/2004 11:17:57 AM
Thanks, Fadengo! I was able to repro your error and will add it to the database. To fail I had to have the MM Results pane in the list view. -Suzan |
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Subject:RE: MM little specific bug
Reply by: Rockitglider
Date:11/10/2004 12:19:51 PM
Hello again, I'm almost done reading the manual on the Media Manager, and I have a couple of questions, If I select add files to library, does it actually move files, and if I mistakenly tag a bunch of files, how can I undo this easily? Thanks Rockitglider |
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Subject:RE: MM little specific bug
Reply by: SonySteveS
Date:11/10/2004 12:37:43 PM
Some quick answers: 1. No, adding files to a library does not move the files. 2. The easiest way to undo a batch of mistakenly tagged files is to switch to Remove Tag Mode (click on the Eraser button), then drag the tag you want to remove onto the selected files. You could also use the Remove Tag dialog (available in the right-click context menu). Thanks, Steve |