The Low Volta

@ MadMaster... glad to read about your positive experiences as well and sorry to hear about the uploading troubles/gaps... sharing these things is very useful to gain more ideas and to learn even more tips for better recordings... the mics greenmachine sent me are pretty low-sensitivity so I recorded mics->battbox->line in with rec levels (manually of course ) between 20/30 (for the Blood Brothers) and 25/30 (for most other shows) depnding on the loudness of the band playing and the stage (pukkelpop has 8 different stages) I was recording from

ppl stopping for no reason I'm the kind of person that walks a lot... but I use my feet as a means of transport, not just for fun or because I have nothing else to do with my life... when I need to get from A->B and they aren't very far apart, I walk. others seem to make a habit of going A->C->D->E->back to C->H->Y->Z->J->forgot my wallet at D->...->B which would not even bother me if they wouldn't insist on doing all his @ 0.5 km/h and full stopping every now and then for no apparent reason at all! it's not like they have seen something in a window or there's a turd in front of them, no just "hm... I'm walking so slowly that I have actually forgotten where I'm going" I normally live in Brussels and unless you're in the main shopping streets, everything is quite ok overthere... but at the moment I'm staying at my parent's house in a little provincial town called Hasselt and ppl overhere are so f'ing slow everywhere... I must have bumped into at least a hundred sleepwalking dozers from behind as they just stop without reason/warning so ppl WAKE UP and do something with your lives! And I consider doing nothing a very worthy 'action'... but do nothing in a fun and less annoying way, like swinging in a hammock with good music on yer phones or laying by the pool... whatever but not by vegetating on the sidewalk... If this goes on like that, I'll have to start walking on the road, as my speed is closer to the cars around here as to the other ppl walking but this is not really serious enough to ruin my day so I keep a smile on my face, an MD on my belt and some phones in my ears and I just play bumpercar BTW: get well soon atrain!!

well, not to disrespect you at all leon... if your setup works for you, use it by all means! but I guess we have a slightly different idea of 'crap'... or at least of 'good' recordings: - T-mics are handy but do not really provide any decent stereo image I have heard - the mic clipped to your back trouser pocket? have you ever kneeled down at a concert and listened to what you are hearing at your bum's level? I was really glad I grew to 1.75m so I'm no longer the smallest one in the crowd... I started going to festivals at 12 and I was really small back then... for years I thought the sound balance at festivals really sucked, not realizing it sounded pretty great once your ears recieve the music freely, not muffled by all ppl around you... why not use your shirt collar at least? or the top of a hat it was a combination of ideas... on the one hand the croakies sold by SoundPros, combined with greenmachine's better near-ear placement (but he secures the mics to the arms with permanent shrinktube, which won't work for me as I change glasses way to often) and a search for retainers made out of the right fabric so it would allow the sound to pass through without the mics being visible

this can also be taken care of... just apply the hack explained here and you will gain some volume and custom eq's

as far as I know (I only lended the term from the SoundPro site... hadn't heard it myself before that) they are (sport) retainers for eyeglasses. I just bought some woolly/cottony ones with widemazed fabric, cut some holes (and made sure they didn't unravel) in the side that hangs down your neck and inserted the mics till they were protruding right before my ears just look at the pictorial I added to the first post

@ leon... no probs, all units that use one version of SS can use all I believe... so just upgrade to SS3.2 (if your PC can handle it...but that shouldn't be a real problem) and discover the world of ripping CD's to SS without DRM!

a day in which one learns something is a day well spent good to see my day is well spent! thanks for the explanation Zoso

I've got a few tips already... some dedicated sharing/taping sites have lists of pro and contra taping bands... this informed me the Blood Brother are taper-friendly so be sure to check out two tracks from their show @ pukkelpop 2005 in the gallery section I also spotted this good advice from dex... just check with the publisher or the artist themselves

welcome to MDCF soulex... but for this and other non-MD-related atrac/sonicstage questions, you'd be better of at the 'ATRAClife' sister forum dedicated to non-MD atrac equipment... just follow the link in the upmost blue bar on this page (in the atrac network-banner)

edit: added a full (club) show by Mogwai (more info) Hi all, as promised... my thorough review of my first real attempt at recording concerts. (soundbites will follow as soon as I know I won't be sued for every cent I've got for putting any of the music on the net ... BTW, for any bandmember out there hoping he could make some money from me: I only intend to record as a souvenir for myself, I will not distribute anything except for a few bits in the gallery overhere and... I am poor :bigsmile: ) *edit: added two tracks from the Blood Brother show first of, my setup I used for recording my trusted NH900 (with a 1450mAh gumstick and a 2500mAh NiMH AA in the addon), an RM-MC40ELK remote, some very small panasonic based stereo mics provided by greenmachine (for which, many thank again g.) and a battery module that looks like some bomb ignitor but works wonders (also curtousy of greenmachine...for which even more thanks). As wanted to record quite a bit I opted for HiSP so I didn't need to carry extra discs. I used some severe stealth smuggle techniques to get all that equipment into the venue (a three-day festival called Pukkelpop in Kiewit/Hasselt/Belgium/Europe/World) as a friend who went a couple of hours before I went told me the security was exceptionally strict for a Belgian festival. I hid the RM-MC40ELK in an empty packet of sigarettes, the mics were already in their croakies attached to my sunglasses with the cable well hidden, stored in a pouch... the batery module and battery addon were in my right sock, with an elastic band to keep it from falling out and the NH900 in its fleece pouch and a plastic freezerbag strapped with an MD-case armband (only the band, not the case) to my left leg and covered by my left sock... Overdoing it, well most definitely as I later even saw two guys who had managed to 'sneak' in an 80's style BIG VHS camera , but this actually was also a test for a good hiding strategy for when I want to take the setup into a club in Brussels where secuity is strict. I taped using a hip bag (lended from my sister and ultimately uncool ) which held my NH900/battery addon/RM-MC40ELK in the main pouch and the battery module in a small pouch (and all the cables stashed away), the cable going from the batt module up underneath my T-shirt (actually a polo shirt) and extruding at my neck where the cable entered the croakies and led to the mics, positioned on the legs (arms?) of my sunglasses right before (I'm talking mm's here) my ears. This worked very well, but: a] sunglasses in a dark tent look quite suspicious/stupid so especially for indoor venues I will have to take out my lenses and use my glasses instead b] croakies and a polo shirt and standing absolutely still at even the best concerts made me look like the biggest dork out there so what's the lesson? do not expect to make a great recording and look sharp the experience itself All went much smoother than expected. I had tried out stealth taping before (last january) with my very bad Sony mono interview mic, just to know whether I was able to get the material into a venue and whether I would feel comfy taping without being seen. It had worked (although the result was understandably bad ) but I had been quite nerveous and had been paying attention to the mic all the time, as it was clipped to my collar and I didn't want to brush it with my shirt/chin (unnecessary of course, as the entire thing came out very distorted as I had no batt box/attenuator) so I feared I would be even more uncomfortable with all the wires running on my back/hips. This really was a non-issue. The croakies/hip bag setup was easily forgotten (almost to the extent that I was looking around and ruining the recording due to sickening stereo effects ) except when the sun came through and it got hot. Then the cable running underneath my T started itching and it nearly drove me insane ..; so for indoor venues I'm thinkng double layers and leading the cable inbetween... I won't say that the RM-MC40ELK is an absolute necessity for recording... as I personally haven't really made a (decent) recording without it, but I'm sure some ppl can get by very well without it (perhaps using a ledlight in dark venues... or an OLED'ed RH10). But it is very easy to be able to look at the rec levels at any time (with backlight permanently on which is possible with my NH900 but not with the RH10 I believe)... I can honestly say that that money ($78) was well spent! The biggest problems I ran into were all venue-linked and will not be as present in the future: - it was a three day festival, so I started out with a lossy (HiSP) format, which will not be the case when recording a single show in a club I guess - most of the shows were outdoors and the weather in Belgium is quite unpredictable. We had very sunny weather, though a tad windy, the first day so recording was ok but the loudness sometimes drifts on the wind. The second and third day they predicted loads of rain, so I left my equipment at home as I'm not working at the moment and would not like to replace anything right now... but in hindsight, there was only very little drizzle both days, so I could have taped just as well... - no mather how loud the show... the public around you is louder ... so all my recordings suffer from non-wanted commentary and false singalongs, which are also more easily avoided at a smaller indoor venue I guess... - this was my first big 'day out' with my mates after finishing my masters thesis... standing still and recording was a bit to quiet/controlled an action for such an occasion I was able to control myself that first day, and I taped six (almost) full shows... but then (stimulated by the lousy weather reports as well) I just wanted to hang out with my buds and chat away... as I hadn't seen most of them for a couple of months. I decided quite soon I would keep it a one-day test for future occasions, but I would freely enjoy my festival for now... (in hindsight, I missed the occasion to tape quite a number of brilliant shows I saw like DFA1979, the Pixies, the Arcade Fire, Millionaire, Nine Black Alps, Jimmy Chaimberlin Complex, Maximo Park, The Futureheads, Patrick Wolf, The Raveonettes, Hot Hot Heat, Ghinzu, The Datsuns, South San Gabriel, Sophia, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds I didn't record these... so no need to ask for recordings and for any bandmember from these mentioned: no need to ask for money ) so the results from the Begian jury The shows I recorded came out very well, even better than I expected. Only the chatty/singing crowd is irritating from time to time. Recording itself was more comfy than expected, just keep cables away from bare skin in hot circumstances as an itch can be hell! Expect all your friends to be begging for CD's as soon as they realize what great recordings (Hi)MD can produce... My hiding skills were a bit over the top but could come in handy when needed for indoor shows. Expect your girlfriend to be looking in complete disbelief when you're lyrical about your experiences and smiling all the time when listening back to the recordings. When recording with the setup I've used (more precisely the near-ear-mic-setup I learned from greenmachine) the recordings do sound much, much better when listened to through headphones >< speakers. my main point let's use MD what it was intended for... keep recording! and I'll gladly read all your remarks/comments PS: sorry for the long post...I hope it was an entertaining read PPS: I will try to post some pics of my setup if I find the time/feel like it *edit: pics added PPPS: as said before, I will post some sound-snippets of my recordings once I know it is legal ...*edit: added two Blood Brother tracks to the gallery, see above *edit: the pictorial just to make things a bit more lively... a pictorial of my setup... - all accessories I needed/used [attachmentid=725] - the famous NH900 in sock [attachmentid=726] -which leads to the NH900 hidden [attachmentid=727] - mics hidden in croakies attached to sunglasses (the mics are the small lumps almost at the end of the arms, NOT up front at the glasses as greenmachine explained that that would ruin any stereo imaging)... [attachmentid=731] - the greenmachine made mics (with my own mod to attach gator clips and bicoloured heathshrink tube to keep left and right apart) and batt module WARNING from greenmachine: these are not just two batteries taped together... one is only the cover of a battery to protect some electronics! taping two batteries together is dangerous, useless and pretty outright stupid so do not try that [attachmentid=730] - the actual recording setup [attachmentid=728] - the complete pic: the recording dork (I'm sorry, just made these pics and the polo shirt is being washed, so only an ordinary T) [attachmentid=732] feel free to comment

one of my favouite bands, and I had taped them before but with a lousy mono mic and no batt-box/attenuator so in fact I only taped noise good to hear I can try to tape 'em again some day... ween is also good

I have just started as a concert recordist and I'm quite excited about my first recordings (made under quite bad circumstances as I have very chatty friends and I did my first taping at a mostly outdoors festival which is quite crowdy and rowdy anyways) but to get to the point: I would like to share some clips through the gallery section but I would not want to post anything that isn't legal to post, let alone to have been recorded but I have no idea whether the bands recorded allow bootlegs... I know that some bands (like QOTSA) in some extent allow for bootlegging and even sharing of the recordings... but (and now my actual question) ...I was wondering how one finds out about the 'bootlegging-stance' of bands. I have tried checking the offcial sites, but I can't seem to find anything. Safest is to assume that none of the bands will allow it, but that would be a shame as I wouldn't be able to share any of my nice recordings please share your ideas, as I will be recording away and it would be nice to be able to share some from time to time... perhaps we could even make this a start for a 'database' of bootlegger-friendly bands

are we talking backup as some sort of archiving or just as a temporary safekeeping while installing something? - if the latter, I would suggest throwing all that's easily rippable from the library and using the SS backup tool, as it will do what it says, but it will require quite a lot of space if you do your entire library - if the former, I would advise against every form of lossy compression, even atrac3+... you have spent quite some time transferring all those older recordings to PC... why allow any of that info to be removed for future use? Now it may seem that wav/pcm takes up way too much room for any use on portable players, but we've evolved from 256mb -> 60gb players and to 1gb discs fairly rapid... chances are in a couple of years we reckon HiSP or even 320kbps MP3 just isn't good enough as storage space becomes cheaper and cheaper... would you be willing to transfer everything again? just buy yourself a DVD-writer (if you haven't got one already... lots of ppl do and just do not use them) and archive all essential stuff as FLAC or another lossless codec (WMA lossless, monkey audio,...) we are talking about once on a lifetime recordings perhaps... I personally could never only keep lossy versions of these myself...so if you have any access to the equipment needed (CDR/DVDR) just say no to lossy encoding for backup! just my humble opinion... feel free to differ

I do not know whether you have checked it... but SS does allow combining splitting tracks [attachmentid=722] that is actually quintessential to the one and only safe method of obtaining gapless CD's from trackmarked recordings (explained here)

yes you can... just like the NH900 scrollwheel actually I've just bought my RM-MC40ELK from buyfromjapan (on ebay) and spent recording a lot of concerts with it... for both listening and recording the remote is a real boon... brilliant!

hi, welcome to MDCF... yes, just use an 60/74/80 min disc in MD mode... and select a legacy type atrac (LP2 if the pioneer is MDLP or fake SP if it is pre-MDLP) but there is the problem... all software encoding is LP2 @ max. It offers an SP but it is only disguised LP2 that takes up as much space as real SP but without the sound quality. So for good sound quality, you need to record in SP on the player itself in realtime...

I must be getting old... I also use the CD-store and I always listen to complete albums... I can't even remember the last time I just played one track and switched cd's or skipped to another album on my HiMD

thanks I try my best... btw, be sure to check out this thread and this one as they are about the lower playback quality of MP3's on the 2nd gen HiMD's... see you around...

@ g52ultra: I actually like reading your thoughts... but please for the sake of not further confusing this tired MDCF-member , distinguish clearly between the MZ1 and MZ-NH1 ... thanks and btw the MZ-NH1 is made out of magnesium I believe

best to ignore bloatware like realplayer and just use the free audacity that can be found in our downloads section... have fun and indeed welcome to MDCF

so how far away from that ipod flea spoof are we at the moment?... I wonder what the remote for these babies looks like no serious... that could be a serious contender against the i-shuffle, as it is equally small, has a display and probably will sound good as well...

just look at his dieselducy saying hi thread MZNH1, he explains it all overthere... btw hi dieseld., welcome to MDCF from me as well...I've been lurking on your threads a bit and checked the pics on your site... fun: gives the idea of traveling the US from my comfy chair over here in Belgium

most of what Rombusters answered is correct and well explained I think BUT just to be correct: - 2nd gen HiMD will not record in MP3... - 1st gen cannot play MP3, they have to be converted to an atrac type - 2nd gen can play MP3, so you can transfer them as MP3 from PC->HiMD, but the recorder itself won't "create" MP3's of any kind whatsoever... so: - 1st gen will record in HiMD formats (HiSP, HiLP, PCM) and the legacy formats (real SP, LP2,...) - 2nd gen will only record in the HiMD formats (HiSP, HiLP, PCM) and will allow PC transfers of the legacy formats (fake SP, LP2,...) and MP3's

if you are willing to pay a bit more for a japanese import... you could always ebay for some (buyfromjapan is a very reliable seller, many MDCF-members including myself, have done business with)

hi blixa, welcome to MDCF and glad to see you're a part of the HiMD club... and do not feel too disappointed by the lack of 2nd gen HiMD's in Au... here in Belgium you can only get NH800/600 for still the full price the started out on... so we're even further behind buyfromjapan is indeed a very trustworthy and friendly ebay seller... I bought an RM-MC40ELK remote from him and shipping to Belgium (literally the other side of the globe) was only 5 days (with a Sunday and a Belgian holiday inbetween as well) hope to hear more of your impressions here on MDCF... feel free to write a review of your new 'toy' from an Australian point of view (in the product review/pictorial-section)... might inspire some of your fellow countrymen