The Low Volta

if live rec'ing is your thing, maybe HiMD is the way to go: USB uploading of your own recordings to PC (minidisc australia has good deals on the 1st gen HiMD's and so does minidisco I believe)

hey greg... you even have a pack of cookies in your sig and you say you have nothing to write on food besides, I mostly put down what I had right before I came to my PC... I try to avoid eating near a keyboard as well BTW: right now (i.e. 08:48am) I haven't had anything yet, not even coffee...which annoys me very much (caffeine junk you say...) *edit: yay, just (i.e. 09:01am) grabbed myself a steaming hot cup of black courage! That first cup of C of the day is always a special moment

search for posts/threads by greenmachine... he once posted a whole bunch of test-files with different mic setups for 'as you heard it stereo separation' a very good setup is with your own head between the mics and to place them as close to your ears as possible... still this requires you to sit/stand perfectly still and to prevent yourself from uttering any sound (I have a great live rec with me coughing through a nice silent part...pretty scary as I noticed it when listening back through headphones while walking through a dark neighbourhood and I honestly thought I was being followed )

for me it's quite simple: when I go and buy a new pair of headphones, no way that I'm going to wait 150+ hours till I can use them I just start using them right away because of two main reasons: - they will burn in anyway (whether it is real or not, I don't really care... if it is real then it will happen anyway, if it isn't I haven't wasted so many hours not listening ) - I do believe that the sound 'improves' in the first 100 hours... not necessarily by 'burn in' (as I said, no clue whether it really exists) but certainly because I get used to the sound pattern/signature of the phones and other parameters like finding the best eq-setting for the phones... I really enjoy the adaptation of my brain to the phones and if the phones also adjust to my brain that would be very polite indeed

that's the one I use (the battery) but I wouldn't buy it off ebay unless I really had to I bought mine new in a shop for €7 (which would be +/-£4,7) which is lower than the listed price (including shipping) so just have a look at your regular electronics shop (or photo-shop as these are also used in cameras etc) best is to get two with a charger as that will be better on the batteries and reduces the chance of it swelling inside the recorder and damaging it

even though 'manual' itself isn't remembered, the manual level is remembered if set above 13/30 (if it was set lower than 13 it will revert to 13 next time you enter the menu)... this is just another strange Sony thing if it is this easy to answer I will ignore the fact that this stuff is ask-n-answered before but: it still is wise to read the 'live rec faqs' and 'pinned threads' as they contain a lot of info

hi and welcome to MDCF...sorry to say: "that is the only way to operate it" congratulations! you have just discovered the most frequent complaint about the HiMD hardware! be sure to check out these forums, lots more info in here

thanks greenmachine... I somewhat figured you'd contribute to this thread this kinda confirms my suspicions, don't believe the hype no really, I wished there was some 'standardisation' in specs and also a good guide for eager shoppers to teach them (and me) what to look for. It simply isn't always possible to try before buying... Belgium simply isn't good for electronics so I'm often buying from the net based on reviews/tips

small question for the more knowledgable here on MDCF: as human hearing doesn't reach far above 20kHz nor far under 20Hz, what good does such a frequency range do?? Is it just complete sales-bull or is there a reason for a wider range than one can actually hear? And how "trustworthy" are those ranges given on product pages...I mean, who checks that stuff... or could we actually use it as an argument when shopping around? Disclaimer: I do not say these are bad phones (I do not know them actually) and honestly the ones I use (Panasonic RP-JE50) are rated as 6-23k Hz, which could be just as pointless

as opposed to what other bitrate? ouch sorry for this lousy joke...I'm not really awake yet

it seems indeed that the problem lies with the MP3's, or more correctly in the way SS handle them perhaps you could try this: -remove a bunch of MP3's (one group or something) from the SS-library (but NOT from the PC, make sure that checkbox remains unchecked) - delete all .omg and/or .oma files from your PC - reimport the MP3's into SS - see if this changes their behaviour um, when you converted the wav to A3/A3+ why do you need to import the files into SS? What I meant was: open SS, import music file (ctrl-O), import a wav or an MP3, search the file in the SS library, right-click, convert format, select the format you desire and uncheck the copy protection checkbox, wait for conversion to happen, after successful conversion it will be showing in its original format but if you right-click the file again and select file info, you will see the different versions/formats the file exists in... so actually it already is in the library ah, perhaps it could be interesting to check under file info whether the location of the MP3's is correct...the error does say 'could be that SS doesn't find the files'... but you say the MP3's do play in SS so that wouldn't make any sense... I'm quite baffled, perhaps someone else has any further ideas?

- if it happens at the same track/time, it's probably something with the CD, try ripping with Exact Audio Copy and import the wav's into SS, then transfer - "the disc is toast" - sorry, but ??? the only way to be toast would be physical damage to the disc surface itself... if it just doesn't read anything, use SS, SB or the recorder itself to reformat... if it really doesn't work, check the disc in someone elses HiMD (if possible) if it still doesn't work and the disc is totally screwed then it would mean the recorder is damaging the disc (but for this to happen on two recorders at the same time would be very unlucky/unlikely) check the things I mentioned and please report back PS: and sorry, no you can't slow the transfer down

I have 9 HiMD discs of which I reserve 3 for recording purposes and 6 are filled with great tunes as greenmachine also mentioned I didn't really need that much, I got by with the one that came with my NH900... but then I saw minidisc australia's offer on ebay and couldn't resist the shiny blue discs. I ordered 5 thinking I would have more than I would ever need. At the exact same time my sister and brother in law bought me another 3 (older opaque) 1gb discs just cause they found them in a shop and knew I had a HiMD and that the 1gb discs were pretty hard to find here in Belgium (yes, I have very nice relatives, I know :lol ) so now I have 9 and I think I will only be buying more 80 min discs from now on

just a couple of quick questions to see where the prob might be: - does SS allow you to convert an MP3 to A3/A3+? - does SS allow you to convert wav to A3/A3+? - does SS allow you to transfer a A3/A3+ track to HiMD? (if you can't create A3/A3+ tracks you cn't check this of course) - does SS allow you to initialize/format a disc? If so does this change anything concerning transfer? - have you checked the prefs (connect the HiMD, tools/options/transfer/himd/transfer settings/advanced) there is an option 'not to transfer' formats that aren't understood by the player, see if this isn't checked and check 'convert to specified bitrate' let us now the results of these tests and I hope we can help you... HiMD is too much fun to let it be ruined by SS-troubles

burns, have a look at this thread... to gain bass, you do not need to raise any bands, just lower some I'm on a flat -1 on all six bands and I have never experienced a nice and deep bass like this before on my NH900, lowering to -2 might do even more

try turning the automatic conversion to wav OFF, this has caused errors for me before! - just upload without conversion - try to manually convert to wav in SS - if that doesn't work, try marcnet's HiMDRenderer to convert to wav hope this helps for future uploads

any other conlficting MP3(-containing) codec(packs) installed?

dex: (as so often ) you could really be on to something here... I actually never gave it any thoughts why SB required SS so indeed perhaps SB is using the codecs from SS ... in which case I'm even happier with my current way of transfering as any improvements in the HiSP codec could also be present in SB. now if only someone with better knowledge of computers than me could confirm this

1.) = speediest and very good if you do not want to start an .omg (atrac) music library on your PC 2.) takes more effort and time, the HiSP codec could be improved since previous versions (and also in comparison to SB) but I haven't really noticed it yet so it does not warrant the extra time/effort for me (perhaps in the future it might, but then again there might be a newer SB with the improved codecs etc as well) 3.) totally useless IMHO: the lossless part is only used by the PC for playback in SS, the transfer to HiSP is exactly the same as in method 2.) but a bit faster as you will have a HiSP part 'ready' in the lossless file. But if you ever want to transfer in another bitrate the HiSP version is used (not the lossless file) so it is recoding and SQ-loss! Further more there are currently no atrac-devices that can play lossless. So really useless unless you want to manage an atrac library in SS, mainly listen through PC and SS and only transfer in HiSP still, I only use the SB method as I'm mostly to impatient for double work

I do understand your frustration Taper420, but I'd advise you to hang on to your RH10 till the M-track has proven reliable and up to your standards... I have read too many negative reports on that machine to really trust it (at least there is a way to get around most of the sony quirks, but the M-track has some serious issues IIRC)

try WMA-lossless, all the audio-info of wav, but less space needed and it can be directly imported into SS (unlike flack/wavepack/...)

just a quick update slobjones: the one-time-only upload restriction is gone now

NH700 & NH800 also take an AA internally, no add-on

when selecting an entire CD, don't use the track-level in the library, just go up one step to group/CD/playslist level and select the group/cd/playlist you want to transfer and press transfer, this keeps the tracks gapless if they were before and also negates your problem probably

I don't think it is compatible with other models (or the PCM has to be recorded on an M-model to be understood by the mac) but anyway, without an M-model you won't be getting anywhere IIRC (there is a very complete pinned thread about the mac ability and software on these forums, search for it a bit) if you have a PC and a mac and you want to edit on mac, why not just upload, convert to wav, transfer to mac and edit... sounds easier (well cheaper) than getting an M-model PS: the mac software is (or at least was) downloadable from the downloads section...but then again, as I already said, it won't be of any use