A440

I went to tradersden and downloaded that recording, which was made (it says) on an NH1. It's limited by the microphone, which only picks up 100-14,000 Hz. Pearl Jam May 9, 2006 Air Canada Centre Toronto, ON, Canada Source: Apex162 > MZ-NH1 Hi-MD (44.1kHz/16bit LPCM Stereo) > Hi-MD(m) Whoever did the recording must have been in a great spot: everything the mic can pick up is crisp and clear, and you can understand every word Vedder sings (which is more than you can say about their albums!). But there is absolutely no bottom end, so the result is extremely tinny, like something being played through a three-inch speaker. I wish the person had brought some SoundProfessional BMC-2's and a battery module instead, or even some better mics--that recording would have been amazing.

I have traveled from New York City to London (Virgin Atlantic) and Paris (I forget) with MD, microphones, battery module, attenuator, headphones, headphone amplifier (plain tin box with switch on it, very suspicious looking), CD player, half a dozen minidiscs, laptop computer, AC computer adapter, USB cable, LAN cable, wireless card, cell phone, cell phone AC adapter, AA batteries and probably other electronics and never had a problem with security. The same for at least a dozen flights a year in the domestic USA. If they ask questions, plug in your headphones and play them a song, but no one has asked me yet.

If you still have them in your computer you could play them (with SonicStage) and record them in realtime with TotalRecorder, which captures the sound from your soundcard. Then you'd have unprotected copies to transfer at will. You could also listen to them on Napster (free) and record them with TotalRecorder. Or go to a P2P site and download them. Unlesss you're sharing 500-1000 songs, the RIAA is unlikely to come after you. I also recommend contacting the Connect Store and complaining. They probably won't help you, but venting could make you feel better, and they should be reminded how they're abusing their legal customers. And patronize companies like Emusic that let you download mp3s for unlimited transfer.

All that just for the OS? Is there going to be any room for apps? Also, various reports say Vista is going to have some truly nasty digital rights management: http://www.pcstats.com/artvnl.cfm?articleID=1871 http://www.boingboing.net/2005/08/30/micro...abandons_i.html I'm sticking to XP as long as I can. I don't need a "three-dimensional interface." I do need to control the media on my computer.

Best price I know of in the U.S.A. is here: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Rec...ries?sku=244753

Bring your earbuds and try various methods during the opening act, then slip off to the bathroom and see what worked better. Try different mics, attenuator at various levels, going directly into line-in with greenmachine's mics, etc. Have you thought of building a battery box yourself in the next week? Greenmachine posted DIY instructions.

Flame me if you want, but what's the point of getting the 2d-generation Hi-MDs? I can only see one reason: if you're all excited over the RH10 display. But the cases of RH910 and RH10 show scratches and fingerprints, the (added) mp3 playback is mediocre and you can't record in realtime in SP/LP2/LP4. Aluminum or plastic case don't matter to me: I can vouch that the NHF800 takes a lot of use. To me, it makes more sense to get a first generation AA unit (NH700, NHF800) and add the RM-MC40ELK remote. (The NH900 was buggy and badly designed--Pause and Stop on same button? --and I've read too many reports here of NH1 breakdowns.) It always seemed to me that 2d-gen was mostly about cost-cutting--no mic jack on RH710--and until the RH1, I haven't been impressed with the aesthetics of any of the Hi-MDs. OK, I'm putting on my fire-resistant suit now. Bring it on!

That's great news. Older versions of SonicStage, before 3.4, added digital rights management junk that was supposed to stop unauthorized CD copying. Since you were encoding so recently, you may be encoding without DRM. But I hope someone will try uploading an old NetMD just to check.

You can't EQ bass back in if the mic hasn't picked it up in the first place. There's nothing to boost. I wonder why the attenuator isn't working for you. I started using it in the first place because my MZ-N707 didn't have high/low sensitivity either, and it almost always worked just fine. If you have the volume on the attenuator all the way up--which is the way I used it 99 percent of the time--then lessen it a little and see if you still get the distortion. Are you looking at the recording levels? Are they maxing out? Distortion when the recording level isn't maxed out--often in places like a bass-drum hit--is a sign of preamp distortion. Call me a pessimist, but I still don't think that the 1.5 volt cord will do the job. Without an attenuator, the mic would get 1.5 volts from the unit, and would still need preamplification through the mic jack. I don't think 1.5V will be enough for line-in, which has no preamp. Better to just bite the bullet and get a battery module with 9V of power. You might also look into a more up-to-date recorder. The R70 is close to antique.

Yes, you can use regular MDs on a Hi-MD recorder. The NH900 is thinner because it takes a flat gumstick battery. It also has a few more features, like a more expensive (though not necessarily better) amp for playback and some pitch controls. The remote has a display on it; the one with the NH700 doesn't. Look at http://www.minidisc.org under the BROWSER tab to see all the MD units' features. The recording features on all the Hi-MD units are identical. Personally, I prefer the NH700 because I like the easy replaceability of the AA battery. You could buy more gumsticks and keep them charged, etc., but it's a lot easier to find a AA battery in a pinch. Also, the battery latch of the NH900 needs to be taped shut or it can come open in your pocket. And the NH900 has Pause and Stop as two halves of the same button, which is troublesome. I had one; I sold it. With the money you save on the MZ-NH700, get the RM-MC40ELK remote: lights up, shows recording level, inserts track marks while the unit stays hidden in your pocket. Feedback is really all you can go by on Ebay sellers. If there's a lot of feedback--not just 2 or 3--and it's all good, you might as well trust them. There are some regular Hi-MD sellers on Ebay like pramit and digitallimits and minidiscmini--I've never dealt with them, but they seem to get more and more good feedback. Sony Australia dumped all its 2004-model Hi-MDs at low prices and retailers like minidiscmini, minidisco, minidiscaccess, etc. bought them up. So new ones are still around. There might be a generic AC adapter in the package (Australian voltage is different) but that's not a big deal. I've had my MZ-NHF800 (same as 700 plus radio remote) for two years and I don't think I've ever used the AC adapter. When it's connected to the computer, the USB powers it anyway.

Although Sony has never done a decent job of marketing it, that's what Hi-MD is: the minidisc recorder that uploads. You still need to use SonicStage but SonicStage is largely reliable at this point. And yes, I mistyped: I meant the NH700, not the N707. JP

What do you mean by bass distortion? If it's just too much bass, it may be the way the sound is mixed or the club acoustics. The kind of distortion the attenuator or battery box help avoid is the kind of overloading that just overwhelms the whole recording. Assuming you are having overload problems, however: That cord only supplies 1.5 volts of power, which is probably the same as what the mic jack supplies before it gets attenuated. So if the bass distortion you're getting is the mic itself overloading, it might help a tiny bit--you could try by putting it in the circuit between the attenuator and the mic. If it's the preamp overloading, the power won't help. A real battery box gives you 9V. Spend a little more money and get greenmachine's box or this little thing: http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm This is assuming you are recording loud music. A battery box won't supply enough power to capture things like conversation through line-in.

No, there is no other Hi-MD software. No, Sony won't enable you to make unauthorized copies of CDs. Lest we forget, Sony Music likes to sell CDs. You can try using SonicStage 3.4 and see if you can unprotect those files, but I doubt it. If you're desperate you can record them in analog in realtime--out of the headphone jack, into your computer--with a free recording program like Audacity, or play them back in the computer with SonicStage and record them digitally with TotalRecorder. Or if your computer doesn't have line-in, you could record them out of the headphone jack out into another Hi-MD (also realtime) and upload them from the MD. Yes, mp3 playback became possible on the RH* units, but with crippled sound on any unit except the RH1. Still not drag and drop, though.

Jaylen is right. Just to expand a little, the MZ-NH700 is the Hi-MD equivalent of the MZ-N707--mic input, AA battery power--plus the advantages of Hi-MD: longer recording time, higher quality (PCM) if you want it, recordings uploadable to PC. You can find unopened MZ-NH700 on Ebay for $100-$125, and both http://www.minidisco.com and http://www.minidiscaccess.com have them for $150. It's over your $100, but you will be much happier with a new Hi-MD than with an iffy used MD.

Dex, this is great as always. Someday we'll have to figure out why your in-ear binaurals don't overload the preamp while my BMC-2 do. But in the meantime, I hope this helps people. I fear you're asking the impossible, Volta. Absolutely the only thing that matters in a venue is what your ears tell you, not your eyes. Visual cues only go so far. In a small club, relocating by just a foot or two can suddenly clear up the mix. My basic move is to get near the soundboard. Presumably they are mixing what they think we should hear. But again, those few feet between me and the sound engineer can make a big difference. I don't crush up close to the stage because usually the PA is pointed over your head and what you hear is a messy mix of stage amps and stage monitors. Other cues: I try to stay away from hard-surfaced walls because they reflect sound harshly--unless I need them to provide some highs. I try to stay out from under overhanging things, like balconies, because the sound bounces around underneath, usually adding bass and muffling everything else. Being up in the balcony usually isn't as good as being down on the floor--though in some venues, front row balcony is ideal for both sight and sound. At outdoor festivals you're usually better off pointing the mics at the speaker tower because that's what you're listening to, not the stage sound. But at an open air festival the biggest consideration is to get away from people who are talking. Just think about basic acoustics. Hard flat surfaces are reflective. Complex surfaces, like statuary or plaster ornaments (in beautiful old concert halls) diffuse the sound in good ways. Soft ones (curtains, clothing, people) are absorptive. That can help you guess where good sound will be. But the only way to know is to stand in a bunch of spots and close your eyes. In New York, I know where the sweet spots are in most of the places I go to. But I couldn't have predicted most of them.

Amen to the above. One thing about the Microtrack is that it apparently doesn't have a track button, so you can't insert tracks (micro or otherwise) as you record. That's one thing I've always loved about MD. http://www.transom.org/tools/recording_int...microtrack.html And here's a bug report: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.audio.p...d/ae729b9c5b16e

What unit and what kind of disc did you use to record the earlier material on the disc? The MZ-R37 only records (and plays) in SP. If you recorded material with a later model MD in LP2 or LP4, the R37 cannot play those tracks. They should still play in an MDLP-capable model. The disc should say 74 or 80 on it. If you were trying to use a 1GB Hi-MD in the R37, it's the same size as a regular MD, but it probably won't play back anything at all. Your best experiment would be to get a blank 74- or 80-minute disc and see what you can record on the R37.

Do you need to upload to a Mac rather than a PC? That's the only reason to get the MZ-100, which is otherwise the same as the RH910. The RH10 has a bright display on the front of the unit, for which you pay an extra $50-$60 over the RH910. The MZ-RH1, to be released in the US within the next month or two, has a lot of features geared to recording, and will also upload to Macs, with more uploading options than the MZ-100. If you're a Mac user, wait for that one. Otherwise, the recording guts of all the Hi-MD units are apparently the same. What changes is playback (through the unit's headphone-jack amplifier), features and controls. Recordings you upload to your computer will not sound any different. If you have a PC and just want a basic recorder and want to save some money, get the MZ-NH700 ($150 from http://www.minidisco.com or http://www.minidiscaccess.com ). Runs on one AA battery, which is a great convenience (and one eliminated on the RH1). There's a lot of excitement here about the forthcoming RH1, mostly because those of us who have been using MD for a long time will finally be able to upload our old recordings for the first time. The RH1 also fixes one of the most persistent annoyances about Sony MD recorders, which is that on current units, you have to click through some menus each time you want to start recording at Manual Volume (essential for music). But if you're new to the format and using a PC, and don't mind those five clicks each time you record, a NH700 will do everything you need. I've been using my MZ-NHF800 (the same unit as the NH700 with added FM radio) almost daily since August 2004--even dropped it a few times--and it's going strong.

Opens fine for me. I'll attach it for you. But looking at it, this is one BIG microphone. shotgun.html

http://gbppr.dyndns.org/PROJ/mil/shotgun/index.html Google "shotgun mic*" DIY

Do they come with various sizes of earplugs? Have you tried them all? A different plug will make a huge difference in bass. I have Shure E3 and of the 7 different plugs provided, only one has full-bodied bass. But the ones that work sound great.

Iriver IFP-7xx and 8xx have mic-in settings. But the 799 I own has a bulge next to the mic jack that would probably prevent that Sony mic from plugging in without an extension cord. The Irivers also have a built-in (mono) mic that's probably sufficient for interviews anyway.

It would be very specifically for interviews, since its frequency range is so limited. And it's directional, which should be useful for interviews as well. As Volta pointed out, the whir of the MD recorder will mess up anything you record via mic unless the mic is some distance from the unit. It might be a little awkward to put that mic on an extension cord. Also, make sure your mp3 recorder can handle that jack. The stereo plug is standard, but some small mp3 recorders have narrower, slightly indented spaces for the jack, different from the relatively wide flat area on the mic.

Where are you going to find the NetMD units? Are they in good shape? It might be better to spend more on a new MZ-NHF800 (now $180 at minidisco or minidiscaccess, around $125 on Ebay) than to get someone's beat-up NetMD that breaks down. Also, I have to say, what's the big deal about the radio? On all these units, the MD unit basically supplies battery power to a radio in the remote. You can't record from the radio or do anything else useful with it. Why not get a Hi-MD player/downloader (MZ-NH600D, under $100) and a little $10 pocket radio, which wouldn't be any bigger than the remote anyway? The NF810 has a microphone jack. The NF610 doesn't--only line-in. If you're going to get either one, make sure they are in good shape. Look carefully at the controls on both the remote and the unit. If paint is worn off from thumb friction, I'd stay away.

The AT2020 looks like a mono mic for recording a single instrument. It's cardioid, which means it's directional. So you'll get a mono signal (or possibly just the left channel) with no room ambience at all. It's not versatile: it's made to do one thing, which is isolate the sound of a single instrument. The Pro24 is a stereo mic. Its frequency response only goes down to 100 Hz, so you won't get the bottom two octaves of bass. It's also a one-point mic, so you won't get much stereo separation. A good price from Soundprofessionals, though: http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/...&source=froogle If you're using the SoundPros in-ear mics, they might well sound better than either of these for recording live bands.