The Low Volta

hi there rdwhitehill, glad to read SS is actually working for you. I must say that it has always worked quite flawlessly for me as well (and I started with 2.0 and have done every upgrade without ever uninstalling anything). I do agree that all this 'SS Sucks' stuff can take a bit of counterweight... cause even though this site is a great source of info for MD I get the feeling a number of ppl are getting scared by the numerous 'I hate SS'-threads or even won't get MD because of some restrictions that are gone since SS moved into the 3.-stage. But... uhm... correct me if I'm wrong here ppl...but isn't the whole point we all switched from NetMD to HiMD that you can't move anything from MD -> PC with NetMD? Perhaps you were tricked into believing this as it did allow something called "check-in" stemming from the days long gone where there was a "check-out" limit on tracks in your library. you could move a track in your library only to three different discs/devices so after those three times one needed to check a track back in before it could be transfered again. But it didn't really upload the track from MD -> PC only a code that added one to the SS counter and then erased the track on MD. NetMD's USB connection is strictly PC -> MD so to speak. Your device is a downloader (a 'D'-model) so this wouldn't really be of much interest to you, but just to get things straight... if you could record anything on MD with a NetMD (through mic-in or line-in) it is pretty much stuck there unless you rerecord it in realtime to PC/mac (line-out MD -> line-in PC). The RH1 (which isn't out yet) will overcome this limit, but further on that on other threads (check the news section). With HiMD you can actually just plug in the USB and 'upload' the recordings digitally and faster than realtime to PC (not mac, unless with the M-models or the RH1) so sorry for this long post just to correct one thing... but digital uploading from NetMD doesn't work... have fun with MD and SS3.4 and see you around on these forums

shion by using the eq settings greenmachine showed us (-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2) you can get real deep bass with the NH900 (of course you need a bit of efficient headphones as you will need to raise the overall volume a bit) ditching HiMD for lack of bass seems rediculous to me, if bass is so important for you and the anove setting doesn't do enough for you...just eq the songs that require the massive bass beforehand in an audio-editor?

besides... you really have got to find a new hobby if 'someone ditching apple' would make you happy in my life apple (my 12" G4 powerbook, my girlfriend's 12" G4 powerbook, my mom's 15" G4 iBook, my dad's 15" G3 powerbook, my friend's iPods: shuffle and 60gb's) get along just fine with all other brands (my NH900, 17" HP-Pavllion portable, external HDD used by almost all aforementioned computers,...) just use what makes you happy

both models will do what you want... the NH900 has a little bit more features but you probably wont need them, the NH800 comes with a rubbish radio in the remote...but it runs on an AA-battery which is easy to get everywhere (there's also a NH700 which is exactly the same as the NH800 but without a radio) the 2nd gen HiMD's could be interesting as well (RH910/RH10) but they really do not offer much over 1st gen IMHO (except for the nice OLED display on the RH10) if you do not mind waiting a bit and spending some more...the RH (finally a HiMD really designed for recording) comes out in May/Jume just search around on these forums (as there are a lot of review threads and a couple of threads on the RH1)... for info on mics, just search/check for posts by greenmachine or A440 as they really are our main source of mic-wisdom

this is a bit OT (and there are enough threads on the subject already) but it isn't as reliable/ still MP3 is lossy><PCM is CD-quality/what about the inputs (mic)in/line-in) and pre-amps/... as I said, if it really was an alternative... a lot of ppl here would have switched (including me perhaps, Ilove HiMD as it is a great recorder, not because I 'love the format')

so are the flacs real? I'm thinking one could test this by buying a flac of a track one has on CD then decoding the flac to wav and comparing bit-by-bit to the wav directly ripped from CD or even a comparison between a lossy version and the flac could already indicate whether there is 'more info' or not

ChrisG: you posted your pic the right way, it was attached so just click it to reveal the full scale (the scaled down preview helps ppl with low bandwith connections to load threads more easily and keeps the bandwith use of this site within acceptable limits)

as a 'dedicated portable player' you might be right... but would you care to share the recording alternative (same price range/reliability/ease of use/SQ/...)

I must admit that I'm rather oldfashioned and still buy my CD's as CD's... and when I feel like piracy I just copy the CD's from my friends but my collegue swears by AoMP3.com. I dunno what format he buys, but when he showed me the site he pointed out the other options (like flac). I haven't bought any yet... so I can't really contribute to the discussion I must say that you have brought up a very good point and I should check with my collegue to see if it makes a difference (I believe the higher bitrates cost a bit more, not?) in SQ

If you do not mind walking the thin line of legitimacy...there's always allofMP3.comUnlike what their name makes you believe, this Russian ( it is legit in Russia) online music store offers downloads in a bunch of formats and Flac is among them (perhaps even other lossless ones) and they still are dirt cheap!

be sure to check the mics and battery boxes made by greenmachine (there's a DIY-thread, but he sells pre-made ones as well) as they are very stealthy, very good and not really expensive for what they really are worth! if you're in the US, be sure to check the SoundProfessionals online store... they sell reasonably priced stuff (the SP-BMC2's are quite good starter mics) I would go omni and manual rec levels as well (if really loud use Mic -> batt-box -> line-in as this will avoid distortion even when recording some really loud stuff)

blueradja... just follow the "uncapped thanks to MDCF"-link in my signature... it shows the exact key sequence for uncapping the NH900 (and other 1st gen HiMD-models)

as CD's work fine and downloaded MP3's don't I'm guessing that the quality (and bitrate) of those MP3's simply is too low to be converted without annoying artifacts what bitrate etc are the MP3's? Maybe try to rip a good MP3 yourself and see what that does when transfered (just to eliminate possibilities)

why such a difficult traject sebastian? just rip your CD with EAC (exact audio copy) and import the wavs into SS and convert to whatever bitrate A3+ you like (ok, you will need to title the tracks manually, but for one CD that's nothing)

sorry for nagging (again ) but RobA, you really need to learn to use the search function... these last days you have started numerous new threads...but each and all of them addressed issues that have been discussed before (in extent) mostly when the RH10 (on which all your questions focus) was just out... ok these threads may seem old(er), but the solutions/suggestions etc are still valid!

the general rule is do not double post...especially if the first post was in the correct subsection of the forums... I see no reason why this rule should be broken in this case! (sometimes if there is no answer, it just means noone can answer your question! and besides...this is a forum, not a live-chat...sometimes things can take a little while until the right person reads the thread...still no reason to double-post) PS: please respond to the first thread if you have suggestions to ChrisG's problem so the mods can easily remove this one

with non-HiMD it is possible to restore the TOC... but I do not know exactly how to do it (never had NetMD or MDLP myself)...you could serach for TOC-clone/TOC-error or something alike as it is discussed before here on MDCF but as it does this regularly I'm afraid that your recorder could be dying

your specs are well within the requirements and pretty well updated (SP-wise)... you should check the advanced settings under the transfer settings to see what it converts to if it can't transfer as is... as you have a NetMD this should be set to LP2 (or SP, but with SS this is actually the same SQ as LP2, so pretty useless unless for compatitbility with SP-only equipment) I believe the standard is a HiMD-mode so this wouldn't be understood by your NetMD... what are the specs of the track? MP3/wav/... what frequency/bitrate... as this would determine as well if your NetMD could understand the format do other tracks (try a fresh rip into LP2 from a CD) work? Hope we can further isolate the problem this way...as MD is way too much fun to be causing troubles! PS: my avatar is a moving jpeg made in ImageReady from a number of shots of the toilet in my former student house flushing

have you checked all transfer-options in SS (perhaps it is trying to transfer 'as is' with an unsupported format for your NetMD and the alternative action is 'do nothing' or something alike ... sorry, I'm on a mac right now, so I can't check my SS to see if there even is such an option) have you tried another disc? have you tried an empty disc initialised by SS have you read the rules for software support? (i.e. post your system specs and as much info as you can)

LION...you are absolutely correct! I just grabbed my NH900 and it does it too! I dunno why I was under the impression they couldn't...I guess I must have read discussions about the 2nd gen and misinterpreted them. SORRY! still it shows that I really do not need this feature with HiMD! I just use HiSP and it gives me ample of time without compromising stereo or SQ

I had already voted in this poll...but I hadn't explained my choice yet: I chose yes, but I wouldn't buy it for the deck and NO for the car-unit. Why? well, I honestly believe HiMD has a future still, but only as a recording medium. I do not mean this in a restrictive way: you can all use it as a playback medium if you want to, but you can do this already! a decent car-unit with aux -in will give you as good a SQ as you can hope to achieve in a car (ever heard of engine noise etc?) On the other hand, I am very happy with the announced RH1, a true recorder! Sony has finally chosen a path to go for with HiMD: amateur and (semi-)pro recording. I think this is a more realistic path than trying to compete with the HDD and flash-based players out there. So a deck could be useful, but indeed a pro-deck that allows pro-users more editing-options and playback for pro uses (radio etc) but would I buy one? No, I have a need for a (portable) recorder which can upload to a Pc (preferably a mac). After that I can do with the recordings what I want (burn on CD for HiFi listening, convert to the codec of choice for playback on a dedicated portable player of choice, connect this player to the car-unit through an aux-in,... you name it) what I am afraid of is that by trying to get Sony to read yet another 'petition' we're really overdoing it! At a moment where Sony has just announced a great unit that actually has the most requested feature: "uploading of legacy formats" and a whole lot more features WE requested... we're not really giving positive feedback (yeah, a bit in the dedicated RH1-thread...but even there...) we're again nagging about the thing we didn't get from Sony yet (mono-recording, a car unit, a deck,...) To be honest, if I was a Sony CEO and I read those remarks, I would say: "screw 'em all! I'm ditching HiMD right here, right now 'cause whatever we do, even if we give them the features they ask for thsi nagging bunch of ppl will always find another thing we've forgotten and it won't be good enough ever. Perhaps we could have sold a bunch of units to them and perhaps we might lose a bunch of customers now... but this doesn't weigh up to the peace and quiet we gain if we simply stop supporting the format!" please do not read to much in this... I had a long day at work and it looks like it will continue for a couple of hours still! but really you guys should learn to be glad with what you've got from time to time life's quite a bit nicer if one doesn't complain all the time! and now I'm going to listen to my own advice and take a welldeserved dinner-break (it's 6pm here) and afterwards go back to work with renewed energy

just to add to qwarkz explanation: none of the HiMD machines that can record in the legacy formats (1st gen HiMD = the NH-models and the RH1) can do SP-mono! They can play it back, but recording in SP-mono definitely is a thing of the past... *edit: sorry, this is absolute rubbish I was saying here! sorry...I guess I'm a bit too tired

doesn't M3U2SB need SS installed (or parts thereof) to work? I really do not think it actually avoids using SS ... a bit OT, but I was wondering about that

happy b-day stuge ... and also thanks Adrian!

your RH1 doesn't come out till May/June so I guess there's a mixup in model numbers here further, as you can play the disc...first recorde it with Audacity (see downloads section) or something alike...that way at least can't lose the content of the disc