greenmachine

You can use the amplify or normalization feature of the free Audacity after uploading - a good audio editor for the most common tasks.

Fixed-charge back plate permanently polarized condenser (=electret) microphones usually have a _very_ low power consumption of <1mA. It won't affect total battery life noticeably.

About 5-6, yes. At least - if it is in good condition propably significantly longer. We need a portable HQ HD recorder.

Not true for high current draining devices like HiMD - a high capacity NiMH will last way longer. In a test, i got 8.5 hours continuous recording time in PCM, 16h in HiSP and 17 in HiLP with one fully charged 2300 mAh NiMH rechargeable. More than enough for me. I don't remember exact numbers, but with alkalines it was significantly less. Although i'm using a NH700, it shouldn't be much different with a RH10. The combination of internal gumstick + external NiMH should give even longer battery life.

MD-300 = 80 min (~300 MB reformatted in HiMD mode) Minidisc MP3 = lossy audio compression format vbr q4 set at High Quality = using the LAME mp3 encoder at q4 (quality 4) and High quality (vbr old) setting. This is a vbr setting with roughly 128 kbps average. If you're interested in further deails about proper mp3 encoding, just ask. If you're not, just use any of the other possibilities. Without a second generation HiMD unit you can't create a mp3 (Hi)MD in audio mode anyway.

lamedropXPd - also an excellent (vbr) mp3 encoder. I hope you know how to un-zip.

A built-in 'it's time to upgrade' indicator / self destruction timer?

How do your sennheiser buds perform compared to the panasonics? I have some mx400s and contrary to the general consensus i think they sound plainly awful.

It could have various reasons. How about a sample?

Put your omnis (RS Auris or whatever you have) close to your ears, i.e. attach them to the rim of glasses for example. You'll use the transfer function of your head for a very realistic stereo image, just like your ears pick it up. You'll be amazed about the accurate reproduction especially when listening with headphones.

Audacity is free and has all the basic tools.

Your cd/dvd-rom drive seems not to be suited for audio cd ripping and/or your cds might be dirty/scratched.

Will you follow Aaron Ximm's footsteps?

May i make you responsible if i'd get them and don't like their sound quality?

It depends if the applause is an important part of your recording or not. I usually don't care about it as long as the music is in its optimal range. Handclapping can be cut afterwards.

The best advice i can give is not to fight against given accoustics but to use them wisely, i.e. move closer to the source if you want a more direct sound. Directional mics sound unnatural to my ears.

http://www.marcnetsystem.co.uk/cgi-shl/mn2...44?drs=,83,39,2,

If the average song is no longer than 3min36sec and your ears accept the quality...

Some of these newer Sharps seem to have impressive battery life times: http://www.minidisc.org/part_Recorders_Sharp.html

It's a pretty simple calculation: SP-------80 min MONO--160 min LP2-----160 min LP4-----320 min It's not possible to use LP4 or LP2 in mono mode. LP4 already uses some channel narrowing, so it's neither real stereo nor mono.

With some higher sensitive mics (i can't give you exact numbers, sorry) i had to set it as low as 14/30 once when recording a loud show with a battery box via line-in, so it really depends. Check out this thread for comparing various microphone placing techniques, including 2) microphones 6" apart, no baffle (comes close to mics on top of your head, without separator) 4) microphones 6" apart, human head as a baffle (placed near the ears, head as a baffle): http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=11297

But you still listen to music in realtime, don't you?

1. I don't think so, with the advent of HiMD the battery life declined. 2. Mp3 players use mp3 AFAIK. Atrac3 can't sound better than its uncompressed origin. Compared to other lossy codecs it performs rather poorly: http://www.rjamorim.com/test/multiformat128/results.html. Atrac's main advantage is its low power consumption. Although you can still use Atrac3, there's its successor Atrac3plus now. 3. False 5. FLAC uses lossless compression and thus is more accurate than any lossy codec but needs more disc space. 7. Live recording

From my understanding a line transformer is for impedance matching and doesn't add any gain itself (although you might gain some gain from a better impedance matching). From what i've read your mics have a relatively low impedance of about 200 ohms, while the line-in performs best at higher values (~10k-50k), so it could be worth a try. I've never tried something like that myself though.

One could say so. Depends strongly on the loudness of the source (SPL), your recording level setting and the sensitivity of your mics (which seems to be in the average range). In other words, with the right level setting your recording levels should be in the normal range at very loud shows. Why don't you give it a try?