A440

Actually, its's -70dB. And you pay $249. It's not really comparable to the mic being considered at one-tenth the price. http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/resource...822_english.pdf Many home mic builders use Panasonic WM61a cartridges, which have a S/N ratio of 62 dB. The decibel scale is not linear. 58 decibels is 800 to 1. 62 would be considerably better, as would 70, but assuming you're not recording utra-quiet sounds, you should be OK with those mics. http://www.micworks.com/freeinfo/decibel.htm As you understand, you can't plug them directly in to the MD unit or you'll get very high-fidelity motor noise. But they are separated somewhat, so you should get a decent stereo image. Unless you are completely in love with that design, for cheap mics on Ebay you might also look at micro-sound, which has similar specs.

SonicStage 4.x includes ConnectPlayer, so I think you can skip that. You can find more about NW players and software questions at www.atraclife.com .

Sounds like you're doing everything right. I have a few suggestions, but they're just shots in the dark. To my knowledge, 3.4 and 4.2 are the best versions, and I definitely wouldn't go back before 3.2 because there are uploading limitations. One suggestion is to just let SonicStage use its default directory to install in. I once tried having it install elsewhere and had problems. Also, way way back, SonicStage used to have conflicts with Nvidia drivers. Maybe it still does. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=9894 Make sure old SonicStage junk is uninstalled with this FAQ. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8071 You could try a standalone installer instead of the online one from Sony. There's a full 4.0 in Downloads, and a link to Sony's own 4.3 here. (88MB) http://sonicstage.connect.com/SS-US.zip Here's a list of 4.2 online installers: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=18645 A copy of the 3.4 installation disc that came with the RH1 is here as a 244MB ISO file. You'd need Nero or another ISO program to burn it for use as an install disc. http://s15.quicksharing.com/v/8783199/SS3.4RH1.iso.html

Try a microphone in your mic jack. It's probably fine. If you don't have a microphone, plug your stereo headphones into the mic jack, start recording and yell at them. They will work like weak microphones--you'll get a tinny voice recording. (Note that if you use a mono mic, with one circle around the plug, rather than a stereo mic, which has a plug with two circles around it like your headphones, it will only record on the left channel--it doesn't mean you have broken anything.) The line-in jack takes two different kinds of plugs. It will accept the stereo miniplug you were using and record an analog signal. It will also accept an optical plug if you are recording from something with an optical out. Obviously your cassette player doesn't have optical out, so the miniplug-to-miniplug cable is all you need. If for some reason the mic input is damaged, hey, you're under warranty. But it seems unlikely to me that a headphone level signal would fry anything. Also, about setting levels. If you have already gone into the menus once and set Manual level under REC Settings/REC LEVEL, then all you have to do is jog the jog lever up or down while recording to change the level while recording. You'll see it on the display if you move the jog lever.

Once again, we're on the way to the ultimate handheld recorder. Obviously this baby is going to give you considerably better fidelity than MD. And for $700, it should. My reservations, besides the $700: It's a hard drive, with moving parts. Not the most sturdy hardware. I'd prefer flash with a big built-in memory plus removable 4GB mini cards, or stick to my removable MDs. And the battery is a built-in rechargeable--one dumb thing it has in common with an iPod. From a user review: "The drawbacks - THE MAJOR one is the built in battery that cannot be swapped out - you must charge the unit with an AC. I got about 2 and a quarter hours at full quality." Also, unbelievably, no on-the-fly level control: "Input volume control is through software, so you have to go 2 screens in, select one channel, adjust it and hit enter, select the other channel, adjust it and hit enter, and then come back out again. This is not elegant, making it difficult in critical applications that also require speed in adjusting levels." I want my MD-style track marking, too. Meanwhile, guitarfxr, come on and chill out. Greg didn't even mention iPod in this thread--you did. All he did was point out, correctly, that the Mac software doesn't do as much as SonicStage. Not to pick on you, but the whole iPod-vs.-Minidisc comparison has been discussed to death here for years despite the fact that it's completely irrelevant--iPod won as a music player, Sony finally concentrated on recording, game over. Also irrelevant is iPod vs. Korg, since all they have in common is rechargeable batteries and rectangular shape. How about iPod vs. fruit juice in a box?

This review didn't like them, but didn't compare them to equivalent-priced IEMs. http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.p...hlight=super.fi

No personal experience with this, but he's been around for a while and has good notices elsewhere. Most other little preamps are $150 and up. http://cgi.ebay.ca/STEREO-MICROPHONE-PREAM...1QQcmdZViewItem If you have the bright idea of using a little Cmoy headphone amp as a mic preamp....it won't work. I tried. But what exactly are you planning to use the preamp for? You can record speech and acoustic music via the mic input, assuming you have one. You can record loud music with a battery module via the line input. A preamp would be good for very quiet sounds, or maybe with a very low sensitivity mic, but I don't see much use for it otherwise.

IEMs should be less of a threat to your hearing than any open headphones. They are already shutting out external noise, so you don't have to crank up the volume to overcome ambient sound. IEMs also, just by working like earplugs, will lower external noise by more decibels than noise-cancelling headphones, and they can just send you music instead of music plus noise-cancelling signal. I don't understand why people deal with the whole noise-cancelling rigamarole--the battery module, the buzzy noise--when IEMs block noise more naturally and more effectively. Except that IEMs are more expensive. I haven't tried the NC22. Yet I deeply doubt that they sound anywhere near as good as Shure E3 IEMs. List price is $179, and most Shure dealers have to advertise that price, but you can find them considerably cheaper, like on Ebay or here: http://www.djdeals.com/shureE3.htm Admittedly, that's not $25 at Target. But if sound quality matters....

The optical connection from the deck is going to be realtime, no way around it. CD Wave will make suggestions, usually pretty good ones, for splitting the realtime recordings into tracks http://www.milosoftware.com/cdwave/

Another way to do it: Upload compressed files to the GF's computer with SonicStage but do not convert to .wav. Use Marcnet's Hi-MD Renderer-- which you can get from his site via here: http://www.marcnetsystem.co.uk/himdrenderer054.zip -- to convert the files to .mp3 . Be nice to yourself and use a bitrate of 192 or over. The uploaded .oma files are probably in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users/SonicStage/Packages . Or search for Packages, which is where SonicStage generally puts My Library. Copy the .mp3 files onto a USB thumb drive and then play with them on your Mac. Give the GF much affection and respect for letting you colonize her computer. How many hours of SP do you have? You might consider getting an el cheapo Windows computer and just using it as a SonicStage station. With all the newer models switching over to Vista, you could probably find an XP computer for a few hundred dollars and save yourself many hours of realtime recording.

My luck has been different from yours, GM. I generally use 2300 or 2500 mAh NiMH rechargeables for my NHF800 or NH700, but I don't find they last quite as long as Duracell Ultras. For real marathons I bring alkalines. The Duracell hangs on, even if it's reading just 1/4 full, for a long time. Incidentally, I have had zero luck with Energizer 2500 mAh rechargeables. A few cycles and they're just dead. I bought a dozen of them, so it's not a matter of one bad batttery. They just don't last. But the no-name Powerizer rechargeables are going strong. http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?Page...amp;ProdID=2554

I know the 39LT works with an Australian NH700. If you have both, take a look at the remote jacks--are they the same? My guess is that the only difference between the units is the AC adapter, which might have to use a different plug or wall voltage but is running the same unit. The only remaining uncertainty is what radio frequencies are used in Canada, what the gaps between them are and whether the tuner will adapt to them.

Unity gain--same level as the incoming signal--is around 17/30 or 18/30. That won't really help you in a live music recording situation because mics vary in sensitivity, music varies in loudness, etc. I don't even know that it helps much if you're recording from a line-level input because you can change the volume output from a CD player or a miixer. What guitarfxr is suggesting is to look at the level meter and see that it's peaking just a little below the top.

One new alkaline battery should get you through a full disc, either PCM or Hi-SP. I find Duracells work best with MD units, better than Energizer, but either will do in a pinch. Changing between sets is a luxury.

Along with the volume difference, it sounds like you were closer or better positioned in Take 2--everything is crisper, making Take 1 sound muffled (compare the hi-hat cymbals for instance). I'm still not sold on that microphone. I haven't heard the band live, of course, but it does sound to me like the mic really emphasizes the midrange, where the vocals are. Also, I'm not sure whether it's the bass player or the mic, but listen to the third verse--"You might be suave," etc.--where the bassline does your basic oompah. The upper note, a D, is a lot louder than the lower note, an A. Is that because the bass player's attack is totally uneven? Or is it the A dipping into where the bass is rolled off by the mic? I want to hear the band with your Soundman setup. And could you tell those people to shut up? Brandishing a weapon might help.

When you back up onto DVD discs, it's important to think about what you're storing the discs in. When you pull a CD or DVD out of a plastic sleeve and half of its coating is left on the sleeve, that is not a happy moment. I'm hoping that these can keep DVDs around longer. http://www.archivalmethods.com/Product.cfm...p;Productid=125

The consensus seems to be that you should stick with 4.2 unless you need Vista compatibility.

By the way, the Hi-MD discs you've seen hold 1GB, which is a little over 3x as much storage as the 80-minute disc, which holds 300 MB in Hi-MD mode. Hi-MD discs won't play in older MD units. Older MDs will play in Hi-MD units--they just don't hold as much.

You're probably already good to go. Check it: When you turn the unit on with a disc in it it will say 01 01 Hi-MD (blinking) and then, when it finishes reading, it will say Hi-SP below it. If that's not what it says, then hold down Menu until you get the Edit/Display grouping, click up to REC SET, Enter and click to REC MODE and change it to Hi-SP. If you have an old disc that was recorded in an old MD unit and you want to erase and reuse it in Hi-MD format, there's a FORMAT command under Edit. Make sure you no longer need whatever was on the disc before formatting it.

If your version of the program was Open MG, count yourself lucky that you didn't have a meltdown before now. That program had more bugs than the Mosquito Coast during a heat wave. It does seem, as a general rule of software, that the most recent program installed will work because it makes everything already installed compatible with itself--fixes those drivers. fiddles with registry keys, etc., making itself a cozy little nest in your computer. And then the next new program comes along and messes everything up again....

Yes, you would lose settings. You can get pretty used to the five clicks or so that it takes to go back into Manual, but if stealth is a problem, you would be seen fiddling with the unit, and you do need a little bit of light.

I don't have the OKM. Boojum does, and I hope he'll respond to this. As for correcting the volume, it's worth a look as things get near the end. And then, if you see it's flattened all the way at the top, you could lower the volume by a notch or two during the applause so you don't hear a change during a song. But Line-in gives you a lot of headroom, so if it's just touching the top of the scale occasionally during a song, you might not have to do anything.

There should be no quality loss with the -20db switch. It should just lower the volume of the signal going in. But if that makes your incoming level too low and you have to raise the volume on playback, you'll also be playing back more noise. Imagine a photo with a small figure in a big landscape. When you enlarge/crop that photo to show just the figure, it's going to get grainier. But if you can make the figure fill the space in the original photo--that is, if your recording level is still strong with the -20db cut, and you're getting a lot more signal than noise--then you'll be fine. About the mic question: Mic-in sends the signal through a preamp. That preamp is very sensitive to bass. It overloads and distorts at worst, and it sends the AGC into a tizzy if it doesn't overload. Most Sony mics labeled "For Minidisc" try to get around the bass problem by cutting off the response at 100 Hz, whereas the MD can record 20Hz-20,000 Hz. Your old mic may also have been less sensitive overall. So that may be why you weren't having problems before: Your new mics are much more hi-fi. When you get the right settings for them you are going to get much better recordings. I can't find specs for the TS125 but it's marketed for "business" which means it's probably made to record business meetings, not music, so it doesn't need bass (or high treble either), just the range of the human speaking voice. By the way, here's a page from an obsessive sound fanatic comparing the TS125 to other mics. http://infos.0db.net/micros/compare/indexe.php3 Unlike the Mic-in jack, there is no preamp at Line-in. It's expecting an amplified signal, like the line-out of a CD player. I don't remember what the difference is between Line-in and Mic-in, but for all I know it might just be something like -20dB. That's why you have your A3 module to boost the signal going in. You just have to figure out what your new levels and settings are going to be, and experiment is the best way to do that. Go find guitarfxr's construction site.

You should send greenmachine a PM through the board.

Get rid of SonicStage 2.x. Please. Immediately if not sooner. It is a piece of garbage software verging on malware. You probably got a SonicStage 3.4 disc with your RH1. That's a much better version, and the easiest thing to do would be to just install that off the disc. But 4.2, which you can find in Downloads here, is an improvement on that. Any problems with any later versions are trivial compared to the horrible early versions of SonicStage. You lost your music because in versions before SonicStage 3.2, you only got one chance to upload your recordings. If the upload failed, the disc was still marked as having being uploaded, and then the next time you attempted to upload the same track, SonicStage 2.x would just erase it. No warning, no undo. Completely evil. That seems to be what happened to you. After SonicStage 3.2, you can upload again and again. And again. So if the upload doesn't go through, you can try again without having your data destroyed. Install either 3.4 or 4.2 and you won't ever have this problem again. BACK UP YOUR LIBRARY FIRST! If you do the backup you will never probably need it. But if you don't you could lose everything. Try just installing 3.4 (from the disc) or 4.2 (from Downloads) on top of your 2.x version, and if you have any problems, then check this FAQ to completely get that dreadful 2.x out of your computer. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8071 USB 2 is completely backwards compatible with USB 1, so don't worry about that. You don't have to change any settings. A full disc will take some time to upload, but I'm guessing that your problem was with the old version of SonicStage, and a newer version should speed things up.