Soundbox

Avrin, I too use mono for such recordings (my recordings being old 78's and 50's vinyl records. To use stereo makes the sound horrible as record noise is much higher in stereo. Why did you hack your RH10? The NH600 supports mono in one of the settings I feel sure. Ian

Do you use mono setting on your MD recorder? I find myself using it more and more - and not just for speech. I make up music compilations for dining at home, entertaining and background music and I find that having the same sound from both speakers makes for a good soundstage for when you are not listening directly to the music, but enjoying it as a background sound. Having the extra recording time available is always nice too. It was only when I joined in here that I found out that my recorder has a known problem with mono, but even with that problem I still have a set of disks (some transcribed to CD) that make for good and easy listening. So, tell me about where you use mono, and also if you have any hints/tips (they are always good to share). What machines make the best mono recordings? Ian

I have both here. The MZ-R50 has no audio control apart from a digital bass boost. This bass boost is not good in my opinion - just a lump at around 100Hz, therefore this machine is best used without bass boost. It plays SP very well, but not as well as my NH600 which sounds a bit more rounded and also has the (essential in my opininion) customisable EQ - and the analogue amp. The RH1 sounds great though (better than the R50) but since NH600's are so cheap, why not get one of those?

Thanks Stephen - that sounds exactly right then (that I cannot directly put an MP3 onto a plain MD) - thanks for the guidance. I listened again to the downloaded track this morning and with a small treble boost it sounds better, but still not as good as I am used to from MD in the past. Ian

Thank you again. Well I thought that I had succeded as it uploaded fine onto a partially used MD. I did one transfer that was supposed to be an unmodifed MP3 and then one converted to SP. I used the load RH1 (which I think I will buy after all as it seems versatile) however, when I play back the recording I find that both the MP3 and SP versions play in my JE510 track, the MP3 version plays a silence. Something is wrong... So I try the disk on my NH600 and the MP3 track plays as LP2, meaning that either my computer or the RH1 is changing the MP3 to ATRAC even though I did not tell it to. I have had enough shenannigans tonight so I will spend more time with it tomorrow. I listened to the track and I must say that the 'false' MP3 and the SP version sounds a bit metallic, so I have been put off spending much more on this music buying method. Ian

Thank you Stephen. That was great (and very kind of you too) - and no, not to basic at all - this is the first time I have downloaded any music. Despite reading the instruction manual for my JB980, the recently aquired NH600 (and the RH1 which I have been lent - nice machine that), they only spoke of working with CD's. May I ask what the loss of quality is when using MP3's transfered the ATRAC system? I have been spending some time reading through old threads here and I do recall reading about that issue. If the drop in quality from the original MP3 is notable, I may as well not bother purchacing any more uploads and just save for the whole CD. I could save MP3 to the RH1 direct, but then it would not play back on my RH600 as far as I can tell. I will try and transfer this evening. Thank you again, Ian PS. Do you (or anybody else here) bother to purchace MP3's or is it not worth it with MiniDisk?

I would appreciate your input on my first music download - I am well behind the times I admit. What I want to do is get my (one) downloaded track onto MD to listen to without using the headphone socket of my laptop. So far I have: 1. Dowloaded Avrin's SonicStage 4.3 for 32 bit Vista. 2. Downloaded Amazon's MP3 program. 3. Downloaded the track I want (it plays perfectly in SS). What I want to do is now get it onto my MD without losing any quality at all. I idealy want it in the proprer SP standard so I can play it on my portable and home deck. If that is not possible, or is only possible without losing quality, please can you tell me what setting I need to use? Any advice would be appreciated - I have the track ready in my computer but at the moment it is stuck there. The equipment I have is: MZ-R30, MZ-RH1, MZ-NH600. Is any of this suitable? Thank you, Ian (long time MD user, newbie MP3 user)

Great story, Paperclip. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the thoghts. That Kenwood unit looks perfect - sad they are so rare... Anyway, I think a multichanger (I never knew they existed until I read about them here) is the way forward for me because I have the inputs on the back of my current unit and also because I still like my tapes. I really am with MD for the long haul so I will keep looking for a multichanger but it is not urgent as I do have the line in until then. And yes, I really do have the old Skoda (easy to install my own unit in that), but I also have the newer (Fabia vRS) model which is used the most. Too bad the new car has a CD unit that is fashioned as part of the fascia (Blaupunkt make it I think) otherwise I would have MD in there in a flash. My Skoda;

At the moment I have a Panasonic radio-cassette player in my car (Skoda Estelle) which I am happy with (nice sound, logic control and nice display) but I am on the fence about exchanging it for an MD player. My current unit has a very easy line input socket on the front panel where I can plug in my MD player, but something tells me it would be nice to use a dedicated player. Is having a proper deck worth it or is it just as good to plug in my player to my current tape deck as and when neded? Any thoughts appreciated - also any model numbers of decent car MD decks would be helpful.

Some good thoughts - I have another one from last night to report. Years ago I recorded XTC's 'Nonsuch' album (vinyl) onto MD using my MDS-JE510. I lost that disk for years and found it just recently in my rented garage, where it had fallen down behind some books. It was clean inside its case so I played it back on my MZ-R30 using my JVC headphones. The wonderful sound and whimsical lyrics came across so clearly that they are still playing in my head today. The soundstage from MD really is first rate. PS. My JE510 is still working fine, but I do unplug it whan it is not being used and never leave a disk in there. I also make sure that I never record for more than 15 minutes in any 24 hours (thus allowing a near 1% duty cycle).

I'm interested - and I live locally. I do have a couple of questions though. Does it have the divide rehersal bug (I do quite a bit of dividing) and does it have the TOC write issue when power is turned off? I know that these issues were rectified in production so I just wanted to check. I have used SP since 1997 so I am happy with that. Cheers, Ian

Looking for one of these for portable use. Box/instructions not important but unit must be in first rate condition with low use as I want it to be reliable. Thanks.

Yes, I agree decks have a bigger sound than the portables (mainly for the reason that there is more power behind the line outputs than the little portables can manage). That is why I purchaced the JE510 - despite similar specs to the MZ-R30 on paper, you can hear the difference when plugged into an amplifier. Glad MD is working well for you! I looked at the classifieds you mention - some nice gear there.

It is the times where MD feels so right that make it a great format I think. I don't know of any other format that I have used that has given me so much recording fun and my modest collection of location recordings is something I treasure. I will tell you a couple of my past recordings that stand out - perhaps you care to share yours? Please also give some technical background if possible. 1. In 1998 my DJ friend invited me to a local venue in a small club. He took his Drum and Bass 12" collection and was going to be part of a team spinning up their disks. On the offchance that it would be good I grabbed my MZ-R30 and ECM-909a microphone. Well, it turned out to be one of the best sets I have heard with some of the darkest tracks of the time ('Metropolis', 'The Arsonist' and 'The Chopper' being three). When I played that disk back the next day I knew I had a winner and I made a master cassette which I gave to my friend and he made loads of copies from that. 2. On new years eve 1999 I recorded the sounds of the streets as we went over to 2000 (same setup as above). When I play that back 10 years later it sounds just as fresh and clear as the day I made it and it is a treasured posession. The fireworks and revelry sound as if they are happening live when played back through my JVC headphones and it is a real shock to people that a recording can be so clear. So, do you have any to share?

Thanks Stephen. Your method sounds good - and yes, I only have a laptop (running Windows Vista). I will have a go saving the music to CD with wave files as you say. I may as well stop at that stage really if it works out as I could just play the CD on my deck and miss off the MD part. My Sony CD player has only analogue outputs so there would be another loss at that stage I feel. Ian

You mean recorderS - this is the MiniDisk forum after all I have the following: MZ-R30 MZ-R50 JE510 (home recorder) and a new home recorder JB980 that I have not understood/wired up yet.

I will be setting up the 980 over Easter so I will report back then about it. Looking forward to the inaugral switching on though!

Thank you all for the comments - and this is all great learning for me so I am soaking it all up. Next week I will be collecting a lightly used MD recorder (swap for some work I have done) which is model RH1 which has a digital amp but I have never heard of these before so that is why I ask. I am not sure what model RH1 will be like but it is MiniDisc so it must be good!

Thanks for the comments. I have never tried anything like this before so I did not want to damage my MD recorder by overloading the pre-amp. I just tried the headphone socket method with volume sliders set as suggested and it records fine. I normally do buy the CD but some tracks are deleted or not on CD. Sound quality was fine, but not as good as a proper signal (but wavery and metalic). My portable MD recorders do not have computer audio connect sockets so I am afraid it must be line in. Thanks again.

More than likely the battery is just below the RH1's sense level. What you can do if you are careful is use an already charged battery of the same type to kick-start your new battery. Use two wires and connect positive to positive, negative to negative. Try for just 5 seconds (that can be often enough) or up to a minute. Be careful when doing this of course.

I enjoy listening to rare tracks or remixes that are sometimes uploaded to YouTube (usually they just have a still photo on the screen) and it crossed my mind that it would be good to save the best onto MD (what else?) for future listening and without too much quality loss. Now, looking at my laptop I have a headphone output which I think is probabably the easiest way (link to line input on my portable) but I have a couple of questions that perhaps you may be able to help with. 1. There are two volume 'sliders' - one on the YouTube video itself and one in the bottom right of my screen. Would it be best to run the YouTube slider at maximum and then moderate the output via the main slider in the bottom right? I don't want to overload the line input... 2. Sometimes when playing YouTube, the sound stutters a tiny bit as if there is a break in the data or sometimes the buffer runs out and the sound stops altogether. Playing the video a second time solves both these issues but is there a way to stop playback until it has fully buffered so as to save playing everything twice? Thank you for your thoughts.

To owners of MD players which utilise the HD-Digital amplifier I have a few questions if you don't mind. I have an MZ-R30 which has a normal amplifier which, well, just sounds normal ;-) Right, to my questions. 1. How does it sound compared to the normal amplifiers found in CD and MD portables? 2. I note line out uses the headphone socket on HD-amp fitted models with a menu mode to select 'line out'. Is the digital amp disengaged at this setting or does the digital amp feed line out? Any other thoughts appreciated.

For me (in 1997) it was the wonderfully clear recordings, easy and pinpoint accurate editing without resorting to using a computer, classy machines and the fact that the disks are sturdy and the playing surface is not touched when the disk is handled. Nowadays these same values hold true for me and I have just purchaced a new home deck so I am still passionate about the format. I will add that I have no MP3 player, no computer downloaded music, no camera/music phone or any way of even playing MP3 and I am a 'line in/out' kind of guy with a dash of optical for good measure ;-)

Thank you Stephen. It is exciting for sure to try new MD technology after having just the first generation models. No, I won't load the CD and I will read up about what SonicStage is - all new to me at the moment! The keyboard is on my shopping list (the 510 had a keyboard on its remote which was easy on that model). The only LP mode I have used up until now is mono, so it will be novel to have stereo AND long play at once. I will try the analogue output as that is what my Denon amplifier has - no optical or digital inputs on that (it is from 1996). The 980 feels very solid and I am excited to try it out. PS. He has the RH1 recorder too, but he is transfering his minidisks to his I-Pod (!!!) and when that is complete he may pass that over to me too.