A440

The possible solution is using a battery module into Line-in. Deep bass, even at low levels, overloads the mic preamp. A battery module provides power to the mics, letting them handle more volume, and going into Line-in bypasses the mic preamp. Going straight into mic-in is good for speech, but not for anything amplified. If you're already going mic-->battery module-->line-in and you're still getting distortion, then the mics themselves just can't handle the volume and that's where the distortion is coming from. That would mean you need different, lower-sensitivity mics. Maybe Soundman would let you swap for a different model.

I think the MZ-R700 does let you go to Manual volume, but it doesn't then allow you to set volume levels while recording--only in Pause. But it has been a long time since I had mine in hand. Have you tried going through the menus (with the disc in and REC-PAUSE on) pressing Menu repeatedly? Take a look at page 29 of the user manual. http://www.minidisc.org/manuals/sony/sony_mzr700_manual.pdf

A headphone amp won't work as a mic preamp. It's not sending any plug-in power to the mic. I've tried it--no go. The reason high-volume input--minidisc levels set low works better is that you're putting in more signal and less noise. Raising the level on the MD raises the level of both the incoming signal and its accompanying noise, so when the incoming signal is loud, it drowns out the noise.

The MS907 mic will work with any MD or Hi-MD unit. All the mic jacks take the same mics--basically, anything with a stereo miniplug. You also might want to look at this mic, which claims to improve on the MS907 at a similar price. http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-PSM-3

I think michael mcg is talking about getting the recording from the MD to the computer. I've gone into detail below, but it looks more complicated than it is. Connect, transfer, convert. Here's how it goes: 1) Make a recording. Push STOP when done, hold unit steady or leave undisturbed (20-30 seconds max) while it reads Data Save/System File Writing. That's when it writes the recording onto the disc. 2) Open SonicStage on your PC. Plug in the USB cord, connect the Hi-MD. 3) A Transfer window opens in SonicStage. (Choose Hi-MD from the window's dropdown menu if you need to.) Highlight the folders or files you want to transfer. Click the red [3a) Optional: Run File Conversion Tool (with Add Copy Protection unchecked) to remove digital rights management from the .oma files, so any computer with SonicStage will be able to play them. You don't have to do that immediately, but I've made it a habit, and you should do it sooner or later because digital rights management is a blight on humanity. Seriously, should you have Windows problems and have to do a system overhaul or reinstall, your files will still be usable. Otherwise, they are tied to the system information of your particular Windows installation.] 4) Recordings are now uploaded into the computer in Sony's own .oma format. You can have SonicStage "Save as .wav" (under Tools), which will be about 10 MB per minute of recording, so make sure you've got hard-drive space. You can do whatever you want with the .wav file with any audio editing program, or convert it to .mp3, etc. Or you can use Hi-MD Renderer to convert from .oma directly to .mp3 or other compressed formats. (Get it from Downloads, above, and have your company send Marcnet a donation--he's not a corporation, just a programmer) . It's a lot faster than realtime copying, and the digital quality is unchanged from disc to computer. To repeat: the MZ-NH700 only works with a PC and will only upload new Hi-MD recordings (PCM, Hi-SP, Hi-LP). The MZ-RH1 will also upload your old MD recordings onto a PC, and can also upload its own Hi-MD recordings to Mac computer.

Try using Control Panel/Add or Remove Programs and uninstall SonicStage with that. Then try a full installer from Downloads: http://forums.minidisc.org/downloads/download.php?file=21 When you have the full installer downloaded, disconnect from the Internet and turn off any antivirus, security or firewall software, which can prevent parts of SonicStage from getting installed properly. Run the installer and see if that version works. (Make sure you turn on your security software again before reconnecting online.) If you still have problems, uninstall again through Add or Remove Programs and then look at this thread to remove any remaining SonicStage bits. Follow the instructions carefully. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8071 And then try installing 4.0 from the full installer again.

A lot of us use minidisc because when we started using them they were by far the best low-cost, high-fidelity, palm-sized recorders, and now we have libraries of minidiscs. We've gotten used to their quirks. If you are just getting started now, Hi-MD is only one option for recording. They can upload the recordings to your computer, but only through Sony's cumbersome SonicStage program. The recordings on the disc are encrypted, so that if you drag-and-drop them, you have garbage data. Good points of minidisc: small, high-quality, durable discs, a good built-in mic preamp, track marking--you can push a button during recording or playback to break a recording into separate tracks. Track marking attracted many journalists to minidisc. Bad points: No drag-and-drop for recordings, capacity limited to 1GB before changing discs (though that is 94 minutes of CD quality, nearly 8 hours of compressed Hi-SP). No built-in mic (which would be bad because it would pick up the mechanical noise of the unit). And the software adds extra steps (and tension, although it's largely reliable now) to uploading. The basic Hi-MD unit is the MZ-NH700, most easily available here: http://www.minidiscaccess.com/item.html?PRID=1553219 Don't get their package that has a mic bundled with it--you can get a better mic for the price. The flagship is the MZ-RH1: cuter, Mac-friendly, slightly less inconvenient recording menus, better sound on playback. (But same recording quality.) http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/4415...3_Minidisc.html Note that you will have to get an outboard mic with any MD unit: minimum about $50, and don't get a Sony mic. For recording loud sound, you will also need a battery module because loud bass overloads the mic preamp (a common problem, not just with minidisc). But there are now other options outside minidisc. One is the Edirol R09 pointed out above. Another is the forthcoming Samson Zoom H2, which might end up being my next recording toy--though I'm waiting to read user reviews before rushing out to get one. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/4801...le_Digital.html Both are flash memory recorders with no moving parts (no noise), built-mics, drag-and-drop interface. They might be better for your purposes. I don't know how their mic preamps respond to loud sound. You can find some higher-end gizmos discussed, endlessly, at www.taperssection.com , though their emphasis is on concert bootlegging. Finally, if you don't need a tiny handheld thingie, you could always record directly into your computer with an easy free program like Audacity. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Digital recording is the conversion of analog signals to numbers, and digital recorders are little computers doing analog-to-digital conversion. Your computer can do that too. The quality will depend primarily on your mic, and also on your computer's sound card. Many laptops only have a mono mic input and a soundcard that sounds best making pop and ding Windows sounds, but you can add an outboard higher-quality soundcard--many choices--or just a stereo mic input (via USB) with the Griffin iMic.

Gosh, it's amazing, this has never been discussed here before. MZ-NH700 http://www.minidiscaccess.com/item.html?PRID=1553219 or MZ-RH1 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/4415...3_Minidisc.html or, possibly when it is available, Samson Zoom H2 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/4801...le_Digital.html Sound Professionals BMC-2 mics http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-BMC-2 Microphone Madness battery module http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm Mic-->battery module-->LINE-in Rec Volume set to Manual (this requires going through menus on the unit) at about 20/30. Or you could get one of these: http://www.mayfairrecordings.com/contact/inst_c1.html

http://www.naiant.com/studiostore.html They're not stealthy, but those are very encouraging prices.

Strangely enough, I actually met Bono briefly after a concert. He is a completely charming guy--pays absolutely full attention to you when he's talking to you, and doesn't act conceited at all. He knows he is famous ,and he definitely loves being a rock star, but unlike a lot of them, he wants to leverage that stardom to do good. The guy knows how to use his theatricality and charisma both as an entertain and an economic activist. And he has been sincere enough about his giant do-gooder projects to actually spend a lot of time with Treasury Secretaries, Finance Ministers, etc.--politicians that most of us would have nothing to say to, much less accompany on fact-finding trips. Charming them, and changing their minds, probably isn't easy. I thought All That You Can't Leave Behind was nothing more than its singles, and Pop was a letdown, but Vertigo is pretty amazing for a band that's been at it for so many years. I remember at the time that in interviews, the band said Bono was off saving the world while they made tracks, so maybe it's the Edge's album more than Bono's, but it definitely rocks. Don't know about the Irish tax situation, but I think Bono's and U2's net effect on the world has been positive. More than I can say for Coldplay or Fergie.

You might be able to do this with software alone! http://www.transcriptionbuddy.com/LR_main.htm

I don't know if it does. Don't want to start any unsubstantiated rumors. Some of the more expensive units have fancy options, though.

The numbered titles I get when importing an untitled group are date and time of the upload, like: 2007-07-11 19:09:14 When you get back to the computer, see if yours are similar, which is why I'm hoping Date Imported will unscramble them for you. If not, I'd be curious what it is calling the tracks. Use Rename (F2) to cut-and-paste one and send it along. You should check your version of SonicStage when you can. Sony's development of SonicStage was extremelyl slow and buggy, and not until 3.2 did it make a crucial change: allowing you to upload as many times as you wanted from a disc. Before that, you got one chance at an upload and if you tried again it destroyed the original recording on the disc without so much as a warning. (Shouldn't it play the "Mission Impossible" theme or something?) Even upgrading SonicStage doesn't let you upload those tracks again once they have been marked for destruction. An old version may well have been packaged with your unit, so upgrade as soon as possible. Hi-MD has been about 90-95% percent reliable for me--minus a couple of bad discs and one inexplicable transfer disaster--and I do a lot of recording in situations where the unit gets bounced around. It should work for you too once you get used to the quirks of SonicStage. Everybody here wishes Sony had designed software that lived up to the potential of the hardware in the first place, and SonicStage is still annoying, but 3.4 and 4.2 are usually pretty good. You can back up ultra precious recordings digitally without uploading, but in real time. Get Total Recorder (about $20, Standard is all you need), which records whatever comes through your soundcard. http://www.highcriteria.com/ Then connect the unit via USB, play back the tracks through SonicStage and record them with Total Recorder. It's possible, but personally I don't do it. SonicStage works well enough.

This hasn't happened to me, so I'm not sure what's going wrong. What kind of files were you importing? Tagged mp3s? Your own recordings? First, use a decent version of SonicStage, 3.4 or above. You can find them in Downloads on the upper right. You should be able to get the files back in order by clicking on one of the headers in My Library--Date Imported should do it. It's possible you clicked on a header that scrambled them--the interface is so bad, and that has happened to me. A different header may also get the order back. Next time, you can also use the Rename function while the unit is connected to change the track names on the disc before uploading, and see if that helps.

The question is what you want to do with your recordings afterward. If you are content to play them back from the minidisc, or to only be able to copy them by recording them in realtime from the headphone jack, then you can get by with a NetMD. I had some excellent years with a Sony MZ-N707. There are also devotees of the Sharp DR77, Sony MZ-N909, and even MZ-R700 and MZ-R900, which are old models with no computer connectivity. (NetMD allowed you to download songs from computer to MD, like an iPod, but NOT to upload recordings from MD to computer.) You can find NetMD units under $100 on Ebay. You have to make sure they haven't been over-used--look at pictures (check for wear around the buttons), ask questions, be a little suspicious. Information on every model is here: http://www.minidisc.org/equipment_browser.html The NH700 and other Hi-MD units are a great leap in capabilities. They record at CD quality--PCM--while the older MD units only recorded to compressed formats. They hold more per disc. And they allow you to upload your recordings to a PC (not a Mac--for that you should get the MZ-RH1, which will run you about $300). You can get the NH700 new from Minidisc Access for $189, and maybe save a little in an Ebay auction--but again, be careful. The NH-600D--D for Downloader--does not do live recordings. The NH-600 without the D has a line-in jack--needing a battery module (about $50) for amplified music, a preamp (nearly the price of the MD) for unamplified music. Same for the RH710. I do most of my NH700 recordings with a mic and a battery module into Line-in, so conceivably, if you are recording amplified concerts, you could get away with the NH600 ($129 at Minidisc Access). If you look for the NH-600 on Ebay make sure that it is not the NH600D--sellers seem to have trouble telling them apart, particularly since they benefit from the confusion. Send a question to make sure there is actually a Line-in jack.

Sync Recording will not turn the minidisc off. The only thing that would do that is a low battery or a bad disc. With a low battery, the unit will usually try to save everything and shut itself off when it senses the battery is running out. I also once had a bad disc that shut off the unit when I tried to record. You might as well turn off Sync Recording, but it is not affecting anything that you are doing. To test the disc, try recording on it with AC power. If the disc causes the unit to shut down, just get a different one. I don't know the menus and settings of the N1, but look through them and make sure you don't have something like Sleep Timer turning the unit off automatically.

Your solution with any NetMD audio on the NH700: record in realtime out of the headphone jack. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7070

Make sure the unit is connected directly to the computer, not through a USB hub. And if you have a lot of other USB connections going, even from another port, unplug them while you try SonicStage. Are you saying that the unit can read the discs and SonicStage can't? Or that the discs are always unreadable?

I usually like electric foam.... Seriously, unless it's toxic in some way, it looks ideal.

You were wise to get the directional elements, for two reasons: both for the directionality and for the more limited frequency response: 100-16,000 Hz instead of 20-20,000. That will lessen some of the rumble of the kitchen equipment, and maybe even some of the hiss of the espresso steamer. You're recording speech, which is a comparatively narrow band of frequencies, so it's good that the mic rejects the lowest and highest ones. How about an inexpensive mixer that takes mic inputs? That way you could close-mic the speaker--make or buy him a clip-on lapel mic--into one input and point a directional mic (or more than one) toward the audience members that would be speaking on other inputs. Put the speaker into one stereo channel, for clarity, and the audience into the other. Then you could upload and use a sound editing program to blend the two, as well as to filter out some of the kitchen noise. Perhaps one of the studio pros here can recommend a mixer. If the background noise is steady, editing programs like Audacity have a Noise Reduction function that will analyze the noise (record some of it by itself) and try to remove it from your recording, which sometimes sounds weird and sometimes good.

If you can wait a few weeks, a very promising alternative to minidisc is supposed to appear: the Zoom H2. It has built-in mics--though you'd have to leave the recorder visible--as well as a plug for a stereo mic, like MD. It also has direct drag-and-drop of recordings rather than the annoyance of SonicStage. It will be selling for about $200. http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Pr...datafeed.ZOO+H2 Since they're not out yet, there aren't any user reviews. The previous Samson recorder, the Zoom H4, got very mixed reviews, but looked like a considerably different device. If it turns out to be cheesy, you'd be gambling that Minidisc Access would have run out of NH700s while you waited. On the other hand, if the H2 does live up to its advance announcements, the H2 might well be a simpler and better solution for you since you're not particularly tech-oriented. Sorry to throw another alternative your way, but it may be worth checking out. On the other hand, if you do need something immediately, the NH700 is a little workhorse and will do what you need despite the inconvenience of SonicStage. I'd get at least 2 1GB discs to start--you might as well get more than one with the shipping costs--and then get into the habit of uploading and converting the music, and burning it onto CDs soon after the concert. A disc probably comes with the NH700, but it's always good to have a spare.

When you get discs, I'd suggest getting a familiar brand--Sony, TDK, Denon, Fuji--instead of a no-name. People have had bad luck with Hi-Space and Memorex. I don't know anything about Savit. Basic minidiscs--labeled 74-minute and 80-minute--will work with a Hi-MD. However, you might as well enjoy the full capacity of Hi-MD. A 1GB Hi-MD disc will hold almost 8 hours of Hi-SP recordings, which are good for most purposes including music, or 90 minutes of CD-quality PCM. An 80-minute minidisc will hold about 2 hours 20 minutes of Hi-SP--your basic concert--but only 27 minutes of PCM. You can keep uploading, then erasing and re-recording on the same disc. The best price on discs I know of is here. http://www.tapewarehouse.com But it's tricky to find them. You need to click Browse and then: Category: Digital Audio Product Line: Mini-Disc Audio Item: SCM HMD1G HI-MD DISC [#2724264569] They are real Sony 1GB Hi-MD discs. I have bought a bunch of them. I think the reason they're still available is that no one can find them in the catalog.

I just Googled "transcription software." There are programs that will let you use a pedal with a .wav or .mp3 file. Here's a free one, but be careful--ONLY let it install the one free program rather than the whole NCH suite of programs, some of which will nag you when their trial period expires. http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/ You may have confused the hardware guy with the transcription question. You can make your recording with some piece of hardware, but you don't need the hardware to be controlled by a pedal--just your software. Now all you need is an 8-track recorder, and then a software method to copy each track separately for transcription. I would think an 8-track recorder would allow you to do that fairly easily--even Audacity will allow you to mute all but one track and copy it.

Sound Professionals makes battery boxes too, though I don't know how significant the savings would be on shipping. http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/...tegory/310/mics The MZ-NH700 was never really released in the US, which got the MZ-NHF800 instead (same unit plus a remote with an FM radio--the same remote works with the NH700). Most of the new NH700 units that are still around are Australian ones that Sony Australia dumped to retailers at clearance prices. You might Google around for the NHF800, but it probably won't be any cheaper. If you are really determined to save money, and are only going to be recording amplified sources--not quieter things like speech--you might also get away with the MZ-NH600 from Minidisc Access. It only records Line-in, but I have found that I do virtually all my recording through Line-in. If the person is close I can even get away with speech recording with the BMC-2 and battery module, though I wouldn't want to use it for a lecture. Note that Sony made both the MZ-NH600, which has a line-in jack, and the MZ-NH600D--D for Downloader, because it only has a USB input, no live recording. Some Ebay sellers "accidentally" forget that they are selling the MZ-NH600D rather than MZ-NH600, so I would recommend getting the MZ-NH600 only from a reputable seller.

Mics can be very confusing, but you're on the right track. I do a whole lot of recording with the MZ-NH700, SoundPros BMC-2 and the Classic Mini battery module from Microphone Madness, and the results are good. http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm You'd need the battery module for the Core Sound mics, too. The mic input of the NH700 can't handle low bass in anything that's even slightly amplified, so you need to go through Line-in, and for Line-in you need the battery module. The Sound Pros mics are a little bit smaller and stealthier than the Core Sound mics, and less expensive. Glasses would be one place to clip them, though I generally use shirt lapels. A dark shirt helps camouflage them. And about the on-the-fly adjustments: You can definitely do them. You have to set the unit to Manual Volume through menus while in REC-PAUSE, but once you do that you can change them. However, as greenmachine suggests, every time you change them you'll hear it. You should always use Manual, because Auto isn't good for music--it can't handle drums. But once you set the level in Manual you should leave it alone unless things suddenly get much louder.