dex Otaku

I know. I have a whole collection of them, myself. Monsieur Ximm is also an interesting [and friendly] person.

The installer gets what it needs; if you have a previous version installed, it should only download parts that need updating, then install them. From 2.1 -> 2.2 the dl was something like 6MB.

This is the point of Sony's DRM. You can play it on the original disc it was recorded on [in any player], you can play it on the PC it was uploaded to, but you can't do anything with it anywhere else. Point being that if you're trying to take files from one computer [one install of SS] to another, it shouldn't work regardless of their source. As I said, this is the whole point of their DRM.

I havwe no specific experience with the SP-ECM-MS907 but I do know something about microphones. When I last checked Sound Pro's site, they did not specify what the pickup pattern of the mic is. The Sony MS-907 [which is a mid-quality mic at best] is a Mid-Side or Matrix Stereo microphone. MS-Stereo is especially good for use by broadcasters as the stable centre image presented by the front-facing M microphone is easily mixed down to mono without phasing artifacts. SP do use the designation "MS" in the model info, but I would ask them if it is a MS Stereo mic if what you want is something that is assuredly mono-compatible. I would avoid T-Mics and anything considered "binaural" for your purposes. Even the coincident Y pattern of many other stereo mics [such as some of the AKG stereo offerings] does not do as well mixing down to mono as a properly implemented MS stereo mic. Hope that helps. D.

Could you possibly catch a minute or so of ambience for me at Hyde Park or Kensington Gardens if you're ever near the palace? [bloody nostalgia]

Run the Sonicstage backup util, then run the update installer.

I'm the local guru on HiMD, and I probably know more about MD than 99% of the people here, but I know I wouldn't be the guru on it.

I think the subject says it all, really. There's got to be a few people here who would be interested in, at the very least, exchanging a few soundmarks with people. What's a soundmark? Well, a landmark is a highly recognisable place, right? A soundmark is a recognisable sound, a sonic signature of where and when you are. All places have sounds that are unique to them. Some are harder to find than others, some jump out at you the first time you hear them,like the 9am "Oh Canada" horns in the Vancouver shipyards. Aaron Ximm (of quiet american) has a list on his site of 1-minute vacations that are added to with another piece every few weeks (see http://www.quietamerican.org/vacation.html). His site has a higher flow of sound artists and environmental recordists than MDCF does, but I think there are enough people here that we should be able to put together enough material for a short compilation. It could even be music recordings [if we have permission to use them]. Anyone? Anyone? edit: Desired format: whatever you prefer, really. As long as you can get it cleanly from your MD or HiMD onto your computer, that's what really matters. Please DO use either SP, PCM, or HiSP modes for recording. Please DO use manual recording levels. PM me if you have something to contribute. Please include info such as what recorder you used, your microphone, rough date/time of the recording, location, etc. If there are any special details pointing out what makes the content of your recording unique, do include them, too. I would ask that anyone with a submission [i guess I'm editing] please use a lossless compression util such as FLAC, Monkey Audio, or Shorten with their recording.

Telarc Digital and Sony Classical both have good selections of classical, baroque, contemporary music, etc. What I would suggest is checking out your local public or university library. They'll usually have collections that you can sign out or listen to at the library in order to get some idea of who's who in composers.

I'd recommend a lower-end HiMD for one reason: recording length. If you're doing lectures or professional presentations and wish to distribute recordings of them, it's really nice not to have to swap discs in the middle of your recording, or resort to lower-quality modes. Hi-SP on a HiMD disc: 7:55 recording. An NH700 or NHF800 and a decent lapel microphone would serve you quite well.

SS cannot do gapless playback over USB.

Consumer [and even some semipro] video equipment does not usually allow for manual control over audio settings. Most cameras have barely-adequate mic preamps on them, and the sound is highly compressed-limited, with no way to turn it off. While MiniDV and the like offer 12-bit and 16-bit audio, the analogue portions of most equipment are such crap that it doesn't make it worth trying to use for anything serious. I should know. I used to use a Hi8 [with AFM audio] for simple stereo location recording. The difference between that [or the Canon MiniDV sitting here] and my HiMD with binaural mic is .. well, quite large.

The file is only 93kB. edit: Heh, 1.5 minutes between posts.

Minidisc Canada finally listed HiMD blanks at $10.50CAD last week. Now they actually say they're in stock and the price has gone up to $14.75CAD. Feh.

Any idea what the MSRP is?

Now if only 1GB CF cost $10CAD.

I think between Jadeclaw and I we figured that maybe 1/40 - 1/50 would get trashed with SS 2.1. I never used anything before 2.1 so I can't speak for other versions.

I replied to this in the stickied thread.

Since people are freaking out about the SS 2.2 thing: I installed the 2.2 update over 2.1. Sony Wave Writer is still there. HiMDRenderer still works. Using .007 I haven't had any glitches in my conversions yet. I have now done over 150 track uploads with SS2.2 and haven't had it trash a track yet. Things seem to be going well.

I took my Hi-MD disc, plugged a radio into the line-in on my NH700, set it to mark a track every minute. 96 tracks. None lost on upload. I'm going to do this 2 more times, I'm considering it a breaking-in as well. I'm hopeful that it's fixed.

The audio portion of the disc works like a virtual partition on a partition. I don't know if you understand those terms, though. Basically, the audio part is separate and is locked down by Sony's DRM. I am currently using an NH700 for exactly what you described [location recording, dumping to the puter, editing].

fretwork, if you're -only- using HiMDRender then you're still risking trashed tracks. Tracks get trashed during the upload process, and to use HiMDRender you have to upload first.

Recorded over 2:41 of sound last Friday, a punk/emo show featuring some friends. I also recorded a lot of stuff when I was just walking around outside, talking to the band, the sound guy [a former employer], etc.. Having loads of fun editing the one band's stuff into a CD with a bunch of tracks of .. conversation.. "Man, you're blasted." Heh. I'm having fun with this. Might have the opportunity to record a bunch of Indian instrumentalists jamming next week. I'm crossing my fingers. Anyone ever done any of the conversation type editing?

With calibrated inputs my NH700 gives peak self-noise levels at about -72 and -78dB respectively for mic and line inputs .. note that that is PEAK .. actual measured values with a spectrum analysis prog gives the cumulative noisefloor as about -98 and -105dB respectively. If you're recording with the mic input [which doesn't have a lot of headroom and clips easily enough] the total SNR easily exceeds the dynamic range of basically all portable mics currently being sold. If you're recording from the line-in, the noise at unity gain [18/30 on my NH700 in manual rec levels] is low enough that it should do an excellent job from any source.

1) do NOT install multiple versions of SonicStage. There is no reason to. 2) SonicStage does not, AFAIK, recognise CDs of any type other than CD-DA [plain audio discs] 3) You can do what you're looking to do by copying the contents of your mp3-CDs to a folder on your hard disc, importing the folder into SS, then telling SS to convert all the files to atrac3/atrac3+. Delete the mp3s when then conversion is finished and start again with the next CD. 4) It might work to do the same from the mp3-CD itself, but it would probably take forever. 5) Copying an *AUDIO* CD directly to Md or HiMD can be accomplished with Simple Burner.