A440

Thank you for explaining this. The problem with the preamps I previously owned was that they only boosted the recording level from unity gain on up--and the last thing you need at, for instance, a Tool concert is any kind of boost. It sounds like your preamp is indeed more useful for minidisc recording at concerts since it can attenuate (without lowering power to the mic, I hope?) if the music is too loud and boost if the music is too quiet. But first I have to refill the piggybank after splurging on the MZ-RH-1....

OK, that's the crux of the matter. If recording with a battery module produces a recording that's too quiet, and you have to normalize it in post-processing, then a preamp will help give you a louder recording in the first place. It's not about noise FROM the battery module, it's about the noise added when you have to amplify a quiet recording. Please correct me if I misunderstood this, but is -00 dB the equivalent of using a battery module?

Here's how to back up your Library. Look at the third method: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=16088 You can also run the Backup Tool, which is either within SonicStage or under [C:\Program Files\] SonicStage on your Programs menu. Regular MDs have never been able to play back through the computer--only Hi-MD formats. You should be able to upload MDLP files UNLESS they were originally downloaded through SonicStage as NetMD transfers. Then they're stuck on the disc.

I'm very happy with a pair of Church Audio mics I got a few years ago, and the components look to be high quality. I wish he still made these small binaurals--last time I looked, the ones on his Ebay site were larger. But I want to untangle this argument a bit. We're talking about 3 different things: An attenuator: a headphone volume control used backward. This is a cheap ($7), small, imperfect way to lower noise by lowering the amount of the signal that gets to the preamp inside the MD unit. This has nothing to do with the external preamps Church Audio sells. When I started using it, my MZ-N707 didn't allow changing the levels while recording, and the little knob on the attenuator did. Now we have on-the-fly level adjustment. An attenuator is a very imperfect solution because ultra-loud music will still overload the mics (which are getting less power) and the cheap little gizmos add noise of their own. The real shootout here is between the next two: A battery module: a little box with batteries in it (about $50) that provides enough power to the mics so that with a loud sound source, they generate a strong enough signal to go through line-in. I used to use an attenuator through mic-in because the battery boxes that were around at the time were big and clunky, but now that I've found a tiny battery module (Microphone Madness Classic Mini), I prefer it. I have also recorded speech with Mic-Battery Module-Line-in, and it's more than audible. A preamplifier: a box that actually amplifies the signal coming out of the microphone before you plug it into line-in. Sophisticated electronics and priced at $100-$200. I have not used a Church Audio preamp, but I have used the original Sound Professional preamp (before they added a No-Gain setting that essentially turns it into a battery module) and the Boost Box from Reactive Sounds. With loud music, both of them were simply not the right piece of equipment--and both were also about the size of the MD unit, making stealth more difficult. (The curly, bulky telephone-style cord on the Reactive Sounds was an extremely bad idea.) Something--either the preamp unit or the MD line-in--overloaded during loud shows with even the slightest gain. Perhaps the -10 dB Chris Church refers to is a setting on his preamp that lowers the gain from a loud concert, and so his preamps are more suitable for loud concert recording. I can't say. For me, the battery module via Line-in has been able to capture nearly all music quite well, and for the few concerts that are too quiet I go through Mic-in, so I'm not going to be checking out preamps any time soon. And let's not even wade into the question of omni mics vs. cardioids....

roofrabbit has been recording for years with an R55. That means there are a lot of SP discs around waiting to be uploaded, and to me that means the RH1.

TOSlink would be realtime. So transfer via USB. KrazyIvan, a few posts above, says that you can insert the track marks after transferring. All Hi-MDs have been USB 1.1 except the RH1, which reportedly transfers somewhat faster, although still not at USB 2.0 speed. It's impossible to write to the disc that fast. The RH-10 has a big lighted display. Perhaps that's important to you if you are DJ-ing in near darkness. The RH-1 is the top of the line Hi-MD unit. It has a narrow display on the side--one long line that's the equivalent of two lines--and shows track information on the remote. The RH-1 improves on transfer speed and playback quality of MP3s, and has a lot of other small improvements, but its main advantage is that it allows old MDs, from before Hi-MD, to be uploaded. Search for "pictorial" and you can get a close look at each unit. Like this: RH-1 : http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=15548 http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=15943 RH10 http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=9326 http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=10621 http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=11418

Hey, don't get me wrong. I love my MD. I still think it's the great portable recorder. For now. But flash recorders like the Edirol R09, which accept removable media, will give the MD serious competition if they become cheaper, if flash memory card costs continue to drop, and if they incorporate some of the on-unit editing capabilities of MD. Think of putting in a 2GB or 4GB SD card (or larger in the future) and recording in PCM all the time, and a drag-and-drop interface for the results. Sony's hardware engineers came up with a marvel, no question. But Sony's software side, and probably its record-company interference, squandered a lot of potential.

Technology has finally caught up with you, or vice versa. With Hi-MD, introduced in 2004, you need to install Sony's SonicStage software on your PC. Then you connect the Hi-MD unit via USB cable, open a Transfer window in SonicStage, and upload your recordings to your computer. Once they're on the computer, you can convert them to .wav or any other format. Microphone recordings and line-in recordings are both uploadable. No more realtime. [There is a thread on uploading, pinned under Live Recording, but it's rather out-of-date. SonicStage has grown more reliable and dropped virtually all restrictions. Open SonicStage, connect, upload--it's very straightforward nowadays.] You'll definitely want to get the MZ-RH1. It is the only unit that will upload your old SP-format recordings from the R-55. Here's the best price I've seen: http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/...tem/SONY-MZ-RH1 Other Hi-MD units only upload recordings made in newer formats. As you've probably discovered, with Hi-MD you can record in uncompressed PCM as well as the new compressed formats (Hi-SP) and the old MD formats (SP). Uncompressed PCM should be higher-quality than your old SP, and Hi-SP should be almost indistinguishable from it. The new 1GB Hi-MD discs hold 90 minutes of PCM and--hold on to your hat--7 hours and 55 minutes of Hi-SP.

Bigger drivers could be more uncomfortable in the ear. Everything's a tradeoff.

Take a look at this post from fishstyc (it's no. 6 if the link doesn't go right there) on getting the recording off a bad disc. Try it with one of your problematic ones. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?s=&am...st&p=106278 Since it's a brand new unit you should contact Sony about the problem. It's possible there's a problem with the unit and that you should simply replace it. Or Sony may have other advice. Does vibration affect playback?

First, what unit are you using, and how old? Could some connection be loose? Are you using a current SonicStage, 3.4 or 4.0 ? There's always a possibility that you have a bad disc, so if you have an alternate one you might try another experiment. How bad is the vibration? Are you really jerking around or shaking? Trains speeding down bad tracks? A little vibration hasn't been any problem for me. I've ended up doing a lot of accidental recording walking into concerts, up stairs, etc., and while I don't usually try to upload the stuff, it's very playable on the disc and I don't see any reason it wouldn't upload. But it really depends on your individual situation--enough vibration and there will definitely be a problem. Maybe your hand isn't the right place for the unit. Maybe you could try recording again with the unit in your pocket, wrapped in bubble wrap.

Well, wait a minute. There are line-in hard-drive recorders from Iriver, Cowon, etc. And there are flash recorders like the Edirol R09 and the M-Audio Microtrack. For the moment MD is still the most inexpensive and most recording-friendly (track marks, level adjustment, etc.) format. But for how long?

is the right mic out there????? Everything is so expensive in Europe I can't really offer you a suggestion on a handheld. However, Greenmachine's little omni mics with clips could be clipped to something and held in your hand, or clipped to the shirt collar of someone you interview, and they are both hi-fi and within your budget. Ask for the MDCF discount! http://www.geocities.com/greenmachine_audio/

Usually when the unit senses the end of the battery's life, it automatically saves what you've recorded before it shuts down. So I hate to say it, but you probably could have just let it keep going and it would have saved the data itself.

Are you trying to install the program with the unit connected? Disconnect it and try again. Do you have any Windows skinning programs running? Strong internet security or firewalls? Turn them off and try again. You could go to Downloads here and try the SonicStage 3.4 offline installer, too. The best place for advice on that unit is http://www.atraclife.com/ .

Do you have plugins that work? You could simply add them as attachments to a reply.

It is often claimed that women hear high frequencies better than men. If the MDR-E931SP do actually go up to 23,000 Hz and the MDR-E930SP only to 22,000 Hz, she may hear a difference and find the 931s overly shrill, where a guy wouldn't notice.

It's going to make a difference whether you use NetMD or Hi-MD units for playback. Both have limited options. I assume you have ruled out PCM/.wav as too large. Hi-SP is 256kbps, Hi-LP is 64 kbps. Both are Hi-MD only and can be uploaded from the unit with SonicStage. SP is 292kbps, LP2 is 132kbps, LP4 is 66kbps (but only good for speech). They play on NetMD or Hi-MD, but can only be uploaded with the MZ-RH1. If you transfer as-is in those bitrates I don't think SonicStage will recompress the files--someone correct me if I'm wrong. Here's a time calculator for Hi-MD http://ravn.net/md/hi-mdcal.htm And for NetMD http://ravn.net/md/mdcal.htm

Fishstyc, that is great news! Nice idea--and I hope it would also work if you wrote the data back to a new disc so you could save what's on your original disc. Dogville, it's mostly glitches with mp3 titling, where it seems to demand more precise adherence to exact standards than earlier versions. And, of course, your many problems. If you're still having trouble, you could back up My Library (with the Backup Tool) and follow the FAQ about completely uninstalling SonicStage. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8071 Then try the 3.4 full installer from Downloads. But I suspect that your problem is with some automatic system repair utility that you have running in the background, possibly pdsched.exe, that keeps deleting something SonicStage needs. Either that or your NVidia card. Since you are virtually the only one reporting such chronic problems, it leads me to believe it's something in your Windows installation--I just wish I could guess what. In earlier, much buggier versions of SonicStage, lots more people were reporting problems. I am not saying SonicStage is wonderful software with no problems. I'm just saying it generally seems to work nowadays. Have you tried contacting Sony by telephone? It takes a lot of time on hold, and you have to keep demanding to be "escalated" to a higher level of technical support. You also have to keep telling them a full clean installation of Windows XP is not the solution for a small software conflict. But if you're patient and lucky you may find someone who can help you.

I've stayed with SS 3.4 because so many people have been writing here about glitches with 4.0. Mazuio, I'm not sugggesting Hi-SP instead of PCM to copy the vinyl--obviously you want lossless recording for archiving. I was just wondering if there was different behavior with PCM and Hi-SP. Apparently not if Fishstyc also has troubles. My first guess for both Fishstyc and Mazuio would be that if SS is reading the track now and then that there is a defect on the disc. Especially if the problem occurs in the same place on the track. You could try splitting the track before and after the spot where the problem occurs, upload all three pieces (or two out of three) and combine them after uploading. You might also try a different USB cord to see if there's some intermittent problem with that.

Mostly that's correct. But the NH700 will accept the same remote as the NH800, complete with radio reception.

Sorry to over-generalize. Someone oughtta change the equipment browser....I was relying on that. http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-EH1.html Jaylen is right--the NH600D is a steal, and I can tell you from experience that it's very sturdy. If you have Hi-MD recordings to upload, it'll do that too.

Please do post that sample. Once you upload, use SonicStage to convert to .wav, then use an .mp3 encoder to make a high-bitrate .mp3 (at least 192, and higher would be great for the subtleties). You can remove DRM from .oma in SonicStage--buried in the Tools menu--but as greenmachine said, more people can play back .mp3.

I don't know if you want to have all that cable hanging around. The mic already has four feet of cable. Me, I think of the battery module as an attachment to the unit--one foot of cable is plenty, and I wouldn't even care if it were shorter. But it's not a big deal regardless.

Every model is listed at: http://www.minidisc.org/equipment_browser.html All Hi-MD units have USB. All NetMD units also have USB, but they're old models. Hi-MD has more capacity per disc and accepts 1GB Hi-MD discs, about three times as much storage as old 80-minute MDs.