Mark Nicholson

I bought Cool Edit 2000 way back before Adobe bought it and got the add in that lets you edit four tracks. The price as reasonable then, I'm accoustomed to it now, and I haven't exhausted it's capabilities. I don't know if I would buy it from Adobe since you can get Audacity for free.

Get a PEN MIC from jmhambach on e-Bay!

You can buy a mic preamp from www.minidisco.com or www.soundprofessionals.com and do better than the preamps built-in to minidisc recorders. They also provide better power to electret mics.

I agree about the battery box. You might even want to go one step further with a mic preamp which will give you a cleaner recording than the minidisc recorder's preamp. The preamp (like from Sound Professionals) is expensive but it would allow you to go with a line-in-only recorder. I've never used an attenuator cable but you might consider that.

I was having a lot of trouble with hum a few weeks ago but the hum disappeared. I am wondering if it had anything to do with those sun spots and solar storm we were experiencing. Hmmmmmmmm.

The minidisc recorder you mentioned does not have a mic input so I'm guessing that you will probably need to get a separate mic preamp. The problem with that is that you will need to spend about US$180 for the preamp. You can get a Sony MD recorder with its own built-in preamp for about US$200. On the other hand, my experience--and yours might be different--is that my external preamp is way cleaner than the mic preamp in my Sharp MD-MT770 though it cannot produce as loud a recording. Another advantage of the external preamp is that it can give better power to small electret microphones which will further improve your recording. And then there is bass roll-off....

If you are willing to record the interview in mono you might do a search on Ebay for "PEN MIC Minidisc Microphone Spy/Stealth Style" jmhambach puts a mic element in a Bic Grip Roller Style pen and sells them on Ebay for about $9 depending on the bid. I plug one into my Sharp MD-MT770 and record psychotherapy sessions for supervision. (I'm a psychiatrist in training. Tell me; how do you feel about that?) The PEN MIC Minidisc Microphone Spy/Stealth Style is not as good as my Seinheisser MD-46 used up close but works much better than the Seinheisser for recording two persons sitting about 8 feet apart in a quiet room. The PEN MIC Minidisc Microphone Spy/Stealth Style does pick up a lot of noise if you are hand holding it. But heck. You can hardly go wrong at this price! Your recorder will need to have plug-in power and the PEN MIC Minidisc Microphone Spy/Stealth Style does work better with a battery box.

You can get a Sharp MD-MT190S for about $200 or a Sharp MD-MT290S for $230 from www.minidisco.com. You could also get some Sound Pros Real Fidelity In-Ear Binaural Microphones from minidisco for $70. These mics are amazing. You put them in your ears and record. The minidisc recording is indistinguishable from the real thing. They would be great for collecting the kind of ambient sounds you are looking for and pretty stealthy to boot. Those mics work better with a battery box but one is not absolutely necessary. You can get a battery box for $50. I realize that you are concerned about cost but consider this. How often is it that you will get to Nepal and how much are you spending to get there? Camera, film, recordng equipment and blank minidiscs are probably cheap compared to that. I've bought from Minidisco a couple of times and have had nothing but good experiences.

The thing I would worry about is whether the mics would pick up mechanical noise from your minidisc recorder. It seems to me that mechanical noise from the minidisc recorder is usually a problem when it is starting up or when the disc is restarting when it is in a power saving mode. You could probably figure this out by mindfully listening to your machine. I have had nothing but excellent dealing with www.soundprofessionals.com Mindfulness is good, by the way.

I believe the MZ505 does not have a mic input. You will need a mic preamp to record from a mic. I have had excellent consumer experiences with the people at www.soundprofessionals.com. They can set you up with in-the-ear stealth mics and a battery box/mic preamp.

I have a Sennheiser MD 46 (a b-stock from Full Compass). It has a wonderfully rich warm sound with my Sharp MD-MT770. The mic has a cardiod pick-up pattern which is great for reducing ambient noise (except when you actually want ambient sounds such as recording a conversation or interviewing someone when you want to record the sounds of what they are doing. A Sony EMCMS907 seems to record groups well in stereo; less well in mono mode. I have some SOUND PROFESSIONALS LOW NOISE IN-EAR BINAURAL MICROPHONES SP-TFB-2 which record things just exactly the way you hear them but you can't monitor with headphones while you are using them. I am very happy with the Sharp MD-MT770 but the DR-7 has some advantages and would like to have one.

Check out www.transom.org. Think about Sharp IM-MT880 or a Sony MZ-N707.

When you change the microphone volume and go from 20 to 21 you will get a skip.

Doesn't the HBB Portadisc have the ability to upload to computer via USB? Are there any decks that can do that?

Do we have any idea how good the recording is?

It means that you have to play your recording into the computer. You can't just transfer the file.

Kyle: Conventional wisdom is that there is no way to transfer the file directly to PC but that it has to be done in real time. I have seen it written that Sony was at one time looking at minidisc drives for computers. Maybe somebody can comment on that. Mark Nicholson

In my psychiatric interviews, I use a Sony ECM-MS907 single point stereo microphone plugged into a Sharp MT770. This gives wonderful results. I have a different use in mind. I would like to interview family members to make an audio companion to photo albums. I would also like to interview people who do interesting things. I have managed, for instance, to get a violin bow maker to let me interview him and his people in his shop. I am thinking that a Sennheiser MD46 cardioid mic would be a good idea. What do you think?

Can anyone offer any opinions of microphones for interviewing people?

How about a section for people who do interviews using minidisc recorders?