petertkalec

Good ideas, thanks folks. I will add the software to my home server which is relatively disaster-proof. As in, if there is a disaster that causes me to lose data then my copy of sonic stage will be the least of my worries. At that point my focus would turn to food, shelter and my loved ones. Anyway, for the hardware it sounds like there's not much past taking the batteries out and storing in a cool, dry place. Easy enough. As for keeping a PC around that can run SS... I have a few old clunkers around, but I doubt that I'd hold on to one specifically to interact with a MD player. Instead I'll roll the dice on compatibility modes and other work-arounds... and I'll probably get burned. haha. Maybe I should make a list of stuff to review for obsolescence every so often. Damn I'm a geek. I'm thinking of checking old software, hardware every few years to see if it still works, and then scavenging to find a working system from my junk piles or pawn shops or whatever. finding something 3-5 years out of vogue is easy & cheap - finding something 20-25 years out of vogue is much more difficult and pricey. You're right on Sony's engineering though... I fully expect my MD players to work after 10 years in storage just as my childhood Sony Sports walkman still worked when I found it in a shoe box a few years ago. That would have been 20 years. And it had batteries left inside... leaked all over the contacts etc. I cleaned them up and replaced the mixed tape that was left inside... voila! hissy, high speed-dubbed (probably) songs from the 80s!

SO – I’m probably not the only one. I’ve gone to a more convenience-based solid state media player with buckets of storage, no DRM issues, etc. I have a few MD players (portables) which I still love and very occasionally use for field recording. But basically they are sitting in my drawer and have been for a couple years. I think it’s time to put them into a more deliberate & long-term storage spot. I took out the batteries and coiled up my AC adapters. I plan to throw in CD with SillyStage and other MD software so that if/when I want to bring my gear back to life I will be able to. I will likely throw in a silica gel packet or two for good measure. A MD with my current fav’s might be fun for when I pull the players out from time to time. Can anyone else think of any good ideas for retiring my gear?

Jeez, not much going on in the MD world when the front page news is that someone used a MD to conduct an interview.

Like the black Smurf.

I recently bought my first iPod (5g 30GB) and it's perfect for me. I still have two MDs (NH-900 & N707) which I find myself being MORE happy with since getting my iPod, but not because of any fault in the latter. The reason being, my iPod now houses lots of my music. Even though I could fill a few iPods, 30GB is enough space to carry around loads of high-quality (256+) MP3s. On the other hand, my MD recorders are both used for recording. I love to play aroud with field recordings and I like inserting original samples into DJ sessions - it really makes a performance sound warm, original, and trippy. Basically, I hated juggling my everyday listening and recording on MD decks. I know in theory this should be a non-issue, but in between keeping battery levels high for recording, having enough free space on a disc to immediately switch from playing to recording when an opportunity presented itself, and the years-long struggle with Sony's software (though it's finally come to a respectable, er, functional spot), I just found the MD player/recorder dual function to be a bit of a strain on what the unit could live up to. It's kind of like how you'd love to have a computer loaded with all the high-end graphics, desktop publishing, video editing, dvd-burning, tv-recording software and hardware, and how you can (in theory) do it all on today's machines, but how that same computer performs a million times better with only a few dedicated tasks... anyone follow me on this? Anyhow, for going abroad, the new iPods have what the company is calling "CD-quality recording" capabilities... though I can't imagine they'll comapre with MD's capabilities. And as far as I know none of the 5g mics are out yet. All say "coming soon". If recording is important to you can you just can't bring yourself to carry both (plus all the associated gear, discs, etc) then bring the MD. Although I've had a lot of trouble with my MD abroad... Mostly my fault, but problems that wouldn't have happened with an iPod. BTW - where are you going?

Hi everyone, I hope somebody will be able to suggest some CD/DVD burning software for me. It seems that everything is so cumbersome, and includes so many add-ons like media players and editors etc. Nero is a perfect example of a really great piece of software that has lately gotten completely out of control. Any suggestions?

See this thread: http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/...0605100172.html

Hi everybody, I've been a MD user (MZ-N707 four years ago and an MZ-NH900 pre-ordered from Sony, I was so excited about Hi-MD) for a while and finally, right around the same time my re-built NH900 (I had it repaired while under warranty) started trashing discs (edits on the machine would render the discs to that wonderful "cannot play or record" mode) a friend of mine got a 5th gen iPod (30GB, video). It rocked, and I took my tax return to my local technology dealer and picked up the best thing that ever happened to my portable listening experience. I had been on the fence about getting an iPod - I loved MD (still do in a way, namely the recording way - though I'm looking forward to trying out griffin's PCM recorder with AGC add-on for the 5th gen iPods). Coming to these forums kept me on the format for a little longer than healthy, so I just wanted to encourage anyone else who is on the fence: the iPod is leap-years ahead of MD for playing music & media. It's not quite perfect, but it's pretty close. There's more than marketing behind the masses buying up iPods: they're great hardware. PS - I guess some sound quality issues have been addressed in these 5th gens; I read that iPods didn't sound this good a year or two ago.

I think 130k VBR compared to Atrac 132 is fair... the best MP3 can do at a given file size vs the best Atrac can do at a similar file size. Or did I miss your point?

Try using Isobuster (http://www.isobuster.com/)or Winrar (http://www.rarlabs.com) to extract the files onto your HD, then copy to hi-MD. I think this should work.

Goddamn... I've once again settled in to an internet cafe and committed to the download and installation procedure. Rebooted, loaded my hi-md and started to re-order some songs within an album/group. Two songs successfully moved, then the unit flashed "Access Error" then SS crashed, then once disconnected from the PC the unit tells me "Cannot record or play" followed by "Create Audio File?" and then "Push Yes: Enter No: Cancel" Popping out the disc, then the battery, then putting it all back together yields the same result. Frikkin piece of crap.

You think it was operator error? What did I do wrong?

So I'm from Canada and travelling in Asia. I've travelled with my Hi-MD before and my NetMD before that, and each time I've discoverred new frustrations. This time I transferred a butt-load of music to five Hi-MDs just before leaving, only to discover - while on the plane from Toronto to Hong Kong - that the songs in each group weren't in the order that they appear on the album. Damn. Do you know how much of a pain it is to manually re-order songs on the MD unit? After correcting a few folders, I realized that having to re-oder every song on the five discs was out of the question. So after a week in China I've arrived in Thailand - a litteral paradise. I'm vacationing for two months, and I broke down today and sat in an internet cafe and downloaded SonicStage on a mediocre connection. When it came time to re-boot I asked the dude if my efforts would be lost, if the public computer would undo any changes that I made to it. He instructed my to switch computers, and I thought, "no problem, I'll just drag & drop the installer files to my Hi-MD (flash drive)." That way I wouldn't have to re-download everything. After copying the files I used the WinXP hardware wizard thingee to stop the device before disconnecting it, then pressed stop on my MD and the unit told me, "Okay to Eject" or whatever it says. I ejected, then unplugged my cable and moved over to the other computer. When I re-inserted my disc it told me, "Format Error Disc" followed by "Format to record or Play?". Damn. When I plug in the unit (to the USB port on this second machine) it reads "Access Error". So now I'm re-downloading the installer files, and using the extra time to rant. While I will continue to use my Hi-MD for recording - I've had great success recording and uploading - this thing is nothing but trouble otherwise. For daily playback I'm getting an iPod. Probably one of those cool Nanos. - Peter.

I'm in! 1. HI-MD (Maybe an 80min formatted to Hi-SP? Is that cool?) 2. International is great (National - Canada - is OK too)

Well, you can do it WITH sonicstage, before you get your MD, by downloading SS from http://forums.minidisc.org/downloads/details.php?file=21