A440

I last dealt with Microphone Madness about a year ago for my battery module, and back then they were fast and honest. Why not call them? 877-551-5623 Sound Professionals is also reliable--the only reason I chose the Mic Madness module was for its smaller size. ------------------------------- If you can't find discs locally, there's always mail-order. Don't get 1GB Hi-MD discs for an old recorder--they're not compatible. You want 80-minute ones, preferably Sony or TDK and definitely not Memorex, Hi-Space or Maxell. You should be able to find them for under $1.50 each. -------------------------------- You'll just have to try your soundcard to see how it works. Some soundcards only have a mic input--not the line input that would be preferable--and do sound pretty terrible, like the one in my old Toshiba laptop. Mic inputs can also be mono rather than stereo. But you could also have a clean stereo mic input that sounds fine, or even a line input. Mic inputs are usually red and line inputs are usually white. You could test it now by getting a male-to-male miniplug cord and recording something out of the headphone jack of your CD player/iPod/etc. Audacity is good free recording software--you may have to play with settings to make sure it's recording from your soundcard input. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows If you get static on the recording, or it's mono, there's always the Griffin iMic, which gives you a nice clean stereo line input via USB for about $35. I had the flying-saucer-shaped original iMic, but apparently an Imic 2 has been introduced since then, with a more sensible design. http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-Technology-9...p;s=electronics

It's not a software problem--it's a hardware limitation. NetMD units only allow transfers in one direction: from PC to MD, not the other direction. NetMD was made to treat MD units like iPods, getting songs off the computer for portable use. The only unit that will upload MD recordings is the MZ-RH1. Your best bet with your NetMD unit is to simply record from MD to the computer in realtime. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7070 That will record the whole disc as a file that you'd need to edit. If you want to record a separate file from each track on the disc, you can automate the process slightly--controlling the NetMD unit's playback through the USB, recording each track as a new file--with Hi-MD Renderer and its MD Recorder function. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=12683 Meanwhile, if you plan to use the Sharp at all as a music player, you should upgrade to 4.0 anyway. SonicStage 2.0 was a buggy, horrible program. Get a standalone 4.0 here: http://forums.minidisc.org/downloads/details.php?file=21

Do you have SonicStage installed? How about opening it and then connecting the Hi-MD?

1) Are you sure the write-protect tab hasn't been opened partway? 2) Is your battery low? 3) What kind of recordings? Downloaded tracks from computer or realtime recordings?

Low Volta is right--your problem is the mic, not the EQ. Just adding some links to his post: The DS70P has a frequency response of 100-15,000 Hz. Your ears pick up 20-20,000 Hz. The bottom note of a piano is 27.5 Hz, so you are losing nearly two octaves with the DS70P (27.5 to 55 Hz is one octave, 55 to 110 Hz is the next octave, A to A). Audacity is a free sound editing program you will find useful: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ You can apply EQ with it, but since the mic isn't picking up much bass, there's only so much you can add. In Europe, get greenmachine's mics: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=14388 In the US., try http://www.soundprofessionals.com .

Here's the one I use, or look at Greenmachine's build-it-yourself instructions. http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm Mic-->battery module-->Line-in. You will get much better recordings by setting Manual Level under REC SET. Just don't forget to unplug the mic from the module after the recording, because the battery runs while the mic is plugged in.

Ditto on Sound Professionals. Very reliable, very good prices. Even the bottom of the line BMC-2, which are the size of pencil erasers, sound good, especially when you run them into Line-in through this little gizmo: http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm Microphone Madness, although of course you'd never guess from the name, also has a lot of microphones. At both sites, you'll see two kinds of mics: Cardioids, which are directional, and Omnidirectional, also known as omni or binaural. I prefer omnis for three reasons: 1) cheaper ones have better bass response than cheap cardioids 2) more flexibility: you don't have to be pointing them directly at your sound source 3) more three-dimensional soundstage: heard through headphones, some cardioids sound as if there's nothing behind you, just a weird void However, if you want to record exclusively what's in front of you, and cut out sound from behind and around you, then cardioids are preferable. Croakies mounts fit into elastic eyeglasses holders, placing the mics right where your ears are (assuming you wear glasses or have a dummy pair), for a good stereo effect. You can also get mics mounted in innocent-looking headphones. Search this site for "stealth" for more tips.

This may be the last year this can be said, but for the moment the combination of recording quality, features, small size and price still favor Hi-MD. Flash recorders are catching up fast, but no one has done it entirely right yet. The MZ-NH700, under $200 on Ebay, is still THE bargain high-fidelity recorder. You can get two of them for the price of a serious flash recorder. I want something I can slip into a pocket, attach small mics to and unobtrusively record concerts. Hi-MD is still the best device for that. Hi-MD is palm-sized, has a mic jack (with preamp) and has superb recording quality. It also has easy, gapless track marking--they can be inserted during recording or later, during playback, so recordings can be edited on the unit. Track marking is extremely useful. Spin-up noise is only a factor when people are deluded enough to think they can sit a mic right on the unit, or when you're trying to record something extraordinarily quiet (at which point preamp noise is also a problem). I can live with USB 1.1 transfer speeds--it's just not that big a deal. Hard drive recorders missed their chance. The Iriver H120 and H140 (20G or 40G hard-drive recorders) had a firmware glitch when it was introduced that dropped samples or added noise, making serious recording impossible--until Rockbox finally fixed it a year or so later. Those are line-in recorders--their preamps get very noisy when they try to handle mic input. Hard drives have serious spin-up noise, too, which is beautifully reproduced by their built-in mics. And they have their own mechanical parts that can be broken. Drop your 20G recorder the wrong way, and you've lost 20G of material. Also, I have compared my H120 and Hi-MD side by side, and the Hi-MD recordings just sound better. Until very recently, little thumb-sized flash units recorded only in compressed formats. If all you're recording is speech, that's good enough--Hi-MD probably provides more fidelity than you need. But music demands more. Flash recorders also have a fixed capacity--what do you do when your 2G is full and you don't have your computer to dump it into? With Hi-MD, you can just switch discs. Sony has just introduced a little flash recorder that does record in PCM, but it needs an external recording connector, and is line-in only (no preamp for mic recordings). If they get a clue, they could probably make the ideal small flash recorder. Now, units like the Edirol R09 or the Zoom H4 do have specs that exceed Hi-MD. But both have built-in mics that add bulk--not to mention that if you're caught taking one into a concert you can't just say, "That's my mp3 player." As far as I know they don't do track marking. Still, with a little evolution--remove the mics, add editing features--units like that will eventually outstrip Hi-MD. While it's not a relevant consideration for a new user, MD was around long before flash and hard-drive recorders, so many people continue to use them out of habit. But when the ideal flash recorder arrives, I'll make the switch.

Sony will charge outrageous amounts. Go to an optician or eyeglasses store and talk to their repair department. They have lots of tiny screws, one of which is likely to fit your NH900. You can also look at eyeglasses repair kits sold at chemists', etc.

But both are old models, and he's basically comparing feature sets. (He also minimizes the limitations of the Mac Transfer software.) I would really love to see a serious audiophile comparison among the Edirol R09, the Zoom H4 and the MZ-RH1. If anyone has seen one, please post a link.

No idea. You might send them an email.

They're only $4.44 each plus very reasonable shipping at http://www.tapewarehouse.com, probably because no one can find them on the website. Click for the Catalog under Shop on the home page (middle right). Then: Category: Digital Audio Product Line: Mini Disc Audio Item: SCM HMD1G HI-MD DISC Confusing, but they are available.

Just highlighting here in case the top of the post misleads people. The IFP's advantage over other flash recorders is that it provides plug-in power to a mic. As ratbagradio notes later, that's not an advantage over MD. MD and Hi-MD have ALWAYS had plug-in power at the mic jack.

Get an RH1. The display isn't ideal, but just about everything else is. The M10 and M100 units were Mac-compatible versions of the RH910 and RH10, and Sony charged a premium for them until it finally wrapped Mac compatibility into the RH1 (which is also pretty expensive, come to think of it). The M200 is just the RH1 packaged with an unimpressive Sony mic. I haven't owned an RH10, but people who did were disappointed, as you can read here: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=16703 Mp3 playback on the RH910 and RH10 was, if not crippled, at least a little lame--high frequencies were cut off so that they sounded dull, unless you wanted to fiddle with equalization.

Reading the .HMA files requires SonicStage because they are encrypted. I don't think there's any way around it, though I would love to find out that I'm wrong.

Are you using the MZ-NH600D? That doesn't play mp3, so the files must be getting converted to ATRAC. Maybe SonicStage thought you were trying to convert them twice ? Only the RH units will play mp3 without conversion.

Looking back on this, it could also be that they were low-bitrate .mp3s, below 48kbps, which SonicStage doesn't like. They could also have unconventional ID3 tags, which we have learned that SonicStage 4.x has trouble digesting, or variable bitrate (VBR) .mp3s, which sometime give SonicStage trouble. If they're low-bitrate or VBR mp3s--you can tell by looking at Properties--then get dbpoweramp from Downloads and convert them to mp3 at a constant bitrate (use 192 kbps or above to preserve as much quality as possible). If the ID3 tag fields have characters that aren't letters or numbers, very long titles or huge amounts of Comments, edit them to make them simpler. Winamp has a tag editor under View File Info.

Can they be used? Yes. Do they sound as good as MD? No. The IFP in particular struggles to keep up with the amount of information involved in recording music. That's why the firmware "upgrade" cuts the top sampling rate from 320 kbps--high fidelity--to 96 kbps, below average fidelity. (Most music from iTunes is 128 kbps, for instance.) Iriver was admitting that they promised more than they delivered. There are all kinds of "digital voice recorders" around, and the vast majority of them are worthless for music recording. They use compressed formats to save space on their built-in memory--they can't record in CD-quality PCM, and some can't even record in high-quality .mp3 . The more compressed, the worse the sound. Voice recording is also mono, and built-in microphones are made to record voice, not something as loud as music. They have a limited frequency response and may well overload iwth loud sounds. The advantage of the IFP-7xx was that it accepts outboard stereo microphones or line input. But it's just not made for real music recording. So yes, a musician can get some idea of how the performance sounded, as a practice tool. But there won't be a whole lot of pleasure in listening to it. If I were a musician, I wouldn't want to have the only archive of my live performances on a dinky voice recorder. As processors improve, I expect there will be a little flash recorder that does capture hi-fi sound and has a good interface for music recording. Sony made a stumbling step in that direction with the S700 http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=17736 but the proprietary input and line-in only (no mic) disqualify that unit for me.

With the current exchange rate, you should be able to import a new one from the United States on that budget. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller...oughType=search (plus $40 US shipping)

Anyone want an R50? Not mine (I started with NetMD). Looks like even the owner doesn't know what it is. http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-Mini-Disc-Walkman...1QQcmdZViewItem

It sounds like a straightforward battery problem. Letting the battery go all the way down before recharging it is the way to get the fullest charge, but each charging cycle is one more notch off the life of the battery. Try getting a replacement NH14WM, either from Sony or on eBay. Doesn't the RH10 have an outboard battery pod? How about using it with that?

An editing program like good old free Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows has a few tricks under Effects that you might try on your recordings. One is Noise Removal: You give it a sample of the hiss alone, which you probably have somewhere on the recording, and then it subtracts those frequencies when the reduction is applied. Another is just filtering. Hiss is high frequencies, so if you add a Low Pass Filter--it only lets through frequencies up to a certain cutoff point that you set, maybe around 7000 Hz--then your recording might sound better. It's way down the list, so scroll for it. Neither is an automatic cure-all. Noise removal may remove so much that the recording sounds unnatural--try the middle amount, not the maximum. Low pass filtering may make your recording sound slightly dull or muffled because the higher frequencies give the sound some crispness. (Try various cutoff frequencies.) But both are worth some experiments, as long as you save your original recordings. If you're new to Audacity, it has one main oddity. It does all its editing in its own format, .aup. So when you edit an .mp3 or .wav file, it turns it into .aup, works it over, and then "Save project" or "Save changes" means it keeps the edited version as an .aup file. To save your edited version as an .mp3, you have to Export as .mp3 (also under File). I don't see why they don't call it "Save as .mp3" but hey, it's great free software anyway. Since your preamp reduced your hiss, the hiss was probably coming from the built-in mic preamp in your MD recorder--which is pretty good, but obviously so tiny that compromises must be made. It seems that the Micbooster is giving you a cleaner signal, which is all to the good. I assume you're running the booster through Line-in? AllanH, what recording setup do you use? Boojum, the problem with normalizing is that it raises noise along with signal. So the ideal is always to get the strongest signal possible without distortion--playing close to the edge but not over it.

Hi-MD Renderer will export a list of tracks. http://www.marcnetsystem.co.uk/himdrenderer054.zip You can find more info about it here: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=12683

What are you recording from? Plug your headphone into the output jack you are trying to record from. If you hear music, and your male-to-male cord is good, then you should be able to record that output. Are you plugging into the white (line-in) jack or the red (mic-in) jack? White is for powered output (like a CD player), red for a microphone.

MDCF's 3.4 installer stashed here until Kurisu can put it back in Downloads. http://www.savefile.com/files/194995 Full 244MB 3.4 RH1 disc is here: http://s15.quicksharing.com/v/8783199/SS3.4RH1.iso.html