anont

Not quite - even relatively expensive sound cards aren't great, and running your computer near the analog wires will introduce a little background noise. It should still sound very good, but the digital->analog->digital process will lose a little of the quality.

I don't see that as being an issue, unless you have friends who also use MDs and like to lend them back and forth, which isn't so likely. I'm sure you'll still be able to buy the MD blanks online for many years to come. With me I don't plan on getting Hi-MD anytime soon, if ever, but I don't think that'll have any effect on being an MD user.

It depends, if you're just sitting in the audience and want to get a casual recording, get a stereo cardioid microphone, where the left and right channel can be physically separated from each other. For this type of mic, there's nothing that works particularly well with particular types of music, as long as it's a good brand the quality more-or-less will compare to the cost. If you're doing some kind of semi-official recording, I don't have the experience with that. Probably get two mics on stands, place them front left and front right. More mics (above?) would also help, you'd need some kind of mixer. Additionally, you might want to try using a battery box.

If you're dead set against it, well, you're the boss! However I think you should reconsider your position. The reason why is because, at least to my mind, the minidisc discussion forums should be judged by quantity and quality. The quantity of posts has definitely gone down since anonymous posting was disallowed. In addition, I think the quality has gone down as well, albeit slightly - it seems like more of the posts come from the Minidisc fanatics, rather than the people who use Minidisc but are skeptical about certain aspects. I believe that the skepticism, the willingness to discuss the problems of MDs, and to discuss the benefits of other musical formate, made the board more useful & interesting. Why is having "passerbys" & "guest posting" a problem? As a long-time user of the board, I don't think it was a problem at all. Perhaps for the moderators, this discussion board is a social forum where they can see who likes to post a lot, who has had what to say, and how long people have been talking about certain things. However, for me, and I'm sure for other people, there's not much interest in socializing on a message board about mindiscs. I think it should be optional. And it goes without saying, the reason why you haven't gotten complaints that people don't want to register, is because they would have to register to make such a complaint.

If you have a cheap soundcard, or your computer's sound is built-in to the motherboard, then the USB connection would indeed be an improvement.

Please allow guest posting. I don't see minidisc.org as being a social community, but rather as a place where people can post about Minidiscs. So why not allow non-registered users to post? It wasn't a problem before. Personally, I'd *rather* be anonymous, because I know Internet forums can devolve into personal discussion, which I'm not so interested in (to witness: the recent thread about how MD decks for cars are rare, the response that an uber-cool MD user would know you can get them from special service centers, and the general flames back and forth after that). And the bother of registering for forums, even if it only takes 5 minutes, keeps casual minidisc.org users away from posting.

To be honest, while I like MD for certain purposes, there's no reason for an audiophile to accept the format. The notion just doesn't make sense. After all, you don't buy original MDs, they're recorded from other formats such as CD. Even if you think the sound quality degradation is very very slight, an audiophile would do just as well to use the original, or a perfect CD-R copy, why even bother with an MD? Or, for concert recordings, DAT (or exotic electronic recording schemes) undeniably capture sound better than MD. I don't think "audiophile" and "mix tape" are concepts have much to do with each other, but regardless, CD-Rs are somewhere between cheap & free, are easy to make, and will sound better (or possible about the same as) an MD mix. Some people maybe have a fetish for keeping music away from their computers, but the fact is that CD players are just a specialized form of computer. Genuine audiophiles into non-CD formats are going to be more concerned with SACD, DVD Audio, LPs, and DAT.

I can't talk on my cell phone for 6-7 hours, either. You have to charge it up overnight. It's a definite pain when travelling, but so is having to carry around boxes of MDs - both players have their problems and advantages. MDs are cool? When people see I have an MD, I get comments like "hey, they still make those things?"

The bass doesn't suddenly cut off at 100 hz, it has a significant drop. I just miced my bass amp through an Audio-Technica AT9830 (also with a 100 Hz lower end), and the open E sounds fine. I mostly record in clubs, where excessive low-end bass is commonplace but can often overwhelm (and hideously distort) concert recordings. I find using a mic with poor low-end generally allows you to record things that would be unlistenable using a more expensive mic. Using a genuine bass roll-off / battery box sounds even better, but that's not nearly as convenient, and the recordings I make with the easy setup sound very very good - the acoustics of the stage is far more a limiter than the quality of the setup. For outdoor concerts, or other places where you can count on having a more well-balanced sound, such a mic isnt' the best. Fun fact - doing a Google search on the AT9830 (which is maybe only available in Japan, which is a shame, it's much better than other cheap mics I've used) yields a bunch of hit results to Russian picture brides.

If I can butt in, It probably looks like a 1/8" plug, perhaps with a pink circle around it, and is probably right near the audio out of your computer. Usually computers come with built-in sound, that isn't particularly good. If might be worth getting not just an iMic, but an external USB sound card. I have Soundblaster's most recent one, it sounds great except the shielding isn't so great, you have to keep it some distance from other electronics. As for recording, I haven't tried Audacity. I used an older version of Magix's Audio cleaner. It's very convenient, the audio cleaner CAN work surprisingly well (even though I'm opposed to the concept) and it doesn't record system noises. It can be gotten cheap used, on Amazon or EBay.