A440

You don't even need to spend $250. Do you want to record (like through a microphone or line-in)? Or do you just want to play music tracks that are on your computer as Mp3 (or can be ripped from CDs)? The cheapest downloader (playback only--music transferred by USB) is the MZ-NH600D. You can probably find one on Ebay for under $100. The cheapest Hi-MD recorder with a mic jack is the MZ-NH700. I've seen new ones on Ebay lately for $125. You'd have a buy a mic, too--no built-in mics on Hi-MD units. For $229 you can get the top of the line RH10, with the much-loved lightup OLED display. http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4029517 Or $199 for the RH910, the same unit without the display: http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4029518 Don't bother with NetMD. Hi-MD puts more on a disc, allows you to upload recordings, offers better quality and is less than 3 years old.

Try http://www.atraclife.com for info on hard-drive Walkmans. One thing you could try is an upgrade to SonicStage 3.4. Use the Backup Tool (under Programs/SonicStage, not within SonicStage) to make a backup of My Library. This is essential. If you don't do it you can lose your whole Library. Then upgrade to SonicStage 3.4 with the online installer. http://forums.minidisc.org/downloads/details.php?file=23

First, use the Backup Tool to back up My Library. If you do that, you probably won't need the backup. If you don't do it, you will. It's just one of those things. Being lazy, if I were you I would run the little Sony online installer to install 3.4 on top of 3.2. That will give you any bugfixes Sony may have come up with while MDCF was working on the offline installer. You need to turn off any internet security, firewall, spyware-stopper, etc. programs before running the online installer. Turn them back on afterward. I have upgraded twice (3.2 to 3.3, 3.3 to 3.4) with the online installer and had no problems at all. If you do have a problem, then do the whole FAQ procedure. But that was written for earlier, much buggier SonicStage versions. No guarantees: we are still using Sony software, after all. But try the easy way first.

1) I once met someone at a loud concert who said he was going directly mic-->Line-in. This never worked for me. It is conceivable that some kind of overwhelmingly loud signal through a very sensitive mic would provide a recording through Line-In. But I doubt it would be at any useful level. 2) and 3) By definition, a preamp provides amplification after the signal has left the microphone. However, most preamps now also provide some power to the mics, so what you're actually getting is a combination of preamp and battery box. I have owned, and sold, two preamps. I tried them because so many people insist they are the key to a great recording. I found both of them completely useless because as soon as the music got at all loud, they would clip. One was an old Sound Professionals (PREAMP-1?) which only worked as a preamp, not a battery box. Any gain at all on moderate volume music led to clipping. They have since changed that design so their preamp can also be used at zero gain like a battery box. The other was the Reactive Sounds Boost Box, which has weird design features like a long fat spiral telephone-style cord (hard-wired) that ruins it for stealthy use. Its clipping LED would go on when it was turned up even slightly at a concert with moderate volume. And there was no reason to carry around the Boost Box (which is also larger than it has to be) when a little battery module would do the same job. Maybe if you're recording birdcalls in a forest somewhere a preamp is just the thing. Otherwise, greenmachine's guidelines--straight into mic-in for quiet sounds, mic-battery module-Line-in for loud--are right. While you're saving up for a battery box, or if the music is going to be loud but not overwhelmingly loud, you can also go Mic-attenuator (headphone volume control, like the one from Radio Shack that's my avatar, or the Maplin VC-1)-Mic-in. I started using the attenuator when battery boxes were nearly as big as the MD and hard to stealth. Now that they make little modules with 12V button batteries, I generally use the module.

I just installed the free Sygate firewall--better (more control) than Norton--and I was doing some uploading from Hi-MD to SonicStage when up popped the warning that SonicStage was trying to contact the network, presumably Sony. These were uploads of live recordings, so it was nothing to do with CDDB. Any packet-sniffing computer experts know what information it was trying to send? I clicked on "No" and it didn't cause any problem, incidentally. The less "the network" knows, the happier I am.

If you just want playback, you could get a MZ-NH600D for under $100 on Ebay. Just a downloader via USB, no mic or line-in jack. You can also find NH700 for $125 shipped, new, on Ebay. Look at www.jr.com for good mailorder prices on the RH models.

Every form of compression--mp3, atrac, ogg--involves decisions about what information to discard and what to keep. kbps is kilobytes per second: how much information is used to reproduce one second of music. Atrac3 and Atrac3plus simply make different decisions about what to pack into those 64 kilobytes. They may sound very marginally different, one may work better with certain kinds of music than others, etc. Practically speaking, in a moving car, there's no difference. When you turn mp3 into Atrac you are compressing it again. The lower the bitrate, the more the sound degrades. If you wanted a perfect copy of your 128 kpbs mp3 file, you would do a lossless compression (.wav or .flac) and end up with a much bigger file because .wav takes about 10MB per minute. Mp3s at 96 or 64 sound pretty bad to begin with--you'd be making them worse, but a higher bitrate would preserve more of what was there in the mp3. Imagine a photograph. An mp3 is a grainy photograph. An Atrac conversion of an mp3 is a grainy photograph of a grainy photograph. How much grain depends on both the original bitrate of the mp3 and the bitrate of the Atrac.

Emptyzero, you can look at Ebay, go to Advanced Search and search Completed Listings to see what people have paid lately for the NH1. Since it's a Hi-MD unit and you have all the accessories it should have retained much of its value. I would think $5 per disc for opened ones and $6 for sealed would be a fair price, and if I hadn't just bought some new ones I would offer that to you. You should get plenty of takers here.

Atrac3Plus is the later codec and presumably better quality. Flip a coin if you're playing them in the car stereo--the difference probably isn't noticeable. A higher bitrate won't make your tracks louder, only richer. The bitrate governs the size of the file. 2 x 66 = 132, so you'll get half as much recording time. 3 x 64 = 192, so you'll get 1/3 the recording time. If you're listening in a car, the quality difference is probably lost anyway, so you might as well stick to the lower bitrate.

No need to get cables direct from Sony or Philips--Maplin should have what you need. You just have to see what your mixer output is. Check this out for more: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7989 Volta is right: Greenmachine's mics and battery box are your best option, since shipping from Mic Madness could be costly. But you might as well spend L3 on a Maplin VC-1 headphone volume control (attentuator) in case the battery in your battery box goes dead, or you just want a quick alternative.

Yes it does. Welcome to Hi-MD. You need to upload through SonicStage, which is now more reliable than the version that came with your MZ-N707, and then convert to .wav. As for other .wav recorders, if you want to pay more you can investigate the M-Audio Microtrack and the Edirol R-1, but both are first-generation devices and have some quirks (like noisy microphone preamps). Or you can look at www.core-sound.com for its PDA recording setup. http://www.core-sound.com/pdaudio_system/1.php But minidisc seems like the least expensive, most portable option.

Audacity is free, but you can do the same thing in Soundforge or any decent audio editor. You can also Amplify or Normalize the recording if you think it's too quiet.

Live concerts tend to have more bass than you think. Part is room acoustics, part is that people like to feel the bass physically. So you're probably getting an accurate recording. Once you have an accurate recording, you can tweak it if you want. Upload, Save as .wav and then open the file in Audacity, highlight the whole thing and look in Effect. With Equalization you can lower the bass.

I can't seem to find any pix of the display while recording. The second line, if it's like my NHF800, is under the colon in the time, that is between 2 and 10 in 2:10. Is it possible you mistook the middle dash for the second one? Also, is the attenuator turned all the way up to its max? And when you stopped and turned down, a) did you go through the whole routine to get Manual Volume again and exactly what did you turn down? the level on the machine? the volume knob on the attenuator? You should be turning down the level on the machine. But if you stopped and restarted without going through the menus to Manual Volume, you have no control. You don't have to stop to lower the recording level. Just turn the wheel.

Are you going to be at a fixed address in the USA? You could always mail/internet order from here: http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4029517 RH10, $229

Jaylen is right. Regular MD (anything before Hi-MD) does not upload. Here's what you need to do. It's easy, just time-consuming. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7070 After you have recorded the tracks into your computer, Audacity can Export as .wav or .mp3, your choice.

Your band should be loud enough to record via Mic-Battery Box-Line-In. The attenuator into Mic-In will do a decent job, but if you're doing this professionally, then spend $50 on this battery module: http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm As for a Line-in cable, just get one with the right connectors, preferably made by a company you've heard of for the sake of reliability. Sony makes them, Philips, etc. I tend to believe all the super-duper-cable claims are placebo effect. Make a couple of recordings and compare. Line-in from the mixer will be clean and sterile, with no room ambience; the mic recording will be less focused but might sound like more fun. There would have to be silence between songs for track marks to be inserted with line-in. I hope people are applauding in between. You may also want to upgrade your mic. The ECM 907 has limited bass response. Compared to just that mic, you might be happier with the sound from the mixer via Line-In--it will have some bottom to it. By the way, it's not a digital microphone--that's one of those sleazy advertising claims. Maybe it said DIGITAL ready. Like any other analog microphone, it can be used with digital recorders. No big deal: your mic input is analog anyway, and line-in can be analog or (with an optical cable, from a digital output) digital.

Dude, I was being hyperbolic. Exaggerating. I feel no such need. MD is obviously not the playback device of choice for the vast public, and for very good reasons. I don't harbor any delusions of MD (or Hi-MD) as a challenge to the Ipod. There's no meaningful rivalry between Ipod and MD because Ipod is by now pretty much synonymous with portable players (even if there are better ones). As far as I'm concerned, MD and Ipod are for two entirely different purposes: recording and playback.

MD or even Hi-MD are never going to compete with portable flash or HD players. They're just too big, and SonicStage is too awkward. If I didn't use mine for recording, I would never have considered it for a portable player. I don't know if I would have gotten an Ipod because I, too, hate being one of the mob, but with so many other good little choices, why bother to deal with minidisc quirks? Still, when someone drops their 60GB player and their entire collection goes with it, then we can gloat over our removable media.

The "Combine" function in SonicStage does this pretty well and painlessly. Just make sure you highlight the tracks you want to combine in order--from beginning to end or top to bottom, not bottom to top--because it combines them in the order you highlight them. For ultra safety, convert the original separate tracks to .wav first and save them somewhere, but you probably won't need them.

Sync Rec has nothing to do with it. There's no known solution.

G: sounds like it's an external drive. Can you move a few of your mp3 files onto C: and see if you have the same problem?

Don't use AC for recording. It will add a buzz. Just use a new Duracell or Duracell Ultra and you'll have nothing to worry about. You could also try high-capacity rechargeables--not the dinky one that may come with the NH700. I've been using rechargeable Powerizer batteries (pale blue, from Ebay) rated at 2300 MaH--I think a (non-rechargeable) Duracell Ultra is 2700--and doing fine. Rechargeable Energizers that are supposed to be 2500 MaH are disappointing--they run out faster.

The only reason to get minidisc is for recording. I suspect a considerable majority of the regulars here are digital "tapers."

The attenuator is a volume control. Turn it to its maximum, not its minimum. The higher the volume, the more comes through, just like if you were using it with headphones. Also make sure you are plugged in to mic-in (red) and not line-in (white). Is it possible to turn up your PC speakers enough to annoy the neighbors? The way to test is with real home-stereo speakers, or your TV blasting, not dinky little PC speakers. NIN is going to be a challenge. I hadn't realized you were going for the true torture test right out of the box. Depending on how close you are, they may be just too loud for your mics to handle. The attenuator can handle most loud music but not the kind of bass that makes your eardrums cave in. For something that loud, you are better off with a battery module like this one via Line-In, because it helps the mic handle a little more sheer volume. But it's probably too late for you to get it via mailorder in Canada. http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm So go with reduced expectations but try this: Mic-->Attenuator-->Mic-In. Turn the attenuator up to maximum and then back off by about 1/8 of a turn, just a hair. You need to set the level manually (always). Press REC and PAUSE at the same time (display will blink), Nav/Menu (whatever it is on that unit), click the center button up (two notches?) to REC SET and press >, click down to REC Volume and press >, click to Manual and press >. It will start at 13/30. Push it up a bit to 16/30 (turn the wheel). Hide the unit in your pocket as you go in. Put it on HOLD. When you want to start recording, take it off HOLD and push Pause again (you might even be able to do it without taking out the unit) and the time display will start changing. If you have any light and no one's looking, try to take a look at the level meter and see that it's above the first dash (halfway) but well below the second one (overload). Practice this process a few times at home--it becomes easier as you do it more often. No guarantees. NIN is a tough one. But I did do a Metallica show like that and it came through.