dex Otaku

I still use cassettes where they're appropriate [i.e. in the car] or where they're the only option [i.e. when giving a bunch of sound effects to a stage crew who have no other equipment]. I don't personally own a cassette deck that records. I have a decent unit that used to record but now only plays back. I also have a 3rd-gen Walkman somewhere that still works, but it's probably buried somewhere at my parents' place. I see nothing wrong with using K7, really. I have always been far more careful than the average person when making K7 recordings, and have always achieved better than average results. I also used K7 for quite a while with Tascam portable 8-track machines, which could pull quite amazing sound quality [with dbxII NR] out of a standard chrome cassette. My compilations these days are always done on CD-R. I rediscovered the magic of the A/B-side last year, though - most of my comps since then have been 2 discs in length, to give the old-style approach of having two sides to a cassette a go. It changes the way you do things, since you then have 2 arcs to assemble rather than just one. Makes it more meaningful at times.

What MP3 codecs do you have installed on your system? Places to look: In the windows device manager, under "sound, video and game controllers", in "Audio codecs", the 2nd tab contains a list of installed ACM codecs. Also, check to see if you have FFDshow installed. Older versions are known to cause problems with SS, and newer versions are known to cause problems if you use one of the two decoders included with it [mp3lib; libmad works properly]. Also: What version of SS? What version of Windows / servicepack level? What was the source of the MP3s in question [what encoder was used?]

If you're looking for a video player with good codec support, I tend to switch between WiMP classic and VideoLAN Client. I tend to use VLC for everything but DVDs. WiMP classic generally uses its own codecs unless you tell it not to. There's a panel in its preferences for disabling its codecs, which will then drop the job to your system codecs. If you're using FFDshow, make sure it's the newest version [or close to it]. I've been using v.2005-02-01 and found that it does not interfere with SonicStage at all, even when I try to force it to do so. FFDshow has a control panel that lets you disable its support for decoding different formats, too. It should be in a folder under your start button, under "Audio filter configuration". From there you can disable MP3 support to see if that's part of your problem. The LAME ACM codec is, to my knowledge, meant only for encoding audio, not decoding it. I believe it has an option to enable decoding, but they warn that it should be left off. Perhaps this has changed since I last looked.

My mother loaned me this CD by a group called Ananda - hindustani music, performed live. So I'm listening to it, and I'm enjoying it. Then I notice that there's this constant low rumble in the recording.. and I'm thinking, "whoever engineered this didn't rumble-filter it.. or used a distant mic... hmm." So I start reading the sleeve details. Written in small print on the back cover: "This production is an analog recording using Digital Minidisc technology, digitally mastered and transferred preserving the original tonal and acoustic quality." Cool. My respect for them goes up a few notches.

From what the product info implies, the mic gets power from its internal battery and no other source. Some mics of this type will work with external power supplies, but the elements used in them are often not made to run on any higher than 10-12VDC bias voltage. Further, different phantom systems power mics differently [thinking P12, P24, and P48 which can all have the power on different lines of the cable]. Since the product info doesn't actually say whether it will take external power, I'd assume that it doesn't. The specsheet or manual that came with the mic might offer more detailed information. The MS-907 ignores external power if memory serves correctly. Perhaps the 957 is the same in this regard.

Check the uploading FAQ for further suggestions... Of course, that won't help "standard junk." It's possible, though, that the recording mixer for your sound card had more than one source turned on and up, or may be turned up too loud, and that may be where your distortion came from. Otherwise, it could be simply that the A/D and input mixer of the card is crap, which is fairly often the case.

This is only true if you've 'calibrated' EAC's read offset using a CD that is in its offset database. Otherwise there's no knowing that you're reading exactly from the beginning to exactly the end of any given track. This is part of the nature of CD-DA, which lacks a precise positioning system. [Note that the "easy" way to tell if what you're using will end up padded is to divide its sample length by 75fps; if you get an integer in answer, you're fine. If not, it will end up padded.] See - that little burst of the previous track at the beginning of whatever track is usually there because that's the nearest exact frame boundary to the beginning of the actual track of music. If it's so far off that you can move track markers on an exact frame.. well - they were being sloppy when they mastered it. [Yes, I've seen a number of CDs like this, too.] Under most circumstances, the fact that you're editing it means you're making the track an inexact framelength, hence making it literally impossible for gapless playback to occur on either MD/HiMD or burned CDs made from your edited source. If you're being really careful to maintain the exact framelength, it should [in theory at least] still work. If you're still getting gaps between tracks that you've done this with, I'm honestly not sure what else to suggest. It certainly sounds like you're doing things within the rules, so to speak. Of course, for this to work you have to move the beginning of a track -and- the ending of the last track. Every track that has to run into another track [whether at beginning or end] has to be an exact framelength. It sounds like you know this already, but I say that for benefit of anyone else reading this. Most software that uses WAV files will recognise where the actual audio stream begins [i.e. where the header ends] and strip the header anyway, but kudos to you for your knowing to be beware of with this. Yeah. You know, I did try using SS as a music library for a short while, but gave up on it entirely. So much of what I do with my music depends on being able to manipulate things in multiple applications that I found it entirely pointless to use SS for anything more than just uploading and downloading. Most of the time when I'm making compilations, it's going to end up on at least two formats anyway - HiMD and CD-DA. I do my editing for CD, then rip the results using Simple Burner as well as to an image file with cuesheet from EAC, which I then convert to FLAC for "archival". FLAC images with cuesheets are how I store all my CD backups now. It may seem cumbersome, but since discovering [rather late in the game] foobar2000 [which can play the FLAC images directly with track tags from the cuesheet] this has become my preferred way to do things. Cheers.

I'm totally behind A440's recommendations here.

Or you could use the same trick that signmakers [who use self-adhesive vinyl for signs]: Put a little bit of water on the surface [cover the shutter, obviously] using a misting spray-bottle, then put the label on. The water makes it so you lift the label off, reposition it, and squeeze bubbles out more easily. Obviously, this will not work with labels that are made from paper; only with labels [like the clear ones] that are plastic-based.

I haven't encountered this as I never do editing on the units themselves. Record, dump the recording, erase the disc while doing everything else with the PC. Sad to see that this is the case.

*sighs* You're half-right, Tony. If you wish to use an MD as netMD / MDLP from SonicStage, put it in your recorder and then initialise the disc as a standard MD from SonicStage. The mode the unit is in is irrelevant if you're using SS. Also, if you put a blank standard MD into the recorder, unless you've changed the default settings for SS it will use it as a HiMD-formatted disc. Note that if you use an MD with existing tracks on it in MDLP mode [i.e. the disc is NOT formatted as HiMD], then SS will automatically use the disc in MDLP mode. When recording on the unit itself, you have to put the unit in netMD mode using the appropriate menu option, then either use a blank MD, use an MD that already has tracks on it in netMD/ MDLP mode, or format/"erase all" a HiMD-formatted disc. Bitrate/mode limitations from SS are: * You write tracks of any type to HiMD formatted discs * You can only use MDLP modes with netMD / MDLP discs Bitrate/mode limitations when recording on the units themselves are: * You can only use netMD/ MDLP modes with standard MDs with the unit in netMD mode * You can only use HiMD modes with HiMD-formatted discs

As stated in the upload FAQ: You can't use SS's editing functions until after deleting the tracks from their original source, i.e. deleting them on the HiMD your recorded them on.

There is only one relatively simple way to ensure gapless playback: That is to make a CD image with tracks marked inside a single, contiguous sound file [of all the tracks that run together], and rip it either with SS or simple burner. WAV files are not guaranteed to be gapless unless you rip them securely with something like EAC that can be adjusted for read offsets. If you're ripping an entire CD at once, offsets aren't absolutely necessary - SS/SB will drop trackmarks on an exact frame [i.e. tracks will be an exact length in frames rather than ending up padded]. This is not a defect of HiMD or ATRAC in any of its incarnations. This is a limitation imposed by the requirement of exact framelengths [based on the original CD audio framerate of 75fps].

I use HiMD -almost- exclusively for audio. In emergency situations it's handy to have it as a USB drive, however, it's far too slow for everyday use.

Just to update everyone, I started incorporating the various texts that had been here along with the original minidisc.org FAQ, then procrastinated for a week, then my system went down. I now have my system back, but am dealing with serious personal problems that require attention more than the FAQ does. This will get done, it will just take longer. D.

Compact Disc Digital Audio, aka standard audio CDs [this is the distinct name for the format].

Why get the PC involved? So you can make a backup, as well as CDDA copies. If backups are not a priority, then by all means, go directly from player to recorder, as it will save you time.

Nothing is forcing you to, no. However if you want to get your recordings into a usable format, and to transfer them digitally, then you're limited to using SonicStage in combination with either HiMDRenderer or Wave Converter.

Before you do - I'll go back on the recommendation to possibly remove SS. Just do the backup, erase your library [knowing you now have it backed up], then restore it with the new location active.

Recording mono on LP2 = using the full bitrate for the single channel, as it's a joint stereo [M/S] encoding format. If mono is appropriate for your recording, LP2 won't sacrifice too much. For stereo recording, LP2 is decent but I wouldn't use it for the 1st generation of something that you know will be edited and likely re-encoded with another lossy codec.

FAT16 and FAT32 are partition, not format, types. By default, the partition on HiMDs is FAT32. If you tried to change this, they likely wouldn't work. You could try and find out, though.

Not so: the discs use FAT32, so the partition size is not limited to 2GB, nor is the size of the audio file, since WAV's 2GB limit doesn't apply to HiMD. Mind you, on conversion you'd have to live with that limit, unless they chose to support other file formats.

As this was the first thing I did after installing SS, I can only assume that the following might be your solution: * back up your SS library to a folder on your hard disc using SS's backup tool * Either remove SS or just empty your library by deleting its contents * Restore the backup No guarantees that this will work.

SonicStage. The quality difference between SS and an optical copy would be minimal at best. Considering the time savings.. SS or Simple Burner [for disc images] are the best ways to go. SB also permits putting PCM audio on HiMDs.

Recommendations for editing [from any source]: Free stuff - * Kristal Audio Engine seems very promising, and has a nicer interface than Audacity, though I haven't put it through its paces and can't attest to the real differences. * Audacity, an open-source multi-platform editor that does multitracking et al. Not free stuff - * Any version of Sound Forge is my preference for stereo or mono editing * Cool Edit / Adobe Audition are sworn by by many of their users [i have never liked Cool Edit's interface but its functionality is excellent] There are tonnes of free utilities out there for simply recording audio. What you really need depends on the extent of the editing you end up doing. For any given recording, I usually require at the very least: * Parametric EQ * Normalisation, both RMS and peak-based * the ability to mark regions and/or simple markers I'm not a great reference to use for suggesting software, really. I use several different programs for different reasons at different stages, because they do certain things better than others. By no means is it that my needs are beyond yours, it's just that I like doing things a certain way. If anyone else has some good suggestions, please make them.