dex Otaku

Granted, as portable as possible is what you seek. Most mics [that are small enough to be considered stealth] that can handle really high SPL are condensors, though. And most of them will require higher external power than the 1.5-3V your MD can provide in order to actually work at the SPL range of a very loud concert, which means needing either a battery box or a battbox/preamp. I will be looking to get one myself ASAP because I need a lower noise preamp than what the MZ-NH700 has in it to do certain recordings. Of course, many battboxes/preamps like the Sound Professionals one there are not much different in size from the MD unit itself. It's not like we're talking about toting a mixing desk around with you. We're talking about another couple of ounces' weight in another pocket.

I don't know what kind of mics you were using, but unless they were self-powered lavs, the problem was not likely the mics. The problem was likely one of two things: 1) the mics were underbiased using plugin-power from the MD or 2) the mic preamp on your MD couldn't handle the volume There's also 3) you may have had the mic preamp set for high sensitivity, which would allow you to probably get levels reading okay but would end up recording continuous clipping. Solution for nos. 1 and 2 is to use an external preamp/battery box. Like this: http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/.../item/SP-PREAMP Battery boxes use higher bias voltages for your mics, meaning more headroom, more dynamic range, and higher SPL handling without distortion. As far as better mics go, try looking around on the Sound Professionals site as well as Reactive Sounds. They both have exactly what you're asking for at reasonable prices.

For analogue transfers - as long as you use a model with an actual line-out on it, I wouldn't think you'd find any signficant difference, no. Your portable DAT might have better mic preamps and such in it, though.

Might I point out - Hi-MD is effectively only 1 month old [in fact in many places it's still less than a month old] as a format. Yes, it's a bugger not being able to get the discs, but since the equipment has been out there for only this long - WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? They will come. We'll just have to wait.

See this thread: http://forums.minidisc.org/viewtopic.php?t=4207

To my knowledge, no. SonicStage lets you move tracks around and title them, but offers none of the editing capabilities built in to the player. Which.. really.. I mean, Why doesn't it?

SonicStage [and MD Simple Burner] do it this way [your #2]: Regardless of the data source, whether it be a wav file, mp3, unprotected windows media, or data from a ripped CD - it all gets transcoded on the PC into the format you've selected. In the case of anything that's not already PCM - like ripped CDs and wave files generally are - the data gets decoded to PCM from whatever format it's in and then encoded to [for example] atrac3+. There are bound to be differences, for several reasons, between encoding done in SS and that done by analogue or digital [optical] means on the recorder itself. The recorder has a codec in it. That codec is frozen upon manufacture; it cannot be updated, upgraded, or improved in any way. The fact that it is in hardware makes little difference at this point in history except to note that it can't be updated. [Or at least - Sony has never been willing to update anything, to my knowledge, even if it was technically possible.] The codec in SS on the other hand is software. This means that it can be changed/updated over time quite easily. Codecs in general are not perfectly consistent from one platform to another [whether that be computers or hardware players or what have you]. The general principle is that you must maintain the decoder according to the original standard, while you can change the encoder to reflect improved algorithms, faster hardware, etc. As long as the stream itself always follows the same standards, the decoder will always play it. This is how the newest atrac versions [except for 3+ of course] in SP mode work for playback on 12 year-old MD equipment [and sound better than recording made on that equipment]. Same standard - better encoder. Of course, on a computer the aim might not be the same as on the recorder. On the recorder you can expect things to be done pretty much exclusively in realtime, so whatever kind of processing capabilities you have with its DSP only have to cope with things in a realtime world; hence quality becomes the probable determining factor in its codec. On the other hand, on the PC what most people want is fast rips and transcodes of their CDs and mp3s. So rather than quality being the focus, it's speed; the programmers take the standard for whatever codec and write algorithms that are tuned for speed, not quality. I would expect that SS is currently not as good at encoding any of the formats as the hardware encoders are. On the other hand, I would expect the differences to be very slight, and probably not noticeable to the vast majority of users. Perhaps at some point they'll come out with a quality-setting version of the codec; i.e. one where you can choose between highest quality or highest speed encoding. This being Sony, I doubt it would happen, but you never know. At the very least, it's worth noting that since the SS codec is software, it has the potential for significant improvement over time. Oh, and regarding the USB transfers: no data should be lost if everything is working correctly, same as via optical. If anything, the connection via USB should theoretically be more stable and more reliable than the optical one, simply because of the nature of USB vs. spdif.

For bass rolloff, yes. It would have no other real benefit, though.

Advice: Use iTunes as your music library, and encode everything as 320kbps mp3s. Use SonicStage -only- for shipping tracks to your MD. You can import tracks from your mp3 library, transcode them to whatever bitrate of atrac3 you wish to use, and then delete them from the sonicstage library [making sure not to delete the mp3s, of course]. This way you never have to worry about check-ins/check-outs except for when you're trying to copy things to someone else's puter with one of your MDs. It also means only having to deal with SonicStage when absolutely necessary - which I find important, because SS's music library system is crap, to be frank.

It won't be possible on the Mac unless someone writes USB drivers and access utils for it - which would require reverse-engineering Sony's encryption et al. Current method requires a utility called Total Recorder, which acts as a proxy to a PC sound card, letting you record what you're playing on the puter straight to a wav file. Which depends utterly on SonicStage, of course.

Are you buying to batt module to use with a MS907? I'm mixed up, now.

About the battery stuff: I've been using the 700mAh NiMh that came with my MZ-NH700 and even with it I can run about 2 hours straight recording with a Hi-MD disc. Mind you, I always carry a bag of spare alkalines with me. I'm just saying that I don't know about that AC power warning - I haven't had any problems at all yet and I have only swapped the NiMh out for an alkaline once so far. I need a few more rechargeables though. It would be nice to have some 2400mAh batteries to go out with.

Flash media is -much- more expensive than Hi-MD discs. Think on the order of at least 15-20* the cost per MB. On the other hand - no moving parts. Nothing mechanical involved. But no, not really stealthy. On the other hand, the PMD670 is an actual portable broadcasting rig, compared to Hi-MD or MD which generally doesn't feature things like 48v phantom power, XLR mic inputs, spdif in/out, high quality preamps, easy-access controls, etc. For sheer portability, it's hard to beat MD or Hi-MD, I'd say. Keep in mind that bouncing the recorder around a lot when recording -will- screw up your takes, though. "Shock protection" works for playback, not recording.

I've used my Hi-MD sparingly to record live music so far [it seems like a waste to bootleg a folk festival to me]. The results were quite good [my expectations were open as it was also the first time out using my new mics]. Compared with my previous experiences using MD, Hi-Md has only a few real advantages - they're important ones, though. 1) PCM recording. PCM recording. PCM recording. 2) The option of choosing high-quality compression to give record lengths that are quite long [2:20 for 80min discs and 7:55 on a 1GB Hi-MD] 3) all-digital transfer if you're willing to put a little effort into it As far as using the unit for listening, mine [the NH700] is rather unimpressive as far as its headphone amp goes, but it more than suffices as a portable for everyday use. The recordings I have made so far [mostly weird things like going down to the trainyard to get some good screetch and boom sounds] have all exceeded my expectations in this $300CAD unit. They have also blown the recordings I spent the last two years making with an MZ-R90 right out of the water in terms of dynamic range and signal to noise ratio.

None of the portables have digital outputs other than by USB. Mac support is not likely to ever become a reality. Sony are being stupid prigs when it comes to this, especially considering the number of Mac users in the audio industry. As evidenced by other posts here they have made this choice in the past regarding video cameras, etc. as well. Perhaps they should take the blinders off for a while. Burning to CD is supported from SonicStage but only from Sony's VAIO computers. If you aren't strictly limited by budget, I would suggest something like one of Marantz's solid-state recorders, as suggested by Rirsa in another thread here. See here: http://www.marantzpro.com/Products/PMD670.html Since you have the double-whammy of being a Mac user and wanting to do live recording, I would actually suggest looking at another format .. -unless- like myself you're an habitual hacker of sorts who actually enjoys making things do things they shouldn't. As it stands right now, yes - we can burn CDs from what we record on our Hi-MDs. It requires another piece of software to do the digital transfer from Hi-MD to the puter [Total Recorder, which is $11.95USD in its basic version] and, of course, the assumption that we're all PC/Windoze users. Sorry for the bad news, and good luck.

Although I purchased my NH700 from them, I can't actually answer to either of these questions. They were good to deal with, though.

That would sound about right for a MS907. [i did a lot of impromptu foley work last year using one because it was all we had] It also helps to keep in mind that like light, sound follows an inverse-square ratio when it comes to distance from source: if you move twice as far away, you get 1/4 the volume at the mic. Likewise if you move to half as far away, you get 4 times the volume at the mic. Woo! Lightning outside! Time go record some thunder, methinks. Speaking of trial and error re: levels.. I'd be interested in hearing some samples from your recordings. Would be interested in a trade of sorts?

Right from the manual? I don't know. I haven't read that part of it. The issue isn't that the electronics are the same or different. It's that the basic principles that decide how high and low sens work have been around as rough standards for probably 40+ years. Outdoor music festival: played through PA, sitting maybe 75ft from either speaker in dead centre [right in front of the sound booth]. Low mic sensitivity, manual rec volume set at about 10/30 [which is meaningless since this varies mic to mic, with position, with how loud the PA is, whether mics are pointed directly at the speakers or some incident angle, etc.] I don't have an outboard preamp yet, which in situations such as this [where the sound being recorded is consistently loud anyway] doesn't matter so much since it's so far above the noise floor. As far as 'best' is concerned, my peaks were around the -12 to -6dB point. Signal/noise ratio is almost irrelevent because this was recorded from the middle of the crowd - where I had no control over 100% of the sound that was reaching me. Mind you, that's the kind of recording it was intended to be. Basically, I just make sure my peaks aren't clipping and go with it. As to your question about what is 'loud' in practice: every situation is different. Pretty much all you can do is try your options in each one and see what works best. Eventually you'll be able to walk into a situation and simply know what to use. My general experience though: * in a smaller room, sound tends to be louder at the mic - due to proximity, as well as room reflections, etc. * the farther you are from your source, the quieter it is at the mic. Higher gain may be needed to get signal at the recorder. This depends on how loud the source is, of course. * If the source is amplified, it's probably loud enough already, and doesn't need additional gain. * Acoustic instruments -up close- also won't likely need additional gain. * An orchestra - heh. Really? Chances are you don't need additional gain for this, either - if you have good mics, at least, and are at a reasonable distance [say, within 10-15ft behind the conductor]. Thing is, with an orchestra you'll probably be experiencing a dynamic range that is higher than with almost any other type of music. Crank up the gain, and you'll lose the loud parts. * Soprano in a small room: can't get much louder than this, I'd say. What it comes down to is you have to ask yourself: How loud will the loudest parts be from where my mic is? If the loudest your expect it to be is fairly quiet, go with high sens. Otherwise, stick with normal. Basically .. here, here's a slightly different take. Assuming that you're using manual record levels, you should -never- need to use high mic sensitivity unless what you're recording is: * really far away * really quiet or * both of the above The only things I've ever switched to high sens for were recording sounds like birdsong. Others would use it for recording a speaker at a lecture who is standing far away from where they're seated.

I have a 700. The only real difference between the 700 and the 800 is the tuner. The jog shuttle is quite useful - despite what some have said about the shuttle being 'stiff' on the 700/800 I find it appropriately stiff as when recording it's used for manual record levels. With the new menu system and 5-way button with shuttle, I find things rather easy to navigate on the 700. I would consider it a great step up from most of the previous systems I've seen on models where there basically isn't a button for most functions right on the unit. I would not consider a 600, myself, as it has no analogue inputs on it [i.e. no recording from a mic or line-in, though the European version has an optical in].

I have already recorded music at an open-air festival, sitting in the middle of the crowd with in-ear binaural mics plugged into a MZ-NH700. I had no problems whatsoever. The same rules apply as with original MD equipment... In the MZ-NH700 menus the terminology is as follows - RECVolume - (Auto) AGC -or- Manual I would avoid AGC for anything but voice recording, and I would still avoid it then. Think .. dynamic compression. It sounds like crap, generally. Manual levels mean you have to pay -some- attention to what's going on. This is what I always use, and while I do occasionally run into overloaded sections [like when a train unexpectedly shifts and makes a 'boom' sound that is 30dB louder than the rest of what I've recorded] but this way you get to preserve something closer to the original dynamic range. Mic AGC - Standard -or- LoudMusic Standard: about the equivalent of a soft-knee compressor. Medium-high attack, slow release. Fine for voice recording, or situations where you know the volume doesn't shift too hard too fast. LoudMusic: Lower threshold, fast attack, fast release, hard-knee compression. This is for when you know the sound is going to be loud, with periodic fast [re: loud] attacks. AGC is overridden by Manual RecVolume. Mic Sens - Sens High -or- Sens Low Sens High: high-gain [probably around an additional +35dB? Anyone know for sure? I haven't measured] on the mic preamp. Sens Low: means 'normal' gain, probably near to unity assuming a certain mic impedance. These settings have their equivalent on every MD recorder I've ever used. The general principles are the same, so the actual format [MD, MDLP, Hi-MD] is completely irrelevant as far as their effects are concerned.

Slightly different version from jadeclaw's, same info really: Consumer DAT would record in 48kHz ["analogue" mode], 44.1kHz from digital sources minded by SCMS, and 32kHz ["analogue" LP mode] - the point being that the restriction on 44.1kHz recording meant not being able to make copies of things from analogue sources that would be suitable as [2nd-generation] masters. Mind you, that could all be easily circumvented with a sample rate convertor or external A/D. Master tapes over the past 20+ years have generally been 44.1/16.

Hi-MD PCM is 44.1kHz, 16-bit. Which is the same standard that has been the basis for CDs since their development.* Which is the same standard used by most digital master tapes from U-Matic in the 1970s to DAT and beyond.* Hi-SP is data-reduced from a 44.1kHz, 16-bit source. [for now - assuming 24-bit A/D-D/A convertors get put in there at some point.] If you take -away- from PCM to get Hi-SP, how could it possibly be better? * - this is not counting the days when many masters were actually 14-bit quantised but written in 16-bit words to the masters. I have at least 2 14-bit mastered CDs still kicking around here from the very early 1980s - but the standard was still for 16-bit. They just didn't have 16-bit A/D convertors everywhere at that point. Or something.

I got my 700 a week and some ago, but had already installed SS 2.1 on my puter. Does anyone know if putting Simple burner 2 on after SS 2.1 will cause codec conflicts or anything?

By my experience, DVD writeables are basically like CD-Rs as far as quality goes; you tend to get what you pay for, though above a certain price point it's really hard to go wrong these days. Mind you, I have no idea what that price point would be where you are. I bought a DVD-R/RW/RAM just over a year ago when the prices were first starting to drop. [it's a Panasonic, and it works great, incidentally] I've used it for backing up data on both DVD-Rs and DVD-RAM, as well as writing DVD-Rs for use on home players. I have never had compatibility problems with DVD-R media on home players. +R media I have seen others have many problems with, though this tends to not be the case if they are sure tha the player is newer than maybe 18 months old.

Yeah, not to mention being able to edit speeches right on the MD itself.