md-max

I'm in the UK and would second the response from KrazyIvan. I got two new batteries for my NH900 from budgetbatteries.co.uk (nb UK not US site) plus a charger (according to other posts on this forum you shouldn't charge these higher-capacity gumsticks in your MD player) and all for erm can't remember how much but not much. I've been pleased with them and am very happily now using one and carrying a spare at all times - much more aesthetically pleasing than having to use the AA battery pack (though you can keep that as a second backup if you're going to be away from power for a long time!)

My NH900 has a slider type record button (with a little push-in bit in the middle that I guess is some sort of lock to prevent accidental recording; though it's only 1 button, not record+play, as you seem to have done). My father-in-law loves a challenge and although he's never done anything quite like this before, he's a retired electronic engineer and a whizz at fixing cars so I can't imagine either the electronic / electrical or mechanical aspects of this would be a problem for him. I'm wondering whether to ask him very nicely if he'll have a go at constructing something... I'm guessing a solenoid that pushes the button from an angle is the solution. Any advice?

Marvellous I'll get ordering (and say you guys sent me)

re Audiocubes - presumably they are based in Japan so surely there will be issues of import duty and VAT and so on if they ship to the UK? I was amazed how much this came to when I ordered a mic from Sound Professionals in the US - the shipping cost as much as the goods and THEN there was almost as much again to pay when the wretched things arrived! Argh.

I've always thought Maplin was the UK name for Radioshack. Does the same job, anyway. I've used one of those 'plug it in the phone socket then plug the phone back into it' recording things for recording interviews over the phone. I found the problem was that the voice at the other end was terribly quiet and mine was hugely loud (and I'm not a loud person!). So you may need to experiment a bit, though if you're recording messages rather than conversations, I guess you'd be OK. The recording quality was fine.

I've bought loads of blank MDs from digital-e but would like to hunt around for some other picture ones. Anyone know where else I could try in the UK? Cheers

Good point. I'd forgotten that the 1350mAh gumsticks were so much better than the crummy one supplied with my NH900 and therefore would be good enough (just bought two of 'em last week). D'oh! (Do you still need the AA to record the full 7 hours of Hi-SP on a 1Gb disc?)

I've got that same hum problem. For 'normal' MD recording yes you can do it off battery power but with the 1Gb discs, you need to be running off the mains adapter. And that of course has a plastic earth pin. So how else could you earth it? And what to? I assume a bit of wire stuck into the earth hole of the socket in the wall would not be the most sensible idea. And it sounds like I need some shorter stereo cables for recording from the radio... Anyone else have any advice? Is there such a thing as a screened cable with a stereo plug at each end? Or isn't that going to help?

Hee hee there are Brits reading these boards. *I* get it! You wouldn't call a car an Allegro if you wanted to sell ANY of them in the UK, not in a million years! It would be like calling it a... um erm... a scrapheap! (Cue raging flame war from former Allegro owners...)

SP-BMC2s would be perfect... (You never know, worth asking!)

When looking at their site I couldn't work out why anyone would spend the extra $23 to get their mics permanently inserted into the croakies. Surely it's better to go for the cheaper option, which also gives you the option of removing them for non-stealth use? Or is the cheap option messy and unreliable?

Yeah,I've noticed a lot of recording noise with my NH900 and my 40ELK remote. I'd assumed it was the radio I was recording from but will try (a) swapping the core and ( removing the remote to see if that helps.

So when are cardioid mics better? Only when they are exactly 0.3m from the source?

Very neat, very clever! Where did you find those tiny mics and are they as good as bigger ones? And is there anyone out there from the UK who has any suggestions for things we can get here?

Sorry, still confused - and getting more confused the more I look at all the options... 1. For 'general' use eg occasional concerts / gigs, talks, ambient (eg nature recordings) etc, is omni better than cardioid? Can't work out which I should be going for. 2. Where do you put the things? it's nice and simple with my little plug-in t-microphone - just plugs into the mic socket, sit the recorder pretty much anywhere and off it goes. But if you have little microphone capsules on the end of long bits of wire with clips on them, where do you put them? 3. And what sort of mic separation should I be going for? I remember reading something somewhere here about separating them by the distance between your ears - but is there any advantage to a bigger separation? (some seem to come with two separate cables so you can put them more than a metre apart) 4. And do we have any UK users here who could suggest what they use? I keep reading posts about things that sound good then finding that they're from the US, where everything is cheaper. Sigh. Thanks for your patience!

Wow, a flood of useful stuff while I was away from a PC for a couple of days! Managed to identify my mic as the website I got it from is still selling them. It's a Microphone Madness MM-STM-1 so I had a look at their website and from the Panasonic specs that A440 posted, it looks like those same capsules. Any opinions on 'next one up[better]' from that? BMC-2? I'd be interested to see how different the recordings are. And how much difference, really, does the battery box make? It's been interesting to read the discussions on these boards about PCM vs Hi-SP vs SP and see so many people eventually saying well actually most people can't hear the difference or it's so slight that it's not worth doing your recordings the hard way! Cheers guys - finding this really helpful!

They're kinda fuzzy and muffled. The music sounds like it's a long way away (fair enough, it generally is!...) The other problem is that I probably don't know what I'm missing. I guess I don't really know how good a 'good' live recording can be and what it is about the recording process or equipment that's made the difference. Is it the quality of the mics? the frequency response? the lowor high end of that in particular? the physical separation of the two bits of a stereo mic? which way they are pointing? (tails off into incoherent rambling...)

Hi For a few years (until it died 5 months ago) I'd used my trusty Sharp MD recorder and a neat little mic that's shaped like a T and plugs straight into the mic socket. I've used it for recording all sorts of things - interviews, lectures, street demonstations, ambient sounds (water, birdsong etc), live concerts, my sax lessons (I'm the student, not the teacher) etc etc. The quality's always been fine. Not exceptional, but fine. And under the right circumstances, pretty darn good. I was happy. It all fitted neatly in a pocket and I could carry it all everywhere with me. I've now got an NH900 and have been spending FAR too much time reading these forums! What I'd like to know is what's the best way of improving my recordings. Of the things I've recorded, live music's always been the worst quality - but I'd always assumed that I couldn't improve on that. But now it looks like I can! But how? But I'm hopelessly lost among all the omni things and cardiod things and pre-amps and bass roll-off things and - huh? Could someone please explain nice and slowly how I can improve my recordings? I don't want to spend a fortune and I'm not going for perfection here... (and I'm in the UK, if that affects what's available) I'd just like to improve on what I can do now. Thanks guys!

Doctors generally advise that you should stick nothing smaller than your elbow in your ear. I guess the same would apply to your MD unit.

Do you want to buy mine? PM me with an offer. (Plus shipping from the UK at cost) - I got a 40ELK to replace it so my 38EL was hardly used (and no loose wires!)

I recognise the packaging - looks like a pack of 3 x 1Gb discs to me! (Nothing more exciting...)

The place I tend to buy my MDs from here in the UK has some nice ones (and has always given me good service) - and they've got a sale on at the moment, it seems! (I've just placed my order!) www.digital-e-uk.com - have you lot already got all the ones they list?

Hello all I've never downloaded a track in my life - legally or illegally (yeah, I'm clearly living in the Stone Age). Where can I do so legally? I know there's all sorts of DRM problems and other complaints with some... Is there a site you'd recommend? (I'm in the UK, if that matters) Thanks

Can you use the remote to set track marks while PLAYING (rather than recording) a minidisc? Pressing P-mode just changes the playback mode (in different ways depending on whether you do a short or long press). I hope so but I fear not. Cheers

Sickening - I paid £160 ish for my NH900 just a couple of months ago, from amazon. Urgh.