greenmachine

Could be placebo, try a blind test.

Awesome.

A natural instrument emits not only the fundamental (lowest frequency), but also a number of harmonics, which can mask the fundamental in some cases and make testing difficult. A pure sine waveform (no harmonics) would be best suited for testing the low frequency abilities of your hearing and/or playback equipment. On a piano (particularly in the lower registers), the fundamental is relatively weak compared to its harmonics. An organ can be adjusted to sound bright (strong harmonics) or dull (weak harmonics, strong fundamental, closer to a pure sine waveform). Two interesting links about the topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_(music) http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/basics.html

People are lazy. They buy a medium and want to be able to play it directly without conversion. Have you seen music been sold on MD or flash lately? Many CD radios can play mp3 (CDs), some of them even have flash card and/or USB slots, which make them useful even for the "geeks" IMO.

The GM-Standard is a highly sensitive mic, which doesn't require much preamplification. You will get best results when using the "sens low" and a manual level setting of 20 or below all the time. The "sens high" setting is for less sensitive mics and/or when recording extraordinarily quiet sounds (like birdcalls from a distance). A too high setting will just increase the noisefloor along with the signal and the headroom/dynamic range will be reduced, clipping may occur sooner than necessary. The MIC AGC settings "Standard" and "LoudMusic" affect the attack/delay parameters of the built-in limiter when using AGC (automatic levels). AGC (particularly the "Standard" setting) will compress the dynamics and lead to (dynamic) compression artifacts. The "LoudMusic" setting may be better suited for music (less aggressive dynamic compression) if you really want to use AGC. For best results, particularly when recording music, always use manual level settings.* Using the line-in without preamplification (via a battery module to power the mics) is only necessary when recording really loud amplified concerts which would overload the mic preamp even at its lowest setting. For unamplified music like classical and church organs, the mic-in (at "sens low" and a manual level setting of 20 or below in your case) should give best results.** * The MIC AGC settings have no effect when using manual levels. ** The MIC Sens settings have no effect when recording via line-in.

The NH600 (and all other Hi-MD with realtime recording abilities) can do that. When pressing the T MARK button during recording or playback, a new track will be created / divided. When making a purchase, make sure to actually get the NH600, not the downloader model NH600D (easily to be confused, doesn't offer realtime recording, no analog input jacks). If you need a built-in mic preamp, get its sibling, the NH700 instead.

The T MARK / REC button usually incorporates both the divide and combine function depending on when you press it (not sure if it works for digitally recorded / downloaded tracks). Details are in the manual. Which model are you aiming for?

Unfortunately wind noise usually contains a broad spectrum of frequencies, not just a single one (with harmonics), like hum, which would be relatively easy to filter. This more or less random noise is the most difficult to filter because subtracting this broad spectrum would also cut out a great part of the music and lead to unnatural artifacts.

An attenuator will be unnecessary when recording via batt module and line-in. The level setting depends on the sensitivity of your mic and the loudness of the show, usually something between 15 (for a high sensitivity mic) 30 (for a low sens mic) should be ok. AGC is approx. the equivalent to a setting of 20, with automatic dynamic correction downwards (which will give pumping artifacts, unsuitable for music). You could try a manual setting of approx. 18-25 and start from there. If your recording will get too quiet, raise the levels the next time, or vice versa. Or, if possible at all, observe the level meter during the show. Peaks should ideally be between the 1st and 2nd mark, better somewhat lower than clipped.

You can remove DRM via this method if you record in one of the two atrac3+ modes, hi-sp or hi-lp - if you record in PCM, convert to WAV after uploading, which is a DRM-free format. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=16088 Other than that, make sure to use a version of SonicStage equal to or greater than 3.2. A link to the latest version can be found here in the (software) forums. These newer versions are much more stable and less restrictive.

I wonder if you can slow down the aging process if you use the OLED at a lower brightness setting. Can the brightness be adjusted on the RH1(0)?

The NH700 is a 2004 model Hi-MD recorder. (http://minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-NH700.html) (http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7486) Hi-MD records on larger capacity disks (1GB), allows uncompressed (44.1 kHz, 16 bit PCM/WAV) recordings as well as faster than realtime digital upload to your PC via USB * among some other minor improvements. Most of them (including the NH700) have built-in high quality preamps. * (not per drag and drop though, you will need to use software for transferring)

The standard model is the significantly more sensitive one indeed (compared to the pro model, but should also be more sensitive than the Sony mic, particularly in the lower frequency region). This might partially compensate for the lack of preamplification, but you will have to see if it is a satisfying solution for you. Otherwise i can recommend the NH700.

If you're looking for uploading your pre-Hi-MD recordings, neither of the linked models can do it, they only upload Hi-MD mode recordings. Only the RH1 can do it. Or you go the analog/digital realtime route. (http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7070)

Have you seen this one? (stickied in the live recording subforum, scroll down a few lines) http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=11254

I'm using mine about once or twice a week average for live recording and carry it in a case most of the time, like you. I haven't noticed any paint coming off yet. The battery latch can dis-align/jump off from time to time (when putting it in/out of a tight pocket for example), but is easily put back. Unlike other models, even without the latch, the battery sits relatively tight and secure so it isn't really an issue for me.

From the manual (page 25, available here):

You could try to encode to a low bitrate "lossless" file, such as 48 or 64 kbps. You should then easily be able to tell which part is used for transfer/playback.

The archive does not work like bittorrent or other file sharing apps, you will have to upload (all of) the files to their centralized servers (once) and they will distribute them from there.

You can remove copy restrictions of your own recordings as explained here: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=16088

Most file sharing apps allow sharing of any file extension. You'd just needed to set up a website to announce the content if you wanted to. It is not illegal per se to share mp3s, atracs or any other file type, its legality depends on the content. Recording and sharing your own voice would be legal, whereas sharing copyrighted material wouldn't.

A BB does not preamplify, you will get much quieter recordings via the line-in, which is useful for loud sounds (no preamp overload), but less useful for quiet sounds (low levels, noisier after normalization). An increased dynamic range does not necessarily mean a higher output, but because of the higher voltage, the mic can handle louder sounds with less distortion (only important when recording loud sounds via line-in, the preamp/mic-in usually overloads sooner than the mic itself).

When done, don't forget to put a link here.

A typical BB (battery box) contains a condenser for each channel to filter out / prevent DC (direct current) fro the battery entering the recorder's input jack. But, depending on the size of the condenser, it will also filter some AC (alternating current). When using a relatively large condenser (>≈1µF), the cut off frequency will be set below the audible range (<≈20Hz)*. So, what's the point? There's pretty much always a filter present, sometimes it's audible, sometimes it's not - this might be the reason why they call all their modules battery/filter. (*) < = smaller than > = greater than ≈ = approximately

I was referring to the mictrotrack's rather poor noise performance when recording from the mic input, for example. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=13562 http://www.transom.org/tools/recording_int...microtrack.html I'm not a zealot when it comes to a format or brand name, but it seems Sony's experience with portable recording is an advantage here. If they only would build an affordable flash recorder with mic input...