Support KnowledgeBase

This collected knowledge page provides downloadable user manuals, documentation and white papers along with links to pertinent user forums.

Table of Contents

Installers

Our Download page contains links to downloadable installers for our registered customers. MORE… This included installers for legacy products.

3rd Party Compatibility

Our Compatibility page provides a list of 3rd party products that are compatible with Sonic Studio’ range. MORE…

Documentation Downloads

This page contains documentation and technical information, including user manuals, available for download. Information on the following products are available…

DDP–Friendly Replicators

Optical disc replicators worldwide accept DDP file sets as replication masters, without surcharges or additional fees. MORE…

FAQ

Already own a Sonic Studio product and have a question? Our Frequently Asked Questions page covers common questions and solutions.

StudioCare — Information & Ordering

For more information on StudioCare and to download an order form, please see our Support page.

User Forums

For street–wise information from end users worldwide, see below…

Premastering Metadata

For information on creating checksums for your replication–ready project, as well as links to the organizations that control ISR Codes & UPC/EAN codes, see below…

Compatibility Listing

For Information concerning 3rd party hardware & software interoperability with Sonic Studio products, see below…

“How–To”s, Utilities, Technical Articles & White Papers

For technical articles from Dr. J.A. Moorer & O.A. Masciarotte, see below…

PreMaster CD

Documentation

PreMaster CD — 2.0 Documentation Package (2.1 MB ZIP)
PreMaster CD — Tutorial Movie (17 MB ZIP)
PreMaster CD — Tutorial Audio Files (350.7 MB ZIP)
PreMaster CD — 1.1 Documentation Package (2.1 MB ZIP)
PreMaster CD — 1.0 Documentation Package (1.9 MB ZIP)
PreMaster CD — 1.0 Frequently Asked Questions (HTML)

soundBlade

Documentation

soundBlade — 1.2 Documentation Package , includes User Manual, ReadMe, How to Register and Keyboard Shortcuts (3.5 MB ZIP)
soundBlade — 1.1 Documentation Package (ZIP)
soundBlade — 1.0 Documentation Package (ZIP)
Vive — 1.0 User Manual (PDF)

Series 300

Documentation

Model 302 Two Channel — 1.3 User Manual (PDF)
Series 300 Eight Channel — 1.0 User Manual (PDF)

DSD & SACD Products

Documentation

DSD.1 — 1.0 User Manual (PDF)
nexStage AFC – 1.0 User Manual (PDF)
nexStage DSDeliver – 1.0 User Manual (PDF)
SACD.1 — 1.0 User Manual (PDF)
SACD.1 — 1.0 Release Notes (PDF)

General Information

SACD Format – Super Audio CD Technical Overview of the Format & Production Workflow
SACD Format – Super Audio CD, A Technical Overview
SACD Format – Super Audio CD Text Overview, for Scarlet Book, V1.2
SACD Format – Audio Signal Properties (Includes Annex D & E), SACD metering, V1.3
DSDIFF Format – Direct Stream Digital Interchange File Format Specification, V1.5
DSDIFF Format – Direct Stream Digital Interchange File Format Usage Recommendations, V1.5
SACD-CMF/UCMF – Super Audio CD Cutting Master Format (Unified Cutting Master Format) , V1.01
DSD Format– One-bit Audio: An Overview by Derk Reefman & Erwin Janssen, Philips Research Laboratories

Sony DACD

Sony DACD’s Super Audio CD page has download links to their Super Audio CD Text Editor and Manual and a CM Converter. The CM Converter is used to generate UCMF (Unified Cutting Master Format) images from either Sony or Philips CM (Cutting Master) tapes. CM tapes are AIT data tapes used for SACD replication.

PACE iLok USB Smart Key

iLok – www.ilok.com

reNOVAtor by Algorithmix

reNOVAtor – Pro Tools Mac 1.1 User Manual
reNOVAtor for soundBlade – 1.0 User Manual (revision 4 PDF)

SonicStudio•DDP

Documentation

SonicStudio•DDP — 2.0 Installation Guide
SonicStudio•DDP — 2.0 User Manual
SonicStudio•DDP — 2.0 Keyboard Shortcuts
SonicStudio•DDP — 1.0 Read Me
SonicStudio•DDP — 1.0 Quick Start Guide
SonicStudio•DDP — 1.0 User Manual

General Information

SonicStudio•DDP — 2.0 Facts & Features (PDF)

SonicStudio HD

Documentation

SonicStudio HD — 1.9.1 Release Notes
SonicStudio HD — 1.9 Release Notes
SonicStudio HD — 1.8 User Guide
SonicStudio HD — 1.8 NoNOISE Guide
SonicStudio HD — 1.8 Configuration Guide
SonicStudio HD — 1.8 Installation Guide
SonicStudio HD — 1.8 Shortcuts
SonicStudio HD — AutoSonic Essentials

Compatibility

SonicStudio HD — 1.8 Configuration Guide

SonicStudio Classic

Documentation

Documentation, white papers, and configuration guides for prior versions of Sonic Studio are provided "as is," without guarantees as to accuracy.

SonicStudio — 5.2 Release Notes
SonicStudio — 5.0 Installation & Maintenance
SonicStudio — 5.0 Getting Started
SonicStudio — 5.0 Reference Manual
SonicStudio — 5.0 Digital Video Option
SonicStudio — 5.0 Extended Mixing Desk
SonicStudio — 5.0 High Density Studio
SonicStudio — 5.0 NoNOISE
SonicStudio — 5.0 SonicOMF
SonicStudio — 5.0 Machine Control
SonicStudio — 5.0 PQ Editing
SonicStudio — 5.0 Sample Rate Conversion
SonicStudio — 5.0 Time Twist/Pitch Shift
SonicStudio — 5.0 The Sonic System Training Handbook
SonicStudio — 5.0 Audio Post Tutorial
Sonic System — SDIF Converter User Manual

OneClick DVD

Documentation

A DVD-Audio helper application from Sonic Solutions

OneClick DVD — User Manual

n•code

Documentation

n•code — 1.0 User Manual

User Forums

Music at Virginia Tech

We encourage all users to subscribe to the excellent Sonic Studio Users Group listserve hosted by the gracious folks at Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech — Sonic Studio Discussion Forum

The Mastering WebBoard

We encourage all users engaged in the noble craft of mastering to subscribe to Glen Meadows’ engaging and informative Mastering WebBoard.

The Mastering WebBoard

Premastering Metadata

Checksums for DDP

Whenever you use an insecure or uncertain transport medium for digital files, whether it's the internet or a writable optical disc, you never know when your data may be corrupted. A quick and easy solution to this problem is to generate a checksum for your precious files. Often used as a way of verifying the integrity or authenticity of a file copy, a checksum is a sort of digital “fingerprint” that, when read and compared to a known good example, can inform you of errors or tampering during transport.

Using the Terminal’s MD5 feature

Mac OS 10’s command line interface, the Terminal, includes an MD5 checksum implementation. As the man page says, “MD5 takes as input a message of arbitrary length and produces as output a
128-bit “fingerprint” or “message digest” of the input. It is conjectured that it is computationally infeasible to produce two messages having the same message digest, or to produce any message having a given prespecified target message digest. The MD5 algorithm is intended for digital signature applications, where a large file must be “compressed”
in a secure manner…”

To use the Terminal’s MD5 function, first ZIP the entire folder containing your DDP file set by control or right–clicking on the folder and selecting Finder’s Create Archive of… option. Rename the file so it has only a “.zip” extension. Then, launch Terminal and type “md5 ” at the prompt. Note the space after "md5”…Then, drag and drop the ZIP file onto the Terminal window and hit the return key. If you did things correctly, you should see something like:

MD5 (/Volumes/ExplicitPath/DDP.zip) = checksum

where ExplicitPath is the path to the ZIP’d DDP file and checksum is a very long string of numbers and letters.

Copy that resulting checksum string, paste it into a plain text file, and save that file with the name “CHECKSUM.txt” — making sure before hand that the file is a plain text, ASCII file. Send both the CHECKSUM.txt file and the ZIP'd DDP file set to your replication plant.

For a graphical UI version of the Terminal’s MD5 function, see md5app in the Free & Useful Utilities section of our Downloads page.

ISR Codes (ISRC)

ISR Codes are controlled by the IFPI.

UPC/EAN

UPC/EAN codes are controlled by the GS1, formerly the Uniform Code Council.

Compatibility

Coming soon…Information on 3rd party hardware and software compatibility as well as the most recent information on sound drives, CD-R, and CPU compatibility with Sonic Solutions/SonicStudio 5.4.

• Note that Sonic Studio, LLC is not able to provide further support or compatibility testing for older versions of SonicStudio.

“How To”s, Utilities & Tech Talk

Utilities

Validate Preferences – An executable script for Mac OS 10 that runs the “plutil” command in Terminal. The plutil command checks the syntax of property list or plist files. To use this utility, simply download and unzip the “Validate_Prefs.command” file , then double click on it.

Papers by Dr. James A. Moorer

48-Bit Integer Processing Beats 32-Bit Floating Point — Presented at the 107th AES Convention, September 1999, Preprint Number 5038 (L-3)

A Native Stereo Editing System for Direct Stream Digital — A. Nishio & Y. Ogura, co–authors. Presented at the 104th AES Convention, May 1998

Hard Disk Recording and Editing of Digital Audio — Presented at the 89th AES convention, September 1990, Preprint Number 3006 (K-6)

Music Recording in the Age of Multichannel — Presented at the 103rd AES Convention, September 1997, Preprint Number 4623 (F-5)

Breaking the Sound Barrier: Mastering at 96 kHz and Beyond — Presented at the 101st AES Convention, November 1996, Preprint Number 4357 (I-2)

New Audio Formats: A Time of Change, and a Time of Opportunity — Written in the mid 1990’s…

Towards a Rational Basis for Multichannel Music Recording — J.H. Vad, co–author. Presented at the 104th AES Convention, May 1998

Whither Dither: Experience with High–Order Dithering Algorithms — J.C. Wen, co–author. Presented at the 95th AES convention, October 1993, Preprint Number 3747 (B3-AM-3)

Papers by OMas

Mac OS Basics — A compendium of technical tips & tricks for Mac OS users who want to get “under the hood.”