A440

Be careful with the RM-MC40ELK. It adds a little bit of static every time you light it up or adjust something. The louder the source, the less you hear it, but it's there. With acoustic music, like classical music, I find it adds an audible nonstop buzz that's probably drowned out by the loud stuff I usually record. I don't know if that buzz just comes from my particular remote or is a general problem. But all the remotes add noise when you adjust during recording. The RM-MC40ELK is good for reassurance and on-the-spot track marking--who cares about some static during applause between songs?--but you will hear it in quieter contexts.

I agree with you that Sony missed the chance to make Minidisc a format for musicians. Not Sony's first mistake, or its last. But about these tests, you have introduced too many variables. You really need to compare the same microphone and the same quality across various recorders, since you can't tell if the noise is coming from the mics or the preamps. Many early reviews of the Microtrack complained that the preamp was considerably noisier than a minidisc preamp. You got the opposite result. Maybe it has to do with balanced vs. unbalanced mics. But it's hard to tell unless you know what's being compared.

You can't upload from a Net MD. Ever. In any way. With any software. In any universe. WaveLab, like everything else proposed for "uploading" from NetMD, is for realtime recording. You can automate the process a bit with Hi-MD Renderer and its MD Recorder functions, but you cannot upload faster than realtime from a NetMD unit. To upload NetMD recordings--and only those that weren't first sent from PC to disc via SonicStage--you need the MZ-RH1.

When you get a chance, can you post some samples? And unless I misunderstand what you wrote, you were using different mics into the MicroTrack and the MD recorders. So are you comparing the mics, the mic preamps or the recorders?

What do you have against websites? http://www.minidisc-canada.com/shopdisplay...rtable+MiniDisc

Welcome, Sabrina. Hi-MD will do everything you need: mic-in, level setting, uploading. If you have the money, the ideal choice for you would be the MZ-RH1, which is about $300 in the US. It is the only unit that will upload the old MD recordings from your Sharp. It also has great sound quality and slightly better controls (it is the only Sony that allows you to make Manual Volume the default setting). Since everything is so incredibly expensive in England, you might be able to put together a better price by importing one from http://www.soundprofessionals.com , http://www.mindisco.com , or other American retailers. http://www.minidisco.com/Sony-MZ-RH1 http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/...tem/SONY-MZ-RH1 On a lower budget, around $180, you could get the MZ-NH700. It will NOT upload your old MD recordings, but it will upload recordings made in the new Hi-MD formats: PCM (which is CD quality), Hi-SP (about the same as SP) or Hi-LP (about the same as LP2). Its advantage is that it takes a regular AA battery, which makes a small bulge in the back but is easy to replace. The MZ-RH1 takes a rechargeable gumstick battery, which will easily last you through a musical and much more. But if you were ever doing a lot of recording, you'd have to buy a second battery and keep it charged. Other mic-in models are the MZ-NHF800, which is exactly the same as the MZ-NH700 plus an FM radio in the remote. (The FM remote also works with the NH700, so I believe the units themselves are identical.) If you see one for a good price, get it. There's also the MZ-NH900, which has a gumstick battery and other non-essential tweaks; its big drawback (for me) is that the Pause and Stop are the same button, too easy to mess up. Some people also had problems with the buttons not working. The NH models will record in the old minidisc formats (SP, LP2, LP4) but will not upload them. Also mic-in, the RH910 and RH10 will not record in the old minidisc formats--just PCM, Hi-SP and Hi-LP. People were very unhappy with the RH10, which had button problems and was also expensive because it has a big fancy display. Grab the MZ-RH1 if you can, and say goodbye to realtime transfers.

Yes, that's what it's for. Field recording is not among its priorities, which is why I am curious about the mic preamp. http://www.rolandus.com/uploads/CMS/Downlo...mag_2006_11.pdf ----------------------------------------------------------- Boojum et al., I'm pretty fond of minidisc myself. By the time my NH700 and RH1 wear out, the whole landscape will be different. Minidisco's price for SD cards is way out of line, though--as is their trying to sell a 2GB card for a machine that can only handle 1GB. You don't use the SD card for permanent storage, anyway, just to collect the data to be uploaded. When someone comes up with an affordable flash recorder with minidisc's editing capabilities--I want my track marks--and with non-proprietary formats, I'll want to get one. In the meantime, if I didn't have stack upon stack of minidiscs and wasn't already familiar with how to use it, I would have less reason to buy into it now. But the proprietary format on this puppy, and the 1GB limit, keep me from being tempted by the Micro BR.

Make sure it is the NH600, with a line-in jack, and not the NH600D, with only a USB jack. Some dealers exploit the confusion. Ideally you should see a photo that shows the model number clearly or the white line-in jack. The good news is that a mic and battery box into line-in should work just fine for loud music. Same quality, etc. It won't be good for quiet sounds. You would need a preamp for that. And if you're buying a preamp, you might as well get the NH700. I have never owned one of the second-generation units, but people had troubles with the RH10. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=16703 The only difference between it and the RH910 is the display. If you don't need the display, get the RH910--or, better yet, the NH700.

I Googled about it, and it does have a few drawbacks. It records to a proprietary format--something that may set off alarms for longtime minidisc users--although Roland has provided a .wav converter and, nearly as important, the original (proprietary) files can just be drag-and-dropped from a SD card reader. No SonicStage-style hurdles. The people bloggng about it are using it mostly as a portable studio and training device, not as a field recorder. One crucial question is whether the mic preamp is noisy or not. Since mic-in and Line-in are the same jack, I'm guessing that you have to tell it what it's getting through that jack via menus.

That behavior suggests some kind of noise gate. How about uninstalling and reinstalling Audacity--get a new verson while you're at it--so you're back to its default settings, in case you've accidentally changed something. Also look at your soundcard settings--right-click on the speaker icon in your taskbar--and see if there's anything suspicious there. Every soundcard is different.

Boy, does this look tempting: records on SD in .wav and .mp3, runs on two AAs, smaller than MD, $200. Plug in power for a 1/8 stereo mic, but also turns into a multitrack studio. I'd be a little worried about triggering some of those studio effects when I just wanted a straightforward recording, but for a working musician this could be quite the toy, assuming all works well. http://www.minidisco.com/Boss-MICRO-BR Although Minidisco wants to sell a 2GB SD card with it, the specs only go up to 1 GB http://www.roland.com/products/en/MICRO_BR/specs.html . So there's the same time limit as Hi-MD for .wav recording.

If you're recording anything amplified, then something is wrong with your battery box. I have recorded speech, close up, using the BMC-2 and a battery module and it's perfectly intelligible. Music is even louder. Line-in expects a strong signal. That's the attenuation you're hearing. The battery box PLUS the strong signal from amplified sound, boosts the level to line level. Somewhere the signal is not getting through, and you have three possibilities: the mics themselves, the battery box or the line-in jack. If you've tried the mics by themseves into mic-in, and they work, you can rule them out. That leaves the battery box or the jack. Let's hope it's the battery box.

In all fairness, I'm almost entirely sure the H4 has a line input. And for recording DJ sets, unless you want to edit on the unit, it might be more convenient--if, and it may be too early to tell, the H4 will stand up to regular use. The other question is its interface: the controls and display on the unit. The more important question is whether you want minidisc features like smaller size (but without built-in mics), editing the recording on the unit and the ability to add track marks while you record (or automatically every X minutes). The conversion business is confusing because Sony has kept changing the rules. When you record on Hi-MD, you can record in PCM (which still needs to be uploaded through SonicStage) or in ATRAC formats. Many of the restrictions on ATRAC have gone away in recent versions of SonicStage. You can now remove Digital Rights Management garbage from your files with the File Conversion Tool in SonicStage. ATRAC files, called .oma files, are now portable--but SonicStage has to be installed on the computer to play them. Minidisc is not intuitive. With minidisc, you are not recording in mp3, and you cannot simply copy the recording to your computer. You are recording in ATRAC, and you have to use SonicStage to upload it to your computer as .oma file. Marcnet's free Hi-MD Renderer converts the .oma files on your computer to mp3 or lots of other formats, easily. Conversion is not a problem. SonicStage is pretty reliable now, but it is still not not the most elegant program. Why don't you download it--free from Sony, or with the installer under Downloads--and try it a little bit. Be a little careful: like every other music player program (Real, WMP, etc.), it wants to make itself your defauilt player. Don't let it make itself the default player--you have the option when you start it up--and don't allow it to "Import" all the music files from your computer, which means it would make ATRAC copies of any mp3 or wav file it finds. If what you want is a bit bucket--a recorder that will take a line input and make a recording you can copy to your computer--then you should definitely look at recorders like the H4. Minidisc is smaller, cheaper and more mature technology, but it does have that added uploading step to deal with. Nearly all of the time you can upload without problems, however. Everything has to go through SonicStage, including your own recordings that you upload. Once they are uploaded, however, you can convert them to most other audio file types with Hi-MD Renderer. You can also save them as .oma files that you can copy and play back in any computer that has SonicStage installed, not just your own. And once files are converted from .oma to .mp3 or .wav or .flac, you can do whatever you want with them.

It is well worth getting a Hi-MD, even if it is more expensive, than a NetMD. Hi-MD will record CD-quality sound. NetMD will only record compressed sound--quite good, but just not as good as Hi-MD. Hi-MD recordings can be uploaded as files to your computer. NetMD files have to be recorded out of the headphone jack, which not only takes longer--a realtime recording--but also lessens the quality of the recording further. Since you are trying to make a video soundtrack you will probably need your audio as computer files. Hi-MD will save you a lot of time doing that. Look for the MZ-NH700.

I'd love to get my hands on the H4 but the budget is limited. Reviews on it have been mixed--Google and see. Some people like it, some think it's flimsy. You can get higher-resolution recordings with it than with minidisc. But minidisc's PCM quality is the same as a CD. The built-in mics do add bulk, though you may not care. The advantages of minidisc are 1) price and 2) track marking, silent track marks you can add as you record, which you may not need or want for DJ sets. Uploading is not as much of an annoyance as it was in years past. You do need Sony's proprietary (but free) software, SonicStage (or Mac Transfer), but most of the complaints you will read online are about old versions. Now you highlight the folder you want to upload, click on a button, and it uploads. You can plug a stereo minijack or an optical output into the minidisc's line-in.

The amazing thing is that your disc looks exactly like my head. Very nice recording, if you could get all those people to shut up. Do you have something that could lift Doktor Jecklin above the crowd?

With the unit off, turning on the Hold switch does not drain the battery. Make sure it's definitely off before you put it on Hold. For a podcast it's not going to make a great difference whether you record in mono or stereo using the DS70P, since the two elements are so close there's not much stereo separation anyway. For doing interviews the glimmer of spatial separation between you and the interviewee might help a bit. If for some unknown reason you find the stereo problematical, you can convert tracks to mono in Audacity, through a pop-down menu from the track's title (just put "mono" into the Search box of Audacity Help for complete directions). Mono was once useful because you could get double the recording time on an MD. Now that there are 1GB MDs and Hi-LP compression (which is probably fine for speech, but even Hi-SP will give you nearly 8 hours per disc), saving the space isn't that important. You can also get a mono lapel microphone, but make sure it has a stereo plug (or you get a mono-to-stereo adapter)--otherwise you'll just end up recording on the left channel.

If you are determined to do it in realtime, Marcnet's Hi-MD Renderer has all the functions of WinNetMD under its MD Recorder function. You still need SonicStage intalled, however. But really, get a stable version of SonicStage (like 3.4 or 4.2) and upload all you want.

Could you attach a little sample? That is one of the best-reviewed mics out there, and I would be curious to hear exactly what's going on.

Ah, you're in Europe. I suggest that if you want to purchase mics, get in touch with greenmachine himself, who builds mics that all the Europeans who have used them love. Maybe he can build you a one-point mic. Or you could take one of his pairs and clip them side by side--you can get a little desktop mic stand, a tripod or something, on Ebay (I just got one for $7). A good pair of omnis should be flexible enough for both situations you describe, particularly if you have a battery box. GM's battery box will do the same thing as the battery module I use, and if you're handy, you should definitely build it. You can also use GM's instructions for DIY mics, since you're an electronics student. Research some capsules--if you DIY you can probably get great capsules for your budget. Sennheiser and Audio Technica are widely used capsules for better microphones. PCM will be somewhat better, but at the cost of disc space. You jmight get in the habit of uploading after you record and reusing the discs--but sooner or later, of course, you'll either need to burn the recordings or get a humongous hard drive. Do a comparison and see if you think the sound quality upgrade is worth it. Low Sens is a good idea for anything but speech. Unlike boojum and GM, I think you can be a little more daring in your levels so you do less amplification later. The ideal (which they would agree with) is to peak just above the middle of the scale. If you record at a lower level, amplifying the sound will also amplify noise, so the ideal is to get close to the peak but not over it. I find that with line-in, it's harder to overload. Since your band is probably playing regular gigs in a certain environment, you should be able to find settings that work reliably for you with a little experimentation. Metheny's influences on those tracks are totally the Brazilians I mentioned (and guaranteed he would name-check them). Listen and see. You also won't regret picking up "Native Dancer," Wayne Shorter's album of Nascimento tunes.

Mostly I think you need a better mic. The DS70P doesn't have much bass response--it only goes down to 100 Hz--and it's got more self-noise than some other comparably priced mics. A mic with more bottom end will stop the music from sounding so tinny. Two mics you can separate by six inches like your ears will also open up your stereo image a bit. I do a lot of recording with the very basic Sound Professionals BMC-2, mostly because I need to be stealthy, but to me they sound a lot richer. Try this recording: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?autom...si&img=3080 Since you're recording your own band, you don't have to be so stealthy, and could get bigger and better-sounding mics. Look at omnis, look for frequency response of 20-20,000 Hz, and choose low sensitivity if there's a choice since the music is loud. Don't get anything more sensitive than -30 dB (that is, not -20 dB--since it's negative numbers, a lower quantity is higher sensitivity.) Look through the microphone choices here: http://www.soundprofessionals.com Or if you have a Guitar Center, etc., in town, you might ask them about full-range recording mics. Don't break the bank--I'm sure a $1000 mic will sound wonderful, but you're recording in a live setting, not a studio and don't have to get crazy about it. The reason the DS70P doesn't have that deeper bass is because deeper bass can freak out the preamp in the MD unit. So you need one more gadget: a battery module, like this one: http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm which supplies extra power to the mic. I record live music Mic-->Battery Module-->Line-in at a level of 20/30, more or less depending on the music. Terminology-wise, what you're getting is not clipping, which creates an unlistenable distortion. It is compressing, in the audio rather than the computer sense--limiting the dynamic range-- (shrinking a file), because every so often you can hear the AGC adjusting the volume. You're better off with Manual than with AGC. Your music never gets so quiet that you need AGC to rescue a sudden quiet passage, and the minidisc can capture a very wide dynamic range. You do any Hermeto Pascoal or Milton Nascimento tunes?

First, always use Manual--try 20/30 as the intial recording level, and adjust for the particular mic--because Auto will create whooshing sounds as it tries to compensate for sudden loud impacts (like drums). That mic has lower sensitivity than most, so try it first with loud music, like your stereo cranked up all the way, with the mic right next to the woofer, and see what you get. It also has limited bass response, which would help for recording directly through mic-in. But if you plug most mics directly into the mic jack and play loud bass-heavy music you'll only record unlistenable distortion, because the preamp in the MD unit can't handle a lot of bass. To prevent that overload, get a battery module like this one: http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm Then connect Mic-Battery Module--LINE-IN. If the concert is too soon to mail-oder the battery module, go to a Radio Shack and get a Headphone Volume Control (or whatever it's called now--it looks like my avatar). It's a volume control on a cord. Technically it's an attenuator: it cuts the signal running through the cord. Connect Mic--Headphone Volume Control--MIC-IN. Turn the volume control on the cord all the way UP to maximum, or just a little short of maximum. It should still cut the signal enough for the preamp not to overload. The battery module gives better sound, though. That mic has an on-off switch, so don't forget to turn it on. And make sure the RH1 is fully charged.

http://www.minidisc.org/mzr700_to_mzr900.html

Here's where you contact them: http://www.sonymediaservices.com/ But no one answers the phone. There's another thread about Sony Media Services in Austria actually attempting to help people, but not recovering audio. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=18059 Yes, I still have the disc. Since Sony invented the encryption, don't you think they should be able to unencrypt? But they're still working on Hi-MD recovery. Perhaps it never occurred to them that there could ever possibly be a bug or error in their oh-so-perfect software.

If you keep uploading what's on them, Sony claims you should be able to erase and reuse the disc essentially forever. But you might want to have a handful in case you don't get around to uploading. Best price I have found on discs in the USA is at http://www.tapewarehouse.com/catalog/CatFrame.cfm $4.67 per disc plus about $8 shipping for up to 10 (as many as I have ordered at a time) and maybe more. 10 discs is a little less than $5.50 per disc. You have to to the catalog page, Digital Audio drop-down, Minidisc, and SCM HMD1G HI-MD DISC , which is a Sony 1GB disc--the newer, transparent blue ones. Maybe they're so cheap because no one can find them to order.