ozpeter

Yes, but the audio is still resampled. So if for instance you invert the phase of a ripped version against a optical in version, which should result in silence, you get silence for a very brief moment, and then the audio returns as the two versions go out of sync. I'm not claiming you'd hear the difference - but they are different.

I've just been trying a USB OTG Bridge with Hi-MD - and it doesn't like it. The object was to have the means to offload digital photos to Hi-MD while on holiday, rather than heave a laptop around, but although the Hi-MD machine does act as if connected to a PC (in terms of the appropriate display showing) the bridge box hangs. It does work from the camera to another memory card, but that's rather pointless. Having heard that it's possible to use a Hi-MD machine with a USB audio device, I did think it would work with the bridge. Maybe it would with a different bridge device. The brand of this one is "Laser".

Which version of SS?

Here I can use a Sennheiser MZA-MS preamp with my Sennheiser MKH series mics if I need to - I connect the output from the preamp (XLR connectors) via an adapter cable which is quite simple to make up - just buy a lead such as 2 x RCA phone to 1 x stereo miniplug, chop off the phono plugs and solder on XLRs. That avoids having to do battle with soldering the tiny stereo connector - XLRs are easy, and some solderless designs are available too. Obviously it goes into the MD's line in socket, as it's a line level signal from the preamp.

I think so, from observations made some time back. I guess if the sample values were to be compared in some way a program could spot the duplicates - the statistical chance of precise duplication happening naturally would be tiny, and the program would only need to look at the samples around the start/end of files (before going on to join them?). I suspect there's something of the sort going on in the Hi_MD Renderer program. Pity Sony didn't put that in their code themselves....

I think these repeats are right on the disc rather than something that arises from the transfer - as memory serves me they happen whatever transfer method/joining method you use - they are a consequence of the dreaded auto track marking and perhaps one of Hi-MD's biggest built-in downsides. And they are not constant enough to be automatically editable IMHO.

But presumably the CD player has analog out as well, and if the MD player didn't have optical in, would you be able to tell the difference between the MD's dubious optical in and its analog in? To which the answer might be "yes" or it might be "no" but for myself, I haven't tried yet to find a way of evaluating the real difference. I do use the optical in from a Motu Traveler preamp that has optical out (and about every other sort of output you could ever want) because it defaults to settings that don't involve auto level control - for me that it its chief point. I can just bang it into record and forget about it.

Indeed, the optical input seems pretty suspect to me, certainly not providing the kind of bit-accurate transfers you normally expect from such an input - it resamples even 44.1kHz inputs, and as mentioned above, goes through the level control - though having said that, you'd have to have good ears to detect the difference unless you'd changed the volume.

The guys at AudioMasters now have their units and - yes, you can record onto Hi-MD just using this device to input straight into the usb socket. So if you want an alternative means of wave recording on your Hi-MD machine, just using it as a mass storage device - or mp3 - this is perhaps the first way to do it without a PC. Goodbye SonicStage, if you don't mind the added expense and eqipment. There are however some question marks over the unit - read for yourself if interested at http://www.audiomastersforum.org/amforum/v...p?p=44722#44722 - especially the later posts written after their iKEY-Audio devices had arrived.

I've read in some posts on another forum I frequent ("AudioMasters") that a couple of members there have this device on order, so end-user test results may become available soon. One may be by a highly respected audio engineer who may try it with an NH600. Another factor in all of this is the impossibility of turning off track marking, and the funny things that happen at track marks. So audio written as data to the drive might have some advantage there.

Transferring a c.3' stereo wave file direct onto the Hi-MD from the PC takes about 1', so logically it seems to be capable of recording at a bandwith of 3 x CD spec audio.

As memory serves me, I did manage four tracks of Audition audio onto a Hi-MD - must repeat the experiment. Looking at the features, it's a pretty basic device, and in combination with Hi-MD it wouldn't be of any use in stealth situations, but combined with a small mixer (which could provide better control of level and provide monitoring etc etc - not to mention a mic input) it could make a pretty neat portable outfit. I don't doubt others like it may appear, perhaps with more facilitities. Spec from the site:- Sampling Rate: 44.1kHz, 16 Bit Dynamic Range: 98 dB THD+N: -91 dB Freq Response: 20Hz – 20kHz

http://www.ikey-audio.com/ikey.htm looks VERY interesting - think about it - could this be used to record on location to an MD recorder using it as a mass storage device, thus bypassing all the Sony drm etc stuff??

That's sad, but not surprising. I bought one of the first 50 officially released Sony DAT recorders in the UK back in Dec 87 - I still have DATs from late that year (can anyone better that?) - and continued to use DAT for location classical music recording until audio CDR, with its rapid download to PC for editing, outweighed the advantages of DAT. At that point I continued to use DAT as the backup recording (due to its long running times), but finally this year retired my trusty (and costly) HHB PortaDat in favour of an NH600, which as far as I am concered makes a very acceptable backup even in Hi-SP mode. The classical music radio station with which I am associated continues to use a combination of DAT, MD, Hi-MD PC and CDR recordings - I know they would welcome pro grade Hi-MD portables and rack mounted units, but sadly I very much doubt that we'll ever see them now.

MTBF is seriously misunderstood by most people - including me until a few minutes ago! - see http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref...l/specMTBF.html for a good explanation of what it actually means. You have to take the MTBF figure in conjunction with the service life figure. If the latter is five years and the former 50 years, it means that if you replace the drive every five years, after 50 years you'll be likely, on average, to have a failure. (I think).

My concern about my backups was simply that the levels may have been totally wrong - though even with the tiny meters on Hi-MD hardware I'd like to think I would have noticed at the time. Indeed. I use Sennheiser MKH series mics as the starting point, and that kinda helps.

I'm not having a good night.... first not reading the manual, then not reading the older very handy thread that daniel_cello mentioned. What dex now says ties up with my tests, then - there will be drift time-wise, but if you just bang the MD into record the default AGC ON setting will actually provide equal (well, near as dammit) levels. Unless needing to actually achieve perfect sync timewise with something else, for all practical purposes the recording should be fine. My precious recent backups having thus been recorded, they should be ok. Whew. My backups are to Hi-SP anyway..... so there goes bit-accuracy anyway.

Heh... well they shouldn't.... Here, comparing a CD rip of a track with an NH900 optical in recording of a track (with no regard to control settings). the two go out of sync quite quickly, which of course they shouldn't. So the transfer from CD to NH900 PCM is not bit accurate. I compared rips of the CD using two programs, and they are identical, which indicates it's not the CD ripping at fault. I compared a Total Recorder transfer with the latest version of the HiMDRenderer program's conversion to wave, and apart from a single sample part way through the 3 minute test file, they are identical. This points pretty conclusively to the NH900 being at fault. I'll play with some settings to see what difference it makes, but I guess Sony didn't anticipate anyone getting from their optical in > wave, so didn't bother with bit accuracy. Hmmm, shows I should read the manual. Indeed optical in recordings are affected by level etc settings, which I never realised. I've recently made a number of optical in recordings as backup to other media and never had cause to check the results, which are likely therefore to be somewhat iffy... Under the circumstances therefore I wouldn't expect a bit accurate transfer via optical in.

When recording digitally via the optical cable, level controls do not function, so I am mystified by your report that you've made changes in the recording by changing the manual recording level.

One of the issues with any lossy format is the consequence of multiple encode/decode cycles (eg in broadcast transmission chains, or if you use the format for re-editing rather than just for delivery. It would be interesting to see what happens if you re-encode the various ATRAC options say 10 times, which will quickly emphasise the inadequacies of each and put their merit/demerits beyond doubt. Obviously I could do that myself when time allows....

"We also intend to re-examine all aspects of our content protection initiative to be sure that it continues to meet our goals of security and ease of consumer use," the company said in a statement." Should we in the Minidisc Community be getting excited?

My MZ-1 rarely comes out of the cupboard these days, but my DCC recorder is still in the hifi rack in the lounge! But there's a JE520 above it. At one time you could get portable DCC machines but I never saw one.

Hi-HQ?

In theory such transformation should be possible but personally I don't know what the software provides. I imagine that the way it's been set up - asking for a bitrate at the outset - is to provide rapid transfer without recalculation. Changing the bitrate would require the whole thing to be redone, perhaps to no advantage compared with ripping the CD again.

Atrac Advanced Lossless:- http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-...c-family-04.txt contains... "Early versions of the ATRAC codec handled only two channels of audio at 44.1kHz sampling frequency, with typical bit-rates between 66kbps and 132kbps. The latest version allows for a maximum 8 channels of audio, up to 96kHz in sampling frequency, and a lossless encoding option which can be transmitted in either a scalable (also known as High-Speed Transfer mode) or standard (aka Standard mode) format. The feasible bit-rate range has also expanded, allowing from a low of 8kbps up to 1400kbps in lossy encoding modes." "As ATRAC supports a variation on scalable encoding, this payload format provides a mechanism for transmitting essential data (also referred to as the base layer) with its enhancement data in two ways -- multiplexed through one session or separated over two sessions. In either method, only the base layer is essential in producing audio data. The enhancement layer carries the remaining audio data needed to decode lossless audio data. So in situations of limited bandwidth, the sender may choose not to transmit enhancement data yet still provide a client with enough data to generate lossily-encoded audio through the base layer." Copyright © The Internet Society (2005). Here's my amateur explanation, which may be wide of the mark - what this does is to rip a lossy compressed version from your CD, plus all the audio info missing from the lossy version. Add these two together and you get the original. That's what you get when you play back the lossless version on your PC. What goes to your MD (or whatever) is the lossy version without the second part. When you rip the CD, you choose a bitrate for the lossy part. Choose a low bitrate and you will have a small file for transfer to your MD and a large file containing the remainder. Choose a high bitrate and you will have a larger file to transfer to your MD and a less large file containing the remainder. (These may not actually be separate files on your PC but the whole lot bundled into one like having several files in one zip file).