greenmachine

I can make you one like the one in the stickied DIY guide in the live recording subforum. Takes a E-block type 9V battery. Shipping would be from germany, so pretty fast. PM for details if interested.

My very first recording was similarly distorted and I haven't found a way to repair it yet, but you can do something about it in your next recording: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=15573

the total recorder site and download works for me.

That may be a duplicate file name problem. Try renaming the existing files or use a different naming scheme.

There's a manual included, which you can access by clicking on the question mark in the menu. Here's a basic quick guide: 1. start mp3DC 2. click file -> open - choose the mp3 3. hit the space bar to start playback 4. use the scrollbar to find the cutting point 5. hit the space bar to stop playback 6. in the blue window with the level display click with the left mouse button on the cutting point. you usually want the cutting point in a pause where the levels are low. this is indicated by very low or not visible dark blue bars. 7. a thin, light blue, dashed line will appear 8. click the "cut" button to set the cutting point 9. (repeat steps 3-8 to set additional cutting points - one cutting point will produce two files; two cutting points three files, and so on) 10. from the "file" menu, select "save split" 11. specify a filename scheme or rename afterwards 12. click "OK" - the files will be created in the same directory as the original mp3

mp3directcut will cut your mp3s without losing quality.

Did you model the rabbit, looks pretty good.

Are you positive it's not your own body heat that warms it up if you have it in your pocket close to your body?

Larger diaphragms tend to pick up less noise. This is one of the quietest: http://www.rodemic.com/?pagename=Products&product=NT1-A

The power consumption is very low with this types of microphones (about 0.5 to 1 mA). The battery will die very slowly, most likely not suddenly in the middle of a show, but rather the signal will be a tiny bit lower and more distorted each show. Owning a multimeter is never a bad idea. For the sole purpose of testing the voltage, an inexpensive model will do. If the total voltage is significantly below 9V with the microphones connected (about 7 or 8 should be the limit), replace the batteries.

The manual levels work down to a certain setting - in my tests 10/30 (nh700 mic-in low sens) - below that you will just lower the already clipped signal - which is useless. A combination of line-in recording up to level 30 for loud sounds and the mic-in at low sensitivity, from 10-30 for anything less loud will give you a total control for any signal from very low to very high, no attenuator needed. Other types of recorders may not have such a fine control over the input signal and may need external leveling.

Mic overload can't be reduced by using a bass roll-off, you would need more capable mics. You would just get a distorted signal with less bass since the filter is behind the mics. The bass roll-off is a simple 1st order filter and meant for correcting the balance of boomy mixes and/or rooms. You usually can do that with much greater control in post processing.

MD data drives could have been an alternative to floppy disk drives when USB flash drives were non-existent or small in capacity and expensive. Nowadays I wouldn't have a use for MD drives. If I need to, I can use my Hi-MD as an external (albeit slow) drive.

The PC Link is just a USB to optical converter and works only in one direction - from PC to MD - in real time. You would need the latest model, the RH1 to digitally upload legacy recordings - or record from the headphone output of your current MD into the line-in of your sound card. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7070

Soprano: If you don't want dynamic compression, use a manual level setting - otherwise AGC (automatic gain control) is used, which automatically lowers the gain in loud passages, but leaves the quiet ones unaltered - the sound will get dynamically compressed. The differences between PCM (uncompressed) and Hi-SP (the highest quality compressed mode) are quite subtle to my ears. The microphones and their placement deserve much more attention, they will have a much higher impact on the recording quality.

5 most frequently asked questions: 1) I cannot convert my files. WMAConvert frees only the music you've purchased. So the requirement is that you must be able to play your original files in Windows Media® Player or in QuickTime® Player on your PC. If you can do this WMAConvert must convert your files.

I had a feeling that the wheel wouldn't last forever, so I haven't used mine much yet. Luckily you can use the little central joystick to control everything, including the manual volume.

External (mic) attenuation should only be used when the preamp doesn't allow for a low enough gain setting so that the input would overload and produce distortion. Unless the preamp behaves abnormal and doesn't work well at a low gain setting for some reason.

If you attenuate the volume at the mic end you will have a relatively weak signal from the mic, which needs to be compensated by using a higher preamp gain. Using a higher gain will usually introduce more noise. If you have a relatively strong signal from the mic to begin with, you don't need much gain at the preamp, which should give a cleaner recording (less noise).

I would strongly advice against trying that, the battery may explode or something, lithium batteries are quite fragile.

The NH1 uses a 3.7V Lithium battery (LIP-4WM), whereas your other recorders use 1.2 V Ni-MH, - different voltage, chemistry and shape - they're not interchangeable. I believe first generation Hi-MD recorders didn't have the "charge from USB" feature, so you would need a dedicated power supply.

To balance out the relation between dry (direct) and wet sound (room acoustics, ambient noise), move the mics closer to or farther from the sound source - in this case it sounds as if you want them closer. You may also want to experiment with the stereo technique. DIN, NOS or ORTF stereo (see here) can give the recording a more lively, spacious sound. Moreover, don't expect wonders when recording from loudspeakers. They can also make the sound "boxy".

You'll need to use the lowest bitrate/quality mode (48kbps) to fit that much on a single disc. Do some listening tests first to determine if the quality will be sufficient for your needs, otherwise use a higher bitrate.

Unfortunately there is no way to turn the auto track marking when recording via line-in (it doesn't happen when using mic-in). You have to combine afterwards - either on the unit, in SonicStage or with an audio editor.

Both SP and HiSP sound very good to me. In HiSP you can fit 2h20m on a HiMD formatted 80min (305MB) MD or 7h55m on a 1GB HiMD (see here). The RH1 has a digital amp, which sounds very good to most users (haven't had the pleasure of listening to one myself yet). You have to use SonicStage for transfer.