A440

Do you plug into mic-in or line-in with that battery module? And do you use the bass roll-off or just the level control? By the way, here's a link to a decibel scale, though not specifically for music: http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:jlpKM...bel+scale&hl=en

Look in the Browser tab on the front page of minidisc.org . Any Sony MD since the MZ-N900 has manual volume control that you can set without pausing as you record. With the new Hi-MD's, unfortunately, Manual has to be specified each time you begin recording via the menu. The built-in default is AutoGain, and it returns to AutoGain each time you press Stop. But the NH-700, NHF-800, NH-900 and NH-1 all do allow manual recording.

I'd still suggest you wait a month. If the new Hi-MDs aren't significantly better in some way--who knows, they might have a louder output--then you'll still get a nice price drop on the NH900.

Do the units allow you to make Manual Volume the default setting for Recording instead of 9 (count them) clicks every time you record? Does the preamp still overload if there's a bass drum anywhere near the concert? Will Sonic Stage allow you to upload selected tracks instead of either single tracks or clumps of adjacent ones? Will Sonic Stage allow you to drag and drop .wav recordings instead of having to upload and convert them? Will the remotes include a Track button and a Record button? You might say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one....

You can add track marks while you're recording OR afterward--that is, while listening back to the MD. As long as the MD doesn't have its write-protect tab open, track marks can be added and deleted without affecting how it sounds. So you don't necessarily have to be running back and forth to the MD during the rehearsal. With fast-forward (which you can listen to as you run it), you could place track marks pretty quickly after the session. But if Sync works for you, by all means use it. I'm not sure it will, given that you're probably not dead silent between songs Make sure you turn off the Auto track marker which will insert marks automatically every five minutes, too.

You should definitely use the battery since it will improve the microphone's performance. Whether to use Mic-In or Line-In depends on how loud the music will be. If it's a loud rock concert, then use Line-in. If it's quieter sounds, you'll need Mic-in. The battery is not a preamplifier, which would be needed for quiet sounds into Line-in. Test it by recording yourself speaking, or music from your stereo, and see which input you prefer.

There is no built-in microphone. There is a mic-in jack, which means there is a pre-amp inside the unit that will allow you to use a regular microphone. You can get a microphone that's fine for home recordings for under $40: the Sound Professionals BMC-2, sometimes on Ebay for just $29. Those are two separate (left and right) microphones on cords. Even cheaper, and still usable, is an item that's regularly on Ebay as "Stereo Lapel Microphone for Minidisc." Don't be tempted by the cute little T-shaped mics that plug directly into the unit--they provide nice hi-fi recordings of the machine whirring and vibrating next to them. A line-in jack is for an amplified signal, like the output of a CD player, not a microphone. You can listen to your minidisc through your computer and its speakers by hooking up the provided USB cable and playing it back through SonicStage. Or, like the Ipod, you can hook it up to a powered speaker. It won't drive a speaker by itself.

There is a no-beep mode, it's under options. If you record via optical or line-in (it's the same plug) you will get the track marks with any 2-second gaps. If you record via Mic-In you can turn off Sync Rec in the record settings and get no track marks until you insert them yourself. Either way, the track marks don't make an additional gap themselves, they're just bookmarks. If you're playing back through the unit there won't be any additional silences. It's like a mix CD: the tracks are there so you can pick a song, but the playback is gapless. Playback via computer or burning to a CD might turn the track marks into silence, but the MD itself does not. The NH1 is the current top of the line recorder: thinner, fancier cradle, fancier remote, better battery. But as far as I can tell there is no significant functional difference from the NH900--someone correct me if I'm wrong. Take a look at the Browser tab on the front page of this site and you can see details on every model. Despite the clumsiness of Sony's software, which is the only way to record via USB, it is a digital transfer and it is faster than realtime. Try it before you go the slower way, and see if it has enough user settings to satisfy you. If not, you still have your own options. If you can wait a month until the new models are introduced, you may have more options for getting the music onto the MD: possibly, if Sony has come to its senses, a simple transfer of mp3 files. Since your needs are very specialized, it might be worth some patience to see if the new models are better for your gigs.

I suggest turning Sync Rec off--it's mostly useful for recording CDs in realtime, separating them into tracks when it detects 2 seconds of silence. But if it detects silence for a certain amount of time, it will shut off the recorder completely. Just as with AGC, the less automation the better--you're smarter than your MD. You can make track marks during the recording just by pushing the Track button.

It has already been mentioned above, but headphones make a huge difference. If you want big bass that's not just bloated sounding, in a pair of fold-up headphones under $50, get some Koss Portapros or, even better to my ears, Sennheiser PCX 100s. I agree that MD is not for you, Sony Man, especially if you already have an MP3 collection. To put those on any current MD player would mean transcoding them to ATRAC, lowering their quality further. When you want is an MP3 player with flexible enough equalization to crank up the bass. And make the bitrate at least 192.

Only Hi-MDs record in PCM. The Sharps are a previous generation and record at best in SP. If you want PCM, Sony is your only choice. From what you describe, you probably do want the NH-900 or the soon to be introduced NH-910, because the digital amp should be louder and punchier for output. If you are downloading music to the MD via USB, which is the quickest and most precise way to get songs onto MD, you won't get track marks within songs, silence or not. The track marks occur if you are recording into the MD via Line-In in realtime. But that's unnecessary. If the songs are on your computer, they can be transferred via USB with SonicStage, which is ugly and clunky but does do that job without problems. Even if you are recording via Line in, track marks are inaudible and will not create a gap in your MD recording. You can also get rid of them by individually deleting them with the Track button, which is bothersome but not difficult. The problem with the automatically inserted track marks is that when you upload something that's all chopped up into tracks, then try to burn it to a CD, many CD burning programs add silent gaps between tracks. But that doesn't seem to be your concern.

When you push Stop, it's saving your recording, like pushing the Save button in a word processor. That's why the delay. Instead of pushing Stop, just push the Track button. It will make a track mark without interrupting the recording, and is one of the great things about the whole MD format. Or use Pause if you don't want to record something, which will also start a new track when you un-Pause. Then, at the end of the session, press Stop. Make sure you use a fresh battery for each session, by the way.

What you're hearing is AutoGainControl flinching from your snare-drum accents. You got Cannot Set because you need to be paused while recording to get into manual volume every time you start recording. Why Sony didn't allow us to set Manual as a default setting remains baffling and annoying. Anyway, to get into manual volume press REC and PAUSE simultaneously. You'll see mic levels changing while the time display blinks. Then Menu---REC SET--REC Volume--switch from automatic to manual. You can then, by moving the center stick (>) or turning the wheel, pick a manual volume of x/30. If you had the recorder set before to Low Sens it should still be set that way--Sony lets that setting stay switched--and leave it on Low, or switch it to Low if need be. The Standard/Loud Music item no longer matters because you're not using AGC. Un-PAUSE to start recording. Test various manual volume levels, perhaps starting with 10/30 or 12/30. It will depend on your mic and the loudness of your band. Each time you press STOP you have to go through the whole Manual-volume drill again, so use PAUSE rather than stopping. I'd also suggest using Hi-SP rather than Hi-LP for better quality. You'll still get more than 2 hours per 80-minute disc. Even with the AGC annoyance, that's a pretty crisp recording. Manual should do the job once you find a usable level. And in the immortal words of James Brown, make it funky.

I hope Dex Otaku will pick up on this, because he loves his TFB-2's and can probably tell you whether they're uncomfortable. Meanwhile, you'd probably do fine either way. I once had an email correspondence with Sound Pros and was told (grumpily) that Mic Madness was founded by an ex-Sound Pros employee using similar designs. You can see the specs for the Panasonic mic capsules on this page (nos. 10-11) http://dkc3.digikey.com/PDF/T051/1278.pdf Conceivably one is using WM-61a and the other WM-61b, but that's for them to know. It looks like the Sound Pros ear mounts are more concerned with stealth, the Mic Madness with strength and comfort, and it doesn't sound like stealth is your priority. Binaurals tend to be more forgiving of wind noise than cardioids, so perhaps MM decided to skip the screens. How windy are the places you're recording? I hope Dex will have some thoughts, but if not, your preference in mounts should be the deciding factor.

Omnidirectional and binaural are the same thing. They hear like your ears (aural) in all directions (omni). If you're recording a classical concert in a room with good acoustics--if it sounds good to your two ears--then binaurals will do your job. Cardioids are directional, and useful if you're surrounded by noise (as at a rock concert) and want to point them at a sound source. For your purposes, you don't need to spend the extra cash on them. Take a look at the little mic pairs on the page I linked in the other post, and try whatever is within your budget. Even the cheapest BMC-2's, which Sound Professionals also puts up on Ebay for just $29 now and then, sound quite good. Powering the mics is supposed to improve their response and make them more flexible for recording very loud sounds, but that would be unnecessary for a concert of, say, madrigals or motets. Try recording with just the mics and see if you're satisfied. I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised. It's certainly good enough for violin lessons and it should give you good fidelity for an acoustic ensemble. You can always add a battery module later. And although I wouldn't call myself a musician now, I have been one: hence my name.

The NH-700 is barely bulkier than the NH-900. In the old NetMDs, there was a big difference in thickness; in Hi-MD, there isn't. Although it can be done, it's a waste of time to charge the battery in the unit. The good thing about the NH-700 is that it takes a regular off-the-shelf AA battery. You'll get better battery life with disposable alkalines (Duracell, Energizer, even no-names), and if you really want to stick with rechargeables, get one of the new little Energizer wall chargers with 2500 MaH batteries. The reason the unit is not letting you record below a certain battery level is that it needs battery power to save the recording once you've made it. It doesn't save the recording until you hit the Stop button, and if it doesn't think it will have enough power to write the recording to the disc, then it won't start. Saves some heartache in the end. There's no way around Sonic Stage at the moment, except for one of your uses: Once you have uploaded a recording into My Library with Sonic Stage, you can save a step by using HiMDRenderer instead of Wav Converter to convert it directly into the format of your choice: mp3, ogg, flac, etc. It is nice to have a .wav copy for the highest fidelity, and you can make that either with Wav Converter or HiMDRenderer. Sonic Stage isn't just transferring MDs from your CD to your MD. It's turning them into ATRAC, the only format the MD plays. That's why it's so #@%#@ slow. There are hopes, yet to be justified by reality, that the next generation of Hi-MD will simply transfer the mp3s directly via the USB and play them. But whether that will affect current Hi-MDs, and whether Sony will indeed loosen the digital-rights restrictions at all, remains to be seen. About the proprietary mp3, you might try using dbpoweramp (www.dbpoweramp.com ) to convert it to a high-bitrate (above 192) mp3--don't use variable rate--and then see if you can send it to the MD. No guarantees. In general, dbpoweramp is a good (free) all-purpose converter . By the way, if you have a European NH-700, look at the thread about taking off the volume restriction. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8157

When you set the volume manually, then AGC (auto gain control) is off and Standard/Loud doesn't matter. Remember that you have to go through the menu with the disc on REC/PAUSE each time you start recording to set manual volume, and then if you hit STOP it will revert to AGC. So use PAUSE if you want to pause during the performance. Low Sensitivity is almost guaranteed to work best. High is for very quiet sounds, and adds more noise from the preamp. The Low Sensitivity setting will stay that way once it's set. How spread out are the performers? If they're in one spot, or performing solo, use 90 degrees. If they're further apart, use 120. You'll have to experiment a bit on how high to set the manual volume, and it will probably be slightly different for each of your mics. To be safe, you want the loudest music to peak between the two little dashes on your level meter. If you can record a warmup or practice and test the recorder on various levels, that would be ideal. Manual Volume of 9/30 or 10/30 is probably playing it pretty safe if you can't do a test. Placement of the mic makes a difference. Here's an interesting thread on piano recording. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7295 For voice accompanied by piano, you want to get the same balance the performers are trying for, so try to place the mic where you'd ideally like to have a listener's ears.

If it's important for you to be able to upload recordings directly to your computer, without quality loss, then your only choices for the moment are Sony's Hi-MDs: the NH-700, NHF-800, NH-900 or NH-1 . They have greater capacity because they can use 1GB discs, they record in PCM rather than (compressed) SP, and they upload your recordings via USB. Look at the Equipment Browser tab here for more info. The PCM recording will be CD quality, as good as your input, depending on your source: mic, soundboard, mixer, etc. Others here disagree with me, but for recording and uploading all you need is the NH-700 or NHF-800 (same unit with an FM radio in the 800). They have a line-in and optical-in input. (It's the same jack.) If you're recording a concert from the audience, though, you're likely to be getting an analog signal from a microphone via mic-in. You can listen to some concert recordings at the Yahoo mailbox livefrommd (at) yahoo.com , password 1minidisc1 . The 900 and NH1 are more expensive in order to add some metal in the construction, a digital amp for crisper, pushier playback, an improved remote control, and digital pitch control. Some of those features might be useful to you as a DJ. The Sharp recorders you mentioned are not Hi-MD, and the only way to get a recording out of them is via the headphone jack in realtime. Sharp has not made any Hi-MDs that record in PCM or upload, which is a shame since Sony could certainly use some competition. Having waited this long, you might want to wait until April when Sony introduces its newer Hi-MDs. Prices on the old ones should drop, and the newer ones should have some of the early bugs worked out. It's very unlikely you'll have to worry about skipping. It's extremely hard to make one of these units skip. Gapless playback is more difficult, but it can be done by joining together separate tracks--search these forums for "gapless." I regularly record concerts to Hi-MD, making track marks during applause, and upload them to the computer and burn them to CD. Here's how you'd do that. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=6330 If I want a gapless CD, I use Nero to burn it without gaps between tracks.

There's no particularly Sharp-compatible mic. Any good binaurals should work with it.

If you're recording loud sources, a mic plus a battery box will work through line-in, though not neccesarily as loud as you'd like. If you're recording anything that's not loud, you'll need a mic plus preamp. Here's one, which I haven't tried. http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/...em/SP-BOOSTER-1 Or, for twice as much: http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/.../item/SP-PASM-2 Also, if it's just narration, how about simply recording it into the computer (which probably has a mic-in jack) as a wav file and transferring it via SonicStage or mixing it with your Reason tracks in the computer first?

The Audio-Technica microphone only picks up bass notes down to 100 Hz, around the G on the bottom line of the bass (F) clef. The 20-20,000 Hz microphones from Sound Professionals go two octaves lower. That won't matter for violin lessons, but it will make a difference for orchestral recordings. None of the microphones you mention are particularly stealthy if you're trying to use them at a classical music concert. You're going to have to hold them in your hand or (the Otter box) on your lap, which is not a good place for the mics--you'll get muffled sound because all the seats are between the stage and your lap. Also, you would be opening the Otter box, turning on the recorder and closing the box--pretty obvious. If stealth is really important to you, then look at smaller mics, like the ones on this page: http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/...tegory/110/mics or similar products from www.microphonemadness.com, www.reactivesounds.com, and www.core-sound.com Another advantage to a small pair of stereo microphones as opposed to the one-point microphones you are considering is that you will get better stereo separation if you separate them and put them as far apart as your ears. A live orchestral concert with unamplified instruments is one place that stereo separation will greatly enhance your recording.

Unless you have a minidisc deck, you don't have an optical out on your MD. You're going have to record the sound coming out of the headphone jack. It's all here. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7073 If you do have an optical out deck, just make sure in Settings/Control Panel/Sounds and Audio Devices/Audio that your recording input is via the optical in.

Unfortunately, Sony is the only game in town for Hi-MDs. I took a look at the Sharp website the other day, and "MiniDisc Recorders" are among the--gasp--discontinued items. Back to the opening question. My apologies to the NH-900 fans, but: If all you care about is recording and you don't care about a fancy-pants remote then all you need is an NH-700 (or NHF-800, depending on what's available in Canada). It apparently has the same recording capabilities as the NH900. The amp (for playback) is not digital, but there's plenty of bass, and if you're uploading to the computer anyway, it's irrelevant. Instead of carrying around the unit and an outboard battery pack, you can just carry around the unit and a Duracell for when the battery eventually runs down, which is likely to be well after you've filled the MD, played it back and edited it. Hard to tell whether the NH-900 is more durable than the others. Part of the body is aluminum rather than plastic, so perhaps. It does have pitch control, as does the NH1. None of these units comes with a microphone. If it did, it would be with one of Sony's second-rate mics instead of the excellent ones you can get from Sound Professionals, Microphone Madness, Reactive Sounds, Core-Sound, etc.

Just to amplify a little, the Recording Mixer is under Volume Control (probably on the Quicklaunch Toolbar) or Settings/Control Panel/Sounds and Audio Devices/Audio.

Are you running a lot of other processes simultaneously on your computer? The pops and crackles may be your processor trying to cope with too much at once. If you're running other programs, extra USB ports, etc. turn them off and try recording again without them. I suspect that's the problem, but also, is it a good soundcard? Have you done other line-in recording with it? Could the pops and crackles be coming from a loose jack or a bad cord?