A440

You can indeed. Try it and see.

You can get level readings with the RM-MC40ELK remote. On Ebay it's about $75 US, no idea about availability in Brazil. A new unit might be your best bet, unfortunately.

Unless you need portability, recording directly into your computer, with the device above, might be your best solution. For the most basic minidisc route, which will make you stereo recordings that you can easily upload, you need: A Hi-MD recorder: (NH700 if you can find an inexpensive one, RH910, or any other MZ-NH or MZ-RH model with a RED mic jack). Recordings on Hi-MD can upload, unlike NetMD. (You still can't upload your old NetMD recordings from the Hi-MD unit, though.) A good stereo microphone, probably onmidirectional (also called binaural) rather than cardioid. There are US manufacturers, like Sound Professionals and Microphone Madness, but you may also be able to find homemade ones from England on Ebay--make sure you can hear a sample recording. An attenuator (Maplin Headphone Volume Control VC-1, just £3) to prevent loud music from overloading the microphone preamp. A more expensive option is a battery module to record through line-in, also from places like Sound Professionals and Microphone Madness. And possibly a mixer if you want to record the band directly rather than as the sound in the room. You'll be recording through the stereo mini-jack on the MD, so you may need a cable out of the mixer.

Chris, before geestring takes the plunge: Do you still make the smaller binaurals, the ones that are the size size as your stealth cardioids?

The reason you can't find the NH700, and you can find the NH600, is that there is huge competition for players like the NH600D--including smaller, more mp3-centered devices like Ipod, Iriver, Creative, Cowon, Rio, Sony Network Walkmans, etc.--and very little competition for low-priced recorders like the NH700. Recording enthusiasts have snapped up the NH700. It's also a 2004 model, Sony isn't making it any more, and it was not originally released in the United States (where Sony released the NHF800 instead). So it's sold out nearly everywhere. Amazon US probably never carried it in the first place. The letters after 700 are just to distinguish the blue ones from the silver ones. Minidisco got some of the last new ones for sale when Sony dumped the NH700 and is selling them at a clearance price. The NH700 will probably disappear entirely soon except for used units. And then you can pay more for virtually the same features in the 2005 models, like $169 (the RH910) or over $200 (RH10). If you want just a player, then the NH600D (or NH600, which is different from the NH600D because it has line-in realtime recording as well as the USB connection for downloading music from your computer) will serve your purposes. If you want the NH700, which has USB, line-in and also records via microphone, then it would be wise to act soon.

Are you still under warranty? This is definitely something to take up with Sony service. I'd be very curious to know what they say about the life of the OLED.

If I were recording a lecture I would use Hi-SP or even Hi-LP to keep the files small, and Auto trackmarking to make five-minute chunks. Then I'd upload into SonicStage which would have them titled like date stamps--2006-02-15 00:44 etc. Then I would add to the first date stamp so it read 2006-02-15 00:44PROFESSOR-LECTURE and I'd know that all the ones I uploaded afterward were the rest of the lecture in order. But I'm lazier than Dex. Hi-MDRenderer has nothing to do with SonicStage. It's a standalone program created and constantly updated by Marcnet, and you can get it from downloads. When you have a big .wav file, you can use CDWave http://www.milosoftware.com/cdwave/ to cut it into smaller tracks--it suggests where it thinks the breaks are, and you can take or leave what it suggests. That way you don't have a humongous file to try to cram onto CD. Once you have a .wav file you have no need for SonicStage and all its quirks. Use something else--Winamp, Windows Media Player, Nero, Real, iTunes--to burn the wavs to CD.

Those look much bigger and bulkier than the ones I have. Look at his stealth cardioids, http://cgi.ebay.com/STEREO-CARDIOID-MICROP...1QQcmdZViewItem and look at his stereo Y binaural mics, http://cgi.ebay.com/CHURCH-AUDIO-STEREO-Y-...1QQcmdZViewItem and imagine those small binaural mics wired like the stealth cardioids. As far as I know, it's basically one guy making the mics, and so you could get in touch with him and ask him for a price. The Sound Professionals might or might not be cheaper with shipping costs, so you could compare.

No. They're much better.

The Soundpro BMC-2 are very easy to sneak in, smaller than your pinky nail and on very thin wires. I drop the cord down my shirt, flip the mics over the top button, and pull them out and clip them to my collar when the lights go down. Just thought of something, though. Since you're in Canada try Church Audio. http://stores.ebay.com/CHURCH-AUDIO Contact him (Chris Church) and ask for stereo BINAURAL mics, not cardioids (which are directional and a lot less forgiving for general use). I have some small binaurals he made, which look like the ones on his Stereo-Y mic, not the bigger binaurals he is selling now. He must still have those smaller mics and could wire them on a cord instead of the Y attachment. The Y looks very scientific but it's not a good idea. Mics plugged in to the unit, not separated by a cord, tend to pick up whirring noises from the unit. And it's harder to hide unit-plus-mic than it is to leave the unit in your pocket and clip the mics someplace unobtrusive. Also, for the best stereo realism you want to separate the two mics by the width of your ears. My Church Audio binaurals don't have clips, which is why I don't use them much, but I see that he has clips now for the cardioids, so I'm guessing he could put them on binaurals too.

The MD player does have a level control, but the problem is that its preamp is before the level control and overloads with loud music. Sad, true and easily curable with the attenuator or a battery module. Minidisc-Canada's microphone selection isn't ideal. These gumdrop-sized mics http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-BMC-2 plus an attenuator via Mic-in will give you very nice results. Get them with clips so you can clip them to a shirt, hat, girlfriend, etc. Lately I have been using them with a Microphone Madness Battery Module through Line-In http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm and getting even better results. Look at the Live Recordings Gallery above to hear some MD recordings with various microphone types.

See this thread: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?s=&sh...indpost&p=87462 Old MDs don't transfer to Mac. Most new ones don't either. New ones that do--MZ-M10 and MZ-M100--are pricey. On a budget, and especially for voice recording, a different type of recorder is better for you.

I use Audacity most of the time, although I also have Wavepad, Goldwave, Magix Audio and Adobe Audition installed. No judgment involved: It's really a matter of what you get used to. Here's a 20-second Audacity manual: Just Open your file, stick the cursor on the boundary between the two tracks and click it, hold down Shift and use the arrow keys to select whatever chunk of the waveform you want to play with. You'll see it shaded. Clicking the green Play button will play from the cursor. (Edit also lets you Select: Beginning to Cursor or Cursor to End for a fade-in or fade-out.) Then click Effects to fade, etc. Or click Edit to cut, export the selection as a separate track, etc. The big quirk with Audacity is that its Save command just saves to its own .aup format instead of a format you can use elsewhere. So instead of Save, which would be intuitive, you have to Export to .wav, Export to .mp3, etc. Not a biggie. When you're done, instead of Save (though you can do that too), just export the finished file to .wav or .mp3.

I was at a show once stealth recording and I saw someone staring frustratedly at an MZ-N707 out in the open. Turned out she was trying to record the show with it for one of the band members, who owned the unit, and she was getting frazzled because she'd never used MD before, it was dark, she couldn't see the LCD display, etc. I showed her how to get the thing recording and read the display by matchlight. I think we forget sometimes how un-intuitive the buttons are.

Yes, it's a good unit. You'll be amazed at what the little gizmo can do. As for recording, try your setup and the folks here will try to help you if you have any problems. When your unit arrives and you get a chance to play with it, take a look at this: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showt...993entry49993

Your splitter must have a mono output plug. See if it has two rings around the plug (like your stereo headphone plug or the plug shown in my avatar--->) or one (mono). Just one, right? No problem: Radio Shack should have a mono-to-stereo adapter. Get a mono-to-stereo cord rather than just another plug so that you're not putting too much leverage pressure on your mic jack. Or, as suggested, just get a stereo pair of mics. By the way, the Sony guy was hallucinating. Minidisc recorders have either just a line input (white) or two inputs: a mic input (red) and a line input (white). But you can only use one at a time.

First, your B10 should be able to record in SP as well as LP2 and LP4. You need to change a setting somewhere to record in SP--check the manual. The earlier recorders, with only one mode, didn't have a choice, and the B10 is probably set at the factory to record in LP2 or LP4, which your older recorders can't read. Among current models, none has optical out. The best you can do is a first-generation Hi-MD, the 2004 models: MZ-NH700, MZ-NHF800 (same as 700 plus radio remote) or MZ-NH900. They record via mic in SP (as well as new formats that can be transferred to PC). Their software--yes, MDs have software now--is not compatible with a Mac, but you can still do the same realtime copying as before. Here's a great deal on the MZ-NH700. http://www.minidisco.com/mz-nh700s-bundle.html You can also get expensive second-generation models--M100 and M10--that do not record in SP. But they do record in PCM and can upload those PCM files to a Mac directly. It's slow, USB 1.1. If you have some sound art made on MD, upload it to the Gallery here!

By the way, videot, Kurisu is being modest. Except for discs included with new units--I think they were versions 2.0 and 3.0, not exactly classics--and (I think) a 2.3 update, Sony has not provided offline installers for SonicStage. It always demanded that you download the stub and get the rest of it online. All the previous offline installers were created by and for this site. With computer expertise that I can barely begin to comprehend.

This is hindsight and it's not going to help you, but: Every time you make any change to SonicStage it's a good idea to run the Backup Tool. (Under Programs/SonicStage but not in SonicStage.) It makes a copy of your library and somehow tells the new SonicStage that you're the owner. If you simply overlaid 3.4 on a previous installation, it shouldn't have screwed up your digital rights information, but it obviously did. And once it decides you're an evil music pirate, it locks you out of those files, so you will probably have to re-rip. Since I haven't installed 3.4 yet, I'm not sure if there's a way to take digital rights information out of your next rips. Perhaps someone else knows?

Don't get me wrong: I love my MD. But I use it for music recording, where high fidelity is important. Voice recording is a much less complicated function and can be done with a smaller unit that doesn't have the restrictions and annoyances of minidisc. You don't need to make a PCM recording of a lecture: mp3 will do just fine. Google "digital voice recorder" and you will find a slew of little gadgets--from Olympus, from Sony, etc.--that will do exactly what you want: record through a built-in mic and transfer to your computer, probably through drag-and-drop. MP3 players like the Iriver also let you carry music around or listen to radio, and it's about as big as a thick pack of gum. There are other similar units, like Cowon's iAudio U2, and Creative probably makes a Muvo or something with a voice recorder. I'm familiar with the Iriver, and I know it has its own built-in mic as well as an input that can be switched from line (unamplified) to mic (amplified with preamp). Other little mp3 units may have built-in mics but only a Line-in for an external source. A mic is too weak for line-in, but they may also have a mic-in setting--you'd have to read the specs carefully. With a NetMD, you'll end up with a stack of minidiscs that are essentially your end copies, unless you want to play them back and record them out of the headphone jack. If that's the most convenient way for you to access the recordings, then NetMD is ideal, and the prices are very low now. Actually, you don't even need NetMD since there's no Mac software for it. You could go back to the MZ-R700 or MZ-R900 if you found one in good shape. (Look at the Browser tab on the http://www.minidisc.org homepage for all the models. You would want at mininum a MDLP recorder, none of the early two-digit units like R55.) The good thing with minidisc recording is that you can watch levels as you record and know that it's getting recorded, and you can push the Track button to instantly mark (without any gap) places that you want to hop to quickly. But think of it as a cassette recorder rather than any pipeline to your computer. With a Mac, you won't be able to download music files to minidisc either. The Hi-MD M10 and M100 will upload big PCM files to your Mac. It may take up to 1/3 of the length of the actual recording for the upload to go through via USB 1.1. All the Hi-MD models do offer more recording capacity per disc than NetMD. But for a Mac user, the other Hi-MD models are still essentially like a cassette. Feel free to join us minidisc diehards. I just think there are better devices for your needs.

Until recently, minidisc only worked with PCs, not Apple computers. Now, the only MD units that upload to Apple computers are the MZ-M100 and MZ-M10. They're expensive, and they only upload PCM recordings, which are large files. The connection is USB 1.1, which is slow. However, if you are going and making recordings out in the world, you will get as good fidelity as your mic provides. NetMD does not upload at all, to any computer. If you just want to record your voice for a podcast, doesn't your computer have a mic jack? Just get Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ and set it to record from your mic jack and you're good to go.

Take a look at this. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7989 What is he using for an output? Is he using the same levels on his other MDs?

Where did you upload to?

Whoa, slow down! If you mean digital uploading, there is definitely software involved. With Mac, you can only upload PCM recordings (90 mins on a 1GB disc) from the two Mac-compatible models, M100 and M10. It will probably take a while since it's only USB 1.1. PC users have it easier, because we can record and upload compressed formats. But we, too, are saddled with the SonicStage software. Drag and drop is not possible for recordings. MD units work as USB drives for data but not for sound recordings. Those recordings are, unfortunately, encrypted by Sony and have to be decrypted for playback by proprietary Sony software. Which is why the Software topic is the most popular one on this forum: because people have the most problems with the software. The BZ-100 is way obsolete. The only way out of it into your computer is recording the playback in realtime. MD and Mac are really just getting started with the M100 and M10 (same as RH10 and RH910, but with Mac compatibility). You'll pay a premium for it, and for lectures you don't need .wav quality (which eats up disc space). Will MD survive? No one knows yet. The clue will be whether Sony introduces new Hi-MD models this spring. For PC users, Hi-MD is a great format for portable recording. For Mac users, the jury is still out. If you really just want to record lectures, and aren't worried about music or other more complex signals, look into Iriver IFP flash recorders like the IFP-795(512 MB) and 799 (1GB) or IFP 895 and 899. http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/ultra/ They have a built-in voice mic (and a line-in/mic jack) and almost drag-and-drop capability. They can't mark tracks gaplessly like MD--you have to stop and start recording, which can be done quickly--but they do record in mp3 and have Mac software. You can find the 512 MB models for under $100 on eBay. Then you can send me the $200 you'll save. java script:emoticon('', 'smid_16')

If I might jump in here.... First, here's the settlement. http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/Sony-BMG/settlement_faq.php If you bought a CD with this software... You are eligible for... XCP 1. An identical CD that does not contain DRM 2. A clean MP3 version of the music on that CD. 3. For every CD you return: * a cash payment of $7.50, plus one free download from a list of approximately 200 album titles in the Sony BMG catalogue; * OR three free downloads from this list of approximately 200 album titles in the Sony BMG catalogue. MediaMax 3.0 * A clean MP3 version of the music on that CD MediaMax 5.0 1. A clean MP3 version of the music on that CD 2. One additional download from this list of approximately 200 album titles in the Sony BMG catalogue. ------------------------------- The rootkit installed by XCP placed part of a user's computer out of the user's control. I am against that on principle. And no one knows whether there were exploits before the vulnerability was publicized. I can't believe Sony Music was somehow ignorant of this when their head of technology, Phil Wiser, used to work for Liquid Audio, which was an early (failed) encrypted format. If he didn't know what Sony was buying, he should have. If they didn't test it, they should have. If you found out about the XCP problem--and Sony initially denied it--you had to send an email to beg for an online uninstaller after about 72 hours. (There's a nice mailing list for Sony.) That online uninstaller opened up a brand new vulnerability via ActiveX. When they admitted that, which also took a while, they gave instructions on how to remove the ActiveX. But it took them a month to provide a real uninstaller--when the guy who discovered it said he could write an uninstaller in a few hours, even without Sony's source code. The real uninstaller was provided ONLY because of the blog and media outcry. And while Sony publicized its disc recall immediately, it didn't actually recall many discs until attorneys general started suing them. The MediaMax software from Sunncomm installed garbage without even the token consent of a click-through EULA. That's hacking, whatever else Sony wants to call it. Whether or not Sony used whatever data it was getting is irrelevant. It deceived its customers and hacked into their computers. It should never have allowed that software onto a disc, much less onto millions of discs. Incompetence or malice, I don't care. So I get to take my disc back, get a replacement and $7.50 and maybe an extra download. Wow. How generous is that? Is Sony offering to repair computers that were subject to exploits? Is Sony compensating people for the time they took to track down the uninstaller, run it, fix the ActiveX mess the uninstaller put in their computers, run the new uninstaller and remove any Trojans installed in the meantime? My time is worth more than $7.50. But hey, I can sue Sony for that if I want. As an individual. Against corporate lawyers. Funny how at the time I just wanted to fix my computer and didn't make a full backup of each of its hacked states to prove a case. And by the way, what are your bets that the acts on the free-CD and mp3 download lists are getting paid royalties for the new sales? This was all about getting the artists paid, right? Yeah, sure. The only good that will come of this is if companies realize that DRM is an attack on customers that will only backfire on them. Unfortunately, the next Windows OS will be rootkitted (or equivalent, I don't know the technical means) right out of the box. Personally, I'm keeping an eye on when Vista (or whatever it's called) is introduced and buying a new XP computer just before. Yes, privacy is eroding. That doesn't mean Sony's customers shouldn't be angry.