A440

The new MZ-RH1 will upload files you recorded on old MDs (SP, LP2, LP4) to a PC--unless the files on the MDs were downloaded from the computer via NetMD (typically songs from albums), which won't upload. If you really have a lot of MDs, it might be cheaper to just buy the MZ-RH1 than to hire someone to record in realtime. Regarding realtime recording from MD to computer, Magic's MD Page is out of date if you have a NetMD player. For any player with a USB connection, it's a lot easier to use Hi-MD Renderer and its MD Record function. It controls the playback through SonicStage (via USB), and records each track into a separate file (via headphone-out and computer line-in).

As with all things electronic, there are many alternatives you can torture yourself with. The good thing is that even the most basic equipment gives you very good sound. Above basic, you can start listening for more nuances. SoundPros has microphones with higher-priced (and presumably higher-quality) Audio-Technica capsules for exactly $100. http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/.../item/SP-BMC-12 I have some mics that probably have A-T capsules--they're not branded--and they do have lower noise and richer sound than the BMC-2. For sheer sound, they're the best pair I own. But they're bulkier than the BMC-2's, so I don't take them to concerts. With the 30-day return policy at Sound Pros, you could order both, try them, and send back a pair--essentially a way to try your own test for the price of shipping them back. Since MDNewuser prefers his Auris, perhaps you should consider them for rehearsal-room recording. There are other alternatives, too. I've never had all the equivalent mics side-by-side to test, unfortunately. I have a pair of mics from Church Audio, an Ebay seller in Canada (Chris Church, who occasionally is on this forum), that sound quite good. They are probably just a tad better than the BMC-2, but they didn't come with clips and they're a little less convenient to use. My old Church-Audio binaurals are not the same as the model he sells now, which is bigger, but he generally makes quality stuff. If you're in the USA, it could take a while to get to you via mail from Canada, but his prices are very competitive. http://cgi.ebay.ca/CHURCH-AUDIO-PRO-BINAUR...1QQcmdZViewItem Core Sound ( http://www.core-sound.com ) is a little pricier on small mics. A pair of cardioids I used to have were very solidly made, but (like most lower-priced cardioids) didn't have much bass. Binaurals should be better. I believe they also have a good return policy. All of these small microphones are really made with stealth recording in mind. You could also ask at a professional musicians' store or website--Guitar Center, http://www.musiciansfriend.com , etc.--what they would recommend in a larger stereo mic or binaural pair for rehearsal room use.

I use the BMC-2 all the time and I am very happy with them. I haven't used the Auris, but I doubt you need to spend the extra money unless the microphones are going to be handled a lot during use or are going to get rough handling in general. The difference with the Auris is the way the microphone capsules (which are either the same or very similar to the BMC-2) are mounted on the cord. From the Reactive Sounds site: "The housing is machined from a non metallic polymer, which feels like velvet and is as tough as metal. The cable is securely held in place by a cable lock strain relief system, which makes the Auris system a very durable microphone. Handling noise, which is a common microphone problem, has been addressed by a unique internal shock mount system. The microphone element is separated from the front windscreen by a 1mm air gap." Seems to me you could just buy another pair of BMC-2 if you somehow manage to break them. They're on a thin cord, but with decent care mine have lasted quite well. ------------------ Now, about that preamp: First, why do you need one? Are you going to be recording very quiet acoustic sounds that need a boost? The built-in preamp behind the mic jack is pretty good except for the last iota of quiet if you're recording bird songs or something like that. A preamp amplifies, and you seem to already be recording loud music--you need to lower it, not amplify it. I had a Boost Box and thought I'd take it to a not-too-loud concert and record through Line-in. The clipping light went on at anything above zero gain. And when the clipping light was on, the recording was already distorted. I found it useless for music. I sold it--I hope someone likes it. That's strike one. Strike too is that the Boost Box is a weird design. The coiled telephone cord is very bulky, and so is the box itself, which has about an inch of pointless air space inside. Both Sound Professionals and Microphone Madness have smaller, less expensive preamps. The difference with the Boost Box seems to be that the others have level control (boosting the signal coming out) with gain control (going in) at fixed levels, rather than the fully adjustable gain control of the Boost Box. I don't know how much difference that makes in the real world. ----------------- When I record loud music, I generally use the BMC-2 and the cute little Mic Madness battery module, which is just 1.3 x 2.1 inches, like a car-alarm remote. It comes out clear with no noticeable noise. http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm I have BMC-2 recordings in my album under Live Recordings in the Gallery. -------------------- If I remember right, the MS907 is less sensitive than the BMC-2, and it also picks up less bass. So you are probably going to have to change your accustomed recording levels, and your recordings are going to sound different--more hi-fi, but maybe not what you're used to.

When you play back your recordings, can you hear all the music but the bass is just extra loud? That would be a question of mic placement and playback, as greenmachine says. But with ear-worn mics you should be recording what you hear. But I don't think that's your problem. I suspect that what's happening is that whenever there's a bass note the whole thing just distorts and sounds awful. Loud music, especially bass, will overload the preamplifier at your mic jack. The best solution is one more gadget: a battery module. http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm Record with Mic-->Battery Module-->Line-in. Set Manual Volume to 20/30. Voila--good recordings. Be sure to unplug your mic from the module whenever you're not using it, because the module's battery runs as long as the mic is plugged in. If you need to record a concert before Mic Madness can send you the module, you can also get an attenuator: the Radio Shack Headphone Volume Control, pictured in my avatar, about $8. Put its volume control all the way UP, mic sensitivity low, manual volume 20/30. Not quite as good a recording as the battery module, but it won't have the distortion unless the band is deafeningly loud.

I've numbered your questions. 1) Incompetence. 2) What Sony will do with its products is an eternal mystery. MD has more than a decade of development behind it, and Hi-MD has been around for two years; the RH1 has obviously been given a lot of thought, if not a lot of marketing. Sony does now have a flash player/recorder that is like the Iriver T30--Line-in only--with more storage (up to 4G) but with a proprietary connector for recording and, like the Iriver, no on-the-fly level control or track marks. It's promising, but in my opinion not ready for prime time. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=17736 3) Minidisc recording is digital: numbers on a disc. Sound you can hear is analog, and minidisc will record that. Analog recording went out with recording tape. 4) Which iRiver? The RH1 records PCM, so it's better quality than the little flash recorders like IFP and T30, and even in compressed formats it just sounds much better--I tried them side-by-side. The iRiver IHP-120 or H140 are, with Rockbox installed, catching up to minidisc's feature set: PCM recording, level control, track marks. [before Rockbox, there was no comparison, since recordings on the H1xx series had clicks, dropped samples, etc.] The iRivers are still line-in only while MD has a mic jack. (The iRivers do have a built-in mic that beautifully picks up the sound of the disc drive spinning up.) The Iriver's clear advantages include far more onboard storage, optical out, and easy drag-and-drop once the recordings are made. Also, it's far more tweakable. However, they are heavier, you're stuck with a built-in rechargeable battery and it's a hard drive, so if you break it, there go your 20GB. I have both MD and the H120, and it might just be minidisc habit, but I still prefer the Hi-MD--it's more pocket-sized and the sound of the recordings seems clearer, though I haven't done a head-to-head comparison. iRivers certainly do have lots of fans. But at least part of that is because through the years, Sony has been so utterly misguided with minidisc--buggy software, no uploading despite the USB connection on NetMD units--so that when Hi-MD finally arrived, minidisc already had turned off a lot of recordists.

Not to be paranoid--well, sure, to be paranoid--I suggest running some virus and spyware scans. http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Person...dl&tag=top5

You may be giving Total Recorder too much credit. From its website, it seems that for Line-in recording, TR listens through the soundcard just like anything else--whether the soundcard is the built-in one or a USB outboard card. http://www.totalrecorder.com/t8.htm#RS It looks like it's just a different GUI for the Windows recording mixer, and you have to point it to whatever soundcard is getting the Line-in input. The iMic is a great device for this purpose--definitely the easiest upgrade for a dinky laptop soundcard input. I used it quite a bit when I was doing realtime recordings from my MZ-N707. But when you use the iMic or other external soundcard, I don't think Total Recorder offers any advantage over Audacity or other straightforward recording software. I still prefer Hi-MD Renderer's MD Recorder because (as long as you have two USB ports, one for the iMic and one for the NetMD connection) it makes separate tracks from the disc's tracks, so you don't have to edit again later.

A big happy birthday to raintheory! May all your recordings be ultra hi-fi.

Those SoundPro guys ought to read their own listings. From the SP-PREAMP # Built-in 9 volt "plug-in-power" at mic input jack - no additional battery module needed to power your mini microphones! http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/.../item/SP-PREAMP ---------------- Maybe your mic is less sensitive than mine. But going through Line-in, I very rarely have to normalize. Once I accidentally recorded a conversation without switching to mic-in, and I could hear that pretty well too.

Maybe someone on the Atraclife forum can help you. http://www.atraclife.com/

SoundPros preamps, and probably the Mic Madness ones too, also work as battery modules--that is, when you don't actually need to boost the gain, they still send power to the mics. But they're about the size of an MD recorder. When I'm recording through Line-in on my Hi-MD unit, mostly I just go mic-battery module-Line-in. A preamp might be unnecessary if you're dealing with amplified music, and the battery module is small. At least I hope that the Line-in input on your unit expects the same kind of signal as Line-in on the Hi-MD.

Unfortunately, you can't just plug the mic into the Line-in. http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-R501.html A mic jack has a preamp behind it to boost the signal from the mic. Line-in has no preamp and needs a stronger signal. For instance, if you have a mixer output, you would plug that into Line-in. A mic with a little button battery in it probably also won't be loud enough. Depending on how loud the music is--if it's amplified--you may be able to get a strong enough signal with a battery module like this one: http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm But acoustic music, other quiet sounds, etc., may not be loud enough. And the DS70P is not the most sensitive mic around, so it may give you an overly quiet signal anyway. Even worse, preamps start at about $100. It would be best to start over and get a unit with a mic jack: the old MZ-N707 or even the MZ-R700 if you are satisfied with not being able to upload your recordings directly to your computer. Or get the MZ-NH700 (around $180 from www.minidiscaccess.com, cheaper on eBay) if you want to be able to upload your recordings digitally. And by the way, if you don't already own the DS70P, look at www.soundprofessionals.com (and Microphone Madness as in the link above) for some comparably priced, higher quality mics.

Going back to your original question: The NH700 runs on a regular AA battery, which is a very good feature. A rechargeable comes with it that will recharge in the unit, but I never do that--either I use my own long-life AA rechargeables in my own charger (three times the life of the one that comes with the unit) or I just put in a regular Duracell AA. Most of the new NH700s that are still around are actually from Australia, so US sellers add a US adapter that won't be useful to you. (I don't know if the original Australian one is the same as a British one). But in the two years I have had my Hi-MD I have never once used the adapter. You don't need it. The NH700 is a little less convenient to use than the RH1--you have to go through some extra menus to record with Manual Volume. (But for interviews you don't need Manual Volume--the default, Auto Gain Control, is better.) Since you are new to minidisc, you do not need what us old-timers have paid a premium for: uploading our old MD recordings, which can only be done with the RH1. I have the NHF800, same as the NH700 plus a radio remote, and it's a great little recorder--long battery life, excellent sound. The MZ-RH1 is prettier, slightly more convenient, etc., but if budget is a question then I would have no reservations about getting the NH700. I actually prefer the AA battery in the NH700/NHF800 to the flat rechargeable one in the RH1, since you can find a replacement anywhere if you need one.

Back up your library before changing anything, with the Backup Tool under Program Files/SonicStage. Then you can try uninstalling your current version--look at Software FAQ to do it thoroughly: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8071 And use this to install 3.4 . http://www.savefile.com/files/194995 I don't know if it will help or not.

It's easiest to do it on your computer and then transfer the edited song to your MD. If the songs are already .mp3s, you're a step ahead. If the songs are on CDs, rip them to your computer as .wav or .mp3 files with dbpoweramp from Downloads (link at upper left). Get Audacity here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ Use it to open the two song files in separate windows--you'll see waveforms. Then find the spot in the first song where you want to transplant the second song. Select All of the second song, Copy it and paste it into the first song where you want it. Export as mp3 the new combined song, transfer it to MD, and you're good to go.

It's nice to have your head (or something vertical) in between, but you'll get good stereo separation without it, just by putting the mics six inches apart. Your brain decodes some very subtle differences between the signals from each mic.

Sony finally figures out drag-and-drop, nice. 4GB, extra nice. But this still seems kind of kludgy for a minidisc replacement. Looks like you have to carry the unit, the recording cord, a preamp and the mic, a lot of connections and boxes, and you don't get recording level adjustment or readout. Q: Can you add track marks during recording? Here are some links for preamps: http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/...tem/SP-PREAMP-8 http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmsterpreamh.htm I haven't used either one but products from both companies have been reliable.

Sorry, no. SonicStage has to be installed.

Glad to help. Uploading will be a lot more convenient for you. Open SonicStage and under Tools/Options/Transfer/Hi-MD/Transfer Settings make sure Standard/Save "as-is" is checked. Connect the unit and upload the tracks (red Transfer arrow) with SonicStage. Once the files are in My Library, you have two choices. With SonicStage, you can "Save in .wav format" under Tools and then convert the .wav files--unencrypted, portable, readable files--to .mp3 with any converter, like dbpoweramp (under Downloads). Somewhere under Transfer settings is a checkbox to immediately convert all uploaded files to .wav. I leave that unchecked because some people have reported that SonicStage chokes when it has to upload and convert a lot of files. Conversion can always be done after files are uploaded. Note: .wav files are about 10MB per minute, so make sure you have hard drive space. Or you can get Hi-MD Renderer, also in Downloads, which will convert files from My Library to .mp3 and other formats without pumping them up to .wav size first. Uploading is the great advance of Hi-MD over MD, so make the most of it.

Je ne sais pas s'il aidera, mais si vous voulez enlever 4.2 et essayer 3.4 il est ici : http://www.savefile.com/files/194995 (Translated with Babelfish)

So nothing at all will transfer. The first thing I would do would be to try a different USB cord. Since it won't even format from SonicStage, maybe it's just a bad cord. Do you or any of your friends have a digital camera or PDA with a USB to mini-USB cord? It's a standard cord, so if the small jack fits the MD unit you can try it. Also, are you using a USB hub? You may need to connect the unit directly to a USB port on your computer, not a hub. The Bjorks are all high-bitrate mp3s, and those should not be a problem to transfer UNLESS they have unconventional ID3 tags. Get Winamp (http://www.winamp.com) and have it play one of your mp3s. Right-click on the player and then View File Info. Cut out any unnecesary file info or anything that isn't just letters and numbers, and save the changes. See if it will transfer with the new tag. Also try with as few other programs running as possible. Disconnect from the internet and turn off any security or firewall programs, and see if that lets you transfer. Make sure you turn security programs back on before going online, of course.

Voici les problèmes connus avec SonicStage : Codecs de FFDshow (paquet de codec de K-Lite) (uninstall qu'ils de ajoutent ou enlèvent des programmes) Windowblinds ou tout autre logiciel pelant Carte de graphiques de NVidia -- vous pouvez devoir changer le conducteur. (Translated with Babel--je ne parle francais)

A few questions: Are you able to transfer any files at all? What kind of files are you trying to transfer? If you can't see whether they are .mp3, .wma, etc., then show the file extensions: - select Start | Settings | Control Panels | Folder Options - select the View tab - check "show hidden files and folders" - UNcheck "hide file extensions for known file types" - Click OK to finish .wma files may have copy protection that doesn't let them be transferred. You can try converting them to mp3 with dbpoweramp (in Downloads) or CDEx ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/cdexos/ ) and then importing them into SonicStage again, but I don't know if they will convert at all. .mp3 files at low bitrates (48 Kbps) may not transfer. Try converting them to a higher bitrate, 192 or above. (SonicStage will transfer mp3s above 48 kbps--I am suggesting 192 to preserve the sound quality since a low bitrate mp3 has already been very compressed, and you don't want to lose much more quality.) And .mp3 files that have complicated tags may not transfer--you need to edit the tags down to just letters and numbers without a lot of information in places like Comments. Just out of curiosity, are those Indonesian or Malaysian songs?

They seem to be going for a little less on Ebay. Sellers like pramit and digitallimits seem to still have new ones from the Australian closeout. If I remember right, someone on this forum had trouble with pramit, but nearly all of his (?) feedback is positive. http://search-completed.ebay.com/MZ-NH700_...aadvsearchQ3aUS

Mods, someone should make greenmachine's translation a pinned post among the FAQ.