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Suggestions for a minidisc...

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ringworm

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Hi,

Hope someone here can give me some good advice.

I work in an artists digital media studio. We have a pair of older short play minidiscs that get used quite a lot by artists and residents making interviews, field recording etc. We have a pair of Tascam MD-350 decks hooked up to m-audio audiophile soundcards that work great for transfering recordings onto the macs.

We recently purchased a Sony MZ-B10 LP minidisc and have not been able to transfer the recordings through our decks. I'm guessing because of the difference in recording modes. We have written this off as a poor purchase (we can still capture via analogue, but who wants to).

We are looking to purchase more portable minidisc recorders for the studio and do not want to make the same poor choice again, nor do we want to 'upgrade' our minidisc system and make the perfectly good Tascam decks redundant (We have a Fostex FR2 for uncompressed field recording).

Can anyone recommend a model of minidisc, still in production, that records in the old SP mode that has line in, mic in and optical out connections? I personally love and still use my Sony MZ-R37 despite it's age if that gives anyone an idea of the specs i'm after.

Hope someone can help, and thanks in advance.

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Can anyone recommend a model of minidisc, still in production, that records in the old SP mode that has line in, mic in and optical out connections?

First, your B10 should be able to record in SP as well as LP2 and LP4. You need to change a setting somewhere to record in SP--check the manual. The earlier recorders, with only one mode, didn't have a choice, and the B10 is probably set at the factory to record in LP2 or LP4, which your older recorders can't read.

Among current models, none has optical out. The best you can do is a first-generation Hi-MD, the 2004 models: MZ-NH700, MZ-NHF800 (same as 700 plus radio remote) or MZ-NH900. They record via mic in SP (as well as new formats that can be transferred to PC).

Their software--yes, MDs have software now--is not compatible with a Mac, but you can still do the same realtime copying as before.

Here's a great deal on the MZ-NH700.

http://www.minidisco.com/mz-nh700s-bundle.html

You can also get expensive second-generation models--M100 and M10--that do not record in SP. But they do record in PCM and can upload those PCM files to a Mac directly. It's slow, USB 1.1.

If you have some sound art made on MD, upload it to the Gallery here!

Edited by A440
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Thanks for that,

I'll go dig out the manual (if i can find it) and do a reset and test. I've not been keeping up to date with all the developments with minidiscs (as if you couldn't tell) so i'm really surprised to hear that optical connections have gone. I'll check out those other models as well. Yeah, i've never seen any mac software for minidisc, i've always held Sony personally responsible for that in trying to monopolise a corner of the market :rolleyes: shame really.

The minidiscs mostly get used for interviews, atmos tracks or dialogue on videos, actually very little (if any) 'straight' sound art gets made in the studio, certainly nothing to post. Is there somewhere on this forum i could post opportunities for sound artists to apply for residencies in Queen's Street Studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland? we would definitely be interested in trying to get people interested in making sound led projects, most people applying are video makers.

Thanks again for the quick response.

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