dex Otaku

Most importantly: there are no netMDs that allow MD->PC uploading. HiMD allows this, but netMD does not. There is currently no way to transfer recordings from a legacy MD/LP disc [i.e. original MD, MDLP, and including netMD] to a computer other than by analogue means or using the optical output of a home/pro component deck. You can upload using HiMD, but only with HiMD-formatted discs.

Sony have read this. They have also received pleas by email from many of us, including myself, offering bug reports, harsh criticism, and [in my case] most recently an open plea for co-operation with the members of this board, at the very least to improve their tech support. After all - WE ARE DOING THEIR JOBS FOR THEM, AND WE'RE DOING IT FOR FREE. Sorry for shouting.

I, uh. Yeah. Um. This is among the strangest places I have ever invested a lot of time in. Maybe I should go hang out at hydrogenaudio for a while so I can bashed down to dust by the real pros. [No actual offense meant to HA users.. honest humour] Really, though. People should stop calling me a guru or whatever. I'm just some guy. Incidentally... Aye, but - loud music doubtless has a longer sustain time, meaning that there should actually be -fewer- fluctuations in volume.

I'm still not a mod, but this would be better placed under the tech support forum or something. In any case, no - not exactly, re: transferring. If you have legacy MD/LP discs, there simply is no way to upload them for the time being. Debate has been going on over this topic since long before netMD was released, and Sony have simply decided to not allow uploading from MD/LP, period. Using a HiMD unit will not help. HiMD discs can be uploaded from, yes, but not legacy discs. The error message comes up because, quite simply, you can't do that. In the netMD forum there is a pinned thread offering advice on how to copy your MDs in realtime to your computer. There is also the option of using a component deck with an optical output to copy digitally to your computer [assuming you have an optical input], though again - this is in realtime. Your best bet, unless you have thousands of dollars to invest in broadcast equipment that can copy MDs digitally to your computer, is to simply go the analogue route. Browse the netMD forum for that thread if need be.

That's because it hasn't been released yet. It might be possible to fool RP to use the HiMD in netMD mode, though I wouldn't bother trying, myself. [i have no legacy MD/MDLP devices to ever need backward-compatibility for.]

Thank you, yes. If you're downloading music from SonicStage, you can mix MDLP and HiMD bitrates. Recording on the units themselves, you're limited to the bitrates supported by either netMD mode or HiMD mode.

A digital copy, unless you're using manual record levels [which, to my knowledge, most olders MDs do not support the use of record levels during digital recording], will give you the same digital levels in the recording as were on the source. This is the entire purpose of doing a digital copy. Note that MDs all resample their input, so even if you put a 44.1kHz 16-bit stereo signal in, it's resampled by the MD [yes, to 44.1kHz]. This means there will be discrepencies in the detail, but still - overall levels [even measured instantaneously] should be "identical" [or at least, within microvolts] between the source and the recording, unless you're processing the signal in some way. Processing includes manual level controls, or any outboard DSP in the recording chain. Otherwise, when copying via optical, levels in should equal levels out, unless you're changing them yourself. Whether the analogue connections give you the same levels at both input and output and between different components is another matter entirely. I think this is probably the difference you're noting. On the other hand, it's possible that your unit is indeed defective, or that I'm completely wrong about how MDs record from digital sources. I'm operating from the assumption that MDs will act as basically all devices with straight digital ins and outs do; they pass the signal from source to destination without altering it.* * - this is excepting the fact that ATRAC or its descendant variations of compression are being used. Keeping in mind that data reduction is occurring here, but that the goal is for the output to be as similar to the input as possible, what should come out of the ATRAC decoder should be the same overall level as the PCM signal that came into its encoder. i.e. minor variances will occur, but the difference should not be significant enough to ever cause a noticeable drop in overal signal levels.

You're talking apples vs. automobiles, John. The lower output level you're talking about is because home audio components have nice power supplies that run their converters and preamps, whereas portables like MDs and HiMDs have a single 1.5 or 3V battery. The output amp of a device running off 1.5VDC can't possibly hope to put out the same levels as your CD player. If you're digitally copying something, and you're not processing it in any way, the digital level will be identical on the source and the recording. "They record at too low a level and rely too heavily on cheezy menu driven settings to fiddle with." .. As much as I don't like menu-driven interfaces [i'd rather have switches and buttons, myself], I don't think you're being fair here. There's nothing technically wrong with how the recorder functions; if anything, I prefer how the AGC works on my NH700 to all previous MD models I've used, and manual level control is there for a reason. If you don't want to invest the time to learn how to use your equipment properly, I'd say that kind of forfeits your right to complain about it.

This is a good point, but the noise level from them will still be quite high. You're assuming that 100% of the noise from the crowd in front of you will be coming from their mouths, and that all of their mouths are pointed away from the mic, which is not usually the case. All the stamping, clapping, people turning to yell at their friends, whatever. In any case, the real point was that no matter how directional your mic is, you can't reject sounds that are in the field of the mic - and if you're standing in a crowd, the loudest sounds by proximity alone will be from those in the crowd who are closest to you. You should get a medal for that line. It reminds me of the time I sat in front of a blind girl at a performance of "Phantom of the Opera".. I mean, I can totally get into the whole experience of a blind person going to hear musical theatre. But -NOT- when they're stone-cold tone-deaf and really like singing along at the top of their lungs. Which, really.. it was totally incidental that she was blind. And she was sober.

1) I don't know. I'd have to test yours to find out. 2) It's not likely that you missed anything, assuming that you were aware that in PCM mode an MD74 only holds about 25 minutes of audio. 3 and 4) No real ideas there. The only suggestion I can make is to contact Sony and ask if they have a data recovery service for HiMD. Private companies exist that do this for standard MDs, but since there is no currently known procedure for recovering HiMD audio, and thanks to DRM and the nature of how HiMD works, it's possible that there may never be a recovery process that anyone other than Sony can use.

I haven't heard of anyone having figured out how to do this yet. Part of the problem is that HiMD uses an actual filesystem, whereas MD does not. MD's TOC is predictable as to location; HiMD's isn't.

If the player is in netMD mode, and If the standard MD you put in is blank, and If you select LP2 mode, then yes, you can record in LP2. You cannot record in modes other than HiSP, HiLP, and PCM when a disc is formatted as HiMD.

It depends on whether you want the recording to be more immersive or not. For many applications, including live recordings, mono can actually give a better.. less distracting result. Stereo is great for that "being there" kind of feeling, but doesn't offer any higher accuracy than mono when it comes down to it. What it amounts to is somewhere between personal preference and whether it's appropriate for the task at hand; dialogue and sound effects recording, for instance, are better done in mono since they're usually to be mixed with something else. People tend to prefer music recordings tend to be in stereo, even though concert PAs are usually mono.

No. SP has been around for 12+ years and the encoder has been through many revisions. HiSP may have certain technical advantages over SP [mostly due to higher-resolution transforms] but since we are now using only the first generation of the encoder, there is probably a lot of tuning that can still be done. I'm fairly certain that HiSP will eventually catch up to, if not exceed, SP in terms of quality, but at the moment SP still has a slight advantage, mainly due to its maturity.

Hmm. It is very difficult to manage crowd rejection from the middle of the crowd. Hypercardioid mics [as most shotguns are at least some variation of], being extremely directional as they are, are ill-suited to stereo recording as you won't get much of an 'image,' really. You will get stereo, sure, and it might be okay for certain applications, like distant-mic'ing specific sound sources, but for music played over a PA I would expect the results to be pretty poor. This is not to say that it's guaranteed they will be, as I've never tried it myself. Still - even if you used highly directional mics, standing in the middle of a crowd at head height - you're still recording all the people in between the mic and the stage. Proximity and source volume are the two issues here; while the PA might be louder than a single person in the crowd, the whole crowd together can be close in volume to the PA, and so on. Pretty much the only simple way I know around this issue is to elevate the mics, regardless of what kind of mics you're using. Recording from the middle of a crowd, you will pick up lots of the crowd, period. The farther the mics can get from the people, the less it will pick them up; of course, the PA will be about the same volume regardless of height.

To my knowledge, they all have the same preamps. I understand the relevance of the question re: power to the preamp, but not how you've asked about it. Can you be more clear on what you mean by this? This depends on what you're using it to record. For most applications, the built-in preamp is more than just adequate. The noise floor of the room where you're recording will always be higher than the noise floor of the preamp in normal or low sensitivity mode. The only two sounds I've recorded [with mics rated at max SPL 105dB with the bias voltage the HiMD puts out] that ended up distorted by either mic or preamp overload were a thunder strike and the horn of a train [probably about 115-120dB at 4 meters distance; more than enough to make my actual hearing distort]. If you're recording very quiet sounds, an external preamp is a good idea. Once put into "high sensitivity" mode, the preamp generates audible hiss. For voice recording it's not enough to be annoying, but if you're trying to record nature sounds or any kind of low-level ambience, it starts to interfere with the usability of the recording [iMO]. Likewise, if you're recording very loud sounds it's worth using an external preamp. There are two reasons for this: first, that if you're using a "plug-in power" mic, an external preamp usually also acts as a battery box, providing higher bias voltage and thereby higher maximum SPL sans distortion. Second, since an external preamp will usually be running with a 9V battery, it has loads more headroom than the built-ins. Most external preamps also have lower self-noise. For portable mics made for MD et al, I'd suggest this from Reactive Sounds or this from Sound Professionals. If you're using P12, P24, or P48 microphones you might consider a portable preamp with proper balanced XLR inputs that can plug directly into the MD via standard unbalanced outputs. I can't attest to this from experience, but from listening to others it sounds as though the output is provided with slightly more power this way. Otherwise, the line-out function of the NH1 and NH900 is mainly a convenience switch to disable all processing such as the built-in EQ in a single, simple step. It's worth using the USB upload feature, actually. If you're going to copy it via analogue anyway, consider the analogue recording a backup. If anything goes wrong during uploads, you don't lose anything this way. Aside from which - assuming, of course, that you're using a PC with Windows, Total Recorder [$11.95USD] works to digitally copy HiMD in realtime. This is how I make my backups, as TR does not alter anything on your original disc, thereby eliminating the risk of losing tracks via an SS crash. I have yet to lose a single uploaded track with SonicStage 2.3, incidentally. Only one user that I know of has reported the problem experienced with previous versions so far. Cheers.

Use a mic stand if you can find one. I'd use 90 degrees for this, with the mic about head-level, pointed down into the soundbox, basically at the middle of the piano [front to back]. As it is your recital, they should allow recording and likely will provide you with the stand if you ask for it. A music stand makes a good place to sit the recorder, though you might want to set something on top of it [folded t-shirt?] to muffle the motor. The 90/120 setting is basically for how 'wide' the stereo spread is. My advice as to mic sensitivity - if the piece [or pieces] you're to be playing is/are very dynamic [gets very loud] leave it on normal. If the piece is very gentle, put it on high sens. There are no hard-set rules to this; trying is the only way to find out. At the very least, the added noise of amplifying everything later [if you use normal and the levels are fairly low] should be no worse than the amount of noise using high sensitivity generates on its own.

A440 is dead-on here. I would not recommend using shotgun mics for stereo recording. As a suggestion, the Rode NT4 mic has had some good reviews.

Suggestion: if you're going to plug 1/4" cables into your MD or HiMD, use an adapter CABLE, not a plug. Music shops that sell instruments and amps will most likely have these. Reason? Thing of a 1/4" plug on the end of its cable, plugged into an adapter, plugged into your recorder. And think about the weight and strain that puts on your recorder.

MiniDisc Equipment Designation Information post edited by Ishiyoshi Question: Answer: 'MZ-Rx' type models: Recorders. 'MZ-Ex' type models: Player-only units. 'MZ-Gx' type models: Recorders with radio remote. 'MZ-Dx' type models: Downloaders and lack any recording capabilities *"D" is used as an extension of the model number, i.e. MZ NH3D 'MZ-Nx' type models: NetMD capable. 'MZ-NEx' type models: NetMD downloaders. 'MZ-NHx' type models: Hi-MD units. 'MZ-EHx' type models: Hi-MD player-only units. 'MZ-DHx' type model: Hi-MD unit with camera module. 'MZ-RHx' type model: MZ-RH1 being the sole 3rd generation Hi-MD recorder. (*is also Mac-Compatible) 'MZ-Mx' type model: Mac-Compatible Hi-MD recorders. (*MZ-M10/M100; the MZ-M200 is essentially the MZ-RH1 with a bundled microphone) *Note: models with 'F' suffix denotes units with tuner or tuner remote for listening to [but not recording from] the radio. *An example: the MZ NHF-800 is a NetMD capable Hi-MD unit with tuner remote. The use of 'R' seems to have changed for the first generation of HiMD units, though this apparently will be back in use with 2005's models. [My thought on this is that 2004 'R' models are standard MD only; as Sony phases out MD entirely, HiMD will take over the 'R' designation.] As for the numbers - they're more or less arbitrary. For a given model year, they're useful for distinguishing the base models from the higher-end models. Try looking at the equipment browser on http://www.minidisc.org; if you trawl through some of the models there, you'll see what some of the differences are as far as the numbers go.

Unity gain only applies to the line-input. There is always gain on the mic input.

The hum is not just because of the power. The hum is because Sony distribute cheap, unfiltered, unregulated POS power supplies with their equipment. They could spend the extra $0.05 on the parts needed to give perfectly clean DC, but that would up the cost of building the PSUs. This is absolute rot. A properly filtered power supply will put out perfectly flat DC. All you need is a power supply that works properly, and the problem will be solved. The biggest problem with replacing MD and HiMD PSUs is the connector. Concerning battery life, I'll repeat the same story I've given before: I use cheap AA alkalines, no-name batteries that come in boxes of 40 for about $12CAD. In my NH700, using a 1GB HiMD blank, I recorded in excess of 5 hours of audio [from a mic powered by the HiMD] at HiSP, and still had enough battery power to last for at least a couple of days of heavy use for playback. RE: plugging an instrument in; yes, you can plug instruments in and record direct. This will meet mixed results depending on what the instrument is and how much juice its pickup produce, but you can try plugging straight in to the mic or lline-in and see what kind of levels you get. In most cases the mic input will be closer to the impedance of the instrument and will probably work better. If you're coming out of an amp, use the line-in.

English, francais. Have studied Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Russian. Didn't really learn much of any of them.

I get "The page you are attempting to find could not be located. You may have typed it incorrectly or it may have been moved or deleted. Click here to go back, use our search or you might find what you are looking for in one of our channels." on an MCI error page. If I try to right-click and save as [in Opera, Firefox, and IE] it tries to save an html page.

Could you be more specific as to what the distortion is? And what bitrate you're using? And what the source is [CD, transcoded mp3, &c.]?