A440

ebe has an MZ-R500, which doesn't connect to a computer and doesn't use SonicStage. It might be a simple problem: the write-protect tab on the minidisc might have gotten slid into the Protect position. Check and see that it's closed, not open.

Try Google. It's a player, hence the E. The dimensions, etc., are in the link below. Unless you're just maniacal about thinness I see no reason to get this over a downloader like the NH600D. No native MP3 playback, BTW. http://www.audiocubes.com/product_info.php?products_id=1206

As far as I'm concerned, MD is for recording, and hard-disc players are for those who only care about playback of files from their computer. SonicStage is just too much of an annoyance for someone who doesn't also need MD's recording capability. I use my MD for recording and I like to pack a dozen CDs onto 80-minute discs via SimpleBurner when traveling since I already have the MD. Philosophically, I like removable media (MD), and I wouldn't want to stash my whole library on an iPod and then have the disc crash. The NH600D, now under $100 all over the place, would be a fine bargain iPod alternative if you didn't have to deal with SonicStage, and you'd still have the discs after it wore out. But assuming the files are also stored somewhere else, on computer or discs, then the disadvantages of SonicStage outweigh any affection I have for MDs. An iPod mini is smaller, it can play back all the music you'd need for a long long time, and you can get it on there with iTunes. Sony's software--and the anti-user DRM thinking behind it--are simply a disgrace to its hardware, which is why hardly anyone considers MD a threat to the iPod. Those little Sony flash and HD players look enticing, too, but not with SonicStage.

I hate to say it, but I would recommend none of the above. They might be good for lectures but not for music. If you are recording electronic music you want a full frequency range--20-20,000 Hz--and you also want good stereo separation to capture all of the stereo effects. The ideal setup is a pair of small omnidirectional or "binaural" microphones rather than all these one-point microphones. Speech is different--a much narrower frequency range, and if you're in a lecture hall you don't want to pick up sound from behind you. But omnis will still be acceptable unless it's a very noisy or very echoey room. What you hear is what omnis pick up. The Audio-Technicas seem to be clip-on lavalier microphones primarily for speech. They're small, but their response is limited. AT 9641 is mono AT 9830 picks up 100-12,000 Hz---no lows, no highs ATR 35s may also be mono, 50-18,000 Hz, more promising but still without low bass AT 805, can't find any useful specs on AT 805, but it's also a one-point mic, no stereo separation--might also be mono The Sonys also have not much bass response--they would be good for lectures, however, because the DS70P and the ECM-719 are directional, recording what's in front of you rather than all around you. The best for music is also the biggest, the sausage-sized MS 907, but like the other Sonys it only goes down to 100 Hz, which will miss a lot of bass. And you would have to hold it in your hand all night or find a way to mount it. Look at www.soundprofessionals.com (the very basic BMC-2 are excellent, and you can clip them to a shirt or glasses if you get clips with them), www.microphonemadness.com, www.reactivesounds.com or on Ebay for companies like Church Audio (in Canada). A lot of small "companies" also sell homemade microphones based on the same capsules. European and Asian Ebay may have a different selection--search "stereo microphone" and compare the numbers with the BMC-2 or Church Audio to see if they're using the same basic capsule, and look at the pictures to see how practical the cords and housings (the things that hold the capsule) are. Make sure the connector is a stereo miniplug with two circles near the tip, like your headphone plug. With any mic that picks up bass, to record loud music through Mic-in you will also need an attenuator like the Radio Shack Headphone Volume Control pictured by my name, the Maplin VC-1 in England or whatever you can find. Microphone Madness also sells an attenuator. No attenuator for lectures. Bluetin can't be the only place in Singapore that sells microphones. Try musical-instrument stores or electronics stores.

I think the footsteps thing is exaggerating slightly. But the cord does carry vibrations, and anything that's adjacent to the cords or the phones--including chewing, the cords brushing against a jacket as you walk, etc.--gets amplified into your ears. With the Shure E3s, the cord goes up from earbud and tucks behind your ear so at least that part of the cord stays still, to lessen the effect.

Whether you use low or high sensitivity really depends on the mic. With the BMC-2's that I use, high is way too sensitive--it picks up just about everything including the rustle of clothing. Low will give you a quieter recording (if you use the same manual volume) but it will also help tune out some of the inevitable background noise at a classical concert. Try both sensitivity settings at home with whatever mic you are using and see what works best for you. And Keith, your best bet is to get a better mic or pair of mics. That's a directional mic with a frequency response of 50-16,000 Hz, and since it's marketed for "business or conference" it may well be biased toward picking up speaking voices. You will get more bottom and a more open-sounding upper register with a 20-20,000 Hz mic.

Those Radio Shack cords are way expensive and way too long. Shorter is better both for convenience and to minimize degradation of the signal. You should be able to find a 3-foot one for $5 or so at a hardware or electronics store. Take along your mic and make sure that it plugs into one and that the plug at the other end matches your mic plug.

Try recording some throwaway tracks on another disc, connecting and uploading. Is it always just two tracks and then adios? Have you unplugged other USB devices and tried connecting the MD to a different USB port, in case it's just a connection problem? Similarly, could it be something as simple as a bad USB cord? You can find the same USB to mini-USB cord at any electronics store, because BlackBerry and other PDA's use them, and it might be worth a try. And definitely keep hounding Sony about the "licensing" for your uploads. Did you uninstall/reinstall SS after uploading? Not sure if that makes SS think it's a different computer. You might also try installing 3.1 again with the online installer if you can, on top of your current installation. It will detect that you already have it installed, but if you tell it to reinstall it will give you the whole thing again, including, with any luck, an OpenMG that works this time. That was how I finally got SS 3.1 working on my computer.

Try the MDAC Repair Tool from Programs under Downloads. It seems to clear up a lot of these difficulties.

Mic-In lets you switch between Hi and Low Sensitivity (under Rec Set). If it's still too hot at Low then use my ever-popular attenuator, the Radio Shack headphone volume control as pictured, or if you're in England, Maplin VC-1 Headphone Volume Control.

How large is large? Maybe SS has a size limit. You could try cutting the files and reassembling them. Even a basic sound editor like Audacity (see the Downlads tab) allows you to cut exactly to the frame so that you can reattach files later without any gaps--look in the View menu. You might also try re-encoding them in case whoever ripped them in the first place did something unconventional.

Before you redo the OS, take a look at this post: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showt...t=0entry62883 It looks like something that was running on startup was interfering with his install. Try using msconfig as described in the post and see if that works.

Can you explain more clearly what you mean by "the computer loses contact with the MD"? Does SonicStage still show a list of tracks that are on the MD? Are you opening the group folder and highlighting all the tracks you want uploaded? Do you get an error message? Anything you can describe more clearly might help. Here is the TotalRecorder method, which should give you better quality than headphone-via-soundcard. It's near the end of the post. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=6330

BMC-2's are good little mics, and you'll be amazed at the fidelity. Place them about six inches apart like your ears: facing forward if you're planning to listen through your stereo, pointed left and right if you're going to listen through headphones. If you are recording an acoustic concert--not loud, amplified music--try this for starters. This is not a one-size-fits all solution, so adjust to your recording situation when you're there, but this is where I would begin. Go to Menu/REC SET and make sure REC MODE is Hi-SP. (If you want the highest fidelity, use PCM, but you will need a 1GB Hi-MD disc, and that will only hold 94 minutes). Change MIC Sens to Sens Low. This is mic senstivity--the BMC-2's are already quite sensitive so you need to keep it low for anything but the quietest sounds. Those settings will stay in the MD unless you change them. Then when you are about to record, plug the mic into mic-in and push Record and Pause simultaneously. The time display of 0:00 will start blinking. Go Menu/REC SET to REC VOLUME and change it to Manual. It will probably read 13/30. Raise that to 18/30 or 19/30 by pushing the center pointing stick (ENT>) to the right; pushing it to the left will lower the level. You can also change recording volume by turning the big jog wheel. Then, when you want to start recording push the Pause button again to un-pause and start recording. You need to do that each time--the MD will go back to automatic level control each time you press Stop to finish a recording. When the music starts, look at the level meter. (If it's dark you may need a little flashlight--white, not a color.) There are two dashes, and ideally you want the level to stay between them. If you can, try this during an opening act and see if the level is too high. You can adjust the manual volume lower or higher as you record (also in Pause if you want). If the level is up to the right-hand dash, it's overloading, so lower the volume. It's best if you find a level that leaves room for the loudest parts of the music to peak below the right-hand dash. But you will hear every adjustment you make, so try to find a good level and leave it there. Loud, amplified music with sharp attacks from bass or drums can overload the built-in preamp connected to the Mic-in jack. If you are going to be recording loud rock, the easiest method is with an attenuator, which basically a volume control to turn the level down. The cheapest kind is sold as a Headphone Volume Control at electronics stores, like the Radio Shack one pictured to the left or the Maplin VC-1 in England. I don't know what's available in Sweden. Mic-->Attenuator (with its volume turned all the way UP, because it is already cutting the signal)-->Mic-In can usually capture LOUD music without overloading. But don't use one unless the music is loud.

If it's brand new then contact Sony via its website. http://esupport.sony.com/EN/feedback/feedback.html You can do a live chat and maybe they can isolate the problem. Be VERY VERY persistent because you will have to get through a few layers of people who don't have a clue.

A battery box via line-in will give you a quiet recording. The cheaper, louder alternative is an attentuator, as discussed to death here: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=9069 You can hear some attenuator recordings here, for instance: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?act=m...&cmd=si&img=556

I should have copyrighted all frequencies. It's not the mic that comes with a cassette, it's some homemade mic. I have one, and it's a decent mic, though the case transmits a lot of handling noise, so it's best to place it somewhere and not touch it while recording.

I'm curious about that Visivox mic. Do you get any sense of space with it, or (listening through headphones) is the sound directly in the middle of your head? One-point stereo mics, like that one, have difficulty providing the subtly different information that separated mics provide. There are eBay mics that do put two mic capsules at the end of separate leads, which should sound better for music if you record with them separated by the width between your ears. Since most builders use the same capsules for basic mics, it's a question of how well the capsules are matched and how good the housings are, as well as the practicality of clips, etc.

Little omnis, like the Sound Professionals BMC-2, are easy to sneak into an opera house and remarkably lifelike. Please try them with your home stereo cranked up first, without the attenuator, but if you're going for the lyric-opera passages you should be fine. Semiramide? La Gazza Ladra? William Tell ?

If you have a laptop and aren't worried about stealth or portability, you could also record directly into the mic-in jack of the laptop. Audacity, in the Downloads tab on the minidisc.org homepage, is good recording software. Some laptops do have bad mic jacks or soundcards, so it might not be the solution, but you should give it a try and see.

The article also suggests that the old-school engineer interested in MD rather than hard-drive players is getting sidelined. quote from article: "Instead of a hard disk, Mr. Fukushima initially opted to have the Connect-linked Walkmans use a high-capacity version of the MiniDisc, which stores music on a removable cartridge and is popular in Japan but never took off in the U.S., say people close to the Walkman division. When Mr. Fukushima's team finally made a hard-drive Walkman, he said in an interview that hard-drive gadgets "aren't interesting" because "anyone can make them." Will we ever see a third generation?

I have recorded symphony orchestras, though not opera. Running my omni mics (Sound Professional BMC-2) directly into mic-in with Low Sensitivity at about 18/30 worked well. You could use a lower setting, 13/30, if you're up close or it's Wagner. Mic-in can usually handle unamplified music without an attenuator or battery box. I haven't tried a preamp through line-in, but perhaps someone else has. For your microphones, look for a frequency response of 20-20,000 Hz and get omnidirectional or binaural mics (they are the same mics labeled differently). Opera houses have good acoustics and (usually) quiet audiences, perfect for omnis that hear like your ears. For maximum fidelity, use 1GB discs on PCM and you'll get 94 minutes. But Hi-SP on a regular 80-minute disc sounds quite good too, and you'll get 2 hours and 26 minutes. I agree with you on AA batteries for the NH700. Everything except the NH1 will take an outboard AA pack, but it is bulkier. There's no known difference in recording quality between the NH700 and other models, and if you save some money, you can get the RM-MC40ELK remote control, which is backlit and lets you adjust recording level in the dark.

This is how I finally got an incredibly uncooperative SS 3.1 to work after multiple attempts at installation. If you can get through the install successfully again, run the online installer one more time and when it tells you Sonic Stage is already installed, tell it you want to reinstall anyway. Then it should reinstall everything including, I hope, the proper Open MG module. By the way, if you have the unit connected via USB, disconnect it.

Just so it won't be a nasty surprise later: You won't be able to upload any recordings you made on the Sharp, only record them out of the headphone jack in realtime. Only the new Hi-MD formats (PCM, Hi-SP, Hi-LP) will upload, not the old MD formats (SP, LP2, LP4).

A bunch of half-installed SS's can be a problem. Look at the FAQ and make sure you've cleared all the old ones out of the registry. Run the MDAC repair tool in the Downloads section on the www.minidisc.org homepage. Disable any antivirus and firewall programs and then try the online installer again. Cross your fingers and knock on wood too. Don't forget to re-enable your antivirus and firewall afterward.