tomluvsgiants

First of all, thanks for all the great help at this wonderful site!! I've been recording MD (mostly stealth at medium to large concerts) for about 6 months and have been getting better results thanks to this great forum. If I am armed with my gear, and able to get myself located where I'd LIKE to be....I seem to have pretty good luck. My rig: Sony MZ-N707 (blue!) Sound Professionals BUDGET MINI BINAURAL MICROPHONES SP-SPSB-2 SOUND PROFESSIONALS SUPER MINI BATTERY MODULE (ADD ATEN CABLE OUTPUT ) I've been very happy with the results, since my earlier recordings were all rather 'blown out' sounding due to the lack of a battery source.....though now I find myself cranking the level meter up to the maximum level at most club gigs and concerts. Even then I find that the levels are much lower than I'd like and I think that I shall need to get myself a mic preamp....as my GUESS is that it would give a boost in power to the mics and enable me to record the quieter, acoustic, club performances with better (higher) levels. I've taken to a direct SBD patch in cases where I think the concert may be too quiet to record AUD.....which works great, but I'm going to be seeing similar concerts where SBD access is absolutely NOT an option and would like to be able to make a high-quality recording while remaining STEALTH. looking for suggestions on these items- 1. my *next* mic purchase (something stealthy that can also be used for recording small club/bar gigs where I have full access, loud rock to solo acoustic) price range of under $250-$300 for the pair?? 2. (these are obviously not in order of neccesity) New Soundcard for my compaq presario XP machine. not trying to break the bank, but i understand that replacing the original card that came with the computer will enhance my final (CDR always) product? 3. when patching into a SBD or AUD source (as I'll do when attening a taper-friendly show where other, more professional tapers are located) I picked up an optical cable since the diagram on the box at FRYs said MD-->DAT....but I don't leave the house with it any longer after getting laughed out of a couple taper sections. So I've been using a cable just like the one currently linking my MD to my compaq via the headphone jacks....in the above situations, LINE IN or MIC in??? Thanks SOOO much for any assistance or stories any of you'd be kind enough to share!

Well I used my new Sound Professional binaural mics and mini-battery pack with stereo attenuator cable and everything went great except for one little problem......the Sony MZ-N707 kept shutting down! I started recording and placed the MD in my front shirt pocket (I was seated in a theatre) and when I checked it later it had 'turned off' 16 minutes into the recording. I know that I had 'HOLD' on, since I couldn't re-start until switching it off, and dunno what caused it. Got it restarted and kept it on my lap, and then watched in horror as it shut down again about 12 minutes later. Setbreak came and I put a fresh battery in (it was indicating 3/4 power still remaining before hand....but) and then got a line-patch from somone's DAT rig. Kept the MD player on my lap to keep an eye on it, and didn't have any problems at all and got the second set no problem. This 'turning off' phenom has occurred a few different times, and is freaking me out a bit. Someone said that the mics may be pulling too much power off the MD, but I imagine the 12volt battery module from SP *should* be taking care of that. any suggestions from a struggling newbie? happy new year to all!

First off, thanks so much for your invaluable help & positive attitudes! I am now at 'version2.0' as I am hoping that I have addressed the issues that plagued by 1.0 recording experiences with the Sony MZ-N707.....they are certainly familiar to all of you. ;-) First move was purchasing some actual mics & I bought the Sound Professionals budget mini-binaurals (SP-BMC-2) that have been on SALE of late! I've got long, curly hair that falls well blow my shoulders so with the At-Lav Clips I think I should be able to get them good stereo seperation between my shirt collar and my shoulder moving away from my left & right ears. I do still have my long hair, which means I didn't pull it ALL out dealing with the frequent 'clipping' of the MZ-N707 and other headaches related to recording levels I've battled. To that end I also bought the SP Super Mini Battery Module (SP-SPSB-2) and had them add an ATEN CABLE OUTPUT in hopes of having another method to control levels of recording. I'll be recording a very loud band with full amplification in a 1100 seat room, and I'm HOPING to come away with something listenable that I can share with friends that doesn't suffer from level-overload & clipping. I'll be using fresh battries in everything, plenty of Sony MD in tow, and I just wanted some input as to my best bet for handling the levels tonite. I'm ASSUMING that I'll be using the battery module to bypass the louder MIC input and will be plugging my input into the LIN option on the MD. My hesitant question is whether or not I should use the AVLS (auto level) OPTION or whether I should set the levels myself. Last week I attempted to set the levels myself (without all the ver2.0 additional hardware) and failed miserably with a blown-out/distorted recording. My prayer is that the battery module will provide enough power to keep the mics from getting blown out (better mics this week too....fingers crossed) ....but I'm still clueless as to where to have the VOL/REC LEV bar set at when this show begins??? In reading other posts I notice that my MZ-NZ707 does NOT have a numerical vol/rec level measurer, rather just a length of line similar to an auto's gas level gauge. Do I leave it at the 50% mark & then bring the stereo atten cable just to 85-90% of being turned UP all the way and hope for the best? The MD has a less-than-triumphant display screen for following the levels in a dark hall while being stealth. And with the stereo atten cable's adjustment wheel.....how often does or doesn't that get adjusted during a rock concert in a medium size hall like mine tonight? Oh yes....last week had the unfortunate occurence of the MD player shutting OFF (hold WAS activated previously!) for no apparent reason towards the end of the set. I noticed only for glancing at the time remaining before the encore and seeing that it was actually.....dead. I've cleaned up all my input/output cables & such with alcohol, and will keep my motion to a MINIMUM.....but has anyone every had this rather nasty event to deal with? Thanks SO MUCH for your expertise and friendliness.....and ANY suggestions would be SO APPRECIATED.....middle of the floor in the sweet spot sound wise for best sound? or attempt to get up close as possible? thanks so much!! ;-) t X b

Thanks SOO MUCH for the help! I used audacity to get the music into a WAV file, now was wondering if anyone could reccomend a good open-source program to manipulate the WAV file into tracks & such before I burn to CD?? thanks again, you folks ROCK-- t

Greetings Friends, A while ago I 'inherited' a SONY MD MZ-N707 (the blue one) from a friend as it was agreed upon that I would have the best opportunity to actually record some live concerts and get some use out of the player which hadn't seen any. My first reaction was LUCKY ME!! But now as I am nearly bald from pulling out my hair whilst trying to figure this thing out I'm beginning to have some doubts. I recorded two entire concerts recently and have played the MD back through attached headphones and am somewhat pleased with the results. HOW DO I GET THIS CONVERTED TO A WAVE file or some other method of making a CDR of my recording?? A friend said to get "Pro Tools" but I am running Windows XP-Home and Pro-tools will not work with my set-up, I guess. So I searched around for a while and have downloaded both Net MD & Sonic Stage which I believe should be able to help me move my recordings from MD to WAVE(??). Now I've got the MD player hooked up to my Compaq via the headphone jack (per my friends instruction) and while I can now play the MD through the speakers of my computer system, I can't use the software because Sonic Stage refuses to recognize the MD player as being attached. Could someone please let me know if I am doing this wrong? Am I barking up the wrong tree with Sonic Stage alltogether? Am I kidding myself thinking that I'll be able to use this MD MZ-N707 for anything other than recording stealth concerts on MD that ONLY I will be able to enjoy......can I really not create WAVs?? Thanks so much for any and all help.....there's nothing more I'd like to do than record some of the concerts I'm lucky enough to see and share my results with good folks like yourselves. tXb