dex Otaku

Most good small mixers [thinking the likes of Mackie, for instance] have both XLR and 1/4" inputs for their mic preamps. Whether they are balanced TRS 1/4" inputs is another matter. If you attempt to mix mics with distance between them like that, you'll end up experiencing all sorts of phasing problems. Between the time-delay from the distance, and the different response and polar patterns of the mics, you'll probably experience a few strange "holes" in the sound from cancellation as well as strange resonances. Which is not to say that those are always a bad thing - creative mic placement is all about finding something that sounds good to you. The only way to find out is to experiment and see if it works.

It's possible that the menu mode has to be switched to "advanced" for this to work. Format is one of the options under "EDIT" on my NH700, a few down from ALL ERASE. I tend to forget about the advanced menu thing, since the first thing I did after puttig a battery in my unit, right out of the box, was switch that. It's also possible that the NH600 doesn't have this, since [in North America at least] it is a downloader only and doesn't share all of the same functions. I know that doesn't make much sense, but Sony have done stranger things.

Reread the post-edit version. And no, I'm not shrooming.

A Macintosh. In all seriousness, Mac audio editing software is still parsecs ahead of PC/Windoze software. Example: the free version of Protools LE from 1998 [which won't run on modern PCs -or- Macs] is far better than anything I've used on the PC for general-purpose editing. As I said, my preferred 2-track editor is Sound Forge, but it lacks in the timeline-editing department. It is basically a linear editor for PC. Many people like Cool Edit for its features and supposed simplicity, but I find its interface to be cluttered and arse-backwards in terms of how thing are selected, moved, &c., as well as how completely illogical the shortcut keys arefor basically every function other than standard clipboard stuff. Mind you, that's me - for someone just starting out, they likely won't have that issue.

For HiMD-formatted discs [MD or 1GB] there are two options for this: one that erases all tracks [as with traditional MDs] and another that formats the disc. I have noted that using the format rather than erase option is more likely to recover a disc from, say, having SS crash during a download. Also, "all erase" [or "erase all", whichever it is] does not affect the title you have given a disc. Format erases all titling. Note that the DRM information on the disc [disc history] stays there regardless of which you use.

If you're recording acoustic instruments, I would forego the amp altogether. You will get a much better recording by arranging the performers around a stereo microphone. i Sure it is. They're called mixers. If you're stuck because you use the PA to amplify the instruments during a performance, it would probably be best to try doing the best mix possible with the PA and feeding that straight to the recorder. That's assuming the PA has a built-in mixer of even reasonable quality. [Notably: common amp/mixers like the Peavey XR series have absolutely dismal mic preamps, huge problems with hum pickup, &c.] Otherwise, noting that you say it's in a quiet environment, a totally acoustic recording will pretty much always sound better. For your needs I might consider starting with the Sound Professionals "copy" of the Sony ECM MS907 [see http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/...em/SP-ECM-MS907].

If the unit doesn't record, they will have to purchase a new recorder to make discs anyway. If their primary purpose for it is as a player, well. You know my opinion on that.

Have you tried using a different USB cable? Incidentally, if you've taken it for repair and it still doesn't work - go back to the repair depot and ask them to plug it in and test it, right in front of you. That way you will know conclusively whether it works or not, and will prove it to them as well. Also, it would help to know what they diagnosed the problem as when they repaired it. It's possible that something as unlikely as your compute having a bad USB port or bad power regulation caused the problem in the first place - which would explain how they repaired it and had it working, but it didn't work as soon as you plugged it in to your computer.

After every 'stop' you have to re-set manual levels [it can only be set in record-pause]. This is moderately annoying, but a big improvement over the old system where you couldn't change the levels on the fly.

It's a shame they don't support Mac, yes. It's quite ironic in a sense, too. The commonly-held perception is that Sony look at the fact that Mac have <5% marketshare, and simply shrug their shoulders at the idea of support because of this. If that's actually the case, they're being quite shortsighted about it. Macs have a much higher slice of the pie if you look only at specific markets such as audio professionals, film professionals, TV pros, &c.

I'm with aeriyn.. If what you want is a portable audio player, then IMO HiMD and MD have no real advantages over a good hard disc player. No one I know who uses a portable would put up with the transfer times that HiMD and netMD offer. With an iPod or iRiver, you could easily put your whole library [10+GB] on the unit in a couple of minutes. With a HiMD, it takes 10-12 mins. to fill an MD80 with HiSP tracks, and around 30 mins. to fill a 1GB disc. If what you want is a portable -recorder-, then MD and HiMD are practical and perform well.

It would be interesting [and highly useful] if it were possible to force manual levels to be on by default by changing one of these. [i.e. turning AGC off by default]

Yes. Sony's current units default to auto gain control [AGC] but under the record options you can switch to manual levels. Levels can be adjusted at any time while recording by using the "wheel", while earphone volume is still adjusted normally. I wish Sony had kept with their older method of turning manual record levels on by just holding the record key for 2-3 seconds.

Hi eMDe. Please note that these questions have been answered many times before, and that the board does have a rather useful 'SEARCH' function up at the top of the page. In any case, 1) Yes - Mac users have reported that HiMDs do work as a USB data drive. Word is not in yet as to whether it's reliable or consistent in this capacity, but I don't see why it shouldn't be. Technically, any OS that supports USB mass-storage devices should be able to mount and use a HiMD for data only. 2) There are no programs for uploading to Mac, and Mac support isn't likely to be forthcoming from Sony, who have a long history of ignoring that segment of the market.

I don't know, it's not really my style, but it might be yours.

Please note that while no decks are currently available, -all- HiMD units will function as a normal MD when in netMD mode.

This sounds like it might be a hardware problem. Note that when the player is plugged in VIA USB, it gets its power from USB. Dead batteries should not affect its usage this way. I would try another disc if I were you. If you can't get another HiMD disc, trying an MD74 or MD80 is just as good an idea. If it has the same problem with other discs, I'd look at warranty service or replacement. This is not normal behaviour for SS.

To make sure EQ is off: [on the NH700, the NHF800 is probably the same] * press and hold the 'menu' key until the menu shows in the unit's display * scroll down to 'SOUND' and press play/enter * make sure that 'NORMAL' is flashing in the display * press enter again To make sure AVLS is OFF, you have to first put the unit in ADVANCED menu mode. To do this, enter the menu, scroll down to 'OPTION' at the bottom, press enter, go to 'MENU MODE', press enter, then make sure 'ADVANCED' is flashing, and hit enter again Once you've done this re-enter the menu again, go to 'OPTIONS' and 'AVLS' should be there. Scroll to it, press enter, then make sure it is OFF. Please note that this information can be easily found in your manual. It was moved because you're asking for technical support. Support questions generally go in the support forum.

Try formatting the disc on the player. If this works, you could then try transferring to it again.

There actually is an ATRAC codec to be used with SF7 and above, if I'm not mistaken. It might be ATRAC3 [the LP modes]. Of course, you have to buy it. WAV is not a codec. WAV is a file container format that can be used to store audio in virtually any audio format, as well as metadata such as track tags, though these are not often used on WAV files and at best are poorly-supported by most software. What people normally refer to as WAV is in fact PCM audio - uncompressed linear PCM. CD audio uses PCM, as do DAT, HiMD [in PCM mode], DVD, Laserdisc, &c. PCM is not lossily-compressed, and therefore if you are looking to colour the sound to your liking - which is what preferring to record to MD first rather than directly onto your computer [which records in PCM] is - is not the format you're looking for. I'm not exactly clear on why you want to do this, but yes, you can. Just record directly on your computer from whatever source you're using, burn the resulting PCM WAV file to a CD or CD image, then rip it with SonicStage. You could also simply import the WAV files into SonicStage and run the conversion manually. SS, however, does not support ATRAC [sP] encoding. The best you could do there is HiSP, which is in its first generation and actually lags slightly behind SP in terms of quality. Of course, you can't play HiSP tracks on netMDs. The best encoding you can do with SS that is netMD compatible is LP2, and SS's LP2 encoder is not nearly as good as the current-generation hardware codec in MD and netMD players. Creating a library that you can't use for anything else is exactly what SonicStage is about. Sony has good reason to keep their codecs proprietary and closed. Money. First, they patent their algorithms. Then with the help of laws that make it illegal to reverse-engineer such things regardless of whether it's for commercial purposes or not, they basically have a total stranglehold over who gets to use it. Everyone who makes equipment for ATRAC playback has to pay Sony for the privelege to do so. This is the first place they make money from it [or at least recover development costs in the early stages]. The second place, and this is what companies like Sony set their sights on, is from consumers. If the format take off, and people start buying the equipment and the software, then Sony stands to make a -lot- of money from it. They even make money from the equipment that other manufacturers make using the liscensed codec [and probably hardware components as well]. If they release the codec freely, they lose control over who gets the money for it. Furthermore, now that DRM is built into it, releasing the codec publicly would wildly encourage the cracking of their DRM schemes. It's all about control and who gets the money in the end. Sony [and most other corporations on earth, really] could care less about having a versatile, open, usable format with a large user base if they're not going to make money from it. Instead they work with the attitude that maintaining that stranglehold is good, with the hope that their product will just magically be chosen by everyone, become embedded, and then become ubiquitous. Sony fail to realise that consumers are not all stupid. Furthermore, they fail to realise the point of even greater importance: that stupid consumers will not put up with the kind of crap they're trying to pull with things like DRM for long. Or at least, that's my opinion.

To further corien's bit, there: According to the Nyquist theorem, the maximum recordable frequency of a given analogue to digital converter [and the maximum playable frequency of a D/A converter] is fs/2, or the sampling frequency divided by half in order to ensure a full alternation is made at that frequency. For a sampling rate of 44.1kHz the highest reproducable frequency is 22.05kHz. Further, as the recorded frequency approaches the Nyquist freq., distortion [harmonic and otherwise] increases as the sampling resolution is not actually enough to reproduce actual sine waves. This is part of why oversampling and now delta-sigma converters are used, as well as various and sundry methods of filtering and noise-shaping.

You're making me blush. I still think of myself more as a hack than a professional of any kind. That's why I suggest simply experimenting. If you experiment, you can find out the things that your equipment can do, as well as the things it's not even supposed to do.

Recommendation: service or replace. The earphone jack is probably either broken inside, corroded, or [most likely] the solder joint to the logic board inside has broken. You can likely pick up a functional used replacement for less money than fixing the headphone out would cost.

No. I don't expect to see support for other formats in SS any time soon, but you never know what could happen. Maybe Sony could even start using an mp3 codec that works properly. What you can do is convert the files to .WAV, import them to SS, then transcode them. The unfortunate side effect of doing things this way is that tags are lost completely in the process, but you can at least get the tracks onto your MD or HiMD after this.

The current line of HiMDs actually have a pretty forgiving AGC that isn't too obviously turned on as long as your sound source isn't extremely loud. All MDs and HiMDs wthi mic inputs can accept stereo microphones. Careful mic positioning is more important than adding EQ or AGC, really. As long as you're at a distance where the sound pressure at the mic isn't so loud as to cause distortion [and of course, not so quiet as to be lost in noise], your recording should end up clean. What I would do for recording, say, an a capella group in a large and fairly damped room, would be to put the mic on a boom stand [any boom stand used for stage applications should be fine as long as the mic fits the clip], placing the stand maybe 2m away from the performers at a height about .5-.75m above the performers as a place to start. There are a lot of variables involved, but the best way to do this is really to just try different positions until you find what sounds best to you. Do remember that room acoustics play a huge part in the equation as well. Recording in a small room with painted walls will me much louder with the microphone at 2m from the performers than recording in a large room with curtains draped against the walls [damping material], for instance. It may sound daunting, but the truly easy way is simply to experiment until you find what works best. If you're interested in learning guidelines and principles of recording, you can get a better idea of what to expect in a given situation, but experimentation is pretty much always a requirement for something new, somewhere new. I'd suggest an NH900 or NHF800 [i'd take the 700 over it if it's available in your area, the only differences being no radio tuner and no virtual acoustics thing which is really a waste of time anyway]. I don't recommend the NH1 solely because it has no option to run with AA batteries, which is, IMO, a crucial point.