Fernando Olmos

SOLD !!!! :smile:

Sorry... price is wrong. Changed it now to $400 (AUD) or nearest offer. The unit is out of production and is now very hard to find new. Sharp no longer sell this unit to retailers. As of last stock take, price was $479 (AUD). Grab a bargain!

Complete... Comes with all accessories, OpenMG software, cables, packaged in original box. Selling due to upgrade. Prefer local pickup, but will post if required. Email me at fernando.olmos@alcoa.com.au for pics, further details. $450 (AU) ono. Paid $670 new!

HUH!!!?? That is strange. I've had an MT80 and the MIC in was too "highly" preamped for a clean recording. I've had to resort to using the LINE IN for loud concerts and MIC IN for speeches, discussions, nature sounds, etc... where the decibles are less than 10db. I've found if I pump in 20db or greater through the MIC IN (using a lapel stereo mic), the recording turns out to be rubbish. Of course if I place the lapel mic (non powered mic by the way) through the LINE IN, the sound is too soft and the recording level almost has to be at FULL strength. I think the ECM mic you've mentioned is not a battery self powered microphone. I'll have to look that one up

A440, are you the REAL Apollo 440? *shaking here* hehehe Getting back to the topic, what I want to know ... is there a battery box module that totally CUTS OUT distortion, no matter how loud it gets? I would assume some sort of fancy electronics that is able to almost instantly normalise the recording level before it gets into the MD unit.

Yes, I have tried using headphones as "microphones" via the LINE-IN. Again, they would have to be powered for that to work. Otherwise you would have to use the MIC-IN instead. It's a matter of trial and error. Try taking the headphones and unit to a busy corner street or train and try it out!

How much would one of these sell for? I have everything, including the box, CDs, manuals, cables, carry pouch, etc.

Here is how I record perfect recordings - even live hard rock concerts without any serious distortion (some distortion may occur due to decibel overloads which you cannot do anything about due to distance from speakers, people shouting next to you or high pitched whistles). First you need a Sharp MD unit. I have used three in the past, the MT99, IMMT899, and the SR70. All three have MIC and LINE inputs. Grab a GOOD set of blank minidiscs. Go with either Sony or TDK. Forget Maxell, Panasonic, etc. They are cheap rubbish IMHO. Perhaps made in Taiwan. Now the most important bit... the mic. Obviously you need a stereo microphone. Forget the old cassette tape mono mics, with single pole connectors. You will NOT get a good recording out of them, even with mono. The best mics I've used are binaural mics and coresounds.com have some very good ones. Of course you don't need to pay hundreds for them. In fact you can even make a pair yourself. There are some sites on the net with basic schematics on how to make a pair. The mic MUST have a battery module or be battery operated to give you the gain necessary for the LINE in. DO NOT USE THE MIC IN FOR LIVE CONCERT RECORDINGS !!!! Mic input is preamped and you WILL get a very distorted/dirty recording that was not worth the effort and risk taking the unit into the venue in the first place! So lets see... we have the recorder, the mic, the battery module.... now how do we conceal it? Well that is up to you. I found that most binaural mics, with battery boxes can be safely tucked under your underpants - just above the groin area. Don't laugh! It's not that bad and you don't risk a bulky square looking packet of cigarettes in your pocket - if you know what I mean. I am of course speaking from a man's point of view, but for the ladies, I am sure it won't be that different. Just roll the excess cabling around itself like a bundle (use wire to hold it together or an elastic band), and stuff the battery module down your pants! When you sit down at the concert, no one will notice you've got it... and for the blokes... you may even get a compliment from the ladies on whether they are excited to see you or whether you have a "large wallet"!! The excess cabling (the two leads for the mics and the lead for the unit) can be safely tucked around the belt/buckle area. What I do is strip my unit (lets say the Sharp IMMT899/888) down to "bare bones" (ie: no remote control, no carry pouch, no extra battery, etc). If you can charge the battery to full before the show and just carry the unit on its own, then you'll be better of in terms of discretness and bulkiness. Now before you "package" the recorder ready for recording you have to test it and mark the recording level to the right amount, in the toilets or before you leave home, to keep the unit at a minimum size. Connect the mic to the unit, set the binaural microphone ends on your body/shirt/whatever and start the REC button. When the unit is recording sounds, set the LINE IN recording volume to around LINE 22 or 23. Now shout something LOUD, but not directly into the mics because that will defintely distort the recording level. Shout a few HOOTS or HOORAY or YEAHs into the air like you would at a normal concert and make it loud, but shout it out straight ahead of you (ie: as normal). Look at the unit recording level and make sure that the LINE level is set so that the recording level is not hitting the end! I am sure you will find that between LINE 22 and 25 is the best. Now turn the unit off, and set the HOLD button on the unit to ON. Place the unit down your pocket, place the battery module down your pants, connect the microphone ends on your chest or behind your ears (if you can). This last bit is up to you. Ideally with binaural mics, you should place the left and right mics below your ear lobe to catch the best realism to how the human head captures sounds. I use blu-tak and stick the mics to the ends of my glasses. If that's not possible, sticky tape (use paper masking tape as that sticks better to the skin) or if you've got a hairy chest like me sow the mics to your shirt! So now what I do, is place the recorder in my pocket (make sure you have the HOLD button set back to ON! You don't want to turn the unit off accidentally), place the battery module down ya pants (LOL) and feed the MINIMUM amount of lead from the battery module to the LINE IN of the unit. Make sure the leads are BLACK by the way! Most are. Put on your "special" shirt with the mics attached to it. Obviously place the shirt over your waste and not tucked into your pants, because you want to conceal as much as possible.... AND GO TO THE SHOW! When you get there, go to the toilets (if security have not scanned you), take out the unit gently (do not disturb the battery module placement and the wiring), turn it on and set it recording. DO NOT CHANGE THE LINE IN VOLUME RECORDING LEVEL. Leave it as you set it back home when you did the "shout test". Set the HOLD button back to ON, and put the recorder back into your pocket. PS: Now this is tempting, but I repeat DO NOT DO THIS because it is tempting. DO NOT ADJUST THE RECORDING LEVEL. Leave it alone! If you MUST look, then only do so because you are sitting right next to the speakers or you have a group of loud hooligans next to you whistling so hard your ears are about to bleed! If you looked and the recording level is peaking above the 4 or infinity symbol then obviously set the recording level down. But you should not have to. 9 out of 10 concerts I've been to have come out flawless using the above procedure. Enjoy the show!

What do you mean a little off? So it's not ok to offend Sony now and then!!! God pal! Is this a bland vanilla planet I am in or what!? Alright then... leave it as is, if you feel I am about to step on someone's poor little golden toe!

Hmmmm Prefer "non-Sony Zone".. sounds more hip

Oops. Sorry mate. I did not know we had a for sale forum. Cool. Thanks

$30 Australian. Cheap! They retail around $50 AUS. Contact me on fernando.olmos@alcoa.com.au for more details. Thanks

Change the "The World of non-Sony Minidisc Gear" to "Sharp Rules!"... nah only kidding.... but seriously I want the name changed to something like "Sony-Free Zone" or "non-Sony Forum", etc. That's if it's ok with you guys and the members. Cheers

Obviously you're joking, right? Just to figure out the technology would cost you THOUSANDS in development man-hours and to provide a solution... you're looking at around 15K to 30K at least! It's a full time project. $100 would not even pay for the first week's lunch!

I don't know about Sony models, but the Sharp preamps (SR70, MT99, MT888) are very poor in terms of volume. Of course it depends on the headphones and earbuds you use (something with impedence over 32% is a MUST), but I have a pair of JBL cheap headphones (impd. at 36%) and this has "increased" the volume considerably on the above models. There is also a post-amp you can attach between the unit and the headphones to give you up to 4 or 5 watts of volume, which is enough to make you deaf! Sorry I don't recall the retailer.

I don't think it's my unit at fault, but more to do with the acoustical sound range that the MD unit was trying to convert to ATRAC that caused the problem. The problem is on some songs (especially Diana Krahl songs for some reason), you can hear a buzzing sound, which for some reason became recorded into the disc. For example, I would hear the trumpets and when the vocals comes on there is this buzzing like sound, like as if the song suddenly went into a reverb unit! I rewind the song around where the sound came from and I hear it again and again on the same spot. This means that it actually become recorded like that. I don't think it's your typical sound distortion, as I downloaded the songs via the USB port into the unit (mine is a NetMD unit) and the original MP3 song, when played on my PC does NOT exhibit the buzzing sound. Any ideas?

Just a quick tip... For those that have portable MD units with both microphone and line-in inputs, the best recordings, are through the line-in IF you're using a batter powered microphone or binaural microphone setup. If you plug those battery powered unit into the microphone input jack, you're bound to get distortion above the 2-4db range. I only used the microphone line for non-powered mics, and the distortion is almost gone. But for live concert recordings, you cannot beat the quality and realism of a pair of battery powerd binaural mics, especially with a bass-roll off if you can get one. Cheers

kupoluvsjchix, Forget MD, go for an iPod or one of those MP3 harddisc players with 20G of disc space! ONLY KIDDING!!! hehehe... enjoy your unit... you're going to love it. I have a Sharp iMT880 (NetMD) recorder, and it has the best 2-tone remote on the market today, fully backlit, with big chars and able to display Kanji chars too! Go for NetMD.... it'll save you time ripping your favourite music from your PC or laptop. Ciao :roll: