A440

You're not importing. You're recording, exactly as if Audacity was a big ol' cassette recorder or MD recorder. For editing existing files, Audacity looks on the HDD. For recording, it should look to wherever the Windows mixer is telling it to look: the Emu soundcard. So let's try it: Connect the MD to the Emu with the Y cable. Start Audacity. Click the big red Record button. Start playing the track on the MD (at or near full volume) and see if it's recording. Adjust the incoming volume level if it's too high.

Do this complete uninstall: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8071 Look in Add/Remove programs for ffdshow, a codec pack. If you have it, uninstall it. Run this MDAC repair program: http://forums.minidisc.org/downloads/details.php?file=8 Install SS 3.2 again and see if it recognizes the MD. If it doesn't, run the web installer again and when it tells you that you already have the latest version installed, tell it you want to reinstall anyway.

You can still add track marks during applause, which I do all the time, or split the music afterward. Splitting up the one long track is better, because if there is a problem with uploading you only lose one segment, not the whole recording. It's only when you remove or try to move marks that the bug makes trouble.

Here's how to do it. It is all realtime recording, which is the only option with old MDs. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7070 I've never used a PC Link but I think it is like a line-in jack that goes into USB. If you have a line-in jack on your laptop, then just get a cord (a stereo miniplug, like the end of your headphone cord, on each end) and go directly from your headphone jack to line-in. If all you have is a mic jack, then use the PC-Link. Here are links to the manuals for Xitel, depending on your model. http://www.xitel.com/support_mdp.htm

The mixer has a speaker and slider (volume out), a mic and slider (volume in) and a drop-down list, probably reading Microphone. You may not need to change anything. Have you tried recording into it? Also, just to make sure Audacity is working, try using Audacity to open a music file on your computer, any mp3, and see if it will play back.

Hey, slow down a little everyone. All the above are right: you can't use the 1GB discs in your old MD player. However, you can play the old discs (74 or 80 minutes) in a Hi-MD player. You can put music on old blank discs in the old MD formats (SP, LP2, LP4) from PC to MD in a Hi-MD unit, using SimpleBurner or SonicStage. You can probably put about 10 albums onto an 80-minute disc in LP2. The new 1 GB discs are not compatible with older MD units. But old discs are compatible with new units. They just hold less: 300 MB compared to 1 GB. And as long as you use the old MD formats, you can't upload from MD to PC.

I think that should work. Only thing to do is try it. Make sure that Audacity's own mixer is receiving from Line-In. You'll see immediately whether you're getting the recording or not. Fingers crossed for you. If you have troubles, let's troubleshoot.

The trickiest thing may be getting a cord, but any decent electronics store should have one. You have two 1/4" inputs on your EMU, I'm assuming they are left and right channels. You'll need to get a cord that has a stereo miniplug (like your headphone plug) on one end and left and right 1/4" plugs on the other end--it may be called a Y cord for obvious reasons. If they're red and white, match the colors on plugs and jacks--Red is right channel. Sonar has to know what it's recording: the line-in input from the EMU. Either Windows or the Sonar software will have a recording mixer. If you go through Windows, use Start/Settings/Control Panel/Sounds and Audio Devices/Audio/Sound Recording--Default Device should include Emu to select in a drop-down list. You can set volume by clicking Volume--set it at about 3/4 up just for starters. Sonar may access the Windows mixer or its own mixer--look in its help files to see about recording through Line-In. If you have a Line-Out option on the Sharp--I don't know if it does--then switch to that. If not, turn off all EQ and set the playback volume to full. You'll also have to set the input volume on the Sonar. A pro recording program like that should have obvious controls and good readable gauges. Play the track from the MD and watch the levels (you may have to Record) and set it so you get the maximum signal without the waveform flattening (peaking/overloading) on top. Push Sonar's Record button, play back the track on the Sharp, watch the waveforms unfold, and Stop when you're done. If Sonar is confusing, then download Audacity from Downloads here and use that, which has everything in obvious places.

If you mean the optical/Line-in on the unit, line-in means it's going in to the MD. You need out, and the only out is the headphone jack. Some old MD bookshelf units had optical out--look at the Browser tab on the www.minidisc.org homepage--but even if you can find one on Ebay it won't be ASAP. You would also need an optical input on your computer. And even then, it's realtime recording. But I'm going to be heretical here. The sound geeks all want digital recording: either optical in and out in real time, or digital uploading. If they're available, they're always preferable of course. But for most uses, analog is good enough. Headphone out into your computer's line in, at the proper level, will give you a very good track unless you have a bad jack in your computer. If you do have a jack that's staticky or sounds bad because it goes through a cheap soundcard, then get a Griffin iMic (which provides line-in and mic-in jacks with a USB connection) and record through that. Yes, it's analog, but it will sound fine.

There's no way to prevent Pause from making a new track mark. But it's simple to just have SonicStage "Combine" them all after uploading.

Sony is obviously phasing out the old MD formats. The last thing it wants to do is make them more useful at this late date. When they were the only MD formats available, serious attempts were made to crack them (Google freemd) and make them uploadable, and no one could do it. What WinNMD does is to use SonicStage to control playback on NetMD units and record each track on the MD as a separate file. You connect the USB to control the unit and the MD headphone out--PC line-in to record. If you have already edited the tracks on the MD, it's very useful, well worth its price. If you haven't edited the tracks, then you don't need WinNMD. You can just record one long track out of the MD with Audacity or other sound-recording software and edit the recording on the PC. Realtime recording is all you can expect. Sony was always weaselly about the way it presented NetMD, and its salesmen often left people with the impression that recordings could be uploaded, but Sony never implemented anything that would allow digital uploading.

You want to get a cardioid (directional) mic. Take a look at the usual suspects: www.soundprofessionals.com, www.microphonemadness.com . Make sure you look at frequency range since some cheaper cardioids only go down to 100 Hz. Depending on how big a mic you want to be carrying around, you could also go to a pro audio store like the Guitar Center or www.samash.com and get a mono cardioid mic that's used for recording instruments, but you'll have to get an adapter. Even if you are recording a sound from one source directly in front of you, a stereo mic will make it sound richer and more realistic. Depending on what you are doing with soud effects--mixing them into something else? --Dex Otaku likes M/S (mid-side) mics which will record in stereo but also give you a true mono recording if you want it.

Recording is just on or off, there's no EQ on the incoming signal. You'd have to use a mixer before going into the MD.

Yes. No, the battery slot of the NH900 takes a flat gumstick, not a round AA. If you want to use just 1 AA get NH700 or NHF800. The bulge in the back is truly not a big deal. RH910 takes a gumstick. I believe you can transfer via SS with LP2, but you cannot record LP2 directly.

SonicStage "imports" files from CD, mp3s, etc. by converting them to .oma (ATRAC) and puts them in a folder to play back. You can leave the default folder, which for me is D:\SonicStage\Packages\, or change it. I don't know about mp3 handling with the second generation Hi-MDs (so-called native mp3 playback that reportedly sounds awful), since I have a first-gen. With my Hi-MD, Sonic Stage makes an .oma file that it puts in Packages and lists in what's called My Library. It doesn't get rid of the original file. (During deletions, you can check an option that also deletes the original file when you delete the .oma file.) It keeps the .oma file until you delete it, so yes, you have two copies of the file on your computer. To rip CD to MD, you can use SimpleBurner, which just transcodes from your CD drive (or Nero image drive, if you want to put your mp3s on that) to the MD in the unit, without adding a file to My Library or opening SonicStage at all. SimpleBurner uses CDDB for titling if it can find the album.

Also, make sure under Menu/Options that AVLS is OFF.

You're right TK. Tad, if the recordings are in PCM, Hi-SP or Hi-LP you can upload them. If you have been editing them on the MD, some may give you trouble uploading, but you can use the Total Recorder method from the uploading instructions. If the MDs are in SP, LP2 or LP4 then you can only record them (out of the headphone jack, into your computer) in real time.

First of all SS 3.2 installed easily on top of 3.1, no previous uninstall necessary. My Library intact, recognizes the MD unit. I can't believe it. Confirmed: uploaded 17 seconds from a concert, DELETED IT from My Library and from computer, uploaded again and converted to .wav. Somebody pinch me, has Sony finally listened to its customers?

You should call Sound Professionals and tell them about the problem. Their customer service is very good, and they might replace your set with a better matched pair.

You don't need this thread at all!!! You have a Hi-MD recorder. Install SonicStage 3.2 with this http://forums.minidisc.org/downloads/details.php?file=23 and then look at this thread: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=6330 This thread was back in the days before Hi-MD.

How are you planning to use it? Recording your own playing? Recording concerts? Recording interviews? You're going to need to hold that mic somehow: in your hand, or on a stand. As a one-point stereo mic, it won't have the kind of spatial richness that a pair of mics you can separate will have. It is also not something you will be able to conceal. But if you are recording interviews, lectures, or musical performances that don't require stealth, it might be fine.

When you uninstalled did you completely uninstall with these instructions? http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8071 SonicStage's uninstall can leave things behind. Also, once it is installed, if it doesn't work then use Sony's online installer and when it tells you that SS is already installed, tell it to install again anyway. For me with 3.1, that installed everything anew and it finally worked.

1) Have you tried using different discs? Regular MDs instead of Hi-MDs? 2) Is your recorder on a table or something that's going to vibrate with the music? That could shake it. But I've done a whole lot of recording standing up at shows with the MD in my pocket and have very, very rarely had this problem. If your unit is still under warranty and you can easily get it to a Sony place, then you should try exchanging it.

What is the bitrate of the mp3's? If it is either very low (44-48 kbps) or variable (VBR) SonicStage has trouble with them. But that doesn't explain the .wav problem. If you want a workaround, burn the .wavs to a CD and then use SimpleBurner (from the Dowloads section above/Programs) to send them to the MD without SonicStage making an intermediate copy.

It depends on what mode the MD is recorded in. If it's one of the MD modes--SP, LP2, LP4--then it only plays back through the unit, with Sonic Stage as the world's most processor-intensive remote control.