dex Otaku

I'm not the great hacker. I just tested the hacks posted by others.

Sony's DRM -is- implemented in the hardware. This includes how the HiMD itself talks to your computer via USB [using a different driver layer for audio than for plain data], and encryption performed by the HiMD hardware. It -has- to be running pretty much seamlessly on both the hardware and software side for things to work.

The highest-quality method for you to copy your MDs to your PC would require having an MD deck with an optical output on it, along with a sound card or SP/DIF adapter for your PC with an optical input. The simplest means would be to just use a high-quality PC sound adapter, and go the analogue route. M-Audio offers a $99USD MSRP USB adapter intended for notebook use which has 24-bit/96kHz analogue recording as well as SP/DIF optical in AND out. There are many other options than just this open to you, though. Browse a few audio-related websites [http://www.minidisc-canada.com has several, just to give you ideas] and you'll be sure to find a high-quality adapter to suit your needs. In both cases, the copies you will end up with [depending on the recording software you use] will be "trackless" and will require at least some editing to be made usable or burnable. Also, in both cases, copying can only be done in real time. The last option would be to hire someone to do the job for you. Perhaps you could find a high school or college student with the necessary equipment and enough time on their hands to just do weeks worth of dubbing for a flat rate. [i have done this myself, in the past.]

To my understanding, or theory: the audio portions of the disc act similarly to a virtual partition [since they are files on a FAT32 partition]. My guesses as to how Sony's DRM works [especially the part about blocking the use of bitwise copies of discs] involve their having an extra layer between the USB mass-storage drivers and the actual hardware with the discs. The Hi-MD itself could uniquely identify each disc [in the simplest terms this would be like using the media format "serial number", which floppies and even hard discs have] and use the specific format id as part of the key for decrypting the audio on the disc. People have already tried making bitwise copies, and reported that nothing on them [audio-wise] works, so it would suggest something like this is the case. That underlying (readable) filesystem you mention is Sony's proprietary way of doing things in order to keep DRM et al working. It could be reverse-engineered by anyone who wishes to find themself in patent litigation, among other things. The issue of accessibility is that the only applications that can make use of that filesystem [through Sony's drivers] are those made by Sony. In any case, unless you rewrite the unit's firmware, the drivers used to communicate with it, &c. - and in the process most likely break all compatibility with current the HiMD format as well as probably MDLP backward-compatibility .. yeah. Perhaps the solution/compromise would be for Sony to release a pro version of the HiMD which runs completely in the clear [for recordings made on the unit] but is not compatible with the normal disc format for other than straight playback.

I usually use : * FLAC with cuesheets for CD layouts, * FLAC with tags for files * Anything already compressed lossily backed up in its original state * Backed up to DVD-R or CD-R I don't worry too much about my SS library. The only potentiallly unrecoverable things in it are my own recordings, which I immediately back up by converting to WAV or FLAC. Since it takes about 4-6 minutes to rip a CD with SS, I basically don't care about the rest of the library. What I have on HiMDs already is pretty much my main [portable] listening collection, and I don't store anything that's actually important on HiMD or MD. For all other purposes I consider the media as intermediary only; not for permanent storage of any kind.

Hi-MD, unlike MD, uses an actual filesystem. Audio functions act as a layer on top of that filesystem. As a result, the base-level error correction and such are identical for both.

Funny, I never took your posts as anything other than what you said. Then again, I tend to do the same thing - recommend things other than MD or Hi-MD where they will fit someone's needs better than either.

Indeed. Or, you could save te money you've spent on all the HVC's and buy a battbox/attenuator or battbox/preamp and totally bypass all those issues.

What I love about this [and all of the new media formats] is what this says about "fair use" - that it's apparently nonexistent now. We'd have to have >16-bit A/D in there first, at the least. SBM and HDCD-encoder are both postprocessing mechanisms; unless you're requantising things [bitwise] or doing a bunch of processing [which has to be followed by requantising and dither], neither presents any advantage.

If you have a hard time finding clips, those small triangular paperclips work great in a pinch.

Check out http://www.minidisc.org, and click on "Equipment Browser". There's a near-full database of all the models ever made, along with their features.

M-Audio's consumer offerings are good quality-wise, but their drivers leave something to be desired. They also use similar if not identical hardware as that $20 Chaintech sound card that kurisu is always suggesting. If anything, I'd suggest the Chaintech card, too. Search the fora for "chaintech" and you should find a post recommend a good inexpensive card [that also has an optical SP/DIF output]. I would also stay away from literally anything made by Creative Labs. While the features of their hardware are impressive, and the front-panel I/O bays are great, the audio capabilities of the cards themselves are what I'd put in the mediocre department. I've read reviews of that Chaintech card and it could outdo Audigy cards in terms of recording. Mic suggestions: not sure about the price range, but try looking at http://www.quietamerican.org/ .. The gentleman who runs that site uses some pretty nice pseudobinaural mics that I can't remember the price of, but sound great. He has links to the company that makes them, as well. When patching from a sound board, use line-in. Sound boards have line outputs. The tape outputs on some boards might need attenuation [or switching to the -10dB mode] before plugging into an MD, as well - I've never run into problems with this, myself. Using manual levels generally works fine for bringing the signal down enough to record if the board is cranking a super-hot +4 signal.

As Hi-MDs do not have the "end search" function, it's doubtful that your recording additional tracks overwrote the earlier ones. You can only upload ONCE with Hi-MD. If you try again, SS deletes the tracks. And no, there is [currently] no way to recover your tracks. Chances are, if you recorded on the disc after trying to upload them a second time [hence erasing them], you've overwritten the data on the disc anyway - meaning even if recovery tools existed, you wouldn't likely have anything to recover. Please readcheck out the upload FAQ in the Hi-MD "Essential info and FAQs" forum.

It seems I wasn't reading the post very closely. I must be slipping. Incidentally, to the original poster: the uploadin FAQ has been updated, including suggestions that would have helped you avoid the original cause of this [the "untitled" files].

I haven't done any similar testing with SS 2.3, but back with 2.2 the difference between hardware and software LP2 with basically anything I put through [except for mono recordings] was like night and day. Note that my LP2 hardware encodes were done via analogue, and sounded far better than SS's rips directly from CD. I'd like to hear the results of a similar test done with Hi-SP, really. SP is pretty much out of the game since SS simply can't do it. And indeed, the best-known problems [to me at least] with all of the ATRAC encoders are pre-echo and ringing, which basically any electronic music featuring drum machines and sounds with sharp attacks will basically cause hell with. In terms of this, you've probably chosen *good* material to test the differences with, since such material will plainly show the difference in this deficiency of the encoders.

Is it heavy? Do you need a hand?

Niggling point: SACD uses the same physical format and filesystem as DVD; the problem is with its 80-bit encryption and the fact that no current drives recognise scarlet book discs. SACD is designed, basically, as a "playback but do not process" format. In pro audio circles there's been a lot of discussion about the fact that you can't really do DSP with the DSD stream itself - you can either convert it to PCM to make it usable with anything else, in which case you're not really seeing any advantage with it*, or you can just convert it directly to analogue and put that into an amp and listen to it. * It also presents a few great disadvantages compared to high resolution PCM formats. Some interesting reading here: http://sound.westhost.com/cd-sacd-dvda.htm

Ahhh. Interesting - so the SCMS info gets transferred with the TOC, not just audio data. I didn't know that.

No. You can't upload via USB from MD / MDLP discs with any existing consumer equipment. You can copy in realtime via optical SP/DIF using MD / MDLP components decks that support it, but that's still realtime.

Raw DSD uses 64x the bandwidth that CD does, if I'm not mistaken. DSD is actually making fair inroads in the studio realm [almost surprisingly]. I say -almost- surprisingly since the majority of studios [that I've known of, anyway] that ran digital over the past 20 years ran on none other than Sony DASH equipment [Digital Audio Stationary Head]. While most of the smaller outfits have moved to hard disc recorders, variations of Tascam's 8mm [Hi8] tape-based multitrackers and of course ADAT, a lot of the biggies were using Sony equipment right from the start. High-resolution audio is making a very slow penetration of the consumer market. SACD and DVD-Audio exceed the playback capabilities of probably 95% of the equipment out there, so perceived benefit for most people is next to nil. Still, that DSD has been adopted by a few studios is a big thing, because if the beginning of the chain doesn't support it, the rest basically doesn't matter - unless you focus exclusively on remastering. I'm willing to bet that every Sony Music studio runs DSD, of course.

Ah ha ha HA! I should read more carefully, really. My understanding has been that you can upload optical recordings, but SS won't permit their conversion with Wave Converter. HiMDRenderer does, though. I have no way to check this, but I'm pretty this reflects what others here have reported.

The only Hi-MD portable without an optical input is the US/Canada version of the NH600, which is why it's an NH600D. [The euro version has the line-in/optical jack, the north american version does not.] As far as decks go, the only ones I've heard of yet are the Onkyos, which are what I'd consider midi-system equipment, not component decks. Perhaps when actual component decks are introduced, they'll have the optical in/out as many of the MD / MDLP decks do/did. All Hi-MD units can be used directly as netMD units with SonicStage, and as MDLP recorders on their own. They are fully backward-compatible. All it requires is changing a single menu option, and either using a blank MD or doing an 'erase all' while the unit is in netMD mode.

Indeed. Funny thing is - I don't have any of those things either. I also don't own a single piece of test equipment, other than my computer, which can't produce totally accurate results in any sense other than using itself as a reference. [The results are still useful in relative terms, though they're not accurate in the sense that those achieved using real test equipment would be.] Having them in my ears would not change their sensitivity or dynamic range, really. Since the elements are omnis, this shouldn't change the average level at each mic that much. I've also used mine paperclipped to my jacket as I see others using mics like the BMCs. I think the real issue here is that you're simply recording [aggregately] louder sources than I am - though the loudest [aggregate] source I've recorded so far was a punk concert, within 4m of the speakers [beside the sound board, with very little crowd in front of me as attendance was low], with the mic plugged directly into the Hi-MD, low sens, manual levels at 9/30 - but with no attenuation. I experienced no distortion problems. [Or at least, no distortion problems caused by *my* equipment, heh ] In any case, my point was really to indicate that using the passive attenuator without a battbox can [but not will, necessarily] exacerbate the distortion problem rather than fix it. This depends mostly on whether the source is close to the mic's peak SPL at a given bias voltage or whether the preamp is just getting overloaded, which are separate issues. Clarification, then: * if the sound is loud enough to be close to the mic's peak SPL, passive attenuation might make things worse rather than better. * if the mic is below it's max SPL but the preamp is running out of headroom, passive attenuation is just fine [though in any case, if you're recording a loud source, use low mic sensitivity on the recorder]. I'll have to wait to dl your new recording - until I get my main machine back. This linux box I'm running has a SB16 ISA PnP in it but I'm pretty much refusing to listen to anything through it, lest it corrupt my ears with hiss and distortion. It just depends on how loud the source is, as you already know [and have said]. Which is why I think the difference in our experiences is simply that you're recording louder sources. I don't often get to attend amplified concerts, and haven't had any problems at the ones I've been to so far - though I know that if I went to anything larger than is usually around here [a small place that virtually no known acts ever come to], I'd have to use a battbox to get a clean signal as their PA would be virtually guaranteed to exceed the maximum SPL of the mics at MD's bias voltage. Generally speaking, the signal drop of any variable attenuator like the RSVC is at or close to zero when it's "fully up." In theory, the loss should be zero - pretty much all volume-control [logarithmic taper] type potentiometers are "fully open" at one end and "fully closed" at the other [in electrical circuit terms, where closed = 0dB attenuation], but we're talking about potentiometers, so you will likely be getting less than 1dB drop in the signal]. As for its static [assuming you mean that it's worsened with age, i.e. got dirt in the pots' contacts] - RadioShack and others sell electronics cleaning spray, which you can use to clean the pot in the attenuator by simply spraying it in and then turning/wiping it through its full range several times.

All Hi-MD recorders already do this. It's a prerequisite of Sony's liscensees for the format as well. There are two important points to this, though: 1) when connected to a computer, using MD-format discs, the units act as a netMD. This means all the caveats of netMD: no uploading, no true SP, &c. Your discs will play in any MDLP unit, though. 2) When recording on the unit itself [in realtime, from optical or analogue sources] the units act as any MDLP unit would: you have full SP support, as well as the MDLP modes, and the discs, again, will play on any MDLP unit. If backward-compatibility is really a requirement for you [such as if you have a car deck], Hi-MD already does it. If you want full SP, realtime via optical or analogue is the only way to go, whether your recorder is MD, MDLP, netMD, or Hi-MD.

The Mac part of things is sort of beside the point, since MD / MDLP format discs do not support upload from portables on any platform.