A440

Pardon my skepticism, but from the description it looks like a very expensive white-noise generator that wil make whooshing noises. Nothing magical about it. 150 sq. feet is 10 x 15. Perfect if you're holding sensitive conversations in a jail cell. I'll have to tell my lawyer to get one.

Ah, there's the dilemma. You're never really going to eliminate crowd noise in an audience recording--especially at a jam-band kind of show, where everybody chatters away. At shows where recording is permitted, the best strategy is to get in the tapers' section and attach the mics to a long pole that keeps them above the crowd noise. My experience with cardioids is limited to low-cost ones, with limited bass, but frankly I am not impressed. I much prefer the way omnis surround you with the music--cardioids can sound like there is some blank void behind you. And if you're going to be moving around, the results you get from cardioids are just going to be annoying--sometimes clear, sometimes muffled. You're also going to pay a bundle to get cardioids that have decent bass response. Your Van Morrison crowd is probably going to be older, seated, and respectful. Omnis should do fine there. Underworld will probably be so loud that people will dance rather than talk, and they may also have a surround-sound setup that begs for omnis. If you are recording, you will have to decide whether to stay (relatively) still or get lost in the moment. That's why recording engineers are not party people. Try your stealth mics (assuming you get 20-20000 hz mics) with your didjeridoo before escalating to the studio mics. Where you place them is going to make a lot of difference: close up for clarity (but not so close they overload) or back a little for room ambience and richness (but not so far that you lose the definition). You'll be surprised at what good quality you can get. With a didjeridoo honking away you are definitely going to have to use a battery box or attenuator to keep the MD from overloading. The Shure SM57 only goes down to 50 hz, so it's going to make your didjeridoo sound anemic. Probably not as anemic as the Sony mic made Xavier Rudd's didjeridoo, but still not ideal. The AKG goes down to 20hz, so it should give you more punch, but like other pro mics it has an XLR connector (not the minijack that goes into the MD unit) so at the very least you are going to have to get an adapter. Both of those mics are cardioids (and the AKG is a hypercardioid, with a very narrow pickup pattern) made to isolate the instrument or voice. If you're using them to close-mic your instrument, that's what they're for. You won't want to take them to concerts.

Daveb, sounds like you are either very unlucky or very tough on your units. I have a NHF-800 that I got last August and have been using constantly ever since. It has been dropped a few times, but it still works perfectly. Before that I got a lot of use out of an MZ-N707 and an MZ-R700. Yes, the earlier MDs were built like tanks and the new ones are plastic, not metal, but they have held up for me. Personally--and others may disagree--I would stick with a first-generation, one of the NH units, because they record in the older MD modes as well as the new ones. If Amazon has an NH900 for a replacement, then you'd also get line-out. Andy, your NH1 will give a whole lot more playing time than your N710, uncompressed audio if you want it and the ability to upload if you make recordings. After Hi-MD, you'll feel like NetMD is obsolete. Don't think the Zen Micro is going to play your old MDs for you.....

You could set Time Mark (under REC SET) to make a mark after the end of your recording (up to 60 minutes), then delete the rest. The timed mains switch isn't going to work because it won't finish writing to disc. You could also enable Sync Recording and use a timer on the mains switch to turn off the TV. Then the silence would make a track mark with Sync Rec.

If it's detecting one unit then most of your headaches should be over. Are you trying to unplug the Network Walkman with SonicStage running and then plug in the Hi-MD? This is just a guess, but maybe switching the units confuses SonicStage. If you haven't already, try closing SonicStage after you unplug the Network Walkman, then opening it again, then plugging in the Hi-MD. Another variation would be to reboot the computer before switching MD units. Again, I don't know if it will work, but re-initializing does help with a lot of software problems.

If you go back to the initial question, he has an N10. It won't play Hi-MD discs.

You're right, it does need a certain length of silence--2 seconds, I think. Also, if you are transferring from cassette, there may be tape hiss and other sounds that your ears know how to tune out but the MD doesn't. But at least Sync will do some of the work for you.

Fake SP via Sonic Stage will sound good enough for your car, since road noise should obliterate any difference in fidelity. So record, upload, and check out to fake SP. You could also try to find a 1st-generation Hi-MD to record SP, but then you won't be able to upload the recording. Don't mess with the HMDHiFi folder. That's got My Library, encryption settings and whatever other mumbo-jumbo Sonic Stage needs.

If your cassettes were made from albums, with silences between songs, then go into REC SET until you find Sync Recording, and switch it to On. Tracks will automatically be inserted into the silences when you record. This happens automatically with Line-In anyway, so you may have some track marks on your recordings from cassettes already.

If you look at main Sharp webpage at http://www.sharpusa.com/ they don't even list minidisc recorders among their products any more. Google also found this: http://www.sharpusa.com/products/FunctionL...1050,17,00.html which shows them selling accessories but no MD units. It seems like they have gotten out of the minidisc business. Which is a shame.

Wow, a vintage model. SonicStage is not for you because you don't have a USB connector on your MD, so don't worry about it. OK, headphone out--->Line In on your soundcard, and the only way to control playback is with the MD unit. I hope you have a line-in. If your computer only has mic-in, then try playing through that (headphone out-->mic-in) at low volume on your computer. Again, use the Volume Control/speaker icon to select mic-in as your audio input. But it may sound all staticky and distorted, like it does on my computer via mic-in. If you are eager to do this and your computer has a USB port, you can get the Griffin iMic, which is a line-in jack that connects through USB. It's about $40.

The one-point mics that sit on the recorder, like the Reactive Sounds one and the Sonys, pick up the whir and vibration of the machine. You also have to sit there holding the machine, which may not be a good idea at some shows. If you're ordering through minidisco, here's what you want: http://www.minidisco.com/sp-bmc3.html Same specs, but you can separate them and clip them about as far apart as your ears. You will get an amazingly improved stereo sound. You can also get them through www.soundprofessionals.com , but as Volta points out you have to watch for import duties. Look on ebay for homemade microphones using the same capsules (they will have the same specs for frequency response, signal-to-noise ratio, etc.) It's up to you to decide if they look well-made. The 105db is usually ample. But because the mic preamp overloads at lower levels than 105db, you will probably need either a battery box (to go through Line-in) or an attenuator/headphone volume control (see the pinned thread) to go through Mic-In.

This is one of the stupidest things about SonicStage. If you have the files in the folder titled so they have the track order upfront (01-First Song-Great Band, etc.) and you import the folder into SonicStage, then there is a heading on SonicStage about date imported, so they will all be together if you click on that. You still have to put them back into a group. Why SonicStage hasn't added group importing after 3 versions is one of those Sony mysteries.

Some of stweb's complaints are lessened (transfer speed) or eliminated (wav conversion) with SonicStage 3.1 . When you buy a year-old unit, it's always a good idea to look for a software update. Of course, what really should be eliminated is all the DRM garbage and SonicStage itself. Another gripe, the battery life, disappears completely when you use either a standard AA alkaline battery, available anywhere, or a better rechargeable one. That's why I got the NHF800 (same unit basically plus FM)--to be able to use ordinary batteries. I use Duracells or 2700 mAh rechargeable Evereadys and have plenty of recording time. The Manual Volume idiocy and goofy ergonomics? Well, that's Sony for you. Previous generation MD's actually had a record button slider that could be operated with one thumb, but apparently that was too user-friendly for Sony. While griping, let's not forget the barely readable display. On the other hand, it is a palm-sized PCM recorder with editing capability--not bad for $200.

I have the NHF800, not the 910, with the RM-MC40ELK. I doubt that it would have any less functionality on a higher-end unit. On the NF800, it shows 3 lines. It does not access the REC SET menu. But you can do that on the unit as usual, leave it paused, put it on HOLD and use the remote to un-Pause and start recording. You make track marks with the P-Mode button. Display lets you check Rec Remain if you want to. For recording in the dark, the remote is a joy--you can see that it's recording, you can check levels and change them if necessary with the wheel, and you can make track marks. Not to mention that you can leave the unit completely hidden.

What are you planning to record? If the mic is for music, neither of those mics has good bass. They only go down to 100 Hz, when your ears go down to 20Hz (and a piano goes down to 27Hz, with lower notes than that from a bass player or bass drum). They should be fine for speech.

The Browser tab at the top of the minidisc.org homepage.

Look in the Browser tab at the top of the www.minidisc.org page. Sony models with Mic-in: MZ-RH10, MZRH910, MZ-NH900, MZ-NHF800, MZ-NH700, MZ-NH1. These are all Hi-MD models that will allow you to upload recordings to a PC. Reguar MDs with mic jack--which do not upload, but you can record analog out of the headphone jack--include MZ-N920 NE810 NF610 NF810 N910 N710 N707 R900 and R700.

There is no mic jack in the RH710. It has a line-in jack, so that you could buy a preamp and record with a mic that way, but you'd be better off getting a model with a mic jack: the RH910 or RH10.

What model MD do you have? If it is a Hi-MD (MZ-NH*** or MZ-RH***) then you can connect it via USB, play back through your computer speakers and control playback with SonicStage. If it is not a Hi-MD then you have to get a cord (stereo miniplug to stereo miniplug, like what's on the end of your headphones) to connect the headphone-out jack to a line-in jack on your soundcard, then enable your soundcard to play what's coming through Line-In. (Click on the little speaker icon in the taskbar.) NetMD units (Sony MZ-N**) have a USB connector, and you can control playback on the unit through SonicStage, but you're playing back analog instead of digital.

It's much more useful than that, but only for recording. My NHF800 has an LCD display that's hard to read in ordinary light and useless in the dark. Now, when I'm going to record a concert, I plug in the mics and set the Rec Volume to Manual on the unit before going in (the remote won't access the Rec Set menu), leave it on Pause, put it on Hold, plug in the remote, tuck it into a pocket and go on in. With the remote I can un-Pause and look at the backlit display to see that I'm recording and check levels (which can be changed with the wheel if necessary). You don't have to Pause to add a track mark, P-Mode does it. Security doesn't see the MD unit at all, and there's no uncertainty about whether you're actually getting the recording. For the NH600, it's a nice little backlit track display, but probably not worth the price.

Whoa! Don't delete all the HKEY keys!!!! Look and see what's under Software/Sony Corporation/SonicStage and Software/Sony Corporation. In mine (with SS 3.1 installed and, knock on wood, working) under Sony Corporation I see OpenMG and OpenMG Jukebox, and under SonicStage I don't see any OpenMG. Yours may be different. It sounds from your other post like SonicStage is mostly installed except for the WMP codecs, so I suggest leaving the Registry alone for now .

If you have a fast internet connection you're better off with Sony's installer for the country where you live, from here: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=9586 It's a little file that connects to Sony and downloads whatever pieces of SS you still need. If you're really stuck using the MDCF standalone installer, maybe the Windows Media codecs didn't install properly. Search your computer and see if a copy of WM9Codecs.exe is in the directory C:\Documents and Settings\Lisa Watson\Desktop\Downloads\WM9Codecs.exe where SonicStage is looking for it. If not, get one from that Microsoft page http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsme...ecdownload.aspx and copy it into the directory, then try revving up SonicStage again. If it's still choking on WMP, you could also try uninstalling and reinstalling the codecs. See if you can find them in Settings/Add-Remove Programs and uninstall them, then go to that Microsoft page again and reinstall them. Make sure they're the right ones for your operating system, etc., and that they're in the Downloads directory SonicStage expects. In a way you're lucky because at least SonicStage is telling you what's wrong instead of just crashing.

Two possibilities: Windows Media Player may have converted your songs into .wma files. SonicStage doesn't like wma. You need to change the WMP settings to convert to mp3, or use a different program like dbpoweramp (under Dowloads at the top of this page). To just transfer CDs to MD, use SimpleBurner (also under Downloads): pop in the CD, connect via USB, push the red arrow. SonicStage makes a copy on your computer that it then transfers to MD; SimpleBurner just sends it directly without keeping an intermediate copy. If they're not .wma files that are giving you trouble, then: That's the next step. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8071 And install the latest SonicStage, 3.1, rather than the CD that came with your player.

Leaving the mic on High Sens creates more noise in the recording because the preamp is working harder to boost the mic. The only time you need high-sens is for very quiet sources. Low works better in almost every other situation. The size of the room doesn't matter. Volume, particularly the volume of the bass, is what matters. If you are recording a band, with bass and drums, then you should use the attenuator because the preamp can barely handle any bass at all. A solo performer with a guitar? Up to you, but don't blame me if it overloads.