A440

I have no idea what else is available in Italy. Maplin Electronics in England has a VC-1 headphone volume control that works like the Radio Shack (and is actually a little better built) and costs 3 English pounds. Does Maplin sell in Italy? Have any friends in England? This Shure control should also work--I've used both the Radio Shack and the Maplin with Shure E3s. But greenmachine is right, it's expensive. You might be able to get it cheaper directly from the Shure website.

Test it and see: blast your stereo and use various levels. Make sure the volume control on the RShack is all the way up, not down, or you won't get anything. If your choice is between a soft undistorted recording and an unlistenable distorted recording, it's not really much of a choice. But this method gives you a louder recording than Mic-->Battery Box-->Line-In. If your first recording with it is too quiet, which I doubt, try using a higher Manual Volume level --23/30 to 25/30. Still too quiet? (Highly improbable.) Switch to High Sensitivity under REC SET/Mic Sens, but then you will have to use a lower recording level. I prefer low sensitivity because (1) it gives you more headroom before distorting and (2) the built-in preamp isn't working so hard and adds less noise. Bring a little flashlight and you can look at your recording levels while recording--you want the peaks to be just short of maximum. I don't know your model, but there are probably two dashes on the level display, halfway up and maximum. Look for recordings in the Gallery of my album http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?act=m..._album&album=56 and other people's albums to get an idea of the results with various levels and setups. If you do need to amplify the recordings, the amplification will apply to both the music and any background noise, but if you've recorded a loud concert and kept the levels between halfway and maximum, you won't need to amplify much, if at all.

The mic preamp in MD units overloads when sound is too loud--particularlyl bassy sounds with sudden attacks, like bass drums. The attenuator limits the incoming signal so it doesn't overload. If you're recording loud music (or other loud sound) with mics that pick up the full spectrum of bass you're likely to get distortion. Your "option" is to have a useless recording or to: 1) attenuate through Mic-In 2) use a battery box and go through Line-In Back in the NetMD days, many units did not allow changing the Manual Volume level without putting the unit in Rec/Pause. Later NetMD units and all Hi-MD units (and all Sharps, incidentally) allow you to change the level during recording, so the volume-control aspect of the attenuator is now unnecessary. The Radio Shack volume control is a cheap little thing that doesn't bear much use anyway. If you have an outboard preamp you'd be going through Line-In not Mic-In and bypassing the built-in preamp. Really, it's all here. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=9069

Mic-->Attenuator-->Mic-in with Manual Volume at about 20/30 works for me for a typically loud rock concert. There is a volume control on the attenuator. Make sure it is all the way UP, and don't let it get turned down. It's already cutting the signal just enough. I don't know if the NF810 lets you adjust recording level while you're recording. If it doesn't, you can use the volume control on the attenuator for that, but the little knob will eventually get staticky. Better if you can set a good level on the MD unit and leave the attenuator alone. The attenuator helps record anything with loud bass attacks that can overload the mic preamp. If you're recording acoustic music, chamber music, etc., you probably don't need it. Jazz depends on how loud the rhythm section is. Also make sure you're on Low Sensitivity under Mic Sen in REC SET. Sony's little mics typically only record bass down to 100 Hz, which helps with the overloading problem of the MD unit's mic preamp but doesn't give you the bottom 2 1/2 octaves of music. You'll be amazed at how much better your new mics sound.

Lots of folks wear earplugs at concerts. Few people will notice that your particular earplugs happen to be connected to wires.

It's just part of the accumulated lore of www.minidisc.org that ffdshow and SonicStage don't get along. Search the forums for ffdshow and you'll see how many times it has turned out to be the stumbling block.

Better safe than sorry. And when you check in everything you should use the Backup Tool to back up your library. SS 3.0 organizes its library much differently than 2.0. If it screws things up during the upgrade, you'll have a backup. I didn't need it, but some people have.

Did you try the MDAC Repair tool under Downloads? Sometimes it helps this situation.

I really wouldn't worry about it. Security is looking for booze, weapons, laser pointers and fights. If that big ol' Sony mic didn't get noticed, your Croakies are very unlikely to get you in trouble. Just don't wave around the MD and shout about how great your recording is coming out. I have shown my MD to security people going into a show and told them it's my Walkman. They are decidedly not hip. If you're not using an attenuator (see the pinned thread) with your ECM-717, since its bass response is limited, you may need one with your new mics. Once you get that worked out, though, you will be thrilled with the improved fidelity and stereo separation.

You ought to try Sony Support on this, because it sounds like you're doing everything right. Just some stray thoughts: Have you tried using a different USB cord? You can get one for a few bucks at an electronics store--PDAs like Blackberry use them. Is it possible some program is running in the background that's eating up processor use? Try Ctrl-Alt-Del and look at Processes to see if something is running that you're not aware of. Also, have you tried this with different blank discs ? And last but not least: does it happen at a certain point in every song? Or is it random?

It's fixed at 16 bit/44.1 kHz. If you want 24/96, take a look at Core Sound's PDA recording. www.core-sound.com

If you can afford it, upgrade one notch to Grado SR 125. A big improvement on SR 80, totally clear and full-bodied and rocking. You won't believe what you have been missing. One problem: If you wear glasses, then the earcups of any Grados can press on your glasses frames and grow uncomfortable. But the sound is worth it.

Are they low-bitrate (48 kbps) MP3s? SonicStage has problems with those. If possible, re-encode at a higher rate: at least 96 for speech, and at least 192 if it's music worth hearing.

To me the headphone mounts are clever--yes, no one would suspect--but a huge housing for a little mic. The mics themselves are the size of pencil erasers, the clips are an inch long. Clip them on in the dark, wear a dark shirt and no one is going to know or care. Do you really go to a concert with headphones hanging around your neck? I use BMC-2's or Core Sound Low Cost Binaurals, and most folks don't even notice they're there. I'd love to see that paper. Maybe you could post it as an attachment. As for the double-post thing, maybe you're clicking twice while the first one is still (slowly) loading. Don't you have a Delete option next to Edit after you log in?

Funny article for the obsessed high-end audio types. For the low-end, the are some other great audio lies: "CD-quality." As applied to (usually) 128 kbps mp3s or worse. DIGITAL ready--for analog equipment like mics, headphones, etc . And that great Sony lie: "Open"

After you've recorded with Audacity, try CDWave. It guesses at where the tracks break, and it's usually pretty good. http://www.milosoftware.com/cdwave/

First, try to install 2.0 again from your disc. If you're lucky, it will install its own components on top of the rubble you've left. Then run the uninstall and then follow the FAQ here: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8071 If you can't reinstall from the disc, then try following the FAQ registry editing anyway. Then try 3.1 again, preferably Sony's online version. NOTE: You cannot upload from MD to PC from your unit. You can only go from PC to minidsc. The only uploading is from Hi-MD units in the new Hi-MD formats: PCM, Hi-SP, Hi-LP.

Here's a very clear explanation of why SS 3 is giving you so much trouble. Since I never use its library if I can help it, I had not realized that its library functions are so different from SS 2 and so intrusive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SonicStage Why can't SS 3 do a basic thing like import groups? Because of Sony's idiotic DRM. I once called Sony Customer Support about this problem and they blithely suggested I retitle every song in every group I wanted to import. "We apologize for the inconvenience." It's not an inconvenience--it's theft of services from users. Kurisu, you should seriously consider keeping SS 2.3 among the downloads for people who don't like having their libraries tampered with.

If you have the original audio CD, you will have fewer problems and better quality by using SimpleBurner (from your SonicStage CD or the Downloads section here). It will transcode directly from CD to MD without wasting your hard-drive space and without the intermediate mp3 stage. In SimpleBurner, click CONFIG (upper right) and make sure under Settings that Recording Mode is Hi-LP or better, not 48kbps. Meanwhile, can you drag-and-drop the tracks from "any artists" to the other folder that has the rest of the CD? Try that and see if SonicStage will make the transfer.

Your weakest link is recording time. There's an audible difference between SP and LP2, and ideally you should record in SP: 80 minutes maximum. If you can live with that, use Manual Volume rather than AGC and think carefully about good mic placement--since those are cardioids and directional, you don't want to be swinging them around--you should get fine results.

This is interesting to me for two reasons: 1) It suggests the in-ear phones may not be picking up all the high-frequency info that the mics would if they were in the open air. 2) Canalphones (I have and love the Shure E3) are notorious for underplayed bass response. Perhaps they are deliberately EQ'd that way. And an idle thought: When I'm trying to hear more vocals in a bottom-heavy club mix, I usually tilt the back of my pinnae forward, which boosts the treble.

Dex, you have to get out more. GA = General Admission. And Dex is right: don't cram yourself up too close. Think about hearing, not seeing. If you can, during the opening act, try a few spots and close your eyes and see how it sounds. The best way to get a good recording is to stand where it sounds good. The other most important thing is to use Manual Volume and not AutoGainControl, and then look at the level meter. With a battery box, you probably don't have to worry about it overloading through line in .

That's a great question about the outer ear itself as a filter. Dex Otaku has a pair of the in-ears that he sometimes uses outside the ears--maybe he can do a comparison. It doesn't look like there's room for any filtering circuit on the in-ears, even if it would be possible to compensate for the different shape of everyone's ears. The headphone mounts are another package for the same basic Panasonic capsule. It's hard to see from the photo where they are actually pointed. It's up to you whether you'd be more comfortable recording with a pair of dummy headphones or a pair of tiny mics and clips.

Were the windscreens already on the mics? They're just soft sponge-rubber caps--hold the hard little gumdrop-shaped mic and gently pull or twist them off. Don't tug on the wires. Try not to put the windscreens on and off the mics more often than you need to, because they'll stretch out of shape. When I use them--only at outdoor, windy shows--I put a very small piece of double-stick tape on the side (not the top) of the mic so that the windscreen won't get knocked off. Right and left aren't marked, but if you put on your headphones (assuming they're marked), put it on REC/PAUSE and tap one of the mics, that will tell you which one. I have attached the clips I use, which only hold the mics at one angle, so that the right microphone points right when clipped to my shirt collar, ditto for the left. If your clips rotate you might want to mark the mic or the clip; you could put a little piece of (red for right?) tape on the clip for the right one. Happy recording.

For small, stealthy mics, the wonderful ambient recordings at www.quietamerican.com are made with mics from Sonic Studios. http://www.sonicstudios.com/ Others I have seen recommended--but not used due to budget constraints--are DPA. http://www.dpamicrophones.com/