A440

It will be slightly cleaner and much quieter. The battery box works to expand the microphone's dynamic range and make it possible to bypass the preamp for the loud or bassy sounds that overload it. For recording speech and ambience, you don't need it, and in fact it might muffle some of the quiet sounds that make a recording feel live. You can just go mic-in, or if your crowd is really screaming, then use an attenuator. Take a look at the pinned thread on attenuators at the top of Live Recording--at least one user thinks it has better results than a battery box.

Avoid Memorex and Hi-Space. Both are cheap and nasty (and widely available on Ebay because people are dumping them). TDK, Sony, Denon and most others should be fine.

The B&O reviews are pretty harsh. In that price range you could get Shure E3 or E3c (gray or white) earplug phones that seal out the outside world and are much more highly regarded.

Drag and drop? No. Sony's too short-sighted for that. If you upgrade, you will be able to play back your old MDs and record them digitally in real time only. But you will be able to upload any new recordings made on the Hi-MD. All transfers go through SonicStage. With Hi-MD, you can transfer recordings only in the new Hi-MD formats--PCM, Hi-SP, Hi-LP--from your MD to your PC. With these formats, this is a wonderful thing. But the old MD formats are still stuck on the the disc, and probably will be forever. Sony has eliminated SP/LP2/LP4 recording from the latest generation of Hi-MDs, although those formats will still play back. You can do a digital transfer in real time from SP, LP2 or LP4 by using SonicStage to control and play back the MD through your computer, then using TotalRecorder, which intercepts and records the signal on the way to your soundcard. It's $11.95. Does your component MD have an optical out? You could also record into a PC sound-recording program (Audacity or something fancier) through a soundcard with optical in. External USB soundcards are available with optical in.

I always thought Normalization was a way of evening out the volume of selections taken from various sources, and thus a form of compression. This is from Digital Domain (www.digido.com) "The Myth of "Normalization" Digital audio editing programs have a feature called "Normalization," a semi-automatic method of adjusting levels. The engineer selects all the segments(songs), and the computer grinds away, searching for the highest peak on the album. Then the computer adjusts the level of all the material until the highest peak reaches 0 dBFS. This is not a serious problem esthetically, as long as all the songs have been raised or lowered by the same amount. But it is also possible to select each song and "normalize" it individually. Since the ear responds to average levels, and normalization measures peak levels, the result can totally distort musical values." I'm assuming Amplify just pumps up everything equally. You can see clipping immediately in Audacity, and simply undo the Amplify and use a lower level.

I uploaded a direct comparison: Omnis and Cardioids side-by-side during the same song. The cards don't do well in the comparison. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?act=m...&cmd=si&img=502

Except for the NH600 (not the NH600D), which is hard to find in the US anyway, all the Hi-MD's have both mic-in and line-in. I'd suggest mic-in for more flexibility anyway. You don't need a squeaky-clean preamp sound for audience recording. You could use the most basic binaural mic and get very realistic sound. The most hi-fi parts of my concert recordings are the applause and screams.

Under "Effects" in Audacity is Amplify. You can amplify up to 400%, which should be more than enough. Just Select All, go to Effects and Amplify. That way you'll preserve the original dynamics, whereas Compression will make the louds less loud and the softs less soft.

It has a USB port that connects it as a data storage device. Optical out is different--it's like a digital version of the headphone-out jack.

There shouldn't be much difference between recording a loud band in a club and recording at the Gorge. In fact, it might be better, because outdoors the bass dissipates instead of bouncing around the room. The reason for bass rolloff is to fix the bass-heavy mix of so many clubs. Since you're going through line-in, without a preamp to overload, try first without any bass rolloff. In any event I wouldn't go above 100 hz because even there, you're already cutting a lot of bottom out of the music. Have fun at Sasquatch--the Pixies should knock your socks off, and don't miss the Frames.

Hi-MDs have optical in, not optical out. If you record out of the headphone jack through your soundcard to your PC, with something like Audacity, then you are recording the analog signal from the headphone jack. If you do get a Hi-MD, you could use the TotalRecorder method: TotalRecorder records what goes into your soundcard before the computer plays it back, in real time. It's $11.95, well worth it. http://www.highcriteria.com/ Put the old MD into the Hi-MD unit, hook up via USB. Use SonicStage to play back the old MD through your computer, and record it with TotalRecorder. Then use CDWave to split it automatically into separate tracks. http://www.milosoftware.com/cdwave/

Echoing Mrsoul : My 20/30 rule of thumb is for going into the mic jack, and it varies with every mic and every concert. Going into Line-In with the battery box is going to give you a much quieter recording, so definitely boost the level. I have no idea if Mic Sensitivity affects Line-in at all--I always assumed it was just for input into the mic jack. Does someone know for sure?

Could there be a loose ground wire in the mic? Or are they humming because they don't know the words? javascript:emoticon('') smilie

The mics were both clipped to one lapel, one above the other about 5 inches apart. Not ideal, but I was at an angle to the PA system and there was loud conversation going on by my other side. The placement might have something to do with the flatness. I have recorded another loud show straight-on from right in front of the soundboard, mics pointed directly ahead about 6 inches apart--a perfect position except for having to brace against the moshers. I'll upload a song shortly, but this time I'm going to try some EQ to restore some bass. (EDIT: It's in the Gallery now.)

Every Hi-MD except the NH-600 and NH-600D, which are essentially portable players for downloading music from the computer (Minidisc as iPod), will do all the things you specify, though you'll probably have to convert your .aac files to something else. Take a look at the Browser on the main page for detailed comparisons of features among models. Sturdy depends on you. You can't use them as hockey pucks. Most of the Hi-MD units are plastic, not metal. The NH1, which is metal, runs on an unusual rechargeable battery and doesn't take an outboard battery pack, so it can have battery-life problems. The only accessory you'll need is a microphone for live recording, and (depending on the mic and your needs) a battery box, attenuator or preamp. For simple voice recording all you need is a mic. You'll also need a connector to a stereo or optical minijack from whatever you're recording out of, though you do get an mini-to-mini optical connector with the unit. My basic concert setup is NHF-800, Sound Professionals BMC-2 mics ($29 if you find SoundPro's occasional sales on Ebay), Radio Shack Headphone Volume Control ($6.59) as attenuator. You probably get one Hi-MD disc with a new unit, so you'll have to get some discs too.

Low/High Sensitivity applies to all mic recordings. The Standard/Loud Music setting applies only to Auto Gain Control.

Take a look at this from Microphone Madness: two omni mics on tripods. http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmstertrip.htm

That was my post. With sensitive mics, my preamp overloaded from bass even on a quiet little Norah Jones concert. But your mics aren't as sensitive--bass hasn't overloaded your preamp before--which means it's difficult to say anything definite. It's hard to tell where your overload is occurring. It could well be the boost from using High Sens, or it could be just the sheer level of signal going into the unit. Since your mics are already cutting the signal because they're low sensitivity, perhaps switching down to Low Sens in the unit would do the trick. If you want to be extra-cautious, then get an attenuator for the next loud show.

I came to MD after the R50 generation, but old-school MD'ers swear by the R50 and the R37: tough build and possibly less finicky about sound. Here are the caveats: First, they're used--they were made back in the 20th century. They're also bigger than current units. They only record in SP, the original MD compression format. It's very good sound, but it is compressed and not as hi-fi as PCM. You can only get 74 or 80 minutes on a disc--later generations would double and quadruple the recording time with more compression, LP2 and LP4. Also, there is no USB connection to the R50. To use your recordings, you would have to record them out of the headphone jack into your computer, in realtime, with the inevitable quality loss. If you wanted to have one MD for recording and another for playback/recording, you could get an R50 along with anything from the NetMD or Hi-MD generations--the NH600D is available new on eBay for under $100. But you still can't digitally upload any of the old MD formats--SP, LP2, LP4--to the computer. On a NetMD or Hi-MD unit, however, you could play back your recording through USB with SonicStage and record it digitally to the computer as it plays with TotalRecorder--a recording program that makes your computer think it's the soundcard. That would give you a cleaner digital recording. But it's still realtime. Hi-MD is a lot more convenient for manipulating your recordings, and PCM is a serious upgrade in sound.

I'd try Low Sens first of all. I just got CS Low-Sensitivity Cardioids and was at a totally blasting concert and ended up having to amplify the tracks, which came out crisp and clear. I was recording at Low Sens and 19/30. The LCB's are different from the cardioids--they have much stronger bass response instead of the built-in bass roll-off of the cardioids, and bass tends to be what sets off the preamp. But it's worth one more try. You could also try the good old Radio Shack attenuator--take a look at the pinned thread. It would be great if you could post how it works out, too.

Hi-MD should work fine for you. You'll get quality as good as your mics with PCM--uncompressed digital CD-quality sound--and even basic binaurals will give you very realistic sound. Listen to some of the things in the Gallery (top of the page) on this site or in the mail.yahoo.com mailbox livefrommd (password 1minidisc1). Anything except the MZ-NH600 or 600D (those are players) will have the mic input you need. It's going to depend on what's available when you're buying. Look at the Browser tab on the minidisc.org homepage for detailed comparison of features. But the recording capability of all of them is essentially the same; the differences are in display, battery, and playback. They're all plastic, unfortunately. But they're also all pretty shockproof, and if you're holding a camera steady you should also be steady enough for MD. See this thread: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=9885 I am very happy with my first-generation Hi-MD from last year, the MZ-NHF800, which runs on a regular AA battery (or rechargeable) for a very long time. You can snap one up at www.minidisco.com right now for $229. Sony's not making them any more. The NH1 only runs on its rechargeable gumstick, so you might have battery-life problems with that one. Others have the gumstick plus an outboard battery pack, which is bulkier. That's why I chose the NHF-800 although the NH900 had some more bells and whistles. I don't have a second-generation model, and I don't see any reason to get one while my NHF800 is still working, but they may be the only ones available to you. The RH10 seems to have the best display (lighted) for recording use. For more ruggedness, you could also check out older MDs, like the Sony MZ-N900 or MZ-R900 or various Sharp models. But they only record in compressed formats and don't upload, and you'd have to take your chances on a used one. The annoyance with Sony for live recording is that if you want to set the volume manually, you have to go through a bunch of menu clicking. But for recording dialogue, you could probably use the default setting of Automatic Gain Control and be perfectly happy.

Recording through Line-In, as you probably are with the battery box, creates track marks when the level goes too low for 2 seconds or more. No one has figured out how to turn off this "feature," though it's possible--barely--that going through Rec Set to Time Mark and setting it to 60 mins. may override it on some models (giving you one mark at 60 mins instead). SonicStage can supposedly combine tracks in the computer after they have been uploaded AND after they have been deleted from the disc. I trust SonicStage for nothing, so I would suggest instead removing the tracks by hand on the unit. Play, put it in pause, and use the pointing stick (>) to go forward. When you see Mark 002, etc., push the track button to remove the track mark. It should only take you a few minutes.

I just got a pair of Core Sound Low Cost Cardioid mics with the Low Sensitivity option, and gave them a tough job to start with: the Mars Volta's rock at full blast, one of the loudest shows I've been to in some time. I did not run them through an attenuator, but went direct to Mic-In and: NO PRE-AMP OVERLOAD. NO DISTORTION. True low sensitivity. I posted an excerpt in the Gallery. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?act=m...&cmd=si&img=499 The sound is different from the omnis that I'm used to: more clinical in a way, with a flatter soundstage, and less bass than there was in the club. Core Sound (at www.core-sound.com ) says the frequency response is 40-18,000 Hz, with a rolled-off bass below 100Hz, so that makes sense compared to the 20-20,000 Hz of my omnis. I'm curious what people think of the sound. It's a pleasure not to be using an attenuator, but I do miss some of the richness of the omnis.

Audacity. Free. http://audacity.sourceforge.net Its only kink is that its Save function saves to its own format, .aup, which is unnecessary. When you want to save the file, instead of Save use Export to .wav, or if you're planning to convert, Export to .mp3. Then you'll have a saved .wav file or .mp3 file . When you close Audacity and it asks whether or not to save changes, you can say no--otherwise your hard disc will start filling up with .aup files.

The computer experts here might disagree. But I'd suggest that if you have 3.0 working then you don't bother to upgrade to 3.1. You already have the uploading and automatic convert-to-.wav capability; 3.1 doesn't add significant new features. And with SonicStage, every upgrade means (first) backing up your whole library with the backup tool and then wondering whether the upgrade will leave you much worse off than before. It it ain't broke, don't upgrade it.