dex Otaku

No. SS and SB are the only programs that can be used to transfer tracks to/from Hi-MD. netMD units can be used with Realplayer as well as SS.

Unless you have portability issues, I don't see much point in going MD -> HiMD and then HiMD -> PC. This is the same as going MD -> PC [via optical] except for the extra run of however long your original disc is. I'd consider this a waste of time, myself. netMD / MD do tag tracks as copies or originals using the same SCMS system used by CD, CDR, DAT, and virtually any consumer equipment that uses SP/DIF - but SCMS is easily defeated with inexpensive equipment. My theory [and many will agree with this] is that Sony chose not to allow uploads because of the inherent weakness of the SCMS DRM chain. So - netMD does not upload. It's unclear whether this is actually a software or hardware limitation, but I can assure you that Sony have done it on purpose. To my knowledge no one has ever cracked the system to enable uploading. Your best bet for copying MD / MDLP recordings is to find a home deck with optical SP/DIF I/O and ATRAC type S. Such beasts can often be found on eBay.

dMS is my semi-fictional production company.

Hawksley: Canadian.

Actually, she dies about 1 minute after the 'lifting' scene.

You should be able to download more than once, yes. Check-outs and check-ins were eliminated with SS 2.0, meaning that you basically have unlimited check-outs on tracks.

The error complains about "notify_convert" .. I would try importing WAV files into SS, then converting them to the format you normally use, just to make sure this is not an issue with the SS / SB internal [i.e. ATRAC/3/plus] codecs. I would also check for the following running on your system: * additional CD or DVD writing software that loads and stays running in the background, especially: ** DVD-RAM drivers, if applicable ** UDF writer drivers, if applicable * old/deprecated ASPI drivers that might interfere * that your CD/DVD drive have the most recent firmware installed [google the model # of your drive and the word "firmware"] It would also help to make sure that you're able to rip CDs with other software on your system. Even Windows Media Player would suffice to test this. Do let us know where you get to with this. Cheers, d.

Michael1980 hit it on the nose. There is no way to losslessly transfer recordings from MD/MDLP discs using consumer equipment. This is a limitation purposely imposed by Sony because netMD has weak DRM.

The reason the majority of us don't run into this is because almost no one uses the Connect store. While I did warn you about this already [that the only major difference between the different SS versions is where the Connect store heads to], I didn't offer the solution to the problem at that point. You can change the URL that SS uses to go to the UK store instead. Take a look at this thread: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showt...nge+connect+url It seems unrelated, but the very last post has a link to a zip file with registry patches, including one for Connect Europe. Cheers, D.

I'm watching a Korean film called Into the Mirror [2003].. 3 minutes into the film, the only character we've met so far is walking through a closed department store of some kind, and stops to pilfer a birthday gift for her friend... [attachmentid=149] [attachmentid=150] [attachmentid=151]

Tonight's make-work / procrastinate on the backlog project was making some labels for my MDs. The results.. [attachmentid=148] [PDF, 200kB] Some are pretty 'vanilla' but I'm rather proud of the ones I assembled myself by ripping images from multiple websites These will end up being printed using a colour copier on waterproof sticker-paper. Hopefully it won't be impossible to remove later. Still, for a few hours' work and $1.00 in printing.. yeah. I've seen some of the labels others here have made, and many of them look really fantastic. I guess it was just my time to get around to it. 2005_03_25_MD_Labels_lowres.pdf

Not to be a total ass, but she at least she'll know now - always make backups, and never carry/use your originals.

Wikipedia is also your friend, along with the various documents stored on http://www.minidisc.org .

You've got me wondering now. On one hand, I've used several different self-powered mics with MDs before without having any problems. On the other hand, looking at the schematics for the NH700, I can't see any sign of any decoupling between the mic power and the actual inputs. The mic power is provided on the ground sleeve from what I can see, and I also don't see decoupling there. I'm not really an electronics expert, though. I can read the diagrams, but it's possible that the preamp inputs are decoupled themselves, and they don't bother showing it on the IC diagrams. In any case, I seriously doubt your mic would blow the input on the recorder. I've used cheap lapel mics from radio shack, expensive lapel mics from Sony's broadcast division, &c. and never had problems. If you're seriously in doubt, try hooking a multimeter to the mic with its power turned on - connections across the tip and sleeve of the connector, with the multimeter set to read low DC voltage. If the bias is getting as far as that connection it should be measurable.

Dynamic range = the maximum possible difference between loudest and quietest signal it can transduce. This is separate from signal to noise, though they are connected. Chances are you will never encounter a situation where you can even use the full 76dB range of the SP mic; without a soundproof room and a very loud source, it's next to impossible. A higher dynamic range will mean more 'accuracy' with quieter sounds, though, which is also where the importance of the SNR really kicks in. I had a post here last week with a bunch of links to info on mic specs.. if you do a search on my posts you'll be sure to find it [i'll probably update this reply later with the link, I'm just heading out at the moment is all]. re: 105dB... Most music is mastered at around 90-95dB [A-weighted]. Rock concerts will vary from 95-115dB depending on how large the venue is. Arena rock is right up there near the pain threshold, whereas small clubs will blow you away with just 100dB. 105dB is loud enough to cover the vast majority of sources without distortion; that is, unless you want to record jet engines from close-by, or train horns, or other sources that regularly push the pain threshold [average being 120dB].

Usually the mics themselves are decoupled if they don't require the power. i.e. the capacitor is in the mic itself, between its power supply and the recorder.

Here's a comparison between normal compression and what I was talking about before, using Sound Forge's graphic dynamic tool. These are exaggerated for the sake of getting the point across. Normal compression: [attachmentid=134] What I referred to as "reverse-compression": [attachmentid=135] In the 2nd diagram what's happening is that everything -below- the threshold is being compressed "upward" at a ratio of 2:1. The loud parts are not compressed at all. Note that this greatly increases the noise floor of your recording [in the example above, the absolute lowest level is now 48dB louder than it originally was]; while I have used this technique before, its success really depends on how noisy the source is. Another example, in which I try to reduce the noise-floor, but which really has to be tuned to match the recording exactly, has both an upper and lower threshold: [attachmentid=136] The upper threshold sets the level below which sound will be amplified; the lower sets the level at which they will fall back to "normal". With fine-tuning this method can work very well - but it has to be set specifically for the recording, or the results will be very obvious. Most people just end up using compression at the top of the dynamic range with gain over the whole recording to bring the peak levels up to or near 0dBfs. I find that the best thing to do is simply play around with your compression plugins to see what works best in the end. Perhaps it's ironic that with current MD and HiMD recording equipment, it's possible to make recordings whose dynamic range greatly exceeds that of what we actually want to listen to.

There are many microphones out there that claim to be binaural. Most of them are not, but can be called pseudo-binaural. True binaural microphones take into account what are often referred to as HRTFs, or head-related transform functions. They are also placed differently from pseudos, in that both mics face straight out from the sides of the head, the same as your ears do. [attachmentid=130] binaural mic Pseudo-binaural mics basically follow what is known as the A-B stereo pattern: [attachmentid=131] pseudo-binaural mic The biggest difference between these is that the pseudo-binaural mics usually face directly forward, with a separation about the same as the average person's ears [around 17cm]. Binaurals face out, directly away from each other. The reason this is important is that if you compare the phase in each channel of sounds from different locations, the binaurals represent more or less what your ears are used to, where: * sounds coming from directly ahead are in-phase [as they hit the mics at the same angle]; the same goes for sounds from behind * sounds directly to one side of the head are 180 degrees out of phase [exactly the opposite phase] at each mic [as the sound hits each mic from exactly the opposite direction], as well as being slightly delayed [attachmentid=132] in-phase signals [attachmentid=133] 180-degree out-of-phase phase signals In contrast, Pseudo-binaurals, where the mics usually face forward, should be in-phase more often [keeping in mind that the distance between them causes a phase-delay, though less-often resulting with the outright opposite phase] regardless of where the sound is coming from. As an example, A-B stereo mic'ing is often used for recording orchestras with the expectation of listening to the recording on a home stereo system, where the speakers stand in front of the listener and face the same direction. The idea is that phase be maintained throughout the recording [since the mics face one way, and the speakers basically face the opposite], with the distance between the mics providing a tiny [phase] delay that gives a sense of space or dimension. Binaural recordings are usually made to be listened to on headphones, where the speakers themselves are pointed straight at the ears, exactly the opposite from the way the mics faced when recording. This can provide a truly stunning sense of dimension, and if done well, can even give a sense of front/back and up/down placement when listening. This is part of why true binaural recordings can sound odd or spacey when played back through speakers. The other half of binaural recording is that the microphones are often placed inside a dummy head, or in the case of some of the more recent stealth mics, inside the recordist's outer ears. The dummy head technique also often uses silicon ears, to reproduce the effect of a real person's ears. Why bother going so far as to make fake ears? This goes back to HRTFs - that the pinnae [outer ears] affect the equalisation and phase of the sound depending on what direction it's coming from. Sound coming from straight ahead of you follows a different response curve from sound coming from behind or directly to the side. Also, the fact that the head sits between the mics changes the intensity of the sound at each mic, since the head blocks sound more from certain directions than others [i.e. sound can't go through your head]. The upper body also plays a part in levels at each ear and equalisation; your lungs, for instance, are resonators, and sound [particularly bass] can come from the inside of your head through your lungs, sinus cavities, and mouth, reaching the inner ear through the eustachian tubes [which connect your throat and sinuses to your inner ear, to let your ears equalise when air pressure changes]. Pseudo-binaurals take part of HRTFs into account, but since the mics are usually facing forward, they do not record things in the same way as true binaurals. There's still a rather stunning sense of dimension, but part of the information is lost to give better playback compatibility with normal stereo systems. In the end, which one is better depends entirely on what you want to do with your recordings: * Those intended for playback through speakers are usually best recorded with pseudos, or with other mics following any of the established coincident patterns [Y, X-Y, decca tree, &c.]. * Those intended for playback over headphones are usually best recorded with binaural mics, which, because of their orientation, help to eliminate that "inside your head" effect so common with normal stereo recordings that are mastered using speakers. I realise that I have grossly simplified things in trying to explain some of the differences, but hopefully this will provoke some useful discussion between us. --------------- For the true experimenters out there, try doing some reading on Ambisonics - a 4-track recording method that uses a multi-point [often 6-point] microphone and both pre-and post-processing to record fully 3-dimensional sound, including left-right, front-back, and up-down. This with a technique invented in the late 1960s and early 70s when the analogue processing equipment cost thousands of dollars to build. --------------- Coincidentally, phase is also how matrix surround-sound [like Dolby Stereo] works. Dolby Stereo uses in-phase signals in both channels to represent "mono" or front-centre, and 180 degree out-of-phase signals [like the diagram above, where the level is the same in both channels but one channel is the opposite phase] to represent the rear channel. Different mic'ing techniques will give different results when played through a matrix surround decoder [whether it be Dolby Surround, Prologic, or Prologic-II; the encoding is basically the same for all of them]. Binaural recordings will stick sounds that were originally directly to the recordist's [or the dummy head's] side in the rear channel, since they're out of phase, with sounds that were originally directly in front or behind showing up in the front centre channel. Pseudo-binaurals [and A-B stereo recordings] will have a less-pronounced effect when played through surround decoding. The effect can be noticeable but, as with binaural mic'ing, does not correspond to the original locations of the sounds compared to the mics.

Thanks, A440.

I'd pick an M/S stereo mic like the 907 over any t-mic, personally. I've had good experiences with both, mind you. The 907 has a fairly limited range, though. Take a look at its specs compared to Sony's 957, which is also a M/S mic. From Sonystyle.com - versus - If you're looking for quality sound in a small single-point package, there's also the delta mic from Reactive Sounds, found here: http://www.reactivesounds.com/dt1.php Its listed specs: In any case, if you choose a t-mic or something like the delta, always use an extension cable to isolate the mic from mechanical noise caused by your recorder.

This may seem like nitpicking, but to specify one additional thing: People have been using MD in this thread as though it were interchangeable with HiMD. The two are not interchangeable when it comes to uploading. Digital uploading via USB can only be done with HiMD-format discs.

See here: http://users.pandora.be/satcp/tutorials.htm There's a link there for "the truth about offsets." The important part is right in the very first paragraph, To my knowledge, neither SonicStage nor Simple Burner actually do offset-correction, which means the trackmarks basically move around by however much the offset is. Still, it doesn't sound like this is your problem, as the offset usually applies more to reading single tracks than to ripping entire discs. Also, if both of your drives are doing it, it suggests that the problem lies with the software, not the hardware. I'm not sure what to suggest as a solution, though.

Indeed, actually, it would have made more sense for me to say that Marantz's units are intended more for professional use, which encompasses the range that you mentioned [which I agree with].

Usually errors like this are caused by the drive being used have a rather large read-offset, however, if you're able to rip just one track from the middle of the CD and have it work correctly, that would suggest otherwise. [i.e. the read offset should still affect the single track] Do you have access to another drive that you could try ripping the same CD with?

Downloaded tracks, to my knowledge, can't be edited [you just get the "TRPROT" error].